Exclusive: Ry Barrett on Playing the Titular Villain in THE DROWNSMAN

In The Drownsman, now out on Blu-ray from Anchor Bay, Ry Barrett superbly plays the titular antagonist, and we caught up with the actor to discuss the 1980s horror movie villains that influenced his performance, his thoughts on reprising the role, and more.

Thanks for taking the time to chat about The Drownsman. I thought it was a fun and frightening film with a 1980s-esque vibe.

Ry Barrett: It is definitely a throwback to those kinds of movies. That is exactly what drew me to it. I’m staring at a stack of my DVDs right now and they’re full of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Candyman—all those sorts of characters I grew up with and always loved to get freaked out by. The second I heard of the opportunity to play a character like that, I was all over it.

Did any horror movie villains influence your portrayal of Sebastian Donner, aka The Drownsman?

Ry Barrett: I went back and re-watched a ton of them to get specific ideas. This character of Sebastian and The Drownsman falls into a cross of a bunch of them. So I used a lot of Pinhead from Hellraiser, Candyman, obviously Freddy, and a little bit of Jason, too—it’s a big meld of these characters. Obviously you don’t want to copy one of them specifically, but you want to see what works with each one and do your own spin on it.

The Drownsman has a menacing, towering frame. Did you have to bulk up for this role at all?

Ry Barrett: When they were looking for someone to play this role, they were actually looking for someone quite a bit older than me and a lot lankier, too. They wanted him to be an old, skinny, creepy man. I went in and I read for them and I actually wrote a monologue that’s not in the script and read it in the audition and I guess I creeped them out, because they redesigned The Drownsman to be more of a massive, hulking figure. I’m fairly tall and thick to begin with, but I didn’t bulk up. My costume had a lot of bulk put into it. I think I was actually a little thinner in this than I am in other stuff.

Your character is always drenched with water and it looks like you wore a substantial amount of makeup for this role. Did those elements make this a decidedly more difficult shoot for you?

Ry Barrett: I won’t lie, it wasn’t the most comfortable shoot that I’ve ever done. But going in, I knew that was going to be a part of it, so you just mentally prep yourself and try to keep your mind in a positive area and have fun with it. They put this liquid slime, gel-like substance on me to make me look constantly wet. They didn’t have to keep spraying me down, they just put this goop on me. The makeup in itself is a process, but when you go into the water it becomes another process because it starts to seep into everything and weigh you down even more. You just have to go with the flow of it.

It was difficult because you’re dealing with water, and you never what’s going to happen until you try it. [Director] Chad [Archibald] had some problems with that, just trying to plan things to go a specific way, figuring things out on the spot. The girls were all troopers—it was a grueling shoot. Not only were we dealing with the water, but we also shot this in one of the coldest winters that we’ve had in Canada. It was freezing the whole time and everybody did their best to keep warm with the heaters. You just tried to do your best every day. With the choreography, we planned out the kills and figured out how to make it sell.

We get a glimpse of what Sebastian was like before he became The Drownsman, but there’s a lot left to the imagination with that character. Did you create your own backstory for him on set?

Ry Barrett: I did in the beginning to prep for the role. There is an established backstory to him, though, but you don’t find out about all of it in the film. Whether it comes through in this film or not—it’s there to give more strength to the character. Whether or not there are sequels that go back to that, it’s still there to flesh out the character. So I did come up with something myself, but there is an established, definite backstory to him that I now go by.

There were some scenes written in the original script that they ended up having to change. They contained more flashbacks of Sebastian’s background. Those things may show up in other installments.

Like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers, The Drownsman does most of his talking through body language. Did you improvise any of his movements?

Ry Barrett: I put a lot of thought into that ahead of time, because there’s so little said from him. He basically just whispers her [Mylett’s character Madison’s] name. We did have a few little improv lines here and there, but they were taken out. I don’t know if it was due to keeping the story mysterious or for time or editing, but there were a few lines in there. I spent a lot of time on his physicality—how he stood, how he walked, his cadence. He’s a very still person, but then he just snaps very quickly into motion when needed.

You and co-writer/director Chad Archibald have done several collaborations over the years. How did you two form this enduring working relationship?

Ry Barrett: We started out together. We actually went to the same elementary school for about a year. Later on we had mutual friends and we started talking again and we were both in love with film and started working on projects together. We worked on our very first film [Desperate Souls] together—he co-directed with our friend, Gabriel Carrer, and I played the lead in that. We haven’t worked on everything together, but we’ve done a lot of projects together. It’s great because you develop a shorthand where you can communicate without really saying anything. You know exactly what they’re talking about through one word or a look or a moan [laughs]. If he groans a certain way, you know he’s not happy that I just did that and I’ll think, “Oh, I’ll try it like this, then.”

Do you have a favorite scene from The Drownsman?

Ry Barrett: I thought the scene in the elevator really worked out. It was fun to shoot because they actually built a set of an elevator that was elevated a little bit so there was a pit of water beneath it, and I literally just hopped down into the pit of water when they removed the floor and the girls hopped up onto the railings. I just reached up and terrorized them. It was pretty immersive.

The Drownsman seemingly emphasizes practical effects. Was that intentional?

Ry Barrett: Absolutely. That was definitely intentional. Chad is a huge fan of practical effects and they went well out of their way to try and make it all real. Digital effects definitely have their place and it’s great to add to practical effects and to use it when it’s needed. But they put forth an effort to try and make everything as real and practical as possible in the production design. The set of The Drownsman’s lair was built out on a farm. It was the middle of winter and they had huge blizzards and storms and they had to rebuild it. There was water leaking problems and this and that, so they definitely put a lot of work into that part of it.

I was in it [The Drownsman's lair] for a lot for the shoot, which was about 12 days. There was only about two or three days that I was not in that set. So a lot of my time shooting was spent in The Drownsman’s lair. Once we were done shooting our scenes, I would usually stay and hang out, because you didn’t want to have to leave the set and walk to another building when it was freezing cold outside.

In real life, how comfortable are you in the water?

Ry Barrett: I’m pretty comfortable in the water—I love swimming. We didn’t really do a whole lot of stuff in huge tanks. Most of the water that you see is only about four or five feet deep, so it was never really a huge threat. There were a few scenes when they’d do some shooting in a pool in a tank, but I actually wasn’t there for any of that. It was all very safe and I didn’t have any worries.

The Drownsman has the potential to become another iconic horror movie villain. Would you be open to stepping back into his waterlogged shoes?

Ry Barrett: Yeah, he’s built to be a new horror franchise character. I would 100 percent love to play him again and add to him. It’s one of those things where the first film is the introduction and the build-up and whenever you’re a franchise, you get to elaborate on that. So it’s definitely something I’d be interested in.

Has there been talk of a sequel to The Drownsman?

Ry Barrett: On any type of film or storyline where you have this consistent character with a backstory and the possibility of a franchise, there’s always going to be talk of it, and there’s definitely been some talk of continuing Sebastian’s story.

You played a key role in Gabriel Carrer’s In the House of Flies, which featured chilling dialogue from Henry Rollins as The Voice. Looking back, what was your experience making that film?

Ry Barrett: There were a few things that changed from the original script throughout the shooting of that film, mainly to make the film more palatable for sales and a wider audience. Some time and a few elements were cut out of there. What I was supposed to be playing—and what it turned out to be—is basically the body of Henry Rollins’ voice.

In the original version, there were actually two people and I was a guy with a tape recorder pressing "play" and it was his [Rollins’] voice. So there was sort of a group of people. There were a few little tweaks to it and it was a really intense shoot for the lead characters played by Lindsay [Smith] and Ryan [Kotack]. I know [director] Gabriel [Carrer] was really happy and it got a really good response. I think it’s supposed to hit Netflix sometime soon. It’s a great little psychological horror film.

What’s the status of the Anitsocial sequel? *Potential spoiler warning for those who haven't seen Antisocial*

Ry Barrett: It has been shot and they’re working in post right now—there are a lot of post effects they need to do for it. I’m not involved with that one just simply for the fact that in the first one I don’t really make it out so well at the end [laughs].

Is there anything else on deck for you that you can tease?

Ry Barrett: It’s just been announced that a film I play one of the leads in and produced called The Demolisher is having its world premiere at Fantasia this year. It’s a vigilante-thriller-drama from the same director of In the House of Flies, Gabriel Carrer. That’s a pretty big one that’s on deck, and I also have another film called Save Yourself, directed by Ryan [M.] Andrews that stars Tristan Risk and Jessica Cameron, which is going to hit the festival circuit soon.