Interview: Co-Star Brea Grant Goes BEYOND THE GATES

Arriving in limited theaters and on VOD and digital platforms this Friday is co-writer/director Jackson Stewart’s wicked cool blast from the past Beyond the Gates, which celebrates everything kids who grew up on ’80s and ’90s horror loved the most about our favorite cinematic genre.

Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to speak with one of the film’s co-stars, Brea Grant, and she chatted about how much it meant to her that Beyond the Gates premiered here in Los Angeles during the summer, her experiences collaborating with Jackson and her co-stars, and how Beyond the Gates was just as much fun to make as it is to watch.

Congrats on the film, Brea. I really had fun with it at the LA Film Festival, especially because everybody was super into it that night in the theater. For as much as it's convenient to be able to watch movies at home on your computer or on your TV, there's just nothing that beats sitting and watching a movie with a live crowd like that.

Brea Grant: Totally, and especially because the weird thing of making movies and being from LA, is that most of the time they premiere somewhere that's not LA. I felt like all of our friends were there and all these people we knew came out to support us, and it was one of those things where you're just like, "Oh, right. This is why you make movies, because you get to be around an audience of people who love movies," which is great.

Absolutely, and referencing that, how much fun did you have working on Beyond the Gates, because I know most of you guys were all friends going into it. You could just feel from watching it that everybody was in there because they were right for this movie, but there was this wonderful camaraderie as well.

Brea Grant: Well, I've known Jackson, the director, for a number of years. I can't remember how we met, but we bonded because one year he went to Comic-Con with me and it was just he and I in the car. I didn't know him very well but, as you know, when you're going to Comic-Con, it takes six hours because of the traffic. We just sat in traffic with each other and got to know each other, and we've just stayed friends. Like you said, Jackson is a part of the same community that I feel like I'm a part of, which is the horror community, and specifically the LA horror community. It's a really small group of people and everybody's really nice to each other and he's always been very supportive of me and so of course when he was going to make his first movie, I wanted to be a part of it.

Speaking to that, how was it collaborating with him on his first film?

Brea Grant: The thing about Jackson is he's very open. He is a first-time director, but he's not inexperienced. He's done some short films, he worked on Supernatural for a long time, and so it's not like he's never been on a film set. He's not insecure, he's open to actors coming up with ideas. A lot of times I feel like first-time directors are so insecure, they can't hear what you're saying because they just want to make sure they're in charge, and he's not like that. He was very collaborative from the beginning.

I read several versions of the script, and we even did some re-shoots and he asked my opinion about all of those changes, and he always asked my opinion about the character, too. It's not like he just handed me something and was like, "Go be this girl." It was more like it was written for me with my own personal influences.

What I liked about Margot is that she wasn't just a typical girlfriend character you'd see in a horror movie. Was that something that appealed to you when you were first coming on board?

Brea Grant: When we talked about it a little bit, it was like Graham [Skipper]'s character is so serious and has something of a dark past, but he still is likable. And so Jackson and I talked about how sometimes you know someone and you're like, "Oh, well, I like them, but their girlfriend is really cool," so that was our idea with Margot. Graham Skipper's obviously a very likable person and only a likable person could play that role, but he's in a darker place when he starts the movie; he's newly sober, his father's disappeared, so my character is supposed to bring some levity to things, which I liked.

I feel like a lot of times female characters are the more serious ones who come in and they're like, "Everything's going wrong," and my character comes in and has a lot of jokes and keeps everybody from being too on edge, and I enjoyed that aspect of it.

One last thing before we go—something I really appreciated about Beyond the Gates is how much fun it is. Obviously, right now we're in a weird time where things are a little up in the air in terms of where society is, so for as much as I love serious-minded horror, I feel like we need a movie like this right now.

Brea Grant: Yeah, definitely, and it's not something that's so heavy. Especially for me as an actor, I get asked to do a lot of really heavy stuff where I’m going to be crying for the next month nonstop and running and screaming and someone's chasing you. And I like doing that kind of stuff, but at the same time, it is fun to go in and do something with your friends that's just a little bit more escapism and more nostalgia-based.

I'm like you. Obviously, I hate where everything is going right now in the world and there is a part of me that has always viewed media to be a form of escapism. There is value in that, and that doesn't mean it doesn't tell us something about ourselves.

Beyond the Gates has a story at its core about family and about sacrifice, and I do think there are interesting themes in it, but I don't think everything has to be so heavy all the time, and this was about having fun.

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In case you missed it, check out a retro-style commercial and stills from the film, as well as Heather's Los Angeles Film Festival review of Beyond the Gates and her interview with co-writer/director Jackson Stewart and co-star Barbara Crampton.

Tarot card artwork by Doug Kovacs: