Arriving in limited theaters and on VOD platforms everywhere on December 21st is André Øvredal’s latest film, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, which stars Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch as father and son morgue owners who have one night to piece together the puzzle of a mysterious female corpse that ends up on their slab. As they perform their examination of “Jane Doe,” the duo begin to realize there’s more than meets the eye to the young woman, and things only get weirder (and more horrific) from there.
Daily Dead recently spoke to Hirsch about his involvement in The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and during the interview he discussed what initially drew him to the project and his appreciation for some of the script’s smaller moments. Hirsch also chatted about working with his co-star Cox and director Øvredal, as well as the prep work he did to tackle the technical aspects of his role.
Congrats on the movie, Emile. What I loved about Jane Doe is the fact that on paper, the story seems very straightforward—a father and son working in a mortuary, and a body comes in that they have to determine a cause of death for—but as the layers peel back, there’s so much more going on that I was not expecting. When you were first considering taking on the role of Austin, what was it that you saw in this project that made it feel like the right fit for you?
Emile Hirsch: Well, when I first read the script, first and foremost, I just found it really engaging and entertaining and scary and a real ride in a way that I didn't expect. I really liked the detective mystery—these medical examiners really being the Sherlock Holmes and in a very confined space. As the audience, we're solving a mystery alongside them. Each reveal takes you a little bit closer towards the truth. That was something that I found really appealing about the script, and that approach separated it from a lot of other current horror movies.
I really, really enjoy a good mystery. Any time there's an answer or a mystery or a question that is posed, that keeps me intrigued. As far as the father-son dynamic, you had these differing emotions that also just added to the mystery of “why them?” Why did Jane choose them? What brought them there and did Jane help them in a way? Did she bring them closer together as father and son, even for a short period of time?
In relation to that, there's one really great scene when you're speaking to your girlfriend and you're mentioning the fact that you want to move on and leave the business so you can go out and forge your own path. In so many other movies, that would become this manipulated emotional moment for these characters later on when we would see it played out dramatically. And yet, that moment becomes a background note about your character, yet it's never brought up again because we didn't need to have that moment. There were so many other things going on between your character and Brian's character, so that big moment wasn’t even needed. It was such a masterstroke decision in storytelling.
Emile Hirsch: Yeah, I actually completely agree with you on that exact point. In another movie you'd have a scene later on where he's doing something with the corpse and he’d look up and be like, “Dad, I need to talk to you about something.” Then, there’d be this father and son scene where they’re yelling at each other. That was a moment that stuck out to me as well, and I agree, it was smart to use it the way we did here.
We spend most of this film just watching you and Brian Cox going back and forth as you do this examination. I'm guessing from an actor’s perspective, that allowed for the opportunity to really make this film about the characters. I'd love to hear about your experiences collaborating with him on Autopsy.
Emile Hirsch: Working with an actor of Brian's caliber just made the whole shoot so much more fun and so much easier. There are certain actors that you work with where we can eventually get it right, but maybe it will take them a long time to find it, or maybe they have a tricky time with dialogue while moving and tools and props and remembering long, very technical sequences. But because Brian has that foundation of being so talented and experienced, all of the really technical stuff that would throw off a lot of other actors and make the shoot much more difficult, he did great and never had a problem with that at all.
That allowed us both to be able to focus on all the little extra nuances of making our relationship as natural as possible, all while going about this really technical job. It would have been impossible to do with an actor unlike Brian. He's also a lot of fun and we both just tremendously enjoyed ourselves. We had a natural rapport and ease to interacting with one another and he's very funny.
And how was it working with André as well? I’ve been a big fan of his since Trollhunter, and he’s always such a great guy to chat with. Plus, he’s really great at taking these bigger stories and making it all about the characters.
Emile Hirsch: He's a real talent. Part of it is his natural God-given ability and another part of it is that he works so hard and he never takes his foot off the accelerator. He never gives up and he never slacks off. That type of crazed artist obsession is really sometimes the thing that pushes people over the line in terms of making something that's really good. He just brought that quality in spades.
I remember one of his scripts was like it had chicken scratch all over it, like the walls of a mental institution—just really crazy. I asked him, “André, what is all this?” And those were just his preparation notes and that’s how his brain just thinks through things. That's the kind of energy that you need when you're working on a low-budget movie, especially when you have to move quickly and really nail things. That kind of talent is something that can really make a big difference on a set.
Before we go, I was wondering what kind of preparation did you have to do in order to prepare yourself on a technical level for this role?
Emile Hirsch: I would actually say that the technical side was one of the, if not the biggest, things that Brian and I both focused on when we were prepping. We kind of let the performance side take care of itself, but the way that we moved and the details of being a medical examiner were key, so we had a real medical examiner on set that would constantly be consulting with both of us. What Brian and I really were the most obsessed with in terms of the performance was just looking like real medical examiners. That was what we wanted more than anything else. What we really wanted was just to be believable doing our jobs.
I went to the Los Angeles County Morgue and saw hundreds of bodies. I got a tour, and it was traumatizing. I read a book that was an introduction to the work of a medical examiner, and that was really disturbing, too. We watched a lot of autopsy videos and heard a lot of grisly stories, too, so now that I’m thinking about it, Brian and I just focused mostly on the technical side more than anything else.
————
In case you missed it, check out Daily Dead's previous coverage of The Autopsy of Jane Doe:
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
