ESCAPE ROOM Interview with Deborah Ann Woll

Those who love genre television are no stranger to Deborah Ann Woll, with her leading roles in True Blood, Daredevil, and The Punisher, but she takes on a very different character in Escape Room, which just made its way to Blu-ray and DVD today. I recently had a chance to catch up with Deborah Ann Woll, and we discussed her favorite escape room from the movie, training for the role and taking on most of her own stunts, and her Relics and Rarities Dungeons & Dragons series.

Before taking on your role in Escape Room, had you ever visited any escape rooms for fun?

Deborah Ann Woll: I was not an escape room person before the film. I think the social element scares me off a little bit if I'm perfectly honest. I love puzzles and I love games and things like that. I'm a big Dungeons and Dragons fan, which is basically like escape rooms in your imagination. I think I'd probably love escape rooms but the whole being there with strangers and relying on each other… I don't know. My social anxiety kicks in a little bit.

We tried to go to a couple escape rooms in South Africa while we were out there shooting but scheduling got in the way. Luckily for my part, I wasn't supposed to have done any escape rooms before the ones in the film, so it kinda worked out.

I definitely feel the same way, but I do love escape rooms. I’m not a big fan of doing an escape room with a bunch of strangers. Usually when we go it's a group of friends or just sometimes my wife and I'll go. With just two of us, we fail a good, bit but it least it’s not like the movie, so we didn’t die.

Deborah Ann Woll: Yeah, it's okay. You’re allowed to fail with your loved ones

You play a very complex character in Escape Room, that is very physically capable and helping the group survive, while also dealing with PTSD. What kind of research or training did you do for the roll?

Deborah Ann Woll: I ended up finding some anonymous chat rooms online with people that had common stories and they felt comfortable [talking]. It was a way sympathize and understand without asking people to relive them for the sake of my art.

I also wanted to make sure that physically I could do the part, so I looked up what the entry level requirements are for Amanda and I made sure I could pass it. I wanted to make sure to the best of my ability I could do some, if not all, of the stunt work and climbing around.

One of the great things about the movie is the elaborate and varied sets for each escape roo. Which was your favorite?

Deborah Ann Woll: [The billiards room] because it was the silliest room and it was part of my hero room. I don't generally get cast as a physical person and so I really wanted to lean into that with this opportunity. We had an incredible stunt team and what people don't realize is that stunt performers don't just jump in and do the dirty things. So much of it is choreography, prepping you, and working with you. When you're doing harness work up in the air, and I'm up there all day, I'm gonna tire and that's gonna make it more dangerous. So much of it was just having some people around get up there and work those cameras so that I can be on the ground taking a rest, so that I'm fresh for the actual scene. Their job is so much more complex and really so much more impressive than just the adrenalin junkie thing. I will forever be grateful to them for making sure everyone was safe, and making sure that I felt rested and strong enough to do much of the stunts and so that the director could the shots that he wanted.

Yeah, it they really are some of the unsung heroes of film making. What would you say was the most difficult room to film in? It seems like the cabin and all that ice would be challenging.

Deborah Ann Woll: Yeah, you nailed it on the head. The ice room was by far the hardest, one. It's a very long scene and there are a lot of movement parts. The space wasn't actually cold because there was smoke in there whole time, but you’re breathing it in and we ended up having face masks that we wore when we actually weren't on camera. Everyone was just breathing in this stuff and you know it's all safe, but after a week of breathing that in, oh my goodness. We were definitely ready to move on from the ice room.

You’ve been very focused on genre projects over the years, with work on True Blood, Daredevil, and now Escape Room. What’s next for you?

Deborah Ann Woll: Well, in terms of the acting world I'm unemployed, so I'm auditioning and I'm looking for work. However, back at the end of last year I created a Dungeons & Dragons series called Relics and Rarities. It's a 12 hour campaign with an amazing group of actors and a celebrity guest that comes in and join us each week. It was with Geek and Sundry and you can find it on the Twitter channel, blog, YouTube and it's just one of the proudest accomplishments of my career. I'm so pleased with how it came out, it's just joyful on set and we had a blast making it.