When a pair of college students (Emily Blunt, Ashton Holmes) share a ride home for the holidays, they break down on a deserted stretch of road and are preyed upon by the ghosts of people who have died there.
Horror.com's Staci Layne Wilson was on the set in Vancouver, during the shooting of Wind Chill. Here's one of the interviews.
Q: Is this something you can relate to, being in college, ride sharing, an so on?
Emily Blunt: To a certain extent. Your college is like my university. I didn't go to university, so I never had that experience. No, I've never jumped into a car with a complete stranger, I can't say I have. Never hitchhiked or anything like that. So no, I can't relate to that kind of thing.
Q: What's it like working with just Ashton for most of the film, in the same car?
EB: It's so great. I think we're very supportive of each other. Neither of us are particularly large, so it's not like cramping each other. He's very supportive and very conscientious kind of guy. So I haven't felt that claustrophobic. They're very good. They didn't trap us in there. We could get out any time we wanted -- well, not anytime we wanted, not during a take. It's always a worry, isn't it, when you work with somebody. Both of us were so relieved that we were so easy to work with. It's a worry when it's effectively a two hander movie that you're not going to get along with your co-star. But he's a doll.
Q: Do they let you use your real accent in the film?
EB: I have an American accent in the movie. I did dialect coaching for a month before we started. It was a really good thing for me to do. It's another challenge. I'm someone who likes to rise to a challenge. I like to be stretched in some way. And it's right for the part, the dialogue and banter between them, it does sound very Americanized. It would jar with my voice I think. So it was definitely the right move. Greg was saying it was a great move for me because people do tend to close off their minds if they only ever hear you speaking in a British accent. "Is she able to do an American accent?" This is my moment to show that yeah, I can do it.
Q: What was the more difficult word or phrase to say?
EB: I was struggling. There was one line that we had to rewrite because I couldn't get my mouth around it. I can't remember. What was it? It was like, "Greg, we're going to have to write something else or I'll just say this."
Q: Is the whole movie really in a car?
EB: A lot of it is. But a lot of it takes place when the car crashes into the snowdrift, and a lot of the action takes place on this eerie stretch of road where a lot of the horrific things happen that night. We have a lot going down a steep ravine and up on hills and other spooky areas.
Q: So do you actually make a break for it at one point?
EB: I think there are a lot of moments where these two try to make a break for it. They're trying to survive this, but is it best to stay in one place or is it best to make a break for it when you're surrounded by the unknown? What's the best thing to do?
Q: Your character has no name, but how do you describe her?
EB: She's very, she's a tough cookie. She's very headstrong and she's smart and streetwise and has a real sarcastic tongue on her. That very tough, hard to crack exterior, but I think that deep down very much in need of understanding, like everybody is. You discover this throughout the movie that she's not quite what she appears. Everybody is hiding something underneath their shells.
Q: What about Ashton's character?
EB: He's got that kind of awkward quality to him. He's trying to impress, trying to be a good guy. He's incredibly endearing as this character and amusing and comes out with some real cringers, you know?
Q: He took the shortcut because your character was getting bored?
EB: Yeah, that's exactly why. She's just bored to tears on the highway with this guy and this piece of trash car that he's driving. It's your worst nightmare of what sharing a car would be. It's your worst nightmare of a ride share. [When] she turns up and just sees the car, it's like, "Oh my God." The door doesn't work, the window are stuck open and there's just trash everywhere with this odd guy. So that's why he gets off the highway.
Q: What kind of car is it supposed to be?
EB: It's an Oldsmobile. I don't know cars…
Q: What else can you tell us about the scenes in the car? Do you guys fight over what music to listen to, the heater, and things like that?
EB: No. We fight over other stuff.
Q: Once the supernatural stuff starts, how do your characters cope with what's going on?
EB: It starts there, it begins with them -- I think when you're not ready to accept what is happening when it's too overwhelming. Everybody's had those kind of supernatural experiences or moments like either as kids with a Ouija board or as a kid you see a ghost. Everyone's sort of felt that and it's felt kind of real, bur you're in denial about it. So I think that's the core of what they go through at the start. When it becomes obvious that what they're going through is very present and very real, they bond together over it, really bond closer than they've ever bonded with anybody else before despite their enormous differences and clashes in personality.
Q: What are you fighting about in this scene you're shooting today?
EB: We've done so much today. In that scene I'm trying to find out what he's really about. I'm kind of suspicious of him. I'm trying to find out what he's about. That's all I can say really.
Q: Is it truly challenging to shoot in the real elements, as opposed to the soundstage we're on today?
EB: Yeah, more so than anyone imagined. It was cripplingly cold. It got better, it got easier. I think a lot of us became quite immune to it. Like I came back and I had a dinner party at my house. All the windows were open, and I was fine. I was in a t-shirt. My friends were like, "Shut the window." I was like, "What's the matter with you? Come on?" My friends were braving the elements.
Q: Did it add to your performance?
EB: I think it definitely helped. We were really cold, and we were like (she gasps and lets out breath) like this and there's no acting there. It would have been hard to not -- This film isn't called "Wind Chill" for nothing. It's not called "Easy Breeze."
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