Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Casper Van Dien, Corey Deshon, daughter, Elyse Dinh, exclusive, Ian Alexander, interview, Vivien Ngô

Daughter Star Ian Alexander on Channeling Childhood for Family Horror

Ian Alexander (Star Trek: Discovery) talks to Bleeding Cool about his latest family horror thriller in Dark Star Pictures' Daughter.

It's hard to put together the six-year stretch that Ian Alexander has had as a young actor. Since making their debut in 2016 on the Netflix series The OA, they also voiced the character of Lev, a former Seraphite who's a traveling companion to Abby Johnson (Laura Bailey) in the Sony and Naughty Dog video game The Last of Us Part II in 2020. The franchise is now a megahit TV series on HBO, and it wouldn't be a stretch if the premium cable network came calling for a future season. We'd be remiss to mention their other signature character in the former Trill host Gray Tal on the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Discovery entering its fifth season. Alexander spoke with Bleeding Cool about their latest family horror for Dark Star Pictures' Daughter, how they and co-star Vivien Ngô collaborated with writer-director Corey Deshon, their sheltered upbringing, and their biggest challenge during filming. The story centers on a young woman (Ngô) who's inducted into a bizarre family as their new surrogate daughter.

How 'Daughter' Became a Group Collaboration

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Daughter?'
Alexander: I collaborated a bit with Corey [Deshon] on the creation of 'Daughter,' which was a super cool experience. He approached me and Vivien [Ngô] with this idea inspired by our dynamic IRL (real lives); he asked, "What is something that you have never done before in your career that you would like to do?" I could run wild with my imagination, and I told him that I wanted to have a very cathartic scene where I could channel all of the anger I'd ever felt in my entire life into that character. He wrote a powerful and cathartic scene. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see the movie.

Your character, Brother, is dramatically different compared to the other characters like Father, Mother, and Sister. Was it hard to maintain his innocence compared to the rest of the actors with their characters in that environment?
That's a great question. I was pulling from my earlier childhood to sort out that innocence of my inner child. I also grew up very sheltered and religious, so that I could relate to Brother in many ways. It was one of my more challenging characters to prepare for. I loved how he remained innocent and curious about the world, even when everyone around him was slightly jaded. He's like a fascinating three-dimensional character I enjoyed playing.

Was there something that you, Vivian, Casper [Van Dien], and Elyse [Dinh] worked out as far as the dynamic before filming, like some form of back story about how your characters were before the events of the film that wasn't revealed?
Most of my collaboration before we filmed happened between Vivien and me, and then moments with Elyse and Casper happened on set. Vivien and I already had a friendship to build off of, so we already had an existing relationship before filming. There is some backstory to Vivien's character daughter, also known as Kat, that wasn't in the movie.

She's fantastic and has a complicated relationship with her parents as well. It added this extra layer of like she's being forcibly adopted into this family against her will, and she has new parents now. That added an extra layer of bittersweet tragedy, especially in that the scene when Elyse and Vivien's characters of Mother and Daughter are talking, and Mother's trying to convince her to play the part and let them be her new family.

Did you and Vivien work with Corey on script notes or alterations?
So we were able to give our input as he was writing and shaping the story when he asked what some things that we wanted to do that we'd never been able to do before were. When I got the script, I was like, "This is so beautifully written." It's also so unique that I don't recall wanting to change anything. The original text was excellent. Corey is an incredibly talented writer.

What was the most challenging part of filming?
We had some pretty crazy stuff happen. So we were filming during the 2019 Santa Clarita fires. There's fire season here in [Los Angeles]. I love California and climate change [laughs]. We were filming in Santa Clarita, and we had to evacuate the set one day because the fires were getting closer, and it wasn't safe for us to continue filming. We lost an entire day because of that. All of the challenges were it seemed the universe was testing us. Emotionally, it was one of the more difficult roles to prepare for because the stakes were so high. I have played a boy that grew up in a cult before, and that was a very challenging role to play for 'The Last of US Part Two.' You can get into a dark headspace while doing something like that. You have to focus on some aftercare and self-care, right?

Daughter is currently available in theaters, digital, and on-demand.

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