Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Movies | Tagged: exclusive, horror, interview, It's A Wonderful Knife, Jane Widdop, justin long, katharine isabelle, rlje films, shudder

It's a Wonderful Knife: Widdop on Honoring Capra in Horror Twist

Jane Widdop (Yellowjackets) talks to Bleeding Cool about their latest holiday slasher in RLJE/Shudder's It's a Wonderful Knife, Capra & more.

Unless you've been living under a rock every holiday season, it's an annual staple to have the Frank Capra 1946 classic It's a Wonderful Life playing somewhere on broadcast TV. As traditions of warm fuzzies and holiday cheer might sour on some Grinches, there are those like director Tyler MacIntyre and writer Michael Kennedy who decided to create their spin, turning Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey into Jane Widdop's Winnie Carruthers. The story follows Winnie, who falls into a deep depression a year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve. When she wishes she'd never been born, she finds herself in a nightmare parallel universe and discovers that without her, things could be much, much worse. Now the killer is back, and she must team up with the town misfit to identify the killer and return to her reality. Widdop spoke to Bleeding Cool about whether they studied the original Capra film and Stewart's performance, their rapport with the ensemble cast, and how they compare to their other work.

Jane Widdop's Journey into Holiday Horror in "It's a Wonderful Knife"

Bleeding Cool: What intrigues you about 'It's a Wonderful Knife' aside from being a good pun for a title?
Widdop: [Laughs] Well, the name drew me in first, as you said. Also, I'm a massive fan of Michael Kennedy and his writing. I loved 'Freaky,' so I was immediately on board. When I read it, there are scary and comedy elements, but there's a center to the movie that is so warm and comforting. That feeling you get when you watch Christmas movies around Christmas time is what I get when I watch this film. The culmination of everything that happens at the end is, at the heart of it, a feel-good movie, and I love that about it.

Did the original Capra film inspire anything with your performance?
I looked at the Jimmy Stewart performance and all of that. When he is on the bridge and at the docks, I use a lot of the similar emotions he is going through and research him as an actor and what he's been through. He returned from a war right before he did that project, so he had much to pull from us. I did not get back from a war, but I look like my dad [laughs], so that was cool. Then there's another thing at the end of the movie: I'm running down the street, and I go, "Merry Christmas, movie theater!" In the film, he goes, "Merry Christmas, movie house!" I did try to get them to let me say "movie house," but nobody says that anymore, so they wouldn't let me do that.

How did you break down the atmosphere on set, and how did you build your rapport with your cast mates?
The first thing I did regarding the script was write an entire timeline of where I started. I then added bits and pieces. I go through each scene; my script is completely marked up, and I had a little voice-for-voice memo that I would go back to and listen to each day with different scenes to find my place in them. Being on set with such veteran actors Justin [Long], Joel [McHale], and Katharine [Isabelle], they were so cool to be able to see and do their thing. We also had a lot of baby actors. Aidan [Howard], who plays my brother, is one of his first projects, and Hana [Huggins], who plays my best friend [Cara Evans], is one of their first projects. It's cool to see the difference between those, and I love watching actors do their thing, and it was cool to experience that. I only had one day where I didn't work so that I could see everything, and the set was so inclusive and safe. You could tell everyone put 110% into whatever they were doing, which was beautiful to see.

Was there any aspect of production, sequence, or scene in general that you struggled with, or did it have the same ebb-and-flow throughout?
The stunt stuff was challenging, but I felt extremely safe doing it. We had an amazing stunt coordinator and an amazing stunt person playing our angel. There was one scene where I was running out the door of Bernie's [Jess McLeod] house, and the angel was right there, and he came up and grabbed me. The funny thing was working around the camera and some of the dynamics with that, and we ended up making it so beautiful and cohesive. For some reason, I couldn't shut the door with my feet, like that wasn't allowed, so there was a P.A. down on the ground slamming the door. Working out things with stunts is always going to be a challenge, but it was cool, and we had some amazing people who worked on the set, camera, and a stunt team that knew exactly what they were doing and how to make this work. I'm grateful for those people.

Was there anything you felt about 'It's a Wonderful Knife' you felt that was derivative of your other work?
I've done stunt stuff before, like in 'Yellowjackets.' This was my second time filming a show in Canada, so it was nice to be able to. I already know some people on set and how Canadian sets work. That was great going into it.

RLJE Films & Shudder's It's a Wonderful Knife is in theaters and will be released On Shudder on AMC+ and everywhere you rent movies on December 1.

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