Kelly Marie Tran says her new horror movie Control Freak, on Hulu Thursday, portrays very real emotions. Tran plays Val, a motivational speaker whose itchy head turns monstrous.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Tran and writer-director Shal Ngo discussed the film's literal and metaphorical horrors. Tran said she related to Val's feelings of anxiety.
"To me, that is stress, anxiety, the inability to have compassion for yourself, just a self-hatred," Tran said.
Furthermore, Tran took it upon herself to add itches that were not scripted.
"Even if the itch wasn't written in, if she was feeling any sort of intense anxiety, it's like a tic," she said. "It was like a compulsion she couldn't control."
Ngo, whose 2021 short film Control inspired the film, liked Tran's interpretation.
"For me, I guess it would just be this nagging feeling inside of you that you feel about yourself that you're not enough or you're doing it wrong or you're a bad person," Ngo said. "It's just a nagging kind of feeling inside of you that never goes away."
Fortunately, Tran was able to scratch her scalp without hurting herself. She even demonstrated on Zoom how the slightest scratching was audible.
"You can hear an itch even though I'm barely scratching my skin," she said. "I think it's like the hair against the scalp so that's what I did."
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Val keeps her itch to herself for as long as she can. This means covering up her scalp with hats so co-workers cannot see the damage she's done.
Tran worked with costume designer Kerry Hennessy to find practical headwear that matched Val's aesthetic.
"We did try out a lot of hats," Tran said. "She wears many in this movie."
As a first time filmmaker, Ngo said he did not fully comprehend the impact of the hats when he wrote the script. He also appreciated how Hennessy brought the character's needs to life.
"She's so fashionable and has this glamorous chic wealthy persona," Ngo said. "How do you pick the right thing where it looks a little bit off but it still looks good? So I was very happy with where we ended up with that."
The itch gets worse as Val embarks on an international speaking tour. Though she gives her followers advice about silencing negative thoughts, Val is not following it herself, Tran says.
In fact, Val has been itching for nine months when the movie begins, neglecting her own well-being to focus on her work.
"I think she has this way of looking out at the world and then a different way of looking at herself which is that she's not ready to address a lot of those things," Tran said. "She is forced to look at herself because of the things that start happening in a very real, visceral, terrifying way."
For Val's speeches, Tran drew upon researcher and podcaster Brene Brown, who gave a TED talk about "the power of vulnerability."
"There's a lot of cool interesting thinkers in the world," Tran said.
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Ngo also incorporated Atomic Habits' James Clear, It's Possible's Les Brown and Tony Robbins in Val's teaching.
"We had to find the balance with Val because Brene Brown is a lot gentler I feel like than Val can get sometimes," Ngo said. "Val is more like, 'Go get 'em!'"
Control Freak proved to be a physically demanding role for Tran. She found herself keeping up with Val's swimming routine, and running from the monstrous manifestations of her itch.
"There's the internal struggle of fighting yourself and the physical struggle of hurting yourself," she said.
Ngo was also impressed by stuntman Stanley White Jr., who wore a creature costume designed by MastersFX. Ngo appreciated White's commitment to bearing the weight of the suit, and giving up bathroom breaks while wearing it.
"In between takes, he'd just be on an apple box just almost meditating," Ngo said. "You have to get into kind of a state when you're wearing that for X amount of hours."