In ‘Intruders’ Rory Culkin plays a delivery man caught between three home invaders from Captive Cinema

Actor Rory Culkin is victimized by some dangerous INTRUDERS in the brutal home-invasion thriller. Culkin plays Dan, a food deliveryman who appears to be the only friend of Anna (Beth Riesgraf), a young woman whose crippling agoraphobia prevents her from leaving her house. After her brother dies, three local thugs (played by Martin Starr of DEAD SNOW 2, SUPERBAD and FREAKS AND GEEKS, Jack Kesy and Joshua Mikel) break into the home in search of money Anna’s sibling has left her, and Dan winds up being taken hostage as well. Culkin, whose first screen appearance was in a photo in his brother Macaulay’s psychodrama THE GOOD SON, has also done the genre thing in M. Night Shyamalan’s SIGNS.

Was the experience of making INTRUDERS as claustrophobic as it plays on screen?

Sort of, because we shot it in one house, and the whole crew had to fit in there. We did shoot on a set for the last two or three days, because they had to build the stair rig [in the basement] and all that. I mean, it would have been strange if the house already had a pre-built dungeon!

Did being stuck in those tight confines help you get into character?

Yeah, it was cool. I think I was the last actor to come on board, just days before shooting started, so I didn’t have much time to dwell on it. That was sort of appropriate, though, because Dan doesn’t have time to think about what’s going on, so I used that to my advantage.

Dan is probably the most complex character in the film; he starts out as a nice guy, but then you find out about his other side, and he becomes more conflicted.

 What I liked about Dan was that he seemed to be the only human in it; the others are just monsters [laughs]. They’re all terrible people, and Dan is the voice of reason; he’s like, “We can stop this, we don’t have to do this.” Even when it’s clearly far too late to stop it, he’s still trying to defuse the situation. I guess you could see him as the weakest character, but I tried to find the strength in him saying, “I’m not like you guys.”

How was it working with Beth Riesgraf and director Adam Schindler?

 I love Beth, and it’s strange because she’s, like, angelic, and she was playing this part, and in the second half of the film you have to choose a side. There’s no good guy, so it’s interesting to see which side people take, and what makes them jump, who makes them jump. I thought she did it perfectly. And Adam and his partner, Brian [Netto], were really cool, creative dudes. They’re horror guys and comic-book fans, and they’re fun. I just watched the film last night, and I was really impressed with the editing. The script was so much fun to read, and I was just hoping it would translate on screen, and I felt it did. I was very impressed with them.

Was there anything in the script that you didn’t get to shoot, or that didn’t wind up on screen?

Yeah, there was one thing I was actually looking out for last night while I was watching it, but I understand why it didn’t make it in. I had the first line in a scene, so I was like, “I can do whatever I want before I say my line,” because there were a lot of people in the room. Dan’s leg was broken and I was on the floor, and it was just a moan; I was like, [lets out a long groan] before I said my line, and I milked it and stretched it out, trying to set a tone. But it didn’t end up fitting, and I get that.

For you and also Riesgraf, playing such intense roles, were you able to turn it on and off between takes, or did you stay in character the whole day while you’re shooting?

I have a hard time turning it off, so I try to stay in it all day. Other actors—and I wish I was like that—can turn it on and off, and Beth was sort of like that. You know, you want to be protective of your work, but you also don’t want to be an asshole, you know what I mean? So there’s a fine line, and Beth is great at protecting her work politely. Some actors aren’t; some actors bark, and I have a tendency to do that sometimes, but I’ve worked on that [laughs].

How about Martin Starr; did he cut up between takes, or did he stay serious on set?

Oh no, he’s totally on-and-off. He’d be torturing someone, they’d call cut and then he’d make a stupid joke. But then he would notice, like, “Oh, OK, some of these people are still into it.” It’s a balance, it’s collaborative. He was great.

Was the physical side of the role enjoyable—playing in the fake blood and so forth?

Yeah, there was a lot of latex happening. I had never been so tortured in a film; they break my fingers and break my leg, it was rough [laughs]. I’ve been on the other end of that, like in SCREAM 4, where I played the killer and was torturing people, and it’s interesting, because that can be difficult too. If you really want to get into a part, you have to justify everything you’re doing, and getting into the headspace where you’re OK with hurting people can be challenging. There’s a numbness to playing the victim that, surprisingly, might not be as hard.

“INTRUDERS” is released and distributed by CAPTIVE CINEMA.

SHOWING MARCH 16. NATIONWIDE!

TNT’s Leverage Actress Beth Riesgraf Talks ‘Intruders’ from Captive Cinema

‘Intruders’ is a suspenseful, tightly contained horror-thriller with a strong female lead; the story of a disturbed woman backed into a corner, who is forced to exorcise her personal demons in a fight for survival, and in the process escapes the house that’s become her prison. Beth Riesgraf (TNT’s Leverage) stars as Anna Rook, a young woman isolated from human contact in nearly every way. She suffers from a crippling case of agoraphobia and spends her days holed up in an old Victorian on the outskirts of town.             

Other notable TV credits include her recurring role as 'Dr. Maeve Donovan' on CRIMINAL MINDS. She has guest-starred on numerous shows such as THE MENTALIST, MY NAME IS EARL, WITHOUT A TRACE, NCIS, and HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. On the big screen, Riesgraf co-produced and starred opposite Giovanni Ribisi in the silent independent film THE WHITE DOOR, the feature film ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS and the independent films NOBODY and LET'S BE CIVIL KENNETH. She can also be seen in the web series CAPER opposite Harry Shum Jr., Abby Miller and Hartley Sawyer on the Geek & Sundry channel.      

Can you start off by discussing how you initially got involved with Intruders?

My team brought it to me and so I looked into Adam and Brian [Netto’s] work. I watched Delivery and I thought, “All right. This story is great, these guys know how to move the camera and this could be really cool.” So I went in, I auditioned, and apparently—I didn’t know this at the time—I was the first person that they had thought of for the position of Anna.

It was crazy; I didn’t even realize that until later. I gave it my all and then I didn’t really hear anything, so I just thought it wasn’t going to happen. You’re like, “Ah, I guess it’s not going to work out, bummer,” but then I heard two weeks later, “Guess what? They might still be interested in you for that role.” It was like a month later when I finally got the call to say they wanted to make the offer.

I was so excited. We’re all from Minnesota, so we had that in common right off the bat. They were such a fun group of people to work with. We didn’t have a ton of prep time either and originally, Anna was supposed to have dark hair and half of it gets cut off, but I had another show I had to go back to, so I had to stay blonde and all that hair stuff had to go. We were able to do that in a day and figure out the look of the character at the same time, and once we had all that, we were just off and running from that point on.

What I think is really interesting about Anna is that she really evolves as a character throughout this movie and those changes end up challenging how you feel about her as a viewer. Did that stand out to you at all, too?

 Yes. Exactly. I wanted to make sure, and Adam agreed with me whole heartedly, but neither of us wanted Anna to be a victim. I don’t want to put any spoilers out there, but there was an idea that she’s so sheltered and she’s so vulnerable, and all of this stuff is going on with her, but the reality is that her home is her fortress. That’s where she feels safe and strong. Even though there’s a lot going on with her emotionally and mentally, when the guys come in and when they intrude, they see her as this weak little bird. What they don’t realize is that’s where she’s strongest and it’s the outside world that terrifies her.

As the movie progresses, it was very important for us to keep that honest and keep it within the realm of how she thinks. She’s a survivor, she’s not a victim. In many ways she’s not. When she loses her best friend and her lifeline it’s just devastation on so many levels, so she’s very vulnerable when the guys first come in and they sort of misread that as weakness.

But the idea about learning about this world and diving in—the more I researched and the more I got into it, I thought, “Oh, this is going to be so fun.” It was such a challenge and it was kind of scary at the same time. Performance-wise, staying in that headspace for that amount of time, it was a real challenge, which I loved of course.

So what was the process for you like, in terms of trying to get into Anna’s headspace and relating to a character like that? Because ten years being in the same house, that obviously takes a toll on your mental state.

 Yeah, exactly. I talked to some professionals and I really tried to research as many things as I could find out about agoraphobics. We didn’t have a ton of prep time, so I had to cover a lot of ground very quickly, and then try to implement that into what the script told me and what was already there on the page. Then we all brought our stories into it and the chemistry started to bubble between us.

Speaking with the professionals really helped me grasp the concept that this was Anna’s reality. That house was all that she knows. Sometimes you cannot be objective in those situations, so I tried really hard not to judge any of Anna’s decisions along the way. The minute you start doing that, you shoot yourself in the foot.

How much did the production design help you out? I heard some pretty crazy stories about production from the guys last summer.

Oh my gosh, it was crazy. First of all, we had to contend with all of the elements. It was muggy, it was humid, and it was so hot. They found this house on a scout and they had to clean it up to get it to be in the dilapidated condition that you see in the film, which is sort of amazing when you think about it. Certain rooms had trees growing through the walls and there were stacks of things everywhere. The house had been left alone for a year.

Originally I had thought, “I’m just going to stay in there as much as I can and never leave it while we’re shooting to make this my world.” But then we got there and I’m like, “You know, my throat’s kind of burning and it’s hard to breathe [laughs].” Filming was also interesting because the cicadas had come out and the hum was so loud that we could hear it everywhere. In fact, it was so loud it was getting in the way of dialogue while we were shooting; it was kind of surreal [laughs].

What would you say has been your biggest takeaway from the whole experience of working on Intruders?

For this movie, we took away from it that we can do something different. This isn’t your traditional take on a horror film. This is something different. This team trusted me to bring what I brought to it, and they didn’t push me to make it over the top or make it about how loud I could scream. It wasn’t about any of that; it was about real story and their own take on doing something. You don’t have to try to fit it into some kind of box and that’s important when dealing with art. You never want to feel like you have to do something by the numbers.

Also, for me, Intruders was about trying new things. This was a first for me and I’m really glad I did it because I feel like I really grew as an actor and I met so many different fantastic people on the way. I changed a lot throughout this process.

“INTRUDERS” is released and distributed by CAPTIVE CINEMA.

SHOWING MARCH 16. NATIONWIDE!