This Friday, return to Keyhouse for Locke and Key Season 2 on Netflix! To celebrate, we are continuing our special interviews with the series’ cast and crew! Today, we’re speaking with the amazing stars of the show, Griffin Gluck (playing Gabe/Dodge) and Hallea Jones (playing Eden).
We sat down with the villainous pair, as well as other members of the press, to talk about the new season, including what it feels like to be so bad! Here’s what they had to say:
In a lot of ways you both are playing dual roles: The facade and the villain beneath. Was it challenging doing a dual role, and how fun was it?
GLUCK: I was just thinking about this… We’ve talked a lot about how much fun it is to play an evil character. It’s not something we get to do often. It’s out of the realm of the ordinary, which is a lot of fun for an actor. It’s a real challenge, which I’ve always enjoyed. It’s a little bit out of my comfort zone. Because there’s no growth in the comfort zone and there’s no comfort in the growth zone. So it was definitely a challenge but one I was so excited to take on. I actually wrote one of my college papers — one of my college papers. I was asked who do I look up to in my profession. And the first person I thought of was Andy Serkis… And I don’t know why, but I thought he was the best actor ever. Because any actor in Hollywood can draw from real life scenarios to play whoever they’re playing… But this is a lot more fun because what’s so cool about Andy Serkis is he has to completely figure out what that character is completely on his own. No one knows what it’s like to be a completely sentient ape, or a little monster. And that’s what’s so fun are those little challenges that, sure they may be hard or difficult to figure out how to tow that line, but you get to involve yourself so much more into the character and make so many more things your own because it’s not real. And so whatever you perceive to be the right thing in your scenario is the right thing. It’s hard but you get a lot of creative liberty, and it’s so rewarding to see a character come to life after you’ve done all that. And I’ve been meaning to mention Andy Serkis for the past two days, and I’m so glad I finally got the opportunity to.
JONES: Eden doesn’t really care but she knows she has to. So a lot of Season 2 is Eden being “I really don’t want to hide herself, but if she exposes she’s a demon, Gabe will have his say on not being very pleased about that.” It was incredible playing the “Demon” element which was just so unhinged and chaotic. But I loved being able to sprinkle in little moments in the day-to-day for the school Eden. And I actually worked with the costume designer, Megan, to reflect Eden’s outfits with her school self versus her demon self. And her demon self is much darker and sexier in ways. And school is more colorful and what not. Trying to fit in. So it’s reflected in the outfits. And I’m hoping that the audience sees how it might reflect in the show in the scenes that I do with everyone who doesn’t know she’s a demon.
How did you feel about the transition between being a normal human to a now a killer character?
JONES: It was fun to step out of the realm of normality, like as normal humans are allowed to do day-to-day. There were a lot of times where I was like “Oh my god! This is my job! I get to be crazy! I get to be chaotic! And absolutely problematic and ‘gutty.’ And lawless” Eden just runs crazy. So I really enjoyed pushing the limits on what I thought Eden can be, and the writer’s helped so much by laying a great foundation for that.
GLUCK: There’s nothing Hallea said that I would not also say. There’s nothing more fun than being able to go on set and just go crazy for 10-14 hours per day… I recently compared it to an anger room, where you get to break a bunch of things, and have this crazy release… there were a couple of times this season where I just had to scream, and yell at the top of my lungs, and yell. And just really scream. And I’ve never once in my life only screamed to the top of my lungs. Because there’s no real scenario where that’s okay… So it was a very cathartic experience to go on set and just unleash this crazy side a lot of people get bottled up… It’s a fun opportunity to have that release where you can just go crazy. So you don’t have to do it in real life or to a real person… I promise I’m not crazy and I don’t feel like yelling at people! Though it is fun!
Other than the scripts and comics, were there any other inspirations that you pulled from for your characters?
JONES: Mine was Megan Fox from Jennifer’s Body, and Regina George from Mean Girls. Regina George was my Season 1 for sure influence. And I wanted to make Eden not Regina George as much as possible, but there are only so many ways you can spin the popular Mean Girl. So with Season 2, it was nice to combine the Jennifer’s Body perspective as well… So it was fun to see how crazy I can go. She’s such a great icon for the blood-loving crazy girl thing.
GLUCK: One I got really inspired by was Christian Bale from American Psycho. I watched an interview he did about what inspiration he drew from there. And it was the funniest thing. He mentioned how he watched interviews with Tom Cruise being himself in regular interviews he did. And it was terrifying [for him] to watch because although there was a bright bubbly personality on the outside, he was just dead behind the eyes. And he found that terrifying… that’s the story I remember. And I thought it was interesting. Tiny little subtleties in people’s mannerisms and behavior that are just terrifying, that you wouldn’t think of. Stuff that sets a psychopath apart from a regular person. And Gabe is very much a psychopath as much as he is a demon. He’s just dead inside. And he’s uncomfortable with emotion. And I find that to be terrifying. I definitely had references going into Season 2, and it’s unfortunate I can’t think of them right now. But I remember just watching a lot of TV, a lot of movies, and finding characters that just had psychopathic behaviors, and trying to emulate that any way I could.
If you could design a key, what intention would you fuse it with?
GLUCK: I’ve thought about this. And just like the mending cabinet you need the cabinet and the key, I definitely would love to create the two-piece key and box special. For me, I would love to create the cabinet, anything you imagine would show up in the box. Like a magic oven. If I was really hungry I could stick in the key and there’d be a freshly baked pot pie for me. Or if the new Xbox can’t be found anywhere, I can imagine that thing up and — BAM! — it’d be right there! An Imagination Box would be pretty cool.
JONES: I was thinking the other day, a spin on the music box key would be a radio or something that would play any music you actually want to hear even if you don’t know what you want to hear in the moment, it’ll just know. Because so many times you’d just sift through a play list…it’ll be really nice to have a radio. Music is such a big part of my life, so I just want something to know what my soul wants to hear right now. That would be mine.
Question for Hallea — Eden has to eat A LOT this season. How was that for you? Did it make you sick on set at all?
JONES: Oh my god! I love food. I love snacking. First season I was always at the craft table just snacking and stuff. So I really had a bad habit to work against just between takes… and it got to the point where we’d have to do upwards of seven takes. Way more than that, because we’d have to turn around. Maybe I’d be in the background or whatever. So I was constantly eating. And Eden doesn’t take small bites. So the problem with me is we’d start the scene… and I’d be completely shoving food in my mouth. And I’d have to swallow it in order to give my line. And so it was interesting to learn the best way to do that kind of thing. I ate a lot, a lot, a lot of food. To the point where I was like “no more.”
GLUCK: It was impressive. It was genuinely impressive.
JONES: Thank you! But there were many times where it was just not tasty by the end of it. I was like “no more popcorn, please.”
Sometimes you have to suffer for your art, but it certainly paid off for all of them! Both Gluck and Jones give off such fun performances in an exciting season of television! Can’t wait for you all to see it!
Locke and Key Season 2 hits Netflix this Friday, October 22!
