Noah LaLonde stars as Wes in Deer Camp ‘86. The movie is currently playing in theaters and you can check out showtimes near you here.

In the fall of 1986, six friends from Detroit travel north to partake in the annual tradition of deer hunting, but something horrific has been awakened. An ancient spirit seeks vengeance for the death of yet another Native American girl who’s gone missing or been murdered. In an ironic twist, the hunters have become the hunted.

I caught up with the actor over Zoom to talk about his experience rewatching Deer Camp ‘86 at different points throughout the past four years, connecting with his fans, trying different tonal shifts, how each project is like a timestamp in his life and career, the story’s important takeaway, and much more. Keep reading to find out what he shared!

You’ve been killing it. I know you had some premieres and screenings for this movie too. That must have been so much fun.
Noah LaLonde: We went to the Dallas International Film Festival, which — there’s a ton, I mean, we’ve been everywhere with this. First, I saw this in Northern Michigan, we filmed in Northern Michigan and I hadn’t even moved to Los Angeles, it was my first project I ever did. So, we filmed this during the pandemic. We were very safe about it, but we filmed in October into November of 2020 and I remember we had a small crew, at least from what I heard, because it was the first thing I’d ever done that wasn’t a weekend or a week little short film indie shoot in my hometown. So, this was crazy. I was on location in Ludington, Michigan, and Mason County up there, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was terrified. I was just waiting for someone to rip out the opportunity from me. I had no idea truly, but I got an email from an acting coach that I’d worked with for a couple of months in Michigan and he just said, “Hey, I thought of you for this part and hope all’s well.”

I was like, ‘Okay, cool.’ That turned out to be like a Facebook extras casting note, which is crazy that that was the thing that pulled me to the project, but I read for it and I ended up talking to the director, and we talked back and forth. I did another tape for him and again, I’ve worked a lot of my craft in the last four years, but this was four years of less craft honing. It’s funny the disparity in age that I am, that I played, and that I have now gone on to play. I’ve been all over the board, but four years ago, I go to film a couple hours North, a few hours North of my house on location, [and it’s] just the greatest combination of a dream experience and a terrifying experience because I’d never done it before. But that was 2020, I saw it in 2021, I moved to LA and I saw it in LA. Then when I finished My Life with the Walter Boys, it was at Screamfest in LA at The Chinese Theatre, I saw it and I thought, ‘Okay, this was good. This is a good way to wrap everything up.’ Then, just a few months ago, I’m hearing that it’s coming back around and we’re going to have some theatrical stuff, so very exciting and just a long journey that touches on so many different parts of my experience being an actor, growing as a human being and I can check off a lot of those times in my life, and see where I was, how it’s different, and how it continues to be different. That’s a quick timeline briefing because it is crazy.

I’m glad you gave me that timeline because it must be so interesting when you film a project and it sits for a minute, meaning you don’t get to immediately share it with the world. I know that that happens with a lot of projects, but how did it feel to kind of leave that behind for a second and then, like you said, have it come back when you now have this huge fan base following you? Is that exciting for you, especially with this being your first real role?
Yeah, I would say that even from the time that we last talked, one of the things that I’ve found a lot of joy in, especially as every day that goes on, there’s a lot of scary things happening in the world, it’s a scary time to kind of exist, honest to God, so to be able to find, if only a moment of an exchange with someone that I don’t know. I’m very lucky to do this job and having met fans of the show, people who know who I am, it’s been really nice to experience that and have a moment to just thank somebody for watching the show and thank them for supporting me because like I said, if you don’t get out and connect with people, it’s so easy to think that there’s no more connection. I think anytime you get the opportunity to share your work, it’s incredible, which I’m finding as we speak, it gives back to me every day. So yeah, I’m very excited for… it’s nerve-wracking, it’s exciting because it is so different.

I mean, it’s such a different thing from what most of the people who know me, know me from, which I think is a cool thing to experience and I think can hopefully bring in a different audience of people that maybe wouldn’t have been interested in some of my other work and vice versa. I’m sure it won’t be for everyone, but getting to talk to, especially at the film festival in Dallas, a couple of wonderful people I met, who were fans of My Life with the Walter Boys, and by happenstance were there. They saw the film and they really enjoyed it, so that was really cool for me to see up close. I mean, I talked to them before, I talked to them after, and they both loved it. I guess it’s all out of order. It’s all weird timeline-wise, but it’s all happening and I’m along for the ride. Again, bringing people together in any way I think is a great thing, especially now. We have some events coming back in Michigan and I’m from Michigan, and I’m really excited to — I haven’t been home in a while, I may be busy for a long time after this, who knows? It’s always tough to get home, so to have a little bit of business to take care of, and it’s a good time. It’s exciting.

We call that range, which as a fan and a journalist, I love seeing you do different roles. That’s what fans crave too. Are there any roles you want to take on genre-wise or from a franchise that you would love to explore as an actor?
Yes, right, I’m not incredibly picky. I have things that really pique my interest when I see them, but I tend to kind of trust this journey I’m on, and let these experiences come to me and let these projects come to me because as an actor, especially prior to booking any work, you have such little control over what you do. There are a lot of movies — I was just talking about this the other day about movies that really stick with you for a plethora of reasons, these legendary movies like Titanic, The Notebook, these romantic movies that leave your heart… you feel the presence of your heart in your chest for months to follow, so some people still. Just those slice-of-life movies where it’s real things happening and really grounded down to earth, you know, different tonal changes in the work because I think with Deer Camp ‘86 and My Life with the Walter Boys, you have a complete shift.

So, just continue to tap into those other worlds and like I said, I’m not that picky because, at some point, I think I’d love to be all over the board. So in what order that is, I’ll leave that up to the universe and how it creates the opportunities for me. I’m excited to work just period. I love doing the job and as fun as all this part of the process is, especially with you, because we’ve had such great conversations, the job has been eluding me now for a little bit with the strike and for a plethora of reasons. But yeah, it’s just a general excitement and looking forward to whatever is next, but especially just continuing to do that tonal shift is cool.

I love what you said about just getting to be home for a little bit and how it also ties to your work. Are you excited to share this with your family? Do you get to bring them to the premiere?
Yeah, I’m really excited for my family to see this movie because none of them have seen it. So I had some friends in Los Angeles that saw it, I had some friends back in Michigan that did a little road trip with me and we saw it three years ago but I guess I’ve always waited for a more convenient time to get everybody together and this is now that time. I always try to be pretty coy about just, “Okay, let’s wait until everything’s set in stone. Let’s do it all. Once I have it, then we can plan.” So being not in Michigan, it’s harder to make all the plans. Everything’s coming together and I’m really excited to share that with them because so much of this career has been me kind of on my own through it and even since My Life with the Walter Boys came out, I was home for the holidays and that was it. I actually got sick, so I didn’t see most of my family and there’s a lot of people that I’ve yet to see, who I’ve talked to a ton because I have the greatest support system, family, and friends. I think I talked about that pretty extensively.

We were talking about how you had to get them all Team Cole t-shirts as Christmas gifts.
There has since been some gift exchanges back and forth. My mom may or may not have one of those Etsy pillows. I’m like, “Okay, keep it away from me, I don’t want to see my face,” although some of the stuff has made its way to me.

Oh, that is amazing.
And I see stuff on social media all the time, so it’s crazy, but in a good way crazy. So, just to be back with them and to share in some of it, especially ‘cause the project was done in Michigan and it is, to me, a great reminder of how far I’ve come in that period, whether or not I knew this was going to happen. I’ve been now having these last few weeks to reflect on what is kind of the formative stages of my career as an actor and as an adult, just growing up because when I did the movie, I was freshly 22 and I just turned 26, which feels crazy to say. So it’s a lot of that. It’s a lot of like, ‘Wow, 26, 22. I moved to LA, I lived in Calgary,’ and just every step of the process has been great. To share that with people, and now to be able to go back and literally be with them, it’s really exciting. I’m so lucky to do what I do, to be on this ride and it’s been the greatest.

When you look back, as you were saying before, it must feel like a lifetime ago since so much in your life has changed, even though it was only four years ago. Do you feel like you were able to apply anything you learned from Deer Camp ‘86 to your other projects, whether it be My Life with the Walter Boys or anything else you’ve done, or just acting-wise in general that you feel like in the future down the line will still be on your mind?
Absolutely, that’s a great question. I think a lot of it was, and I have no problem saying this, I learned a ton doing this project and then I also retroactively learned things along the way that would make me think of doing this project that I wish I had known. I’ve seen it four times and I think it’s a really fun watch, but now having seen it the fourth time, at varying levels, two of the times were before I had seen My Life with the Walter Boys, one of it was after I’d filmed, but before I’d seen it [My Life with the Walter Boy], and the last one was now after I’d seen My Life with the Walter Boy and after I’d obviously filmed, the way that I watch it and the way that I take in my performance has changed each time because my worldview grows every day. My view of my life and my craft changes and grows every day for good or for bad, you never really know.

But at this point, it’s like every single time I see something different, I recall a lot of the things when that happened, because — a lot of actors talk about this, but this fear of failure that can be this initial push of energy toward working on a project is very powerful and while I’ve done a lot of work to try to reel that in a bit more and have a better relationship with that, doing Deer Camp ‘86 was very much peak of that. I remember being like, wow, [because] for one, we’re doing a table read and I’m doing a movie where I am kind of the straight arrow man and everybody else has these comedic elements or everyone’s got something about them. We’re doing a table read and everybody’s getting laughs, and this idea in my head is pushing me to think like, ‘Woah, am I not hitting right?’ So, even forming my idea of understanding those types of feelings and not immediately critiquing myself, and more so allowing things to unfold the way they should and allowing the acceptance of your role, both literally your role, but your role in the archetype of your character, like understanding what service you play.

So there was a lot of learning on that and I have yet to go through — I haven’t done in a while, I did it after I filmed it, but I took some journaling sessions during the filming of Deer Camp ‘86. There were times I was very worried because you care about your work so much and you want it to resonate and work. I mean, specifically, I probably have to really take some time to think, but actively, there’s always those things. Every time I watch it, every time I think about it, literal times filming My Life with the Walter Boys, I would think, ‘Uh yeah, so this scene’s coming up,’ even if it’s more of an element that is mechanical, every time you’re on a set, you learn something new about being on a set or at least there’s the opportunity to learn something new. I don’t take any day for granted and if there’s one thing that little bit of fear that always stays with you [does], it keeps you motivated to always be engaging with the process. I was doing that in November and October of 2020 and I was doing that in 2022 filming My Life with the Walter Boys. I’m glad that I was. The relationship between the both and the process still lives with me, and I’m excited to bring it out again soon.

That’s really cool that you got to revisit the project so many times during those different chapters. I think of the times I rewatch a movie and I notice something different every single time, or how I look at something and even if I anticipate what’s coming, I still look at it differently based on where I am in my life.
Oh, 100%. I was listening to an interview about another actor talking about going back and watching those movies that resonated with you at a certain period in your life, and then watching them again and seeing either if that piece of work holds up or if it triggers something in you that, ‘Oh, that’s why I resonated so much with it back then, I can see that now, but it doesn’t have the exact same effect.’ It’s an interesting process because like we talked about [with] My Life with the Walter Boys, when you watched it with your mom over Christmas, that’s a core time. I will never engage in the sentence that I am something you think about whenever you think about Christmas of 2023, but…

I mean, listen…
Well, maybe now because we’ve gotten to talk so much, I hope ‘cause you have for me. But all that to say, like you said, all those little memories, all those little timestamps, I think when you work on a project, you get that time in your life memorialized in a way. For me, if I ever go watch a scene from Deer Camp ‘86 or My Life with the Walter Boys, again, all those albums, the music I’m listening to, the time of my life, what’s happening, ‘Oh, that was the day,’ ‘What happened just before that, before the camera started rolling,’ ‘Whoa, that was the night that we — yeah,’ so all that stuff is really cool because it becomes part of my life, you know?

It’s like a time capsule in a way.
It is a time capsule. If I ever have kids, I could show my kids and be like, “That was when I was your age and this was happening.” It’s like a scrapbook of a moving scrapbook.

One of the things I really loved about your character, and you kind of already mentioned how you weren’t the comedic relief, but I love that we saw that Wes was saddened by what happened to Star when he first got the news — without giving too much away, just that reaction rather than him acting like just a stranger that met this person and had no real connection there. Why do you think that was important for the character and did you do anything specific to get in that headspace?
Yeah, I mean, I’m trying not to give anything away because the nature of how it all becomes intertwined is so important, but I think all of that intertwining that goes on to happen doesn’t feel as intertwined if not for the true feeling that is, ‘Oh, this is horrible.’ If that moment isn’t really felt, then does the rest happen, you know what I mean? So, going to a place where I think, not looking for those comedic moments, but looking for those moments of connection because I think Wes is craving connection. Wes has a wound in his heart and Wes is looking for a way to fill that, so is he maybe susceptible to falling too hard or getting broken again? He’s healing so, vulnerable and that vulnerability, I think that’s an important thing to show at that point, because like we’ve all seen, you raise the stakes, the expectations for a big weekend or a fun night that you’re going to have with your friends, something happens and everyone is tasked with deciding at what level they want that to remain impactful on their experience. It’s easy to turn your cheek and not really think about it. You see it happen all the time, but I think the way that it hits Wes is what makes him the character, it was really the essence of who he is. So, those moments are especially kind of important because there’s so much that is not that in the movie in kind of the world-building.

What sort of larger conversations or takeaways do you want audiences to get from the movie and the story overall?
Yeah, I think it’s such an interesting thing and when I talk about this, I definitely want to be delicate because there’s so many elements: your classic horror film, your classic comedy ensemble, and a lot of buddy-buddy. But I think one of the takeaways, and this is something that I wasn’t as educated on, but the idea of the missing and murdered Indigenous woman, that kind of epidemic that has been plaguing Indigenous culture for a long time, hundreds of years. So, something I didn’t necessarily know a whole lot about, but we worked with a cultural advisor on set, the filmmakers were advised by some local tribes in building some of the characters and in making sure that everything was done carefully and respectfully. And so, I think when you watch the movie, it’s easy to get caught up in some of the — it’s the eighties, it’s guys being guys, so there’s a lot of stuff that’s like, “Oh my gosh, did he just say that?” There’s some of that in the beginning, but I think as the movie goes on, there’s a takeaway that is you can’t just act and expect that action to never come back.

What we do, there are consequences in life and just because you don’t get punished immediately, just because the consequence isn’t clear, or just because you got away with it, doesn’t mean that it’s not wrong, especially when you’re talking about something specific to a group of people who have suffered a lot of oppression in the history of humanity. This last May 5 was the National Awareness Day of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, I posted about it a little bit on my Instagram and I’m a little bit newer to having a lot of people see what I post, so I always want to be very careful and I never want to appear to be doing something just because I have to. I have learned about this issue that has been plaguing a group of people for a long time through doing this movie and in seeing some Indigenous women talking about their experience as it relates to this issue, which has been very moving and even as recent as Dallas talking to some Indigenous woman from Dallas. You kind of can almost lose sight of how much it can mean just to have awareness.

When questioning how to post about it or how to bring awareness, educating somebody on something, and showing awareness on something, I always, at least in my opinion because there’s so much out there now to distract from what is happening, and it’s easy to, like I said, turn the other cheek, but anytime we can bring awareness to an injustice or an issue that’s plaguing, I want to do that. I want to do it delicately and I want to educate myself on it. So, I tried to do that and I tried to pass on resources. I have a ton of educating still to do on an individual level, but I think if there’s one thing takeaway-wise that I would really want to stick, it would be that. I think there’s nothing wrong with a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously and has some fun horror elements, but also is a reminder to be educated, to have that awareness of a very real issue. Like I said, it can be tricky because there’s so many fun parts that you don’t want to take away [anything] other than a laugh, but it’s a really serious issue, so I would say the takeaway is to really think about people who are impacted by things that happen in the world all the time. I’m very lucky to do what I do and to have lived the life that I’ve lived, and I try to just through gratitude, but also through being aware and paying that back to the world, to the universe, and to people who aren’t so lucky.

That was a beautiful answer. I have to say, I think it’s so wonderful and powerful that you said so much went on behind the scenes to make sure it was handled correctly because there’s so many projects that do not handle these serious subject matters the correct way or don’t really care to. So the fact that you not only wanted to teach yourself and have this individual journey learning but that everyone on the set wanted to make sure it was handled the right way is such an important thing.
Yeah, I mean, from the creation of one of the very symbolic characters that I won’t give away just because I wouldn’t know how to do that delicately, to the actor who portrayed that character at certain times being a member of a local tribe in Northern Michigan. My education continues, but even being in Los Angeles at Screamfest, one of the actresses who worked in the film and is an Indigenous actress, spoke about this issue being real for her today, right now at that time. So, it’s still real. It’s still happening and like I said, it’s just really easy to look the way and I would urge everyone everywhere to always consider that as good as your life could be, not everyone gets to have that. So, to look around and just always kind of make yourself aware, and not take a back seat to trying to do that. But in this movie in particular, I think there’s a great takeaway there, especially how it’s shown in kind of the first shot of the movie and the bookend of the movie that it’s still ongoing.

Tell me about the genre. What did you enjoy most about doing it? I mean, you have the comedy and horror elements, and I think those two are particularly fun to mix, but what was your favorite part?
I think working with this ensemble cast and getting to witness some, I would say in my head, legendary comedic actors. I mean, everybody was so great, but comedically two of the characters, Egbert and Buck, [played by] Jay J. Bidwell and David Lautman, are just like so, so funny on-screen, off-screen. Working with these people, my face would hurt from laughing between the scenes and there’s such a natural instinct that they had for comedic timing, and to not be the person who is really getting the punchline in the movie or cracking the jokes, I got to enjoy a lot of it. Arthur Cartwright, who plays Simon, has a couple of really funny cracks too and his timing is amazing, everybody’s amazing — Josh, Brian. The core group kind of felt like, which is a funny change from My Life with the Walter Boys, I kind of felt like the little brother on the set, because at the time I think I was the youngest member of the cast. Those guys are just so great. I felt so protected and supported, especially with everything I talked about, the fear that drives me, and especially at the beginning of it. So working with them, getting to crack jokes offset with them, getting close with them, and still be in contact — I saw David last week, it’s hard to have such a formidable experience and not always fondly remember every part of it, especially the people. As we come into some of these events in Michigan in the coming days, I’m super excited to see some of them.

Really nice reunions.
Yeah, in addition to my family, I also am looking forward to seeing them. I’m over the moon. I’m very, very lucky. Again, if there’s anything that has defined this whole period, it’s just I’m very grateful because even when I was doing this movie, I didn’t know what was gonna happen with my career. I didn’t know where I was gonna be living in a year. I didn’t know what I was gonna be doing in a year. I didn’t know so much about what was next, and I had to really trust a lot in just the moment and believe that if I committed myself to the moment, working hard and trying my best that I’d give myself a better shot than not. It takes a whole lot of luck. It takes a whole lot of hard work, but like I said, so many things that have come around, it almost doesn’t feel real. The reflection period on this and just everything else has been so, so incredible.

The industry we chose, right?
Yeah, I swear. I mean, as of today, in the last couple of days, I posted about [this], I got to see the Stanley Cup. It was amazing. Phil, the Keeper of the Cup, came to my apartment and just brought the Stanley Cup. A lot of people know this but I played hockey my whole life, my entire life, so literally when we filmed Deer Camp ‘86, I got there in October of 2020 and I stopped playing hockey in April or May of 2018. My whole life to that point, 20 years was just hockey and I tried to do it a little bit in jest, but I was serious, the first thing I wanted to do was be a hockey player and win the Stanley Cup, and to have committed so much of my life to that and then, the difficult period that was moving on from that and kind of jumping into this industry, which is just so much uncertainty. Then to get a nod from the powers that be, just to be like, the universe put the Cup on my table and “All right, maybe I made a couple of good choices.” So between that and Deer Camp ‘86 coming out, there was a period of reflection and so much gratitude for everything that has happened. This industry, it’s crazy.

When you originally got the script, what was the first thing that jumped out at you? How did you feel reading it?
‘Oh my gosh,’ that was my reaction. I think the first read-through — I always want to read through it, just no pressure unless I feel very, very inclined to take a note or something, I just read through. And so honestly, back at this time, I don’t know if I had the same sort of method ‘cause now, if I know that I have a script, I’m reading and I’m just reading it a ton, but for this, I know the first time I just read it and I think I was honestly shaking ‘cause I was very nervous in the beginning, so just reading it and taking it all in. Then, after that, it was kind of identifying where to start creating that world ‘cause I certainly didn’t have a ton of time. I wanna say I was the last person cast. I’ve been talking about this in the last couple of weeks but it was only a couple weeks I had, so I think the nature of the ensemble cast, the group that has such a history, I, personally, think I went back and I started to kind of break down every single relationship, every separate relationship. That was just the jumping-off point because at that point, and I still believe this, I happen to have a couple of relationships in My Life with the Walter Boys, so starting with relationships and really building that history with every other person is a big part of the process for me and it was in this movie.

Part of me was flying by the seat of my pants for some of the prep, but the more you do, the more you do. So, I mean, I was just trying to do everything I could and inform everything I could. I would say first read-through, shaking with fear. Second read-through, “All right, let’s do it, buddy.” I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, knowing how beautiful [the location was], which there’s some shots in this movie that show the beauty of Northern Michigan, I mean, really amazing shots and knowing that before we filmed, knowing that that’s where we’re going to be filming, I just thought, ‘If I get to go to a cabin in the woods and make a movie, let’s just acknowledge how amazing that is,’ and at that time in the world, it was a scary time. I just remember thinking, ‘Man, getting away from that in a way that was safe and productive, it was a lot more peaceful than I could have ever imagined,’ and I knew that a lot of that peace would come from the scenery of where we were at. I think it shows on the screen, the power of nature and the spiritual power of the world that is always at work, no matter if we know it or not, and there’s no other landscape that could have acted as a more proper character. I mean, it’s truly a character in the movie.

Can we highlight what you just said? Settings are characters. It can really make a movie.
Absolutely. I mean, totally and I’ve gotten to experience that with this, obviously with — I keep saying My Life with the Walter Boys, but there’s a lot of parallels between the idea that this beautiful ranch in Colorado is playing a pivotal role in the plot of the show. So I think the beautiful Northern Michigan landscape, the land, the power of that land is just as much a character. I’ve never been underwhelmed by what I get to look around at when I show up to work. So I’ve been lucky in that way too.

I will say, honestly, when I hear cabin in the woods, my first thought is, ‘Oh my God, we’re in a horror movie.’
Yeah, well, I think there’s some fun in a lot of those on the nose kind of, you know, there’s a line in that first scene, “Ah, bar fight, how original,” it’s like, yeah, of course. So, there’s a lot of the movie that knows what it’s doing and it’s making fun of itself, and I think it’s kind of a little event that you want to bring a couple of people to and you want to have some fun. I think that’s a good element of it. I really liked that part of it and I’ve had some different groups of people that I’ve watched with and I think they’ve all had different collective experiences, and it’s been fun to see that unfold. So again, I’m now excited to — I don’t know the full theater schedule locations, but it is hard to fathom that there are a lot more people that could potentially see this. I’ll be interested to see if it’s as fun as it was for me with my buddies in Northern Michigan the first time.

Like you were saying, I feel like it’s a good movie to see in a theater with that movie popcorn and a bunch of friends. It’s that kind of vibe, a real movie night.
It’s like a “movie” movie, it’s like a, you go to the theater movie.

Well, I’ll be going with my friends. I’m gonna be looking up my theater times.
Yes. Yeah, please. I have a lot of amazingly supportive friends now having worked on a couple of things that are spread out. So I’ve been trying to get them locations and there are a lot of people who have been dying to see it, and I’m really excited to get the chance to share it with them. So it’s really cool.