Somewhere between a presidential election and an increasingly dire coronavirus pandemic, something unexpected has happened. Universal Pictures and Blumhouse have delivered a very funny, scary, and refreshingly progressive new flick, “Freaky.” And one of the reasons the Christopher Landon directed movie is so good is because of a scene-stealing turn from newcomer Misha Osherovich.
READ MORE: Vince Vaughn’s killer performance in “Freaky” [Review]
O.K., perhaps I’m a bit biased. I’ve known Osherovich for a bit, but critics have signaled him out along with stars Vince Vaughn, Cathryn Newton, and Celeste O’Connor for their performances. And if you’re a horror-comedy fan, consider “Freaky” an early Christmas present.
Clearly inspired by the classic comedy “Freaky Friday,“ the film features a body swap between a notorious serial killer (Vaughn) and Millie (Newton), a High School student who can’t get our her own way. When Millie awakens in the killer’s body she has to team up with her best friends Nyla (O’Connor) and Josh (Osherovich) to stop the psycho from using her real body to massacre her classmates. Oh, and they might want to figure out a way to switch her back before she’s stuck in Vaughn’s body forever.
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Osherovich sat down to discuss how they helped make Josh even more unabashedly queer than the character was in the script, the benefit of Vaughn’s improvisational style, and a memorable conversation about sexual identity with the “Wedding Crashers” returning from set one day.
Note: There are some minor spoilers in the context of the interview.
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The Playlist: How did this wonderful role come your way?
Misha Osherovich: So, I was auditioning a lot at the time. I read the script. I thought it was absolutely insane, in like the best way possible. And I figured I probably needed to go as insane for the audition. So, I have this infamous audition for this, that I put on tape, where I have six different costume changes for three scenes. And apparently, it worked.
Did any of those looks make it into the actual movie?
Well, no. The sad thing is it’s a scene that’s no longer in the movie. I get into this massive bitch fight with an Uber driver. And the idea of being, like, dressed to the nines for this particular scene and then having a fight with an Uber driver, was fully in the movie and then it didn’t pan out. But that’s O.K.
This project is actually not your professional debut. You’ve done stage in New York, appeared in “The Goldfinch” and the TV series “NOS4A2” with Zachary Quinto. But this is your first big starring role in a studio project. How were you feeling going in shooting it?
I mean, nervous as … Can I curse?
Yeah, totally curse.
Nervous as f*ck, on that front. But, you know, I went in with such like a theater kid mentality. I’m going to know all my lines, and I’ve highlighted everything, and I’m going to be super prepared. And of course, their script changes literally the day of. And I got thrown for a loop. And Vince Vaughn is the biggest improviser known to man. So, all of my fears and anxieties kind of got ripped away from me in a good way because I had to go with the flow of this actual production, not my theater kid anxieties of wanting to do my homework before I get to class.
Did you have a heads up that Vince would do improv on set?
No, it wasn’t so much that. We had a few pretty informal, but intensive, rehearsals with both Vince and Kathryn at the same time because they’re playing each other for most of the film. And I mostly act with Vince in the film, not Kathryn. But it’s Vince as a 17-year-old girl. So even just in rehearsals, like the way that he would improv and think about stories and backstory, and the way that we as friends maybe interacted, it became very clear to me that I was going to have to get on his level, in terms of constantly being ready to try something new. So my perfectionist attitude really got challenged by that. In a good way.
Is there anything in particular that you can remember that made it into the movie?
Absolutely. The handshake was very much a product of one idea Vince had. Like, “I wonder if we have a secret handshake, as friends.” And it just kind of ruminated in rehearsal. And we started just kind of fucking around with it until we got to the day of shooting for one of the earliest scenes, and we did the handshake. Everybody incorporated some little bit, the gay snap in the handshake is very much my doing. And now it’s a big part of the film and it’s a big part of the way that Millie’s character stuck in the Butcher’s body identifies that she is who she is. So that amount of improv actually really wove its way into the film.
One of the interesting things about the movie is that here you have Vince Vaughn, who is not aligned politically with the most progressive party in the country.
Sure.
And here you’re playing a very queer character. And the director is an out, gay director. It was co-written by an out gay screenwriter. Did Vince’s participation worry you at all going in?
Absolutely. Only as far as rumors or what I’ve heard from the Hollywood grapevine, was I worried or kind of more intrigued, by who this character Vince Vaughn is outside of his roles. Who he is in real life. Look, not only do we have a gay director and we have me, a very queer person, a vocally queer person playing a queer character. And our co-writer Michael Kennedy is gay as well. I actually very quickly realized that Vince is one of the most curious people you’ll ever meet. To the point that, like, if you’re not ready to reveal a lot about yourself and talk very deep with him into the wee hours of shooting, you’re kind of out of your element. You have to be ready for that with him. One of the most impactful moments I had with him off-camera was, and what really honestly made me respect him, was we were coming back from a night shoot. It was like 4:00 AM. We were in the van headed back to the hotel. And me, him, and Celeste, who by the way also identifies as queer, they play Nyla in the film. And we were having a discussion about queerness. And it was me and Vince sitting next to each other. And Vince just had kept asking questions about my experience as not only a gay, at the time, you know, coming out to my parents as gay, which was hard on its own, my very conservative parents, but also now as a queer human, as a nonbinary human. And Vince could not stop asking questions. And it was clear that he was really processing what I had to say. And it was also clear that for all of his time in Hollywood, I don’t think he’s had a lot of experience, you know, really delving into the queerness of it all, at least evidenced by our conversation. And he paid attention to me. He gave me time, he gave me space, and he really wanted to hear what I had to say. Same with Celeste. So his political or social, whatever views aside, which I can’t really speak to, they didn’t come up a lot on set. That element of, “let me learn about you in a real and I’m going to absorb it kind of way,” really shone through. So, I can only say that I appreciate that about him.
Oh, that’s really cool.
Yeah.
As for the movie itself, it has a specific horror-comedy tone. It wants to scare you and make you laugh. Not always easy to do. How cognizant were you of what the tone was in each scene?
You know, I’ve gotten a version of this question a lot and as we know with the “Happy Death Day” movies, Chris knows his style so scientifically that he sets up everything. The set is dressed in a certain way. There’s comedic physical elements everywhere. There’s also very scary gore in place. The lighting is very dramatic in its very specific way. So you get to that set with the script that you’ve learned, and your only job is to be as high stakes and as real as possible. Because everything else is kind of baked in. If that makes any sense at all. So like, at the end of the day, the best takes and the takes that we always used were the ones where we were all actually screaming, actually running, actually surprising ourselves. There was no real, like, “That’s the funny moment. This is the scary moment.” It didn’t happen that way.
Did you feel like Vince knew that too? Did the fact that he was as confident with it reassure you guys at all?
It did, but in moments when Celeste and I, for example, thought we were being funny, we would then see Vince do something that much more real, grounded, surprising, and comedically valuable. And then we would go, “Uh, it’s our job to do that, not make a joke.” Because at the end of the day, when an actor tries to make a joke, nine times out of ten that take either sucks or they’re not going to use it. But Vince actually, in his improv-y style and constantly trying something new with every single f*cking take, Celeste and I learned, “Oh it’s the reality of it.”This is a crazy, crazy world. We just have to be absolutely in it, and buy this world is happening to us.” Great. Done.
Josh is unabashedly a queer, out character throughout the movie. Even with Christopher and Michael’s involvement, how important was it for you to make sure that he wasn’t a caricature?
Exceedingly. And I told Chris that before I even got the role. Chris asked me in my test with him over Skype if I had any questions if there was anything particular I wanted to say about the role. And I said, “Yeah. If you give me this role, I’m going to make him real. I’m not going to let him be,” I think I literally used that word, “caricature.” Because that’s important to me, that speaks a lot to my value set. I mean, you know, we know each other outside of this.
Sure.
I’m an activist-y type human and complex, messy, awesome queer visibility that speaks to us as humans, and not to us as divisive caricatures or, you know, plot usefulness? That’s important to me. So, I said that early on. And I would argue that that might be one of the reasons I got the role. Because I was vocal about that before I even had it.
Was there one moment in particular where you were like, “Hey I wanted this to be in here, it worked and it shows Josh sort of as the multifaceted human I wanted them to be”?
Yes. And it’s something that I’m so glad that Chris and Michael Kennedy were so collaborative on with me. Josh has a line early in the film, “You know, I can’t wait for the drunk straight boys to suddenly realize they’re fluid at homecoming.” And then, a moment like that kind of happens upon Josh, as the drama of the movie unfolds. And we’re at homecoming, there’s a scene with a supposedly straight boy that’s revealing some possible queerness to Josh in a very drunken fashion. And there have been so many versions of that scene on paper for a reason. Chris, Michael, and I, as soon as the film started going, we’re talking about what that scene should be. Especially with an empowered queer character, not a kind of hahaha device-y queer character. And what we all landed on was the reality that Josh’s priorities are saving his best friend from a very scary fate in a very high stakes situation. No amount of that can be forgotten. Even if a hot straight boy drunkenly approaches Josh. And that’s because of the character that I was so lucky to build with Chris and Michael actively, as we were shooting and forming the script and finalizing it. I’m really happy and proud that kind of the three queers, if you will, on set, came together and made that decision together. Because it empowered this queer kid in high school, as opposed to making him be the butt of potentially a joke.
That’s awesome. Now, I won’t give any spoilers to people reading this about what happens in the movie, but in theory, there could be a sequel.
Sure.
And in theory, your character may or may not be able to return.
Sure.
If your character could return, do you think he would?
Besides the very real conversations that we’ve all had amongst our little “Freaky” team about this exact subject matter? Yes, I do think he would and I do think that it would be about time for a queer person to swap some bodies.
That’s what I would want to see in a “Freaky” sequel. Beyond this particular movie, is there anything else in the works?
I mean, look, I’m auditioning a ton right now, which is great and awesome. There’s a couple of things that have gone very well. Who the f*ck knows on that front. But again, you and I also know each other outside of this, I’m a writer/producer human. And I’m really excited about a project that I’m working on that’s kind of bringing together my activism side of my work and the burgeoning Misha the producer, Misha the writer. So that’s where my soul and focus is right now. And I’m really thrilled with where it’s moving so far
“Freaky” is in theaters nationwide.
