James Reid happy to be part of an ’80s-themed movie: ‘You won’t see anyone taking selfies here!’
With fans happy with his return to dong a television series, Someone, Someday, after a long wait, James Reid is also returning to film as part of the cast of Regal Entertainment’s Metro Manila Film Festival entry Haunted Carnival where he got to work with director Joey De Guzman for the very first time.
“They actually pitched it to me while also showing me what direk Joey did for Shake, Rattle, & Roll (Evil Origins) for the previous year and it was amazing. I really liked direk Joey’s approach to the film. I like his musicality. There’s a lot of music involved in it and how he puts them together, I really appreciate it.
“When he showed me the original script at that time, it was really just a concept of a haunted carnival and a general idea of what could happen to the characters. And of all the projects I’ve been pitched recently, I don’t know eh, it just really stuck out to me. I was like, ‘Ooh, that sounds like a lot of fun!’” James shared during his presscon last November 11.
James promised to show a different side in the film, which tested his limits in acting almost a decade of focusing on his singing career.
“I just wanted to have fun. It sounded like a different project from what I’m used to, it’s something where I can get pushed, when I can get tested to my limits a bit more with. Just from (watching) the trailer alone, it’s gets very glory, very bloody. And what I like about my character and just this crazy situation, about the role in this type of film, it puts you in such an unbelievable, wild nightmare situation and you get to kind of move outside the box and explore things you never experienced before. Some scenes I thought, ‘Wow, that was crazy!’ You really get lost in the film. And after seeing the trailer, it definitely is meeting the expectations when they first pitched it to me,” he admitted.
After his last big screen appearance in the 2018 film Miss Granny, James explained why Haunted Carnival proved to be a very different kind of acting challenge for him this year.
“It’s not easy. Also, it’s been the most physically and emotionally demanding role I’ve done so far. The screaming, the crying, the running, the chasing, and falling. It wasn’t easy. The most challenging part is how physically demanding it was to me. At some points, you can’t really control sometimes when you’re really in the moment and caught up in the fear and adrenaline. There are some days where I walked away with some bruises, some accidents happened on the set. I think maintaining that level of fear, because we want it to be believable, even though it’s like a fun, campy movie at the same time, we still want the fear to be believable. So that was a physically and emotionally draining part,” he explained.
But the best part of the film for the 33-year-old actor is the unique setting of the film, which was a big factor in him accepting the project.
“The most fun part is I think one of the coolest parts of the film, it’s set in the era of the ‘80s. For one, there’s no cellphones. You won’t see anyone taking selfies here and stuff. There’s nothing like that. I’ve always wanted to do a movie in the ‘80s. That’s one of the reasons that made me say yes. It’s a very cool theme, ‘80s horror. I even did a music video recently where the theme is kind of like Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ in the ‘80s. So I love the theme and the music, the scoring, the very fun electric pop ‘80s music. Super fun,” he added.