ising stars Gina Philips and Justin Long spent a couple of months in rural Florida playing a brother and sister who must elude an evil force in the supernatural horror movie Jeepers Creepers. Shooting mostly at night, the actors found themselves isolated and out of sync with the rest of the world—adding to the film's real creepiness and also requiring them to come up with creative ways to avoid boredom between takes.
Months later, the actors can now laugh about the experience of being trapped in the production. Long—who is best known to SF fans as the geeky Brandon in 1999's Galaxy Quest—and Philips spent many hours at the local Wal-Mart, the only place open on their days off. And they weren't even allowed to hang out with their other co-star, Jonathan Breck, who under layers of special makeup plays a character called The Creeper. Director Victor Salva (Powder) wanted Long and Philips to be genuinely creeped out by Breck when they first saw him—on camera.
Long and Philips took a few moments recently to talk with Science Fiction Weekly and other reporters about the movie, which opened Aug. 31.
Justin Long, this is a very scary movie.
Long: The first time I read the script, I was alone in my apartment. And I only got halfway through. I couldn't finish it. I had to wait until ... daybreak. ... It was a terrifying read. But, you know, it could have gone either way. I think that's just testament to the talent of the director. He was able to translate it. We just tried to keep it authentic. We just tried to keep it very real. And not sort of fall back on any clichés. ... It was a very tense atmosphere shooting, in the sense that because we were trying to keep it real, and we were supposed to be fearing for our lives, we didn't really let up on that. ... And we were shooting in the middle of nowhere, at night, mostly. Long, long hours. And it was just ... It culminated in this very, kind of, tense atmosphere.
Your character, Darry, and Gina Philips' character, Trish, had a real rapport on-screen. Did you have a lot of chance to rehearse?
Long: We had a week of rehearsals, which was mostly us just improvising, which helped more than I thought it would. It just helped to sort of establish that rapport, which I hope translates. And not only that, we spent a lot of time together [off camera]. We were the only two, really, young people certainly in the cast, and we were staying in these retirement villages. So we were really only the two young people in sight. It was like a ... Village of the Damned kind of thing [laughs].
Wal-Mart ... was sort of like a bastion of ... sanity. We'd be doing all these intense things, and the only thing open [on our days off] was Wal-Mart. ... And we were shooting nights. On our days off ... we didn't want to reverse our schedules, so we would stay awake all night. And I'd literally spend, like, three or four hours just walking up and down the aisles of Wal-Mart. They all knew me by the end. They're like, "Justin!"
Did any of the improv make it into the movie?
Long: Yeah. ... Victor used some of it in the script. We ended up just doing like vital improvs. I remember it was excruciatingly hot, you know, like Neil Simon said, Africa hot. We were in the car, and the car scene, we shot that for about two weeks, and with all the lights, and it was the middle of August and the middle of Florida, it was like the bowels of hell pretty much. And I remember, one time, in a take, I said, "Jesus, it's hot. God, it's hot." ... And I think that made it in. ... And sibling things, we'd sort of just rib each other, and that kind of stuff stayed in.
Do you have brothers and sisters?
Long: I do. I have an older brother and a younger brother. They're both actors, actually.
Did you use anything based on your relationships with them?
Long: A lot of it was. ... My parents have a station wagon with the wood paneling. We call it the Dragon Wagon. And I think the first line of the movie—you can barely hear it, we're going over these hills—but I'm talking about the Dragon Wagon and about how we used to do circles in the parking lot when we were learning to drive. And that was all stuff that I did with my brothers. Just the dynamic, having brothers myself, it was sort of easy to fall into.
Did the isolation help with your performance?
Long: Oh, yeah, most definitely. It would have been a lot harder to jump back into that atmosphere if, at the end of the day, if we went back to a hotel or some kind of metropolis or went back to friends and family. But, as you said, we were completely isolated, and it helped just retain that focus and that sort of tense energy.
The old song "Jeepers Creepers" plays a major role in the film. How do you feel when you hear that song now?
Long: I'm waiting for the musical to get into development. ... It's going to happen [laughs].
What's your favorite horror movie?
Long: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Donald Sutherland ... remake [from] 1978. That is the scariest movie I've ever seen. I in fact watched that a few times before I went to shoot Jeepers Creepers. Veronica Cartwright in that movie—she was also in the original Alien—she does fear better than anybody else, I think. She and Leland Orser. I don't know if you know him. Leland Orser was in Se7en and Very Bad Things. I really tried to study them. She has great eyes, Veronica Cartwright. I was sort of thinking a lot about her when I did Jeepers.
What's it like playing fear?
Long: It's tremendously hard. What I've found is that it just takes an enormous amount of physical energy. I was amazed at how depleted I was at the end of each day. Because, you know, you have to maintain. It's not like doing a play—you know, you get to do it straight through. You have to maintain this over the course of several hours. And I suppose I don't trust myself enough. ... You know, there are some actors who can go in and out, and relax between takes. I had to kind of maintain that energy. And like I said, I think it was partially because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get it back once I got to that point. ... I was thinking of horrible things in my own personal life that could potentially happen. ... And it was destructive, because you feel like these are your own private ... sacred temple, and you're kind of exploiting it, you know?
You didn't get to meet Breck, the guy who played the Creeper, until you played scenes with him?
Long: It was difficult. It turns out he was a really nice guy, and I wish we had been able to hang out. But it helped tremendously, because I didn't shoot my stuff with him until the very end, until the last few days of shooting. And we had had no contact. We went out of our way, in fact, because we lived down the street from each other, and like I said, we were living in this strange sort of Twilight Zone-ish retirement village, and there was nobody to talk to. And so, whenever we'd go for lunch, they'd have to sort of escort us around each other. It was difficult, but I think it paid off. For me, I'm glad I didn't know who it was in that suit. It was a lot easier to sort of pretend that he was what he was supposed to be.
But you did kind of meet him?
Long: Yes, I got to say, he kind of screwed up a little bit. He was playing a cop, and he had one of the Teamsters come over to me and say, like, under the ruse of his wanting to meet me, because he was a fan or whatever, and that's when my suspicion piqued right away, because I didn't think I had any fans. So I knew something was up, and I met him, and I'd seen his head shot, and he was just playing that he was trying to pull one over on me, which was weird, because we had done this for more than four weeks. ... But I put it out of my head, and we never really talked about it.
What did you do for fun?
Long: We threw moths in spiders' webs. That was a blast. And what else did we do? We had sweating contests. We'd go jogging and see who would sweat more. I won most of the time. Gina's not much of a sweater. Good times.
Gina Philips, your character isn't the usual screaming bimbo in this movie.
Philips: It was one of my first attractions to it. ... I read it, and I said, "OK, typical male hero [but] she's a female. I love it." She's rational. She's the one who calms him down. Even when she's really upset, she keeps it in check so he doesn't lose it and is more worried about him. Yeah, I love it. I thought she was really ballsy and strong, and yet, you know, she's capable of emotion. But I love that her biggest fear wasn't fear for herself, but it was fear for him, of something bad happening to him.
Are you a horror fan?
Philips: I'm such a horror fan. My dad is a huge horror movie fanatic, and my mother and my brother are not. Therefore, from the age of 4 years old, I was stuck in front of the television with him, watching, like, every creepy movie possible. And I grew up on them. And I love them.
What's your favorite?
Philips: I have different favorites for different reasons. I have one that's one of my favorites, even though now when I watch it, it's not so scary. It just haunts me forever. And that's Amityville Horror. There's a moment in there that will forever haunt me, till this day, it creeps me out. [And] The Omen. It's one of the scariest movies ever.
Why were you attracted to doing a monster movie?
Philips: Well, first of all, I loved the story. I loved the characters. I love the dynamic between the brother and sister. ... And I've always wanted to do a really good horror movie, but I hadn't read anything that was, like, my type of horror movie. I read a lot [of scripts]. There's a lot of these teen horror movies, which I think are fun, and I love watching them, and I love going to Scream, and I love them and they're fun. But it wasn't that kind of horror movie that I grew up on. ... So I thought, "Ohmigod, it's old school. My dad would love this. He would be so proud."
And it turned into a little more of a monster movie along the way of filming, actually. In the beginning, it was supposed to be that [the Creeper] was a little more in shadow, you never quite knew what it was. And then the effects guys did such a great job with it, they were like, "You know what? We can't not go with this." So it turned into a little more of a sci-fi movie on the way. It didn't start out that way.
What was the monster meant to symbolize?
Philips: He's the bogeyman. He's dark. He's evil. He's the devil. It's some version of evil and the devil, just darkness in the world. ... I love at the end that Victor used a children's song, The Boogeyman. ... To use a children's song is the creepiest thing ever.
Did the movie scare you?
Philips: I didn't think I would be [scared], because when I'm looking at it, like, the first few scenes, I'm like, "Oh God, that was the day when it was 105 degrees, and that was the day I decided that I wasn't wearing makeup in the movie," because we attempted to in the beginning, and it was dripping. And I went and said, "OK, you know what? I'm being no-glam girl. No makeup for this whole movie because of that." But somehow, along the way, even though it was me [on the screen], I still, like, jumped. ... And maybe it's because I hadn't seen the way Victor put it together and the way he cut it. But I was still scared.
Justin said you guys spent a lot of time at Wal-Mart on the location?
Philips: We did spend a lot of time at Wal-Mart. There's not a lot open at night. Because we were on night shoots, so then on weekends, we had to stay on that schedule. So we're up at silly hours, and there's nothing open. And we're at Lady Lake, Florida, which more or less means there's nothing there. At night, life is either you go to Perkins or Appleby's. Or Denny's. So we would go to Wal-Mart and buy really stupid things all night long. ... We bought, like, "Ooh, let's try to get into tai chi." There's a tai chi video at 3 in the morning, we're buying it and coming home and trying it, because there's nothing else to do. We own a lot of weird things, a lot of weird exercise equipment, like the Ab-Roller. ... We got really batty.
By the end, we were playing practical jokes nonstop. We were torturing everyone on the set, just to keep ourselves amused. I'll tell you a few. I got down, by the end, to being just the most immature human in the world and actually was toilet-papering people's, like, trailers and cars. Our poor makeup and hair guys would come out and their cars were toilet-papered. We would do this thing, which was kind of mean, where I would have a water bottle, like an Evian bottle, and we poke a hole in it. And then we'd sit and talk to someone and being having a conversation while we're squeezing it, and so by the end—and no one would notice it—Justin and I are walking around and giggling, because everyone has these big wet spots on their crotches [laughs]. ... That's what you do after two and a half months of night shoots! You get a little crazy!
Justin said he tried to maintain a high level of fear between takes?
Philips: We worked a little differently, as every actor works in different ways. I do to a degree. I also like to leave it. It's important to me, that even when I'm playing a miserable role, I'm not, like, the most miserable human in the world. I did that for a while. I spent a few years playing tortured teens, and I would always stay there. And then I realized I was way too angst-ridden, and I was going end up, like, slitting my wrists one day. ... There's only, like, so much Lilith Fair music you can listen to, and then you realize you've got to put an end to it [laughs].
Certain scenes ... I would just say to Victor, "Before we go, when we're getting ready, tell me that we're a minute away." And then I would go in a corner by myself and refocus. Because I needed to lighten it in between, or I was just going to go nuts.
Your characters have a kind of sibling love/hate relationship?
Philips: I have a brother who's a year younger, and we have that same kind [of relationship]. ... Now we get along. We don't have much of the hate part. He also lives in a different state, which makes it much easier. And we're a little older. But when I was 16, like, we were just, yeah, it was that. I loved him. I cared about him. If anyone else said a bad word about him, I'd knock 'em out. But, you know, me and my brother, we're constantly bickering, and back and forth, and one-upping each other. So it was a really natural thing for me.
Did you improv a lot on the set to get that rapport?
Philips: The one thing was, I was cast before the guy was in the film, so I had to read with a few different men that they were interested in for the role. And when Justin walked into that room, it was the weirdest thing. It was like, instant brother-sister. That chemistry was instantly there. Which was strange, because it's not a romantic [thing]. ... You know, sometimes that sexual interest happens right away, where's there's that charge. And it was a totally different kind of thing, where right away, we fell into that. And then we did develop it more, and improv a lot, and actually, the end of the movie, with the creature, that whole scene, a lot of that was just improv.
You drive the car in a lot of the scenes.
Philips: If I ever see that car again ... I showed up to a photo shoot a few months ago. ... And they decided they were going to use a car, and that was the car! And they hadn't seen the movie, and they had no idea. And it was a light blue Chevy Impala. And I went, "No! No! Make it go away!" It was so mean. ... I didn't know how to drive a stick shift before this movie, I have to admit. And I went to, like, ... I went around in this student driver car, which was really mortifying. Not only that, I was the annoying girl that was stalling in the middle while people are beeping at you. But I learned. And then, for some reason now, nothing [else] feels like driving.
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