You’ve got this superhero lair. Did you get to hang out in it a lot?
Oh yeah. Oh, I would go and hang out in it even if we weren’t shooting in that set. I would just go bring my Nintendo Switch in there and we’d hook it up to the TV and we’d play Mario Kart for hours.
Who do you play as in Mario Kart?
Mario!
As you should!
I’m a Mario purist. I don’t like straying from the formula. It’s his name on the game. That’s the guy driving the cart.
I like this theory. And I love the pediatrician’s office scene. People know this from the trailer, but he really addresses his PTSD, and I’d love to hear what you think about that. Did you do research on that topic?
Well, I have done some research on PTSD and things of that nature just because I’ve gone through a tremendous mental health journey of my own. But I would say, though, in that scene, it’s far less about the PTSD, although there is some of that, given him losing his family and all that stuff. I think a lot of it’s about imposter syndrome in there. He feels like a failure compared to all these other people and all the things that they’re doing. What is he doing? He’s just a joke.
I think I didn’t have to do a lot of research for that because I think we all struggle with that on some level. We all have these moments, sometimes a few, sometimes a lot, where we’re questioning who we are and what value we bring to the world. And is this all a lie? Are people going to think I am an imposter? Oh, man. As an actor, you get that stuff all the time.
Hey, you get it as a writer, too. I totally get it. I want to go back to the lair because Jack and Asher said they got a sleepover in there.
They did?
Apparently, they got one right at the beginning.
Jelly! I did not get that!
I’m just curious, are there any little things that you put in the lair? Any little Easter eggs we should be looking for?
No. I mean, I’m trying to think if there’s any … No. Did they put things in the lair?
They came up with some things that I don’t think are true. They said [director] David [F. Sandberg]’s umbilical cord was in there, so I feel like…
No, that’s probably not … no, there might have been some scenes when you might have seen my Nintendo Switch randomly hooked up, but we already had another one that was the prop Switch that was in there as well. So I don’t know. But no, listen, our art department crushed that set. It was so cool. It was so cool to come back to it and see because it’s the same Rock of Eternity Hall that we were in the first time. Then for them to come in and really make it cozy and homey, and we had all been living in it for years and doing our little things and having our clubhouse, the way they decorated all the sins, I mean, it was so good. I was so impressed by it.