An iconic horror mainstay since the 80s, the Good Guy doll first introduced in Child’s Play had been reimagined for the next generation of fans. The new SYFY series Chucky, which premiered October 12 on SYFY and USA, serves as a sequel to the original franchise and tracks the havoc one toy wreaks on a small suburban town.
Stars Zackary Arthur and Teo Briones spoke to Screen Rant about their characters and what they hope to add to the legend of Chucky.
Screen Rant: Can you tell me a little bit about your characters?
Zackary Arthur: I play Jake on the show. Jake is misunderstood just because he's more creative. He's also a loner and his father does not accept him because he's different and he is coming into his sexuality. Everybody bullies him because of that. I mean, that's all to Jake.
Teo Briones: Junior is actually not too different from Jake, because they both have pretty rough home lives, though Junior's side of the family is much more well off. Junior has pressure from his dad to be a good runner and he has the pressure of being the popular kid at school. And his girlfriend, Lexy [Alyvia Alyn Lind], the other most popular kid at school is pretty awful to him and also everyone around her. He definitely is a bit troubled and he takes it out on Jake and bullies him for being different.
When you guys first read the script, can you talk to me about some of the themes that immediately jumped out at you?
Teo Briones: Right off the bat, I just loved how funny the show was. I remember when I was sent the first script, I was reading it with my mom and we were just laughing the whole way through. It was so funny. Especially as the show progressed, as it gets really creepy.
The characters are so different from most other horror movies, especially with Chucky, it's very different than it was before. Because with Chucky before in just the movie format, most of the time was spent killing, right? But now we have eight hours to not only have a lot of fun with death and gore, but also we had to develop our characters and relationships between our characters and the stories. Those things initially were what drew me to the show, and I was very excited that I was able to be a part of it.
Don Mancini has been there since the beginning and we've seen this franchise evolve over time with the audience. So can you just talk a little bit about the collaboration process with Don?
Zackary Arthur: Don is such a great director and he was always very open to our ideas and that really helped us as actors to develop our characters and basically understand and be able to portray them better.
Speaking of your characters, what did you want to bring to the roles of Junior and Jake that wasn't necessarily on the page?
Zackary Arthur: Well, what wasn't necessarily on the page was the incredible tension that the two characters have. As you know, Teo said, we're not really that different in terms of our situations. But we do not confide in each other because of that. We, I guess, hate each other for that in the show, of course.
Teo Briones: I don't think there was much missing from the page because it was so beautifully written. But something that I felt I could bring out a little bit more was his less-mean side and show that deep down, Junior knows that everything he's doing, everything that Lexy's doing, all this bullying is, is wrong.
He doesn't really want to, but it's because of the circumstances he feels like he has to. So what I wanted to accent more was the good side of Junior and the human side, so people - though he in the first few episodes especially doesn't come up as the greatest person - they'll still feel for the character. I hope I did a good job, especially in the later episodes.
What does the series add to Chucky's legacy? And what's going to excite long-time Child's Play and Chucky fans to get invested in the series?
Zackary Arthur: We actually get to see the origin story of Chucky. His first kills, how he became the murderer that he is. As a long-time fan of Chucky, I think they'll be really very excited that everybody's coming back. Christine Elise and Andy Barclay, everybody's coming back.
You guys were saying that Chucky was actually done practically. Can you talk to me about how Don wanted to implement the practical effects to really give it the Chucky vibe and aesthetic if you will?
Teo Briones: He was very adamant about using as little CGI as possible. He wanted everything to feel real because oftentimes, when it's CGI, it can look good and it can be executed well but you know it's CGI and it just doesn't feel the same. Especially, he also was very adamant about being all practical for his actors. This is something I love about Don, he was very caring and understanding for his actors, and he knows how hard it is to act with something that isn't there.
The fact that it was all practical really helped everyone be in the scene and feel like they were acting with Chucky, not with an object that isn't actually there. I know for sure when I was doing scenes with him, I wasn't thinking, "Oh, this is a doll that's being controlled by a bunch of puppeteers". I felt like it was a killer doll that I was doing a scene with. And it was an amazing experience and I'm definitely very, very happy that they decided to go with practical.
Can you talk to me about the theme of bullying that we see displayed in the series?
Zackary Arthur: One thing I like to mention is that this series really shows the problems that happen every day. As far as bullying and people not accepting people who are coming into their sexuality, and I hope people empathize with that.
I don't think that this show does really well is that we get to see why the bullies are bullets. And of course with Chucky, there's really no explanation. He's just a bad guy. Especially with the character Junior and the character Lexy, you get to see why the characters are the way they are. And of course, you get to see the wonderful backstory of Chucky and how he became a murderer.
New episodes of Chucky premiere Tuesdays at 10 PM on USA & SYFY.