‘Hellraiser’: The Chatterer, The Gasp, and The Weeper – The New Cenobite Actors Speak [Interview]

Hulu’s Hellraiser, a reimagining of Clive Barker’s 1987 horror classic from director David Bruckner, is available now exclusively on Hulu.

In the new Hellraiser movie from Hulu, “A young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.”

The film summons forth a new batch of Cenobites, led by Jamie Clayton’s Hell Priest. Bloody Disgusting spoke with the actors behind The Chatterer (Jason Liles), The Gasp (Selina Lo), and The Weeper (Yinka Olorunnife) about getting into character and how the makeup and prosthetics informed their performances.

The hierarchy and lore behind the new batch of Cenobites isn’t something explicitly discussed in Hellraiser but rather hinted at through the performances and interactions between them. The trio’s answers to our questions provided fascinating insight into their roles.

For starters, Yinka Olorunnife’s answer to one of our questions might inspire you to pay closer attention to The Weeper upon a re-watch…

“David [Bruckner] and I didn’t have a conversation about what the backstory was for Weeper,” she explains. “However, the conversations we did have was about the weep; what does the weep sound like? He was giving me ideas. I had ideas in my head. So, we talked a lot about what we wanted the weep to sound like and the Weeper’s movement. Those were the main things that David and I went over. And then we obviously came up with something that I hope people like. But the backstory was for me so that I could understand why she weeps.

“That was a big thing, was why do I weep? What does the weep mean? Am I weeping for myself? Am I weeping for you? Am I being empathetic, or am I mocking you, or am I seducing you? What am I trying to do? And actually, I figured that there’s more than one weep and different weeps mean different things. You can see in the film that I do have two different types of weeps, and both of them mean something completely different.“

Selina Lo responds, “Similar to Yinka, a lot of the discussions with David focused on movement, which is very, very important for the Cenobites; the walk in particular. We practiced that meticulously. It sounds easier than it is, but to get the walk right, to capture the regality and intentions that the Cenobites are feeling, is actually quite a tricky process alone, let alone in our costumes, which is an entire thing in itself—also, the focus on her throat, the Gasp’s throat. We took influences from the original Cenobite, who was Pinhead’s right-hand woman. So, I had that influence, but a lot of focus on how she spoke, and just that every word is painful, but she enjoys the pain.”

“It’s that weird construct, and that was a really important element for the Gasp,” Lo elaborates, “It was great because David is so passionate about the Cenobites, and he pays such great detail. I remember specifically this one brilliant piece of direction that he gave me, which was on the line, ‘Save your breath for screaming,’ which is one of my favorite lines. We’d done it a few times, and then he said, ‘Deliver it not like a threat but like you’re saying a lullaby.’ I just thought this is the most genius direction.“

Jason Liles tells Bloody Disgusting, “For the Chatterer, when I first got the audition, all I had to go off was looking back at the old films. I watched the first two before the audition, the sides, and then the description of the character. When I first got that email, one of the things in the description for the character says, ‘While underneath he’s driven by basic impulses and desires to see his victims feel a similar fate to his own, he remains principled and only attacks when ordered by his superiors.’ So I knew from the beginning, okay, I will do whatever the Priest says, but there’s a desire for other people, victims, to feel the same fate I have. I saw it as we’re almost like the military, and there are ranks, but it’s also like a religion because I desire for other people to feel my fate as if I found a certain religion, like, ‘I’ve been saved. I want to save other people’s souls.’ This is the way of being saved, converting them to being a Cenobite. They don’t understand, but they’re going to see. 

“Then, when we talked with David, we talked about this, and we agreed on many points and figured out how he moves and walks and whatnot. Adding onto what I did in the audition, we worked on that more when I got to Serbia and was in person with David. David did a great job of really helping us all find these characters and directing us in the moments on set, which gives you a lot of peace and releases any stress because you know David’s going to help us find it on set. He knows what he is looking for, what to tell us, and that really helps a lot as an actor when you have a director like that.”

Discovering who each character is and how they move becomes complicated when you factor in the extensive makeup and prosthetic process. Each actor is covered head to toe to transform into a regal-like Cenobite.

Olorunnife’s transformation only further helped her performance. She explains, “We talked about movement and for me, if you look at my feet, I’ve got steel rods, and the feet are quite big, but I’m walking on steel rods. The way I had to walk and move was heavily influenced by that suit. There was no running; there was no clumsiness. I had to be elegant and regal, which was the idea, but I was forced to be elegant and regal because of the prosthetics.”

Lo details the constrictive nature of their makeup transformation, “The way that our body suits are constructed, they are limiting because it is thick silicone bands that essentially are resistance bands. But I think it helped, at least for me; you felt contained and bound. I think that works for the Cenobites because we do have that control, and we are in a constant state of pain. I mean, my throat’s torn open, every word is painful. There’s a metal rod going through over my head, holding the skin habit down, attached here. All of that, I feel, works for the character. The whole pain, pleasure thing is also very prominent in the originals. I feel our characters were informed quite a lot by the costumes.”

Liles credits the MUFX team for the incredible transformation.

“Josh and Sierra Russell and their entire team that put all of this together did an amazing job. We could talk about them all day, just that. I’m so thankful to them for making something that looks so beautiful because when you put this on, you’re literally putting on the character, and you feel more like the character. Then with the Chatterer, you can only see so much out of that. When you can’t hear, you have to control your breath when you’re inside of there, and then you can only see so much. It changes how you think and feel, and then it changes how the other actors look at you because they can see how terrifying you look, which changes how you feel. It just helps you go to that place of belief that much more.”

“They are uncomfortable,” Liles says of his skin suits. “They are uncomfortable. They make them as comfortable as possible, but there is a pain and discomfort to them that makes you feel like someone else or something else. The longer the day goes on, the more tired you are, but it helps between the moments of action and cut. Just reserve your energy, go full force, cut again, and wait. It’s indescribable.”

Liles also describes how Bruckner wanted to understand what the Cenobite experience was like for his actors. He tells BD, “David even wanted to have a Cenobite suit made for him so he could understand, but they said, ‘Oh yeah, it’s going to cost a couple hundred thousand dollars.’ We’re like, ‘Oh, never mind then. Dang.’ I heard in The Night House he got down in the river with the actors because he said, ‘I want to feel what you guys go through.’ But it is something that you can’t explain… ‘Oh, I understand what that’s going to be like’… and then when you get in it, you’re like, ‘Oh! This is what it’s like.’ It helps the character come out. Like they’re saying, it’s restricting. There’s only so much you can do in those, so it informs how you move.”

The post ‘Hellraiser’: The Chatterer, The Gasp, and The Weeper – The New Cenobite Actors Speak [Interview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.