We had been promised that this week’s episode of “Chucky” would bring Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky character Nica Pierce back into the mix, the character of course played by Brad Dourif‘s real-life daughter Fiona Dourif in the previous two feature films. But what we didn’t realize is that Fiona would be pulling double duty in the episode, in a surprising way.
This article, naturally, includes “Little Little Lies” spoilers.
This week’s episode of Don Mancini‘s series was a big one, not only because it followed up the Cult of Chucky storyline with the return of Jennifer Tilly‘s Tiffany Valentine and Fiona Dourif’s Nica Pierce (who is now possessed by the evil spirit of Charles Lee Ray), but also because it gave us a front row seat, for the very first time, to Charles and Tiffany’s first meeting.
In a series of flashbacks to the 1980s, we see Charles Lee Ray pick up two women at a bar, ultimately stabbing one of them to death with a little help from the other. The “other” woman, in this particular case, being a young Tiffany Valentine. Both characters were brought to the screen with new actors, but who was it that played a young Charles Lee Ray?
Fiona Dourif as Charles Lee Ray in “Chucky”
Yup, it was none other than Fiona Dourif herself, not only playing a character possessed by Charles Lee Ray but also full-on playing her father’s Child’s Play character for the flashbacks!
As the behind the scenes featurette you’ll find below details, Fiona Dourif transformed into a young Brad Dourif with a little help from practical makeup effects. The brilliant bit of casting, unfortunately, was undercut by the strange decision to have present day Brad Dourif provide the voice of the character, as the dubbing stuck out like a sore thumb.
Either way, it was a really special moment. Here’s how it came to be.
“People have been asking for many years about the origins of Charles Lee Ray and the origins of Chucky and Tiffany’s relationship,” Mancini explains. “When I was thinking about who would be the perfect person to play young Charles Lee Ray, the answer was right in front of my face. It also seemed really on-brand for our franchise, having Fiona Dourif, a woman, playing a cis male role. She already looks so much like her father, especially from [the nose] up.
“So we just needed to slightly augment her nose and chin, and give her slightly busier, less feminine eyebrows.”
Fiona Dourif as Charles Lee Ray in “Chucky”
Fiona Dourif adds, “This whole experience has been wild, and fun, and also the whole mind-fuck of playing this iconic character my father is associated with. I looked into the mirror and I was deeply unnerved, actually. It’s like an Instagram face mash app, except you can’t get it off. I face-timed my dad, as my dad… it was really weird. That’s all I got. It’s weird.”
You can watch the “Little Little Lies” featurette below to learn more.
New episodes of “Chucky” air Tuesday nights on USA and SYFY.
Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray in ‘Child’s Play’