Many people have a deep connection to Barney, the purple friendly dinosaur, whose kids' show accompanied a whole generation of kids as they grew up. Now, imagine Barney & Friends as a casual horror movie. Instead of a purple dinosaur, the star of the show was a homicidal orange unicorn named Buddy, who isn't afraid to murder insubordinate, kidnapped kids; that's Buddy.
Now playing in theaters, Buddy features The Penguin's Cristin Milioti as Grace, a mother who begins to realize that something is off about her reality and that she might have forgotten about her third child. Milioti has starred in one other horror movie in her career, 2014's The Occupants, a terrifying film in which her character tries to survive vengeful ghosts.
Buddy also stars Topher Grace (Grace's husband), Patton Oswald (a talking, friendly backpack), Keegan-Michael Key (Buddy), and more. The Direct sat down with Cristin Milioti, who opened up about her big return to the horror genre and how unique the experience was to be thrown into a horror version of Barney & Friends.
Cristin Milioti Returns to the Horror Genre To Fight a Killer Unicorn
"The Experience Couldn't Be More Distinct..."
- The Direct: "It's also your first horror movie in 12 years. What was it like returning to the genre with that added 12 years of experience, and how distinct was the experience, you working across from a killer Barney?"
Cristin Milioti: I mean, certainly the experience couldn't be more distinct, which is one of the reasons I was so excited to sign on. I was already a very big fan of Casper [Kelly's] for 'Too Many Cooks,' and I was so intrigued about what it would be like to work with practical effects and a practical puppet and kids in like a weird demented demonic universe like that as well. And then you also sort of get the like kitchen sink drama of the real world.
Though the actor noted that during the process, she wasn't thinking "too specifically about it being horror or not:"
Milioti: I don't think I thought too specifically about it being horror or not. I just sort of like I don't know—I just kind of like jump in, yeah, and let them take care of that later. I mean, I make sure I'm like giving them what they want, but like I knew it was horror, but I didn't go to work every day being like this is horror. If that makes sense.
- The Direct: "I don't know how much how connected you were ever to Barney, but was it unsettling to kind of be put into that kind of environment?"
Milioti: It was definitely unsettling, but I kind of liked that. I thought that was fun. Like you know, it was such a strange. It's so the opposite of what it feels like to stand on that set because everything you see was there, [it] was real, and there were puppeteers inside the couch and inside the walls, and the lights would change when he would be evil, and all of a sudden there'd be fog. Like that was all real, and so it was so like knowing that was coming when you were on this like cheerful set. It was just it was really cool.
- The Direct: "There's a scene where you're running around with your arm stuck in a television screen. And even at one point, it's just kind of the bottom half of you running around. Can you talk about filming that scene, but like embracing the physical humor while maintaining the terror of the moment?"
Milioti: That scene was a blast to film. We filmed that at like three in the morning and had like three takes, so I just kind of like went for it. We knew somewhat of a basic pattern based on where the camera was in the room [and where] you had to hit. But other than that, it was like, go nuts, do whatever.
Milioti joked that at the end of the day, she "just blacked out and did it:"
Milioti: And so I'm carrying a TV with a green screen and just kind of going for it. I had a fabulous stunt double who does the big fall in it, and yeah, we just kind of like cartwheeled in. You try as much as you can when you're like being shot out of a cannon in that way, when you know that the clock is ticking and you have to get this extremely important piece. You kind of, I don't know—like I knew there needed to be like some comedic moments to it, and that was also in the script. I kind of just blacked out and did it.
