Actress Madeleine Arthur Tackles H.P. Lovecraft’s COLOR OUT OF SPACE

Actress Madeleine Arthur (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, “The Family”) is in undiscovered country in her new movie, Color Out of Space, based on the classic H.P. Lovecraft science fiction/horror story. She shares the screen with an impressive cast that includes Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Brendan Meyer, Julian Hilliard, Elliot Knight, with Q’orianka Kilcher and Tommy Chong. Richard Stanley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scarlett Amaris, directs. The premise is deceptively simple: After a meteorite lands in the front yard of their farm, Nathan Gardner (Cage) and his family find themselves battling a mutant extraterrestrial organism as it infects their minds and bodies, transforming their quiet rural life into a technicolor nightmare.

H.P. Lovecraft lived most of his life in Providence, Rhode Island, and his story, “The Colour Out of Space,” like most of his stories have is set in New England. Stanley’s new adaptation, while set in Lovecraft’s fictitious Arkham, Massachusetts, was shot in a variety of locations in, of all places, Portugal.

Madeleine Arthur spoke exclusively with Film Inquiry about the experience.

Jim Dixon for Film Inquiry: So this is a little like “How I spent my summer vacation—I went to Portugal to shoot a horror movie set in Massachusetts…”

Set in Massachusetts, Shot in Portugal

Madeleine Arthur: Yes—We left a year ago, right around now, off to Portugal for six weeks to film Color Out of Space. I mean, it was the best midwinter break if you want to call it that.

That doesn’t sound like it could have been too bad. But you guys have pulled something off that I’ve almost never seen before. I’m a lifelong Lovecraft fan. And I really think this is one of the few times anyone has done a movie that comes close to getting him right, other than Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna and Dennis Paoli on Re-Animator and From Beyond.

Madeleine Arthur: Well, that’s really just a testament to Richard [Stanley] and his vision. He is also a lifelong Lovecraft fan. I feel like no one knows more about Lovecraft than Richard does. And so his collaboration with our DOP [director of photography Steve Annis] and the special effects team to bring the scenery to life, and really make that landscape a character, as the color starts to wreak havoc, is really, really off him.

Hopefully it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that your movie deals with a farm family whose existence is threatened when a mysterious meteor crashes on their family. I should point out that in all the decades I’ve been watching science fiction and horror movies, certain rules have become apparent to me, like coffins are chained shut for a reason. And you should never poke a meteor with a stick. But the sheriff in your movie, when confronted with a meteor, goes poking at it first thing. I knew nothing good could come from that.

Madeleine Arthur: [laughs] I guess they’ll have to see the movie to see what comes from it!

Visually it’s certainly one of the most interesting-looking movies of the year. And since in the original story, Lovecraft talks about a color no one can describe—that must have been a huge creative challenge for them to work out.

Madeleine Arthur: I think it was, and that’s where they kind of fell on it in my understanding of science, with ultraviolet and rays, to create a magenta color that’s at the edge of the spectrum.

Stuart Gordon also used an eerie magenta lighting for key sequences in From Beyond, which is also based on a Lovecraft story. While we’re talking about the shade of the color out of space, were the streaks in your hair a coincidence or was that design?

Madeleine Arthur: Oh, that’s a really good question. Lavinia has a tattoo on her foot, and she’s experimenting with different colors in her hair—I don’t think it was a complete accident that this vibrant purple was chosen as the color that she has in her hair versus a green or blue.

You’re playing a character that goes through some really significant changes during the movie. How did you approach that?

Madeleine Arthur: I approached it as the same way as with any script—doing research on the character. Nick passed on a book on witchcraft to me, and Richard was a wealth of information regarding the story, and gave us these beautiful note pages that really outlines our character journey. And then once you dive into it, you work off your other actors—who are all such forces—and go along for the ride.

Working With Heavyweights

I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you what it’s like to work with Nicolas Cage and Joely Richardson.

Madeleine Arthur: Joely Richardson is such a humble and kind and extremely talented actress. I looked up to her not only for her acting, but also who she is as a person. She’s a wonderful mentor and, and this role that she played was not easy. It was not something that everyone could pull off the way she did. So that’s her talent speaking for itself. And then Nick is such a legend. He’s an icon. I’m a huge fan of Raising Arizona, Adaptation, Moonstruck, National Treasure and to be able to work with him and, and play off of him, and learn from him—he just makes the most specific and unique choices, and it’s open to improv, and it just keeps you on your toes as an actor—it was honestly such a blast to work with him.

That’s good to hear. I recently interviewed Shawn Ku, who directed Nicholas Cage on A Score to Settle, and he just kept speaking about the enthusiasm Cage has every day when he comes to the set.

Madeleine Arthur: Yeah, he’s so enthusiastic every day when he arrives on set,. He’s a massive cinephile. and he’s so passionate about the material and has so many ideas about the scenes and that’s so wonderful to see from a veteran actor.

I also had the pleasure of interviewing your co-star Brendan Meyer a couple years ago. He had done a movie called All These Small Moments in Brooklyn with Molly Ringwald which I loved him in. And I really enjoyed your scenes together an Color Out of Space. You’re both playing characters a little younger than you really are.

Madeleine Arthur: We are, yes. And I’m so happy you enjoyed the scene between the two of us. We’ve actually been friends for years. So really, really fun to be able to to work with him finally.

He struck me as a very intelligent young man when I when I talked to him and obviously he is a very serious actor.

Madeleine Arthur: Oh, yes he is, definitely.

First Foray into Horror

Color Out of Space is pretty much your first real foray into horror, isn’t it?

Madeleine Arthur: It is. I had a small role in another horror film, one of the first things I did, but this would be my first real entry into the horror genre, I guess. And what I love about this one is that it definitely is in the horror genre, but it also crosses into sci fi and starts off as this slightly eccentric family drama.

It’s got all that going for it, and the characters are fascinating. Fleshing Lovecraft out into a dramatic narrative is always a challenge, because he tends to write a lot about mood. And there are in fact, Color Out of Space is unusual in that things actually happen in the story. He has some stories where virtually nothing actually happens until a climactic revelation. I’ve had people that have made horror movies tell me it was actually a laugh riot on the set. Was it like that on Color Out of Space? Or was the mood on the set as intense as the subject matter?

Madeleine Arthur: I think that it was definitely a mixture of both—the opening scene at the dinner table there was absolutely a more jovial kind of mood on the set, and at the beginning the day everyone was always smiling. And then as you kind of get into the scenes more towards the end of the film, where the stakes are higher—they were a little more emotionally traumatizing. I think there was still an overall kind of exuberance, and an absolute, of course passion for it, but we might not have been joking around as much on those days.

Shocking Special Effects

And you do as you do have some shocking special effects that look practical. I suppose I should start by asking where are they practical or is CGI getting so good that I’m no longer recognizing it?

Madeleine Arthur: It was a mixture of both. So there were some practical effects and some special effects added in after to really create the world of the color.

You guys do have a couple of pretty good gross-outs in there.

Madeleine Arthur: [laughs] A couple.

What’s up next for you?

Madeleine Arthur: What’s up next for me? I have a romantic comedy coming up February, All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, P.S. I Still Love You. And we have the third movie of that coming up at an unknown date, and “Snowpiercer” for TNT, and have a project that will be an art piece called Enclosure at the end of this year.

That’s great. I wish you the best of luck with those—you’re certainly keeping your plate fall. I think you’re going to do well with this.

Color Out of Space is in theaters in the United States now.