SPOILERS are ahead for Imaginary, now playing in theaters.
In Blumhouse’s latest movie, Imaginary, explores a world in which children’s imaginary friends could actually be from some place much darker than their minds. Arguably, the most standout scene of the horror movie has to be when Pyper Braun’s Alice is seen by a doctor, who records a chilling conversation she has with her “imaginary friend” Chauncey the Bear. When CinemaBlend spoke to director Jeff Wadlow, he shared with us how the young actress actually inspired the scene.
During my interview with the Imaginary director, Jeff Wadlow first shared something rather incredible about the casting process for the 10-year-old actor. In his words:
That was her audition scene. And, she just crushed it. I mean after one take I turned to my casting director and I said, ‘Get her in makeup,’ which is something directors say when an actor just kills it.
Wadlow also said he saw “hundreds” of actresses for the role of Alice during the casting process before finding Pyper Braun. Imaginary is Braun’s first time doing a horror movie!
While Imaginary has been slammed by critics for not being scary enough (including through our Imaginary review), it’s hard to deny the talent and cleverness of the scene where Alice is having a full on conversation with Chauncey, but is doing both sides of the conversation. As Wadlow shared, she did it in her audition scene and it impressed the director off the bat. As he continued:
We did the table read on Zoom, and she actually jumped between both Alice and Chauncey while we were doing it. I mean, it was just mind blowing. She's so facile. The decision to have Alice do the voice of Chauncey really came late in the game. Chauncey kind of had his own voice for most of the drafts of the script. But just when we started talking about like, well, what does that voice sound like, I had this idea that I wanted the audience for at least part of the movie, to maybe think the whole thing was in Alice's head, even just for like a scene or two, I wanted them to really question the reality that we were presenting, and so it just made sense that it would be her voice. And it was just so much fun to have her do it. And, I coached her a little bit with how I wanted the cadence of Chauncey. To sound like, So it's kind of a hybrid performance between the two of us. I'm sure she'd be very upset if she heard me taking credit for her work, but I just had a very specific cadence I was going for and she just nailed it.
It was absolutely the right choice! Especially considering kids might usually create their own voices for an imaginary friend to begin with! I know I was certainly getting major chills while watching the scene and I will be watching the young 10-year-old actor’s career from now on following that impressive horror sequence!
We also talked about that incredible joke that helps break the tension, too! I know the whole theater appreciated the doctor asking Jessica if Alice had taken up ventriloquism after the scary scene. Wadlow shared he found it to be important to have a “release” after the intensity of the sequence.
When CinemaBlend spoke to the Imaginary filmmakers, Jeff Wadlow also told us about the origins of Chauncey, including how the movie was a lot more like Child’s Play. We also talked about the fact that there are two 2024 movies about imaginary friends, with the second being John Krasinski’s IF – which is a family fantasy film starring Ryan Reynolds. Wadlow and producer Jason Blum shared a somewhat awkward encounter with the production, but are ultimately excited for their to be two movies on the subject.
You can keep a lookout for more upcoming horror movies here on CinemaBlend, including Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculate, hitting theaters on March 20.
