Genre cinema fans are surely familiar with the name Mercedes Bryce Morgan, whose one-two punch of Fixation and Spoonful of Sugar took the festival circuit by storm in 2022. This year, her third feature, Bone Lake, brought her back to Fantastic Fest for its world premiere. A steamy erotic thriller following two couples who find themselves in a game of cat-and-mouse, the film stars Marco Pigossi (Gen V), Andra Nechita (Marvel’s Inhumans), Maddie Hasson, and Alex Roe.
We at FandomWire got to speak with Morgan, Pigossi, and Nechita about the film, the resurgence of the erotic thriller genre, and the challenges of such an intimate, small-scale shoot. Check out the full interview below!
Bone Lake Interview
FandomWire: In recent years, there has been a resurgence in the erotic thriller genre. Why do you think this genre has renewed interest?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: It’s really interesting because when I first started making movies a decade ago, people were saying, “You need to take sex out of your pitch decks. We can’t have it.” And all of a sudden, I was being told put it back in. So I think we go through different waves in the zeitgeist, and I think for some reason right now — I don’t know if it’s COVID, I don’t know what it is — people want that again. We love erotic thrillers, but we wanted to make one that’s for 2024.
Marco Pigossi: That’s so true. Everything goes in waves. Rom-coms are back. Now, I’m getting all these rom-coms, and I’m like, “Wait, what? I thought they were over!”
Andra Nechita: Yeah, I really second what both of you said. And they’re sexy. They’re fun.
FandomWire: There has been some discourse about sex scenes in films being unnecessary, but I think Bone Lake makes a good case that movies can be sexy but not gratuitous. What do you think is the key to achieving this balance?
Morgan: I’d say multiple things. First of all, I think it’s for the story. We’re showing things, because it’s what these couples are going through in relationships, and it’s for the plot. And I think the other thing, too, is I always approach movies with we’re gonna show the same amount of female and male nudity. We approach that with everybody and have lots of conversations about it, so we feel like an equal playing ground.
Pigossi: Yeah, in this case, sex is part of the story. It’s not like you’re just putting it there. The sex and the seduction, without it, there would be no story. So it’s a total part of it.
Nechita: I think you really need that temptation to see this whole notion that the grass is greener on the other side, or is it greener where you water it?
FandomWire: Mr. Pigossi, this year alone, you’ve shown a ton of range. You had High Tide, and now you have Bone Lake. What attracts you to taking on such a diverse range of projects?
Pigossi: Every time I read a script and I think, “I don’t know how to do this,” that’s when I want to do it. There are moments where I was like, “I don’t know how to do this… I need to do this film!” So that’s what I’m looking for. When I read a script, and I’ve seen that character, or I’ve played it before, that doesn’t move me. I need these butterflies in my stomach and to think, “Oh my god!”
And great partners. Working with Mercedes is a whole new universe. It’s my first genre film in that sense. And it’s just trusting your partners and going with the truth — that’s what an actor looks for.
FandomWire: And Ms. Nechita, your character could have potentially been very exaggerated, but I think you treat her with a lot of humanity. How did you approach your character?
Nechita: Similar to what Marco said and what Mercedes said — a lot of trust. I was fortunate enough to work with Mercedes on the ins and outs with Pete and Mickey and Jacob and everyone at LD. It really was a collaborative process to hone in on that vision. And then getting to play off of Marco and Maddie and Alex — they brought so much to the table. So I think that really helped.
And yeah, it was important for me to find Cin’s humanity and really find truth in who she is and how she perceives herself in the world, and how she acts and thinks. So I really focused on that, and I think that’s what helped keep her a little more grounded.
FandomWire: I think Bone Lake is a great example of how “genre film” can be more than just horror. Why do you believe Bone Lake fits into this label?
Morgan: Definitely. I think we’re in the meta-modern era, where we love so many different genres, but we’re doing it in a genuine way. So we love erotic thrillers, and it does get to horror, but in a character sense, and also it is comedic. We kind of wanted to just take all the things we love to do them together.
Pigossi: What was it that they said? Psychosexual thriller. Nothing can describe this better than psychosexual.
Nechita: Yeah, because people can be scary.
Pigossi: They can be!
Morgan: They are!
FandomWire: And Ms. Morgan, this is your return to Fantastic Fest after Spoonful of Sugar. Why did you think this was a great launching pad for Bone Lake?
Morgan: I feel like I find people like me at Fantastic Fest, where people love the same type of movies. People want to watch things that are weird and out there and fun, so that’s why I think it’s perfect for this audience.
FandomWire: Bone Lake uses violence very sparingly until the final act. What went into this decision?
Morgan: For me, when I’m watching a movie and if we just see someone die or maimed up front, it can be a lot of fun, but I don’t really care about that person. So, we wanted to create characters we care about. So it is a slow burn, and when you get into it at the end, we want people to go, “Oh my god, this is what we waited for, and it’s here!”
Pigossi: So true. When, when shit starts happening, we’re already attached to the characters. That’s what makes you like, “Oh no!” because if you’re starting with someone now, you’re like, “Oh, okay, I didn’t know them.”
FandomWire: I think one of the most challenging things about this film is the fact that the characters aren’t conventionally “likable.” How did you approach this challenge?
Morgan: I think that makes me like characters more because I think that’s real people. Seeing why people do things because no one thinks they’re a bad person. They’re just doing things because they have a reason that makes sense to them. So I think that’s how we approached everybody in this movie.
Pigossi: That’s our job, right, as an actor? To go behind these characters and try to understand, why is he behaving like that? What’s his backstory? What brings you here? What is he feeling, and why does he react like that? So you can somehow bring truth to it. And in such a crazy universe and crazy things happening in this film, when you have real truth in these characters, that makes you even more drawn to it.
Nechita: I love that you both said that. I think the truth comes out if, as actors, we don’t judge the characters. We just try to understand them and try to find reasons why they feel and think and do the things they do. And I think that really helps make them more likable because nobody’s perfect.
Pigossi: They wouldn’t be likable.
FandomWire: You mentioned how, for all intents and purposes, this film was just the four of you. What were the challenges of having such a small cast?
Pigossi: This is my favorite kind of film. It’s like four actors, one location. It’s a parallel universe. Your life is suspended. Nothing’s going on besides being with this team — your director and your three partners in this location, and just living that, breathing that, waking up for that, going to bed for that.
I love this. It creates this union between all of us that it’s amazing when it happens. It’s always a reaction. I think to act is more to react than anything else. What Andra was bringing me during the scenes that I was reacting to as Diego and Alex and Maddie was such an amazing partner as well, bringing so much to the table, and Mercedes’s crazy mind going after trying to capture it all.
Nechita: And I think we all just got along very well. It was such a tight-knit community — cast, crew, everyone involved. And I think that as actors, as directors, as artists, it makes it feel like a safe space to really trust each other and just give it our all and have fun. And Mercedes created an environment where we really got to play and explore so many choices. And I think that just allowed us to, you know, really react off of each other.
And like Marco said, Alex and Maddie brought so much. Marco brought so much to the table. So it really was just, “Alright, let’s play. What are we bringing to the table today? How can we have fun?” And it was fun. And I think that that was something that came out every single day.
Morgan: Well, I mean, first of all, we were shooting six-day weeks, so of course, there are union turnaround rules, but almost everyone’s in every scene. So we would do some crazy things with the end of days. They would tell me, “Mercedes, you’re out of time with your actors.” So I’d be like, “Okay, great! Stunt doubles for the wides. I can’t shoot without actors, but I’m going to keep shooting or doing our inserts there.” So it was a jigsaw mentally to fit it all together, but we spent time on those things that really mattered, and we got it done.
Pigossi: I think that’s the beauty of it. Yes, we were there full day, as much as we could. But I don’t know, I think waiting is the worst part of the job. And we didn’t have to do that much because we were in a scene all the time, you know. It was fun. I’d rather be there every day than to have one scene here and then two days later have another scene. You know, you get cold.
FandomWire: Mr. Pigossi, obviously, you’ve worked on franchises before versus working on an independent production like this. What’s the difference between that setup for you as an actor?
Pigossi: I think timing. As Mercedes said, we did this in a very short period of time, and that’s it. That’s when we had to do it. So there’s a lot of creativity that comes out of it. It’s like, “How do we solve that? How do we get it done this way?” And I think this is also when you get amazing things.
When you’re talking about a big franchise where you have all the time in the world, and you’re gonna do that, no matter how long it takes, no matter how much it’s gonna cost, it brings a different feeling to the thing. You’re more relaxed. You’re not that on edge all the time, trying to be creative and find solutions. I think that’s the main difference.
The essence of the work is the same, but the surroundings aren’t. You have a massive crew. You cannot touch this because someone else has to. Which, I love it. I love being in union with the whole team. I love being in union with the whole team. Sometimes, I feel like I do these big franchises, and you just don’t get to meet anyone. And in this case, we were together with the whole crew all the time. So this is also beautiful.
FandomWire: In many ways, Bone Lake is a very intimate, small-scale film, but it feels very cinematic. How did you achieve that feeling of being cinematic?
Pigossi: It’s called Mercedes Bryce Morgan!
Morgan: Planning so damn hard. I came into this month beforehand with a very thought-out shot list of, “Okay, we’re gonna get this crane shot. And how do you do that?” In a short run time, you plan so that we’re not wasting time thinking about what we’re gonna do. So that’s probably why most of the things I do are like, “We’re over here, we’re over here,” because even though we didn’t want to make a movie that felt like that, we wanted it to feel bigger. And I think it was just everyone working together for that.
Pigossi: But at the same time, she was totally open to things that would come up at the moment. Sometimes we get to set, and she has this amazing shot planned, and I was like, “Oh, Mercedes, I really thought that this moment he could just–“
Morgan: Yeah, it had to feel right.
FandomWire: How much of these scenes that are the back-and-forth dialogue was written on the page exactly as is, and how much of it did you guys kind of play around with?
Morgan: I’d say a lot of it was written on the page, but what we would play around with is we would do takes that were wildly different. So, for example, there’s this scene on the porch where Andra and Maddie are having this conversation about things that are going pretty wild, and we’d go, “Okay, you’re drunk in this take. You’re in on the joke with her. You’re separate from her.” And these guys were able to completely use the same dialog and bring a different feeling. Or, for example, with Marco’s character, “Okay, you’re petrified,” or “Okay, you’re into this.” That give and take.
Nehita: I think Mercedes made it a safe space that if something felt funny, there was a line of dialog that was tripping us up here. “Okay, let’s rework it. Let’s rework it in the character’s voice. How can we do that?” And I think that helped find flow in certain moments.
Bone Lake played at the 2024 edition of Fantastic Fest, which ran September 19-26.
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