'The Monkey': Osgood Perkins says Canadian Tatiana Maslany is the best actor he's had in a movie

Yahoo

21-02-2025

What The Monkey (now in theatres) proves is that Osgood Perkins was the perfect person to craft an adaptation of Stephen King's short story, as someone who's not just well-versed in the horror genre, but is able to lean into the intricacies of King's writing, particularly his humour. Starring Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Colin O'Brien and Christian Convery, this film is absolutely outrageous, leaning into the fun to entertain from beginning to end.
"From the day that I was given the material, it sort of came with a script that existed that was very serious and I was like, 'This feels totally wrong,'" Perkins told Yahoo Canada. "It's about a toy monkey, look at its face, you can't do a straight movie about that."
"I always loved the sort of wry comedy of something like 'Misery' or obviously 'Creepshow' that felt very kind of fun. And the thing about Stephen King is that he popularized horror as entertainment. ... Not horror to make you feel bad, but horror to titillate you, to keep you turning pages, to keep you buying the next book, ... to keep you delighted. And so the delight that comes for me with Stephen King was essential to have running through the picture."
The Monkey introduces us to teen twins Hal and Bill (Christian Convery), being raised by their mother Lois (Tatiana Maslany) after their father left them, or "made like an eggs and scrambled," as Lois says in the film. Interested in discovering more about their father, who worked as a pilot, the boys find a toy monkey that belonged to him.
As the boys find out, when you wind up the toy and the monkey's drum sticks start banging down, there's a deadly result, which leads to the boys trying to destroy and get rid of the toy forever.
Fast forward 25 years, now these boys are adults (both played by Theo James), but estranged. Hal has his own son, Petey (Colin O'Brien), who he only sees once a year. When the father-son duo set off on their scheduled time together, Hal and Petey are faced with the threat of the monkey.
In addition to the fun and the gore, the elements of the story about parenthood were particularly important for Perkins.
"I'm a father of three. It's something that really matters to me. It's something that I've dedicated a lot of my life and energy and focus and heart towards, and also felt like it was something that resonates through King's work all the time," Perkins said. "And in wanting to honour the guy, the man, the master, ... it felt important to kind of be in the vibe more than more than to hold the page open with one hand and type with the other."
"It became more about being inspired by him and kind of reflecting back to him as the impact he's had. ... 'Pet Sematary' is in such a horrible, horrible, horrible book, in the best way, ... because it's about this sort of awful thing about being a parent and how you deal in the most ghastly way. So I wanted to foreground that. It felt like it was the most respectful I could be of him, was to kind of pick up on what seems important to him."
While the movie is filled with great performances, Maslany stands out, both for the audience and with Perkins himself.
"At the risk of other actors that I know and have worked with, she's the best actor that I've had the privilege of having in a movie," Perkins said. "We had slipped this weird movie Keeper, that comes out in October, ... in between Longlegs and The Monkey, ... and realized, oh man, this is a person who can do anything."
"She's like a radio dial. ... You can either tune it way to the other side or way to this side, or just a little bit to get it clear, or fuzzy. And she's kind of limitless in what she's able to do. And such a good energy and so focused, but also ridiculous. She's a star player, that's for sure."
And when it comes to the twins in the story, particular as adults, it's an example of the interesting way The Monkey shifts horror movie tropes to service this story, and also to give the movie its comedic edge.
"A lot of what I'm doing in these movies is kind of referring to the horror genre ... from a distance," Perkins said. "We did it in Longlegs, ... it's kind of like a pop serial killer movie, and then in this one was kind of like, how can we populate this world with things that feel like horror things."
"And one of them is twins, ... but then kind of like regular Joe guy twins is not always seen. And it felt like fresh territory."
But one change from King's work that was quickly notice by fans was the fact the the monkey has a drum, not cymbals like the book. While Perkins has stated that it had to do with Disney owning the rights to cymbals, it's a change he ultimately liked for his film.
"In the world of being a creative person, or an artist, ... limitations are such a benefit," Perkins said. "When you're told it can't be this thing, it really sort of reprograms your mind in the best way. It opens up so many different windows and doors and ways of seeing things."
"And from the get go, when I was told it can't be the cymbals, we sort of had a moment like, ... everyone's going to expect it to be the cymbals. But then you realize, oh the drum is percussive, it's rhythmic. ... It's a drum roll, it's all of these things that are going to be so much better for pace and for energy and for sound. ... Thanks Disney, you can keep your cymbals."