Blumhouse strikes again with yet another bone-chilling horror feature. This particular genre is doing a pretty effective job of taking the things we cherished as children — looking at you, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey — and turning them into terrifying entities. What if that adorable little teddy bear you cuddled with every night suddenly started tasking you with dangerous and hostile acts? Or maybe it’s your imaginary friend who’s forcing your hand? These terrifying hypotheticals are explored in Imaginary, a new PG-13 offering that hits the masses this week. Don’t let the more mild MPAA rating fool you, however. This bad boy packs a punch, and it’s up to one heroic stepmom (DeWanda Wise) to swoop in and save her new family from seemingly evil spirits that have plagued their formerly peaceful home and existence at large.
We recently caught up with lead actress DeWanda Wise for an in-person interview in Los Angeles to learn more about what it’s like to lead a Blumhouse feature. Wise also shared about being “president of the Chris Pine fan club” after co-starring in his directorial debut, Poolman.
From ‘Indie Darling’ to Blumhouse
Wise’s career has taken her to a wide variety of projects with a diverse spread of filmmakers, from Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall) to Spike Lee (She’s Gotta Have It, the series). We can’t wait to see what’s next for the talented performer, and we were curious if she had ever imagined herself starring in a Blumhouse film. “I did not know. It’s a great question because before 2016, to all of my friends, much to their annoyance and chagrin, I had always been like, ‘I’m an indie darling, I’m an indie filmmaker. That is what I do. That is where the work that I do exists,'” she told MovieWeb. She added:
So I would never have imagined that I would have an opportunity to do the kind of work I do. It’s very soul-centered, and I know how to pull out the tears. To know that I would have an opportunity to still be the artist while in this realm, in genre and horror, it’s really exciting.
Wise, meanwhile, is no stranger to commercial projects, having also co-starred in Jurassic World Dominion. “Both, thankfully, were very practical,” she said when thinking about that experience compared to Imaginary. “People were always constantly surprised. I got a lot of, ‘What was it like to work with a tennis ball?’ And I’m like, ‘No, that Giganotosaurus was there, thank you very much! Those were real tears.’ So I have the same experience on this, and I’ve been very fortunate in that respect.” She elaborated:
“There’s something that always felt like being in a play, where you just have a full set and a whole lot of things to play with… Both of these roles, I was just surrounded by really supportive, fantastic, present, generous co-stars. The only differentiation is that I didn’t have to shoot this movie during a global pandemic. So that’s inherently joyful… I love seeing people’s faces.”
And it seems there were plenty of perks in tackling a project like Imaginary besides just “seeing people’s faces.” Said Wise:
We shot this in New Orleans with an extraordinary crew. And it was one of those things where I was like, ‘Can we get this band back together?’ I really would love to work with that crew on everything. If I could take them with me, I would.
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‘President of the Chris Pine Fan Club’
Outside of Imaginary, another notable project of Wise’s from the recent past is Chris Pine’s Poolman. Wise was quick to sing his praises. “I am president of the Chris Pine fan club, shoutout to Chris. He was extraordinarily specific,” explained Wise. “There are projects you work on like this that are very collaborative, you kind of like do your own thing and you kind of play around. The thing about Poolman is, we were playing in such a specific genre.” She explained:
‘It’s a genre I love. I’m obsessed with film noir. I always have been. I grew up on film noir. I trained as an actor in film noir, randomly, so I know the conceits in my body. I know how to find the light. I know everything about it. And being directed by him with that degree of both technical and emotional proficiency. I just relished it. I loved it so much.”
Poolman was Pine’s directorial debut, and it was quite entertaining hearing Wise describe his process during production. “He’s an actor, and he’s directing at the same time… so he’s doing that thing where he was kind of wheeling your performance,” she said. “It reminded me of self-taping with my husband… But I’m super proud of it. I can’t wait for you to see it. It’s a very quirky and fun movie. And he’s great.”
Wise continued, perhaps in reference to the negative reviews Poolman received after its premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, “I think that people don’t like to see Chris Pine be unattractive. But he’s always attractive to me.”
DeWanda Wise Would ‘Work with Blumhouse Again and Again’
Imaginary
- Release Date
- March 8, 2024
- Studio
- Blumhouse Productions, Lions Gate Films, Tower of Babble Entertainment
But going back to Imaginary, seeing Wise’s commitment to her role on the big screen reminds us of the power of cinema. It must have been grueling, shooting more action-packed scenes, so we were curious if Wise would do it all again. “Yes. I had a really fantastic time working with Blumhouse,” she said.
“Cooper Samuelson contributed to our story. James Wan, now that Blumhouse and Atomic Monster have joined, brought in the entity. Cooper brought in one of the major twists in our movie. And so there’s a level of stakes and excitement. I saw those images of Blum on the carpet in full M3GAN regalia, and that’s all we talked about. We didn’t even talk about this movie. I just wanted to know who his makeup artist was and how many hours it took. That level of play and commitment is so rare in Hollywood. And absolutely, I will work with Blumhouse again and again.”
Count us in. From Lionsgate, Imaginary hits theaters Friday, Mar. 8. Watch the trailer below.
