For Brandon Perea, working on a franchise he’s always been a fan of was a dream come true. In Insidious: Out of the Further, Perea stars as Nick, a police officer who believes in logic and fact, which puts him in direct opposition to the supernatural forces that have begun invading the world. And though part of taking this role was an appreciation for the franchise and horror nostalgia, another part was that Perea just found the script to be really good.
We talked to the Puerto Rican-Filipino actor about the movie, what scary tales shaped him, and working with Kid Cudi.
“I think the first thing was just reading the first like 10 pages and seeing just this relationship between a mother and a daughter and how that grew in the script. That’s what really hooked me. Where it was a haunting story at the beginning, it was just really scary and kind of messed up,” Perea shared.
“And that’s what you kind of want in horror, where you care about the characters, you want your heart to be invested, but also be really scared. And I think this hooked it in,” he also told us. “I just always have been such a fan of the franchise. So, the fact that they’re now entering in with a new family with the rules of the further expanding, I was just like, I have to be a part of this in any capacity. I would have played one of the demons.”
The original Insidious came out fifteen years ago. That means some kids grew up with this horror franchise. What franchise did Perea grow up with? “Jeepers Creepers was a good one. But for some reason, 13 Ghosts whooped my ass when I was a kid. The Jackal always freaked me out. And the lady in the bath as well, when I was just always afraid of bathtubs at that point. I wasn’t afraid of a shower, but I was afraid of running a bath.”
Ironically, Perea then asked the same question we’ve asked ourselves. “Why was I watching that stuff as a kid?” We don’t know. “Sorry, mom and dad,” he laughed. He also recalled his entry point with Insidious. “Once I got introduced to the franchise, I would just watch them all in one sitting,” sharing that reading the script and seeing the title card with the font was quite a thrill.
Talking about horror, Perea also recently worked with Kid Cudi on a short film called Spilled Milk. And we wanted to know what it was like working with the singer on this short film by Jared Leaf. “It was awesome,” he told us. “I was always a fan of Kid Cudi. Mr. Scott.” In fact, Perea had no idea Kid Cudi would be there until he saw him on the call sheet.
Perea added, “And I’m like, what? Oh, my God, he’s in this thing. I find out he’s scoring it and acting in it. And so, me as a fan, I was just like, this is gonna be great. And then I met him briefly. And I just kept it cool. Then we followed each other on Instagram, and he shot me a DM saying, like: I’m doing my directorial debut. Would love to have you a part of it in any capacity.”
Kid Cudi’s directorial debut is titled Doe and he’ll be starring in it alongside Perea. “Then he’s like, I got this idea. And then we started collaborating on this character. And he wrote some pages, and I fell in love with the pages. So, I have a really nice scene in his directorial debut. And yeah, the movie’s great. And I play a whole different type of character.”
We can’t wait to see him in that. For now, you can catch Brandon Perea in Insidious: Out of the Further.
Insidious: Out of the Further is now playing in theaters.
This interview was conducted by Trending Editor Lyra Hale.