INTERVIEW: Andrew Burnap on The Front Room, the Horror Genre, and New Snow White

This week, twin brothers Max and Sam Eggers are releasing their directorial debut, The Front Room, adapted from Susan Hill's short story from her collection 'The Travelling Bag and Other Ghostly Stories'.

The duo decided to add their own twist to the tale by rooting it in their experience of caring for their grandfather in his old age.

Speaking on the heaviness that comes with remembering such a painful moment and adapting it for the big screen, Sam says, "It would just be these bizarre situations, because he was our patriarch, and then all of a sudden, he was slipping into this little baby boy before our eyes. And it was just very surreal."

Brandy Norwood leads The Front Room as Belinda, a newly pregnant woman whose mother-in-law, played by Kathryn Hunter, moves in with them as her health declines.

Belinda's husband, Norman, is played by Andrew Burnap, who most recently appeared in the television series Under the Banner of Heaven and WeCrashed.

Burnap joined us to discuss his involvement in The Front Room, sharing what he found most challenging about the process, the joy of watching Brandy and Kathryn support one another, and also giving a little teaser about what's to come from his next project, Snow White, led by Rachel Zegler.

Billie Melissa: Thank you so much for taking some time out of your morning to chat with me. I haven't seen the film yet but I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to watch it. I love enclosed space dramas when we get to watch just a few people in one space, they're always so exciting. I heard your co-star Brandy say that the first time she read the script, she was scared to do it, and I wondered if you had the same reaction. What were your initial thoughts reading through the script for the first time?

Andrew Burnap: I read it knowing that I was going in for a meeting to play Norman. I thought it was a deeply interesting and very specific take on the horror of in-laws. I was really interested in all the ideas they were playing with, which on the page, I thought jumped out really well. Not only the enclosed tension of having to deal with forced family, but also the ideas of racism, generational difference in how one views what a life should look like, as well as the ideas about a marriage between a younger man and an older woman –– a younger white man and an older black woman –– and, most obviously, the idea of one person having deep religious convictions and two people who don't.

I can absolutely see why Brandy was scared. Not only is it a scary script, but she had the task of carrying this story on her back. I was very interested in the idea of what my job would be. I wanted to sit back and not distract from this main storyline of Brandy's character and Kathryn’s character. I was really interested in supporting this film in a background way rather than it being “Here's me. It's my turn. Here's my shot.” I thought this would be a very useful and interesting way to be part of such a unique film while also not making it at all about me or worrying about my performance because my job was to support.

BM: I can see that. What was it on the page while reading Norman that compelled you to take that role on?

AB: How much of a blank slate he was. When I first met with Max and Sam Eggers, they had said to me this character was based on the two of them together and their experience caring for a family member, which actually happened in their lives. There wasn't anything on the page that you could say was a great identifier of who Norman was, so I had the opportunity to bring my own stuff to it, which is always a dream. Of course, it’s great getting a character and from the first read knowing exactly who that is, but this was the opposite of that. It was like, “Wow, I could do so many different things with this.” Like a blank slate, and I can use whatever paintbrushes I like to support them.

BM: It must have been really exciting to see such an interesting story and thinking how you might weave Norman into it. Watching Brandy and Kathryn’s dynamic develop must’ve been so incredible. What was that like? Were there any days you were on set but not in the scene and just got to watch them?

AB: Oh yeah. I’ve been a huge fan of Kathryn’s for a long time.

BM: She's incredible.

AB: She is. There is no one like her in the world. When I was in grad school, she came to speak to us and I fell in love with the way she spoke about acting, and life, and her own experience in all the plays that she had done and the work that she was interested in pursuing. Then, when I got to actually work with her, all of that was so evident. It was different with Brandy because Brandy had –– in my recollection –– taken a bit of a pause from acting. She’d done some things here and there, but hadn't done a movie like this in a very long time. So, to see someone like Kathryn who was so well, well practiced in the craft and was sort of doing the work that I had always been enamored by, and then to see Brandy who was returning to this work was so great because they took such great care of each other.

Brandy is such a natural as it is and to see Kathryn actively taking huge risks and making huge choices with Brandy doing such a great job of listening and reacting and taking the next thing from what Kathryn was offering her. It was like a playground for the two of them. Then, when I got thrust into it, it just became this ball of fun, even though we were filming so many scenes at 3:30 to 5:30 in the morning. We were all dead tired but enjoying it immensely.

BM: I had wondered that because you can tell in the trailer how much nighttime there is and sometimes you trick it, but sometimes that is actually all going on in the middle of the night. That must have added so much to what you were doing.

AB: That was probably the hardest part about it. Having to adjust our sleep schedule while being in the middle of New Jersey at 4:00 in the morning in this weird house that was later demolished.

BM: Oh, no! No one can go there now to see where you all filmed now. That's so sad.

AB: I know! It's sad but it's also fitting for the movie. It was very difficult to do those dinner scenes which were so in-depth and very dark and disturbing and weird while also thinking, “My God, when are we gonna sleep?” That was very difficult, but you sort of forget all that and remember that it is so cool that we get to be doing this.

BM: I bet. Returning to how you had met Kathryn previously in grad school, what was it like for you to be building that mother/son relationship with her?

AB: So much of it is based in trauma, at least for Norman. We did a bit of rehearsal beforehand and back story building; thinking about what was it like when I was young, what was my relationship like with my father. Kathryn has such an incredible imagination that all options were on the table. We didn't make a whole lot of decisions, we just gave ourselves many options and so whatever came through in the scenes, that was fruitful, just appeared. But, we had a lot of fun playing with how difficult it was for Norman to be in the same room with her against how much joy Kathryn’s character got from being in the room with Norman. It was a great dichotomy to build tension in all the scenes.

BM: That sounds like a really fun dynamic for us to watch.

AB: Yes. I think many people can relate.

BM: What did you learn from Max and Sam throughout this process?

AB: They had this really clear vision for a tone they wanted to achieve, and they were absolutely fearless in trying to achieve that. The idea of taking risks in a very limited amount of time is a great lesson learned from them. Early on I shared my favorite quote with them, which was, “We have oh, so much to do in very little time. So we must go very, very slowly.” I think they very much work from that place and also gave us the freedom to do whatever we wanted within the parameters of what they were trying to achieve. They love actors. They really love giving you something, then saying “Whatever that means to you, take it and run with it.” They gave us a great sense of freedom.

BM: That's great. I can’t wait to see how that manifests on screen. There seems to be so many exciting horror projects releasing at the moment. How do you feel about the genre at the moment? Were you looking to do a horror film when you first heard about The Front Room?

AB: Not really. I wouldn't say I'm a huge horror movie person. I scare very easily, and I have trouble with jump scare films because I feel like I don’t want to have a heart attack. I’m into the more thriller –– or psychological thriller –– side of horror. Those films have always fascinated me because so often they're character-driven, and I love character-driven films.

My little brother is a huge horror movie guy, so he'll often update me on all the films he loves. I hope we're headed in the direction of having these unique films and storytellers and directors who want to make movies outside of the studio system –– or for however much money they can put together –– that are speaking to a very specific mode of existence. If anything, these horror films and psychological thrillers have ushered in a wave of independent films and filmmakers that have something very unique to say about our ever-darkening world. I hope that points to a future where there's more and more of them, with more people taking risks because I think that is the only way that we keep it fresh and alive and new and not only doing sequels, prequels, and franchises.

I think, as important as those systems are, it's so important that we uplift these filmmakers who have something entirely unique and new to say because that breaks new ground. With a film like Midsommar, which just broke the mold and allowed all of these films to happen, knowing that the people making them can be entrusted and they will do well and they are a necessary movement forward in terms of the film business.

BM: I saw a story this morning that there is a horror film made for $800 that was uploaded onto YouTube and now has loads of people watching it. That just shows how much is being done, but people just don't have the money and backing to kind get those stories off the ground in a traditional sense.

AB: Exactly. I saw just recently a movie –– I had actually seen the play years ago here in Rhode Island –– called Festen. I think the English translation is ‘The Celebration’. It was all shot on a handheld camcorder. It is one of the most interesting movies I've ever seen, and after I saw it, I was like, “Wow, I hope we can make more like this now.” This was made, I think, in the late nineties and the reason it was so fantastic is because it was story-forward, character-forward, and they didn’t need the smoke effect to be able to effectively implicate the audience in it. It asks a lot of the audience, but, I think, in a good way.

BM: It’s an exciting landscape right now. There are so many people finding new ways to tell stories, and as an audience member, it is really great to be able to go to the cinema and see more than one singular option. I look forward to getting a chance to watch The Front Room. You've also got another film coming up with two women at the helm. I'm so curious to know more about Snow White after seeing the teaser. I know you probably can say next to nothing, but I would love to know anything you took away from that experience.

AB: It was a radically different experience, but just as joyful, just as lovely. Yes, I can't tell you much, but what I can tell you is I had the time of my life doing it and any fan of the original Snow White will not be disappointed in the least by this one.

The Front Room is out in theaters on September 6, 2024.