Adapted from the Ubisoft video game of the same name, Werewolves Within delivers a horror-comedy inside a compelling whodunnit format. Directed by Scare Me's Josh Ruben and written by Mishna Wolff, the film follows a group of small-town residents who are snowed in at a local bar. As the title implies, the group begins to suspect that a werewolf is hidden among them. The revelation prompts paranoia, accusations and total chaos as the local forest ranger Finn (Sam Richardson) tries to keep the peace and get to the bottom of things.
In an interview with CBR, Harvey Guillén, who plays suspect Joachim Wolfson in the film, discussed his role in Werewolves Within. Best known as What We Do in the Shadows' Guillermo, the actor is no stranger to horror comedies. Guillén revealed his secret for balancing the two genres, the importance of keeping queer characters "grounded" and whether he prefers vampires or werewolves -- now that he's tackled both monsters.
CBR: What attracted you to Werewolves Within?
Harvey Guillén: Actually, it was a conversation I had with Josh [Ruben]. We have a mutual friend Francesca, who put us together. She said, "My friend would really love to shoot this film and wants you to be one of the characters. You guys should meet and talk about it." We talked on the phone and he sold me on it. He's so passionate about what he does, so it was an easy sell.
Can you tell us about your character Joachim?
Joachim just recently moved into the small town with his partner, played by Cheyenne Jackson, and they're kind of city kids. They have money. They decided to retire early and move into the small community and have a peaceful life and open a yoga studio. But unfortunately, there's a new pipeline going through the town and the city is kind of divided between who wants to sell and who doesn't. So, comedy follows.
As you mentioned, your character is in a relationship with Devin, who is played by Cheyenne Jackson. Do you want to talk a little bit about what that was like working with him?
It was fantastic! It was so great to finally get to meet him and work with them. He's so kind and such a professional. It was so wonderful to develop these characters. Sometimes you meet another actor and you vibe really well and it's perfect, or you might meet someone who's just not a good fit, but you'll make it work. With [Cheyenne], it was just so easy because we're both musical theater kids. I'm such a fan of his work as well. So we were just talking about old Broadway shows and whatnot. So that really kind of gave us this instant rapport that translated over to screen, which is wonderful.
Being a comedy, parts of this movie are over the top and exaggerated. Despite this, Joachim never really comes off as a queer person caricature that we often see in these types of films. Do you want to talk a little bit about how you approached that aspect of your character to make it more grounded?
That was actually my question to our director when I first talked to him about it. I was like, "I don't want to play this character if it's going to be a caricature. It's not what I want to portray as a queer actor." For so long, the queer characters in storylines are just the punching bag or the martyr or it doesn't end well for them. So I wanted to play different things that I enjoy from different people that I know who are queer and incorporate all those things into Joachim, which was one of the things I loved. Like he is sweet, but he also has a sharp tongue. He's really flamboyant. He has all these elements of things that I love in people and put them into this character who happens to be queer and really be honest with them and make that character grounded.
You're obviously no stranger to horror comedies, especially because of What We Do in the Shadows. What is your approach for successfully balancing these two genres?
Keeping everything grounded, like the idea that the best humor comes from real scenarios. So even though I live in a house full of vampires, Guillermo is the only human, so he's the only straight man and we side with him because we are human and we have empathy for each other. So when you cheer for Guillermo, you're really cheering for yourself. We've all been Guillermo at one point. Guillermo is every one of us. We've all been in a job that we were overlooked for a promotion. We may be slowly falling in love with someone from afar that could also be your boss but not really. We've all questioned our value because you're letting other people place value on you and not realizing that you're not coming into your own strength because you're allowing other people's perception of what you are to make those waters very murky in your psyche.
So, there are all these different human elements to these characters that I obviously love to play because we can relate to them. It's just like empathy, ambitions, humor but keeping it all grounded. If we keep it all grounded, the humor just naturally comes out of it.
Do you have a favorite moment in Werewolves Within that you're excited for the audience to see?
Yeah, there's a couple. Well, there's a couple of scenes that we did that, unfortunately, didn't make it for time purposes and just the way the editing was done. So I'm excited to see if we can release some of the bloopers that we have out there. I know Josh has them out there. So, there's a scene with Michaela [Watkins] I did that I just couldn't stop laughing. We ended up using a version of it, but it's a really quick short version. There was a version that was way longer, but we probably did like four takes and, in three out of the four, either Michaela laughed or I laughed, so we couldn’t edit.
But it was so fun. I can't pick one thing. And all the behind-the-scenes stuff like just hanging out with Sam [Richardson] and [Milana Vayntrub] and Sarah [Burns] and George [Basil]. George cracks me up so much, just every line that he had in the movie was so funny to me. I just can't pick one.
Now that you've tackled both vampires and werewolves, can you weigh in on your favorite monster and why?
Oh man, that's a real Sophie's Choice. Oh my gosh, this is too hard. I'll pick Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada [laughs].
Werewolves Within is directed by Josh Ruben and stars Sam Richardson, Milana Vayntrub, George Basil, Sarah Burns, Michael Chernus, Catherine Curtain, Wayne Duvall, Harvey Guillén, Rebecca Henderson, Cheyenne Jackson, Michaela Watkins and Glenn Fleshler. It arrives in theaters June 25 and on demand July 2.