While some out there want to put the long nightmare of COVID behind them, and with good reason, a film like We Are Gathered Here Today reminds us that we shouldn’t forget what some families went through. Tackling “death by distance,” the film follows a family via Google Meet video conference calls and the challenges they faced as a loved one was in the hospital, fighting COVID essentially alone.
We talked to Rae Dawn Chong about her role in the film, how it affected her both personally and professionally, and what life holds for her in the future.
Horror Geek Life: We Are Gathered Here Today is a powerful film with a great story. How did you get involved with this film?
Rae Dawn Chong: Ok, so full disclosure, I’m good friends with the producer Eric Barrett, he’s one of my dearests, and we’ve known each other for a long time. I’ve also known Danny Huston for a long time. I was one of the last people cast; they needed someone to fill this small role, so my name came up.
Horror Geek Life: The film is shot through conference calls, adding more stress to an already stressful situation. Can you talk about the unique filming process?
Rae Dawn Chong: First of all, it was really early in the pandemic, and we all were itching to do something creatively, so it came at a perfect time. I was really impressed with how everybody was able to show up technically. It has that thing where you can do a gallery, that was interesting. Every time you talked, your window lights up, so that was kind of fun.
There are some good things that came out of the pandemic, and one of them is it made those of us who are afraid of technology to be less afraid because we have to. Our rehearsals were a little bit magical because they were also improv, and it was an opportunity to kind of voice how we felt, to share the trauma. It was really just a beautiful experience.
I feel like, as a species, we’re traumatized, to the point where we’re suffering from a lot of PTSD, so using this conference call tool allowed you to express how you really feel without feeling completely exposed. I think that’s the magic of this technology and also the part that isn’t great, as far as human contact.
We did the scripted rehearsals and rehearsals where he just let us riff, and it was fun. It was fun watching people struggle with the technical stuff and then having patience with it because it’s usually the older actor.
Horror Geek Life: The film’s theme of “death by distance” is something we tend to forget about, especially as we struggle to find a new normal as we live with COVID. What did you think about that theme in the film?
Rae Dawn Chong: It’s interesting because I actually produced and crowdfunded a show called Celebrant, which was a pilot that didn’t sell, it wasn’t good enough, but it was about helping people die. I’m obsessed with that, in the sense that I find it interesting, I find it really important, and we should all talk about it a lot.
I don’t know, maybe because I’m older, but I think once you hit the age of 35, you realize that, yes, you’re going to die. We are all going to die, and the fact that we treat it so weirdly, like it’s something we need to fight or overcome, makes me so sad. To be able to talk about it was one of the delightful things about the film for me, to show us grieving, to show how we struggle with it.
I think dying, that moment is very similar to when a baby is born. I wasn’t there when my son was born; I was under anesthesia. But I think that same kind of energy is in the air, and to me, that’s one of the biggest tragedies of this film in that we don’t get to be there when the transition happens.
Horror Geek Life: Was it roles like this that made you want to get into acting and excited you about your craft?
Rae Dawn Chong: Well, I am intrinsically lazy, and when I was a child, I wanted to be a singer, or so I thought. Singing at my grade six graduation opened up the world of acting, so I kept working at it. Even though I’m lazy, I’m competitive, and it was so difficult to get parts. It was the seventies. It was very racist and segregated, so it became this thing for me.
As each of the decades has gone on, I’ve changed. I was the ‘it’ thing for a minute in the eighties, but it took a lot of work and energy, so I never developed other skills. I didn’t finish school, and I didn’t get a degree in other things, so I realized my gift was communication and one of the ways I communicate is I have no qualms on camera showing exactly what is going on. I also love make-believe and always loved the attention, but I was never one of those that always wanted to be an actor. However, as I got better at it, started studying, and learning techniques, it became more of a thing, so I kind of went ass-backward into it.
Horror Geek Life: You’ve bounced back and forth between film and television over your career. Do you have a favorite medium to work in, or is it just about where the good script takes you?
Rae Dawn Chong: I try to go where the best script or part takes me, and in a lot of cases, when I was raising my son, it was about who paid me the most. I had a kid to support, put through Brown, so it became more basic. Then I had to stop, and I didn’t need to worry about money as much. I decided I needed to up my game, so it became more about only working with people I loved, directors I admired, and scripts that I thought were good. That has been kind of the pattern since.
You begin to change how you look at things. I mean, I wanted fame. I didn’t want Quest for Fire, but I got it, and in truth, I never got the role in Quest for Fire. The producer just kept sending me to work on it, so officially, I never got the role. I was never hired for Quest for Fire, did the role and won the Genie. It’s one of those crazy stories, but now, I’m a geezer, so I’ve been playing a lot of moms lately.
I’m in the new Interview with the Vampire and play Louis’s mother. I can’t say I love it, but I don’t dislike it. I’m actually enjoying the here and now. As we get older, we get funnier because we don’t give a hoot, and I don’t really edit myself. I’m pretty unfiltered.
Horror Geek Life: Women are getting bigger and better roles in front of and behind the camera. Do you think we’re on the right path in the industry, or do we still have a long way to go?
Rae Dawn Chong: Well, here’s the thing. One of my best friends is a top director, and she happens to be female. She gets grumpy about being called a female director because she’s just a fantastic director, and she’s Canadian. At first, I was offended that she wasn’t taking up the mantle of feminism, she’s a feminist, but she also feels she should be given the heat of being a good director.
In terms of things getting better, I think you have arrived when they stop isolating aspects of you. I mean, I know I’ve really made it when they stop asking me about Arnold Schwarzenegger or Tommy Chong, or for the female director, when they stop calling her the female director, she’s just a fucking great director.
Is it better? It’s getting close. When all the keepers of the gate are white men whose sexuality is still in frat boy land, we’re going to get the same type of material because they can’t go outside of their comfort zone. I mean, if all I am is my vagina, that’s a sad day. When the keepers of the gate start hiring us not because we are this, that, or the other thing but because we are good, then we’ve arrived. It’s gotten better by maybe an inch and a half, and I think we have another three feet to go.
Horror Geek Life: Do you have any other projects on the horizon?
Rae Dawn Chong: I am developing a TV show, wish me luck, and that’s a big deal. That’s the one thing at the moment my brain is focused on. I believe October 2nd is the release of Interview with the Vampire. I haven’t seen any of it, but it sounds pretty juicy, and I play the mom of Louis. I can’t tell you anything except I’m not a vampire.
I have a film called Mistress, which is a really cool piece, and I have another film coming out where I have a small part, an Edgar Allan Poe thing called Midnight Dreary. I play a nurse, and then I have this, so it’s quite a bit. I played Betty Currie in American Crime Story last year, and I really liked that. I wrote the entire season of my TV show, and after that, I needed to take a break.
I took two months off, jumped in my RV, drove across America, parked it at my friend’s beach property in Martha’s Vineyard, read books, swam, and played tennis. It was so wonderful.
