Before filming the fifth and final season of MGM+’s From, actor Chloe Van Landschoot spoke with us about the upcoming body horror film Son of Sara: Volume 1. Written and directed by Houston Bone, the film follows Sara, a woman whose life spirals into a nightmare during her pregnancy.
Ahead of the film’s release, we spoke with Van Landschoot about playing a character losing control of her own body, working with co-star Tymika Tafari, the film’s wild final act, and why horror gives actors room to explore themes in ways other genres often do not.
Son of Sara: Volume 1 is available on Digital and On Demand on July 31 in the U.S. and Canada.
HGL: What about the role of Sara intrigued you?
Chloe Van Landschoot: She has a beast growing inside of her, and I feel like I have a beast inside me most days, metaphorically speaking, that has slowly been growing over the past 33 years of my life. So it was a lot of fun to play with just what that would be. I usually play very contained characters, so it was exciting to play someone so external.
HGL: Son of Sara: Volume 1 starts as a dark, slow burn, but in the last act, the blood and action are unleashed. As an actor, is it fun to play in that bloody sandbox?
Chloe Van Landschoot: Yeah, literally, it’s like kids at the splash pad (laughs). Wet, fun, and just throwing shit at each other. All the cast had great chemistry too; we were all buddies by the end. Honestly, it felt like summer camp some days and other days less so. But yeah, it was a ton of fun.
HGL: Speaking of chemistry, you have great on-screen chemistry with Tymika Tafari, who plays Carol. Did that come naturally?
Chloe Van Landschoot: I remember her from the callback, and I saw her, and she looked at me and said, “Can I give you a hug?” None of the other actors who had callbacks to play Carol had done that, and I was like, “Yes, give me a hug.” She was just so sweet and funny and gentle but also ferocious, and yeah, it was kind of an instant bond there. I was hoping Houston would pick her, and he did, thank god.
She was a total dream to work with. Love interests can be tricky sometimes, and it’s not your final decision who’s going to get cast; you’re not the director, but I felt so lucky. It was so easy.
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HGL: Your character, Sara, is pregnant and going through some difficult physical and mental issues. As an actor, was it hard to juggle being pregnant with those mental challenges?
Chloe Van Landschoot: I feel like being pregnant makes you mental in some ways, so they were feeding each other (laughs). I had asked for the belly early on so I could at least prep with it and know what that type of physicality was like. I’ve never been pregnant, so I wanted as much prep time to at least know how something like that sits. I’m such a physical type of actor, sensorial and body-focused, so that was important to me.
Her deterioration comes with realizing your body is turning on you and realizing you are gaslighting yourself, so a lot of it was mapping out where her deterioration happens, when she is avoiding it, when she is acknowledging it, and when the baby starts making these decisions for her.
At a certain point in the film, she’s no longer making these choices. It’s very much the baby making these choices for her, which in a way is an allegory for pregnancy in certain ways. Folks that I’ve talked to who are pregnant said the baby is dictating your day. There is this parasite inside of you that is solely reliant on you to function. You are at its whim.
HGL: You’ve now starred in Son of Sara: Volume 1 and in MGM+’s From. Is the horror genre one you enjoy?
Chloe Van Landschoot: Yeah, I love working in it. I think horror is this amazing place where you can explore and experience darkness, visceralness, grossness, wetness, and then relate it back to massive social and societal problems as well. It’s super creative, and there is a lot of permission there as well.
As someone who loves to explore character with body, there is a lot you can do with horror. If I could make a career out of making body horror for the rest of my life, I’d be happy.
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HGL: There is a scene near the end of the film in which Sara, Troy (Garrett Hnatiuk), and Agnes (Jane Moffat) are screaming at each other. Did you get to rehearse that scene, or was it a one-off?
Chloe Van Landschoot: That wasn’t even written in. I just started screaming, and they started screaming back at me, and then it became a scream-off. With Houston, he never yells cut, so we would just keep going. Everyone was trying to top each other; it became this game of dominance. He just kept rolling on it and then put it in the film.
It was just this symphony of screams; it was very chaotic. There was no practice. It just came out of sheer impulse. That’s how a lot of the movie got made, these discoveries in real time.
HGL: So what do you have coming up next?
Chloe Van Landschoot: Hopefully Son of Sara: Volume 2; I think there’s something cooking there. We’re just waiting for the official green light. In the meantime, I leave in a couple of days to start filming Season 5 of From. I’ll be doing that until about December, so if anyone wants to hire me for a body horror film after that, I’m around.
