VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Crispin Glover On ‘We Have Always Lived In The Castle,’ Sebastian Stan, Taissa Farmiga

Crispin Glover stars in a new thriller film called We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which is based on Shirley Jackson’s 1962 mystery novel of the same name.

Glover told uInterview exclusively about his role in the film, which is about two sisters who live in a manor and must deal with being shunned by society due to their family’s history, as well as with the unexpected arrival of their cousin. Glover plays the sisters’ uncle Julian Blackwood, who lives in the house with them.

“I play Uncle Julian, I’m in a wheelchair and we don’t exactly know why,” Glover said of his character. “But it does become apparent that there’s been deaths in the family, specifically my brother and his wife and my wife.”

The 55-year-old actor added he didn’t want to spoil anything more specific and revealed he was fascinated by Jackson’s ability to craft a compelling mystery tale.

“It lets you ruminate about things that aren’t necessarily apparent,” he added.

Taissa Farmiga and Alexandra Daddario play Glover’s nieces, Mary Katherine and Constance Blackwood, respectively. Sebastian Stan portrays Charles, the sisters’ cousin who makes an unannounced visit to the titular “castle.”

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Glover said he enjoyed working with all his cast-mates and that he already knew Stan, with whom he had collaborated on 2010’s Hot Tub Time Machine. 

Glover also confessed he hesitated at first to read the original novel because of his concerns over all the different possible interpretations of the story.

“This screenplay had been changed from when I originally read [it],” he said. “It wasn’t a huge change, but it was a change.”

After discussing the confusing elements of the novel with the film’s director, Stacie Passon, Glover ultimately was able to pinpoint the subtle differences between the book and the original script and that this proved extremely “helpful” in his portrayal of Julian.

Glover currently stars in the Starz series American Gods. 

Full interview transcript:

Q: Who do you Play?

A: “I play Uncle Julian, in a wheelchair. We don’t exactly know why. But it does become apparent
that there’s been deaths in the family, specifically my brother and his wife, and my wife. I don’t want to say too much because it does operate as a mystery as to how this occurred. That’s part of what Shirley Jackson did very beautifully in the novel was let these things…it lets you ruminate about things that aren’t necessarily apparent even when finishing the novel. And I feel like the movie has also retained enough of the mystery to keep intrigued.

Q: Who do you remember most from working with the cast?

A: “I enjoyed working with everybody in the film. I had worked with Sebastian Stan before in Hot Tub Time Machine. We didn’t have in-depth scenes like we did in this film on that, so I knew him from before. And everybody was very dedicated, good, and solid working actors.”

Q: What was your favorite scene?

A: “I’ve only seen the film once, but I actually liked a moment that I did not necessarily recollect. It was something Stacey Poisson directed me to do. It’s just, I’m not even saying anything, I’m just looking, you can tell, it feels like my mind is kind of going off in different directions. I thought it was a good moment, but that wasn’t something that was in the script, written, it was something that Stacey kind of directed me to do, and I thought she did a job with that direction. And for some reason that just happened in my head right now, but there’s a number of scenes that were also very well written that were from the original novel. I like the language of it. It’s interesting material.”

Q: How heavily did you rely on the book?

A: “In the first draft I read it was apparent that it was source material, good source material. I hesitated to read it at first because I’ve had it happen where I get overly concerned about the interpretation of the material, how it’s interpreted. So I was hesitant to read it for that reason, but then the screenplay had been changed from when I had originally read the screenplay and it went into a direction. It wasn’t a huge change, but it was a change. And I had been working on American Gods between when I’d read it, so it was a little bit confusing. And so I discussed it with Stacey and Stacey said you should read the source material, so then I did, which was helpful for multiple reasons. On top of which it’s a beautiful novel, but it did help to hone in on what I had seen in the original script that I had read that was in the original novel and it had started to go away form that. So it helped, and I am pleased that we got it. It went even more than the original screenplay toward what the original source was, which I think was helpful for
my character in particular.”