The Spiderwick Chronicles released on Roku this past Friday and as part of the show’s press junket, I got to sit down and talk with two of the show’s stars. Beloved character actor Christian Slater, known for classic 80s and 90s movies like Heathers and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and recent TV hits like Mr. Robot and Inside Job, who plays the show’s villain Mulgarath; and the lovely and talented Joy Bryant, known for films like Honey and Get Rich or Die Tryin’, who plays Helen Grace.
Also Read: The Spiderwick Chronicles (2024) Review – A Fantastical Pleasant Surprise
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“We had just as much fun, in a kid-like kind of way, as the kids did.” – Joy Bryant
The first thing I asked them, given that The Spiderwick Chronicles is a show and a story about, for, and largely starring kids, is how they, as the show’s most prominent adult cast members, handled being the grown-ups in the room in both a literal and metaphorical sense. What pleasantly surprised me about both their answers is that the two largely shared the same fun that the kids were having.
Joy Bryant, for whom The Spiderwick Chronicles is her first major genre piece, was very excited to step into the “scary, cool, and grounded world” that the show presented and often found that “just showing up and having a great time” was the best example she could give to her young co-stars.
Christian Slater, who is by contrast no stranger to genre fiction, though this is his one of his biggest fantasy roles to date, shared a similar sentiment; speaking on how he got into acting as a career because he “didn’t want to grow up.” Additionally, he spoke very highly of collaborating with fellow actors, specifically Bryant and Lyon Daniels, who plays main character Jared Grace, and how they would work together and bounce ideas off each other to figure out the best way to do certain scenes.
“This character gave me a great opportunity to be as nuts and outrageous and unpredictable as I could possibly be.” – Christian Slater
My next question was aimed at Slater specifically. Especially given how he had just mentioned becoming an actor to have fun and play, I wanted to know what it was like for him playing Mulgarath and getting to cut loose as a fantasy big bad. And he had nothing but high praise for the experience, repeatedly and continuously emphasizing just how much fun he had playing the character.
He greatly enjoyed the lack of “restraints” on his performance compared to playing a hero and the ability to be “a little bit wily and a little bit out of control” when portraying Mulgarath. He stated that he’s “always been attracted to these kinds of roles,” which shouldn’t come as a surprise given his experience playing the antagonist JD in Heathers or voicing abusive father and boss Rand Ridley in Inside Job.
Additionally, he had high praise for the show’s VFX team, saying that having the “legitimately scary” image of the “guy walking around, 8 feet tall, branches coming out of his head,” helped inspire his performance and get him into character. Sadly, due to the quick-paced nature of the junket setting, our conversation had to end soon after that. But the two were an absolute delight to speak with and we all shared a laugh as Slater and I attempted to pile onto each other’s plugs for the show as we signed off.
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