It’s October, which means the time for haunting adventures has arrived. If you’re looking for a perfectly eerie movie that leaves you wondering what’s real, what’s the supernatural, and what is good old madness, then we have the perfect movie for you. Produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Max’s Caddo Lake is just the right amount of thrilling and atmospheric, with a very human heart to boot. Nerdist was joined by the film’s star, Eliza Scanlen, to discuss creating her character, Ellie, reuniting with M. Night Shyamalan, and just what makes Caddo Lake such a riveting watch.
You can read our full interview with Scanlen below.
Nerdist: The nature and presence of Caddo Lake itself in the movie is so exceptional. How did being immersed in that real setting help bring your character to life for you?
Eliza Scanlen: That setting was integral to the creation of the character. I found the character by just being on the lake and Celine [Held] and Logan [George] really made a point of getting us to interact with the community who lived on Caddo Lake. And Celine Logan introduced me to some of the younger community in the area. So yeah, sometimes, it’s the worst when film crews come into these locations and make a film without interacting with the community, and they definitely made that their priority. So yeah, just being on the lake and being part of the community.
What do you really want viewers to take away from the character of Ellie in Caddo Lake?
Scanlen: What do I want them to take away? I think that she suffered a lot of trauma in her life at such a young age and sees a bigger life for herself at university. As a character, I think she is trying to understand her mother and the life that she had before she was born. The film is about family and how do we repair broken ties in families. And yeah, Ellie takes a while to get there, but she does in the end and I think that’s something we can all take away from her.
Ellie and her father, Paris, are kind of dodging past one another in the timelines in Caddo Lake. How do you think Ellie would have felt if she’d actually run into her dad?
Scanlen: I don’t know. I guess it’s a difference between wanting something and then it actually happening. And maybe it would be too overwhelming for her. I think maybe she probably would’ve, if she had met him, she maybe would considered, why would I want him to be in my life now at this point?
Ellie’s relationship with her mother is really very fraught in the movie. Where do you think they end up with one another at the end of Caddo Lake? Do you think they forgive each other?
Scanlen: I think the end of the movie is really the beginning for them. I think it’s sort of the start of that healing journey and we see them begin to take those steps. But I mean, as you’ve seen, it’s in the film, it’s quite fraught and there’s a lot that they’ve done to each other that would be hard to forgive and hard to kind of just forget. So yeah, it’s a long journey after that, I imagine.
How do you think Ellie ultimately will grapple with the loss, but also gain, of her sister and will she ever be moved to wander through time again?
Scanlen: The end of this film is so crazy. I mean, it’s like a loss that she will never get over. I guess there is the risk if she goes back to try and spend time with her again, it might alter events. And I think what she gets out of this whole experience is that she discovers her origin story and that it was all kind of meant to happen, and she has to kind of, not move on from it, but grow around that experience.
M. Night Shyamalan was a producer on this movie. You’ve worked with him before, but how was it to reunite on Caddo Lake?
Scanlen: Yeah, we had a reunion, and it was cool because Logan [George] obviously has worked with him before, and Lowell [Meyer], the DOP, on the Servant. And yeah, I mean he was championing young filmmakers. It was also a film that he was working on in a producing capacity, not a directing capacity, so that was interesting. He came to set a bit, and so we got to catch up, and he was also really involved in post-production. But yeah, just having his wisdom and guidance on the film has been really valuable. It was pretty cool!
What was your personal favorite scene for Ellie in the movie overall?
Scanlen: Oh, there were so many good scenes in Caddo Lake. I mean, for me, I’d never really done a film that was so action-heavy before, so any of the scenes that involved running, I was like, this is awesome.
There was one scene where, I think it’s the moment where everything clicks for Ellie, where she realizes that she’s returned to a moment she’s been before with her mom and her stepdad. And then she realizes that she needs to return back to the boat. So she sprints outside and runs to the boat. And that boat was so fun; I loved running that boat.
It was a very cool facet of the movie; so much of Caddo Lake took place on boats, and the movement was on the water. I thought that was really interesting and kind of scary because you’re so isolated.
Scanlen: I think we did a really great job at making boat riding feel very dynamic, and it really propelled the plot forward in a cool way.
When Ellie said, “Nature made this place,” that was a really powerful line. What do you think she was saying there?
Scanlen: Yeah, that’s a deep statement. Nature diffuses through everything, I think she meant. And maybe it’s returning back to what I said earlier about things kind of falling into place, and everything is meant to happen for a reason, and everything is interconnected. Yeah, I think that’s my take.