One of the first horror/thriller films in 2021 is Bright Hill Road, which dropped a couple of weeks ago and featured Michael Eklund. The movie's story revolves around characters staying at a boarding house, which winds up being a sort of purgatory and facing the actual demons within themselves to help decide which side of the afterlife fence they land on.
Eklund also recently starred alongside Michael Jai White, who chatted with Comic Book Movie's own Josh Wilding, in Netflix's new Welcome to Sudden Death. The character actor is most likely recognizable to fans of the site due to his roles in several comic-book related television properties.
The actor not only appears in DC Universe shows like Arrow, Smallville, Gotham, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow, but also Van Helsing, Wynona Earp, Altered Carbon, and The Twilight Zone. Because he normally plays villainous characters, we asked him if he thought he was typecast when we chatted with him about his many roles.
Eklund goes into why he chooses to see every character he portrays as the hero of their own story and what he thinks about Owen, his character in Bright Hill Road. Hear all of that and more in our exclusive chat with him below!
"I wouldn't say I'm typecast because while a lot of people remember my 'bad guy work,' I like playing all characters. I never consider the roles I play, good guys or bad guys. When I play the character, they're a good guy to me because, in their mind, they're not doing anything wrong. They believe what they're doing is right. So in their own minds, they're the hero of their own journey. As an actor, if I attack the character judging him as a bad guy, then I'm already failing at my job.
You have to like the roles you're playing. And so for these guys who do very dark things at times, they believe what they're doing is right. And Owen in Bright Hill Road is a very complicated and layered character who has a lot of problems and obstacles he's trying to overcome himself. I would say yes. He falls into the bad side if you figure out his backstory, which is also a layer in there, maybe you figure it out, maybe you don't, but if you do realize why he's actually at the boarding house as well, you might realize that he's probably not the safest person to be in a room with, but the whole theme of the film is people having to deal and come face to face with their past to move on."
If you dig what Eklund has to say about Bright Hill Road, be sure to check out his thoughts on his roles in Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The Twilight Zone, Van Helsing, Welcome to Sudden Death, Smallville, and Altered Carbon below!
Michael Eklund discusses which comic book villains he'd like to play:
Michael Eklund talks about working with Michael Jai White on Welcome to Sudden Death:
Michael Jai White in Welcome to Sudden Death
Michael Eklund discusses what he'd like to see for the future of Rasputin in Legends of Tomorrow:
Eklund as Rasputin in DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Michael Eklund talks about Altered Carbon, Wynona Earp, The Twilight Zone, and Van Helsing:
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
When a misstep after a workplace shooting puts alcoholic Marcy on leave, she heads out to see her sister in California. Halfway there, she stops for a couple of days at the Bright Hill Road Boarding House. The walls close in on the deeply troubled Marcy, as she loses touch with reality and comes face to face with the misdeeds of her sordid past.
Bright Hill Road was released on Digital and DVD on January 12, 2021.