As you may have heard, Hulu has a new horror movie, Clock. We recently had the privilege of sitting down with the writer and director Alexis Jacknow and some of the cast to discuss societal pressures on women to have children, being childfree, working on the movie and more. Keep reading to see what they had to say.
Clock is about a 38-year-old woman, Ella (Dianna Agron), who is childfree. After continuous pressure from friends and family, Ella begins to feel like something is wrong with her for not wanting a child. After a strange doctor’s visit, she decides to start an experimental medical trial to “fix” her.
The film stars Dianna Agron, Jay Ali, Melora Hardin and Saul Rubinek.
This interview is edited for clarity and length.
Becca Stalnaker: Alexis, what inspired you to create this story?
Alexis Jacknow: It is a very personal story. I struggled for many years trying to decide whether or not to have children. It was kind of just tormenting me as I tried to go to sleep at night, and I thought, what better place to write horror from?
RELATED: Horror Movie of the Month: Dead Silence
BS: As a childfree and Tokaphobic woman myself, I found myself getting into the main character’s head a little bit. Tell me about writing that character from your perspective.
AJ: A lot of it is autobiographical; these are little tidbits that have been said to me throughout my life, especially in the first 20 minutes of the movie. One little fun fact is that one of the mothers at the baby shower, who says, “yes, you do, you want kids.” That role is played by my very best friend, and in real life when I met her 10 years ago, that was the opening conversation we had.
I mentioned I didn’t want children, and she immediately looked at me and said, “Yes, you do. You want kids.” It was just really fun to cast her in that part, but you know, these are all things that have been said to me over the years by various people, pressures I’ve felt from friends, society, culture, religion, and so I just really wanted to infuse the story.
BS: Tell me about your characters and what you think people need to know about them.
Saul Rubinek: I think everything that they need to know about him is really in the movie, but I can tell you that I was attracted to the film because the subject matter was interesting to me. I had written a play a number of years ago, called Terrible Advice that was on in London and directed by Frank Oz. Starring Sharon Horgan and Scott Bakula, One of the characters, Sharon Horgan’s character, is a woman who lies to her friends and her boyfriend and her best female friend, and she’s like in her late 30s, and she lies and says that she can’t have children.
RELATED: Browse our Underrated Horror Movie of the Month archives!
The reason she lies is that she actually can have children, she just never wanted them, and can’t really point to her career, some high-powered career that would excuse it, just doesn’t want them and she finds it easier to say, I’m unable to than to say I don’t want to. “I don’t want to” brings with it a lot of judgment from other women, from men, from society.
I think that there are a lot of women in our society, in every society, who feel there might be something wrong with them. If they’ve made a decision not to have children or they have no mom instincts, society has very often said there’s something wrong with you. And I love the fact that this very brave writer-director Alex Jacknow decided to go into this in a horror film aspect.
I wanted to create a character of a dad who was very likable, and not a monster at all. His pressure is monstrous, even though it’s unintended to be as dark and heavy as it is. He just thinks he’s being a normal dad, and I wanted to make him a likable character. I’m not a monster character, because that makes it even harder to deal with, right? So that’s what attracted me to the film and to the character. The fact that it was such a bravely written film about a subject matter that is kind of taboo. I really liked that about it.
Melora Hardin: Clock is about a woman who has a perfect life and her husband and her perfect career. She keeps getting barraged by friends and family and society that something is wrong with her because she doesn’t want children. My character is a brilliant doctor who’s running a very edgy trial that is claiming to be able to fix women’s biological clock.
BS: What drew you to the project?
MH: I just loved Alexis Jacknow, the writer-director. I loved her short film, which is also entitled Clock. I thought that she had a really fresh voice around the subject that I’ve never heard before. And I just thought it was really, really interesting. And I also love supporting young female directors, you know, writer-directors, I thought she had a unique and distinct voice that I wanted to be a part of and support.
Jay Ali: I play Aiden, Dianna Agron’s husband. He’s a very supportive, loving husband. You know on paper, he seems perfect. He’s supportive of whatever his wife Ella wants to do in terms of children or not, I mean, we get the idea that he would like children, but he never puts pressure on her. As long as he’s with her, he’s happy and he’s madly in love with her.
RELATED: Malignant Spoiler Review
BS: What drew you to the project?
JA: First of all, the script, which was brilliant. I mean, I’m a man and I’m sometimes quite ignorant to the things that women have to go through on a yearly basis, you know, with these checkups and exams, and then the pressures of this ticking clock telling you you have to do something by a certain time or it’s not going to happen. This movie has made me really realize, Oh, my God, like, can you imagine that? It’s something you really want in life, and there’s something ticking down and going “You’re running out of time, you’re running out of time.”
It’s like when you read a script, and you will turn it over, and you’re like, oh my god, I never really realized that. Oh, my God, I can’t imagine what it’s like. So I wanted to be part of that. I also found it very timely with what’s going on in the world at the moment in terms of like, women’s rights and I wanted to be a part of something that showed the impact of these pressures of telling women how and what to do with their bodies can have.
I mean, I know this is a very exaggerated version of that, but you know, I’m sure it’s horrendous, being told what to do with your body and I can’t even imagine. Men don’t realize, we say “Oh, that’s terrible,” but you don’t actually realize the impact and I felt like this script really hit home a lot of things.
RELATED: Browse our Horror With a Side of Cheese archives!
BS: What was it like working with the rest of the cast?
JA: Great! Dianna is an absolute sweetheart. You know, she was in every scene of the movie. And she kept her composure, her kindness, her gratitude and she was professional and we had a great rapport. I mean, she’s so lovable. It’s so easy to have chemistry with someone who’s so great and she’s so welcoming. She never complained once [even though] she was in every day all day.
It wasn’t just like going in for one scene and having the rest [of the day] she was in all day every day you know from 6 a.m. till 6 p.m. Sometimes 7 p.m. Sometimes night shoots, she just got it done. And she was brilliant. She carried this whole movie by herself. She’s brilliant.
I mean, we had Saul Rubinek on set and things like that. And he was great. He was a lot of fun. He regaled us with many tales of his movies and working on unforgiven. So yeah, everyone was great and Alexis was brilliant.
RELATED: Every Nightmare on Elm Street Film, Ranked
SR: Well, Alex cast did really well. Dianna Agron and Jay Ali, are the people I worked with, the only two actors I worked with. Dianna played my daughter and Jay played my son-in-law who are wonderful actors. Alexis created an atmosphere that was very free. We don’t have a lot of time when you’re doing an indie movie like this. You know, the clock is on you really heavily because of budget concerns. But we didn’t feel that she created an atmosphere that was really loose and free and so we has a really good working environment.
MH: It was great. Alexis was wonderful. She’s really, really talented. Alexis is young, smart, hungry, warm, a very good communicator and collaborative. Dianna Agron is wonderful in the movie. She was great to work with. She’s just a wonderful actress, a wonderful person. It was really quite joyful, very low budget and you know, really small, small crew and everyone was was just, it was fabulous. I had a really great time.
BS: Alexis, tell me about working with your cast.
AJ: I got so lucky. We were greenlit, and then two weeks later I was down in Texas prepping, so it was a very quick casting process. We had no time for read-throughs or rehearsals or anything like that. We just had to jump in and trust each other. And Dianna Agron, Jay Ali and Melora Hardin, my three leads were absolutely incredible to work with. They are consummate professionals. Their willingness to be brave and vulnerable and do these crazy things that the script was requiring of them was truly astonishing. And I got very, very, very lucky to have them side by side.
RELATED: Click here to read our other interviews!
BS: Alexis, what made you decide to make it a horror?
AJ: You know, I think if I had made a drama about female body autonomy, it probably would have never got made it’s like I would say in The Princess Bride, right? She’s taking the miracle pill and she says chocolate coating makes it go down easier. So the horror is the chocolate coating, right? It’s entertaining. People tune in for horror, and horror is just a wonderful vessel to get out social messaging.
BS: Alexis, do you see yourself making more horror movies in the future?
AJ: Oh, absolutely. I’ve become a huge fan of horror in the last two years. I really appreciate the craft, and for filmmaking, I would like to hone mine even further. I learned so much making this one and maybe get hungry to make the next one.
BS: If there was only one thing you could tell someone about Clock, what would that be?
AJ: I would call it a movie for anyone who feels other, that it’s meant to make you feel that well.
RELATED: Every Saw Movie, Ranked
MH: I think I would just say it’s a surprising and fascinating take on the pressures that women feel about having children. I think it is of horror/ psychological thriller that is a fresh conversation and a new voice that I haven’t heard before.
JA: Obviously go and watch it. Because it’s brilliant and it will make you jump. It will make you think. It’s a psychological horror. I mean, it does have those elements of the gore element but it is mostly a psychological horror and I think you’re gonna come out a different person, whether male or female watching this movie. And that’s what I think is so beautiful about this.
I mean, I’m a man and I’m fully learning and I can never fully relate but understand what it is this person’s going through, even though I’m never ever going to experience it in my life, and you walk away with a newfound education. That’s how I felt whilst I read the script after we shot it, and then when I watched it, I felt… I thought I knew, but I didn’t. Men, we always go we know. No, we have no idea. I’ve got two sisters and my mom. I love my mom. I’ve always had a lot of respect for women, but now I’ve gotten an even more newfound respect for them.
SR: That you’ve never seen a horror movie with a subject matter before. It’s brand new. They will not be able to guess from one scene to the next one. It’s totally unexpected, and original.
RELATED: Luke Hutchie Talks Ezra and Making a Campy Vampire Show
BS: Alexis, was it difficult to be both writer and director of this film?
AJ: It was a massive undertaking, Absolutely. But it was the best time of my life. I mean, I have an incredible time making the movie. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
BS: Thank you all for your time and for answering my questions!
Clock begins streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ International on April 28, 2023.
https://youtu.be/5h3WqGDpeYs
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/demons-to-summon-in-the-bathroom-at-your-next-party/
- Horror With a Side of Cheese: 3-HEADED SHARK ATTACK - August 11, 2024
- Underrated Horror of the Month: HANSEL & GRETEL GET BAKED - August 1, 2024
- Underrated Horror Movie of the Month: THE SKELETON KEY - July 18, 2024
