Embracing The Venom: An Interview with Ryan Corr

Photo: Johnny Nicolaidis

Australia has long been synonymous with lethal spiders. Other nations are often astounded by the types that reside in our backyards and what they perceive as our placid perception of the fact. But in Sting, the latest film from local horror specialist Kiah Roach-Turner, effort is made to dispel this misbelief. Set in a debilitated apartment building, a young girl named Charlotte (Alyla Browne) finds a spider she decides to keep as her pet. However, it is no ordinary spider. In little time, it starts growing to unnatural proportions and has its sights locked on the building's residents.

Leading the film is Ryan Corr, one of Australia's most consistent talents. After a 62-episode stint on the Channel Seven drama Packed to the Rafters, he has spent the following years exploring his range via countless venerated performances. The genesis of Sting originated from Roach-Turner's fear of arachnids, but he made sure it wasn't strictly cheap thrills. He created a step-family whose personal crisis drives the story as significantly as his monster's kills. Portraying step-father Ethan, Corr serves that direction wonderfully. He screams and fights and illuminates the nightmare unfolding before his character's eyes. But, like the other cast members that make up the family, he brings poignancy to their plight. His reliability is in full swing — he's even rocking a stellar American accent.

With Sting ready to weave its web across cinemas, I was granted the opportunity to chat with Corr. His enthusiasm for the project was palpable. He told me about his love for working with Roache-Turner and the acting legend his junior co-star sought for advice, all before we started hatching a plan to snag him the role of Swamp Thing in the new DC Universe. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

This story contains spoilers for the film Sting.

CONNOR DALTON: When you first read this script, what did you respond to?

RYAN CORR: It was Kiah that drew me in. I knew that his work was always a little off the wall, full of energy, and usually genre-specific. He makes homages to films of the '90s — the films that he grew up on. He's quite a cinephile director. And I could tell Sting was a continuation of all that with Wētā, the practical effects, and Kiah's twisted mind. But what makes, for my money, a good horror — or a good film, in general — is that you can have your practical spiders and jump scares and gore, but at the centre of it, there's a heart, there's something central going through it. And for me, what really rang true was that element of family, and more particularly, parenthood.

In Ethan's case, it was about being a step-parent. I could really see that in the piece. Kiah spoke about this script coming about through his fear of spiders but also his fear of being a parent. And when I first read the script, I saw a lot of my wonderful step-parents in it, who have supported me throughout my life and career. I saw elements of my weird, un-nuclear family. Although it's a creature feature and there's a giant alien spider involved, it was about being a parent and when you get it wrong and how terrifying that is. I think similar films are the clever genre pieces, and you could see that on the page with Sting.

DALTON: I couldn't agree with you more. I appreciated that it was more than just a monster and its bloodshed. The film's depiction of a step-father/step-daughter relationship brought a lot of weight to the narrative. How did that connection develop with your castmate, Alyla Browne?

CORR: She's a superstar. She just stepped off George Miller's set as the young Furiosa and she just worked with Sigourney Weaver from Alien. She sort of speaks like a 35-year-old young lady when she's certainly not. I was pretty taken aback when I first met her.

Like all films, there's a rehearsal process at the start and a little bit of pre-production. It was only a very short time for this, so sometimes you have to shortcut those connections when you're meeting your family that have been together for 12 years, or whatever it may be, and you've only known each other for a week. So we worked out what makes each other laugh while rehearsing our scenes. Penelope Mitchell, myself, and Alyla went to some escape rooms so that we could work out how we were under pressure and the element of fear.

But it all comes down to trust and connection because when you jump off, whether it be a drama in which you need to hold each other during grief or you're running from a giant spider, none of it works unless you're connected and trust each other. It's about building that relationship so you can rely on and play with each other once you're on set. That was very much Kiah's focus at the start — 'Let's make this little family. Let's work out our backstories. Let's know where we've come from. Let's know when the relationship was at its best. Let's know what brings them together.' This idea of comics was a much stronger element in the first few drafts of the film. Alyla and I really tuned into the idea of art and having a similar hobby and love for a certain thing.

There are some people you're meeting for the first time when you're doing a scene with them on set, so it's always about trying to form a connection. I think the best work is when it's true. When it's two people meeting in the middle. So the aim in pre-production is always to try and form that as actors and then find it for the characters. 

DALTON: By the third act, the story really grants you the space for a heightened performance. Before shooting those scenes, how would you prepare yourself to reach such an extreme emotional state?

CORR: It was certainly like we're not in Kansas anymore, are we? I got there through a lot of rehearsals, and the way Kiah writes and directs invites something that's slightly elevated. He is such an energetic director. He'll sometimes run onto set. If you've got a pratfall where you come off a ladder, he'll come in and do it. You can watch his mind working, and it works very viscerally. I haven't often worked with a director who moves a camera the way Kiah does. It almost feels like it's going to crawl up your leg. It's constantly moving and contouring. So he'd come in and often practically get us there, but it's the same for films I've done before — you have to get to an emotional state, and sometimes that's really difficult. Sometimes, it's Wednesday morning, it's the last scene of the day at the end of the shoot, and you've got to be at the fullest extent of fear and screaming. It can be pretty taxing on the body. We have a lot of fun doing it, but it's also hard. It's hard to tell your physiology that you're not screaming and panicking for your life because we often have to do it quickly. So it's about getting yourself to a state where your body is in a certain way and then playing from there.

I know that for little Alyla, who has the emotional arc of the film and a breakdown moment in a pivotal scene where she confronts Ethan about her biological father, Kiah would take her out behind set in between scenes. There was a couch cushion, and he'd get her to wrestle it and hit it whilst saying lines almost like it was an outlet for rage, so from that point, she could do it on set. It was interesting watching the different ways in all the performers we got to work with on this film took. I mean, Robyn Nevin is an absolute master. She's sick. She'd come in, put on her coat and costume, and you could watch her drop it like an old-school theatre performer. For the likes of myself and Alyla, we were finding different ways in because I don't know what it's like to be tumbled up in a web and dropped down an air vent, but you have to start with something you know. That's what Sigourney said … oh, I haven't told you that story! 

Well, speaking on exactly how you get yourself to that state, myself and Alyla were asking each other that exact same question in the makeup room before going into one of these terrifying spider scenes. I jokingly said to her, 'You just worked with Sigourney Weaver. You should ask her!' Alyla walks out of the makeup room, comes back in, and is on FaceTime with Sigourney Weaver, who is explaining to her how she manifested that fear for what would have been an animatronic puppet for Alien. She said, 'You start from something you know and are scared of and then extrapolate outwards, so you take it to somewhere true. Then you make it bigger.' And I think in this film, we just kept growing the size until it fitted Kiah's crazy script and crazy head.

DALTON: You're not getting better advice than from Ellen Ripley.

CORR: I was like, 'Are you serious, Alyla?' She's getting birthday presents from George Miller and getting alien advice while we're on set. We were in pretty fantastic company. And Kiah knows this world well. Like I say, he's grown up on these films. These are the films of the '90s that he loved to watch, and now he's fearless in wanting to make them. I think that's pretty unique nowadays. I don't know that there are a whole lot of genre directors who are willing to fully follow through on their vision of stylised, slightly heightened genre films. 

DALTON: The most stressful element of Sting, of course, is the titular character itself. I read that on set it essentially existed as a puppet. How was that to work with? I'm sure it was more valuable than the standard tennis ball on a stick.

CORR: Absolutely! It was a real element, and the practical element of this film was a real draw card. It was Wētā Workshop, who had done The Lord of the Rings and Avatar, who were making it. We had four puppeteers who, as we were doing the scenes, were navigating how to get the best movement and doing workshops on how to best get it working for camera. I think reacting to something that's immediately in front of you is always a lot easier, and we're certainly grateful for it. 

We also had a number of animals on set. We had multiple chihuahuas, we had macaws, we had real cockroaches, and I think six human babies. In many ways, the animals can be more difficult to work with than the animatronic puppet spider (laughs). However, I will say we had this one chihuahua called Spadz, and his wonderful trainer would come onto set. She'd go, 'Okay, Spadz, come over here, do-si-do, sit, pee on the wall, walk over here, jump on the cushion, do one bark, go through the door, look at Penelope,' and no shit, he'd do it. He had his own call sheet, he hit his marks, he'd turn where he was told to previously, and he'd nail it. But coming back to the practical elements of the film, I think it adds to the charm, and it was there from the very beginning. Kiah wants to make and does make films with practical effects. 

DALTON: A feature that Sting has in common with films like Alien and The Thing is its confined setting. The film takes place entirely within a rundown Brooklyn apartment building. What influence did that cramped quality have on you and the team?

CORR: Yeah, there's plenty of claustrophobia and all these horror tropes. At the start, there's a little homage to Hereditary when we come in through the dollhouse. I thought what that film did well was it made who is usually your closest people, the family unit, the most terrifying element. What happens when the people that you rely on are actually the darkness? In a strange way, Sting does that, too. We see what happens when this family's relationship, particularly Ethan and Charlotte's, starts to fracture and what manifests from that. Our darkness is a giant spider.

We were in a studio in Ultimo, and we made it snow-covered New York. It wasn't a huge amount of space to move, but I think it really added to the film's atmosphere. I said it earlier, but the way Kiah moves the camera is unlike anyone else, and I think how that is utilised when it comes to hallways and confined spaces adds to that dread of incoming doom. That's hard to create. 

DALTON: You have a deeply varied body of work, so it's been a minute since audiences have seen you in the horror genre. The last time was as far back as Wolf Creek 2. Does horror offer anything unique as an actor? Were there any elements that you were eager to revisit?

CORR: I don't think it's an element of something in horror that isn't in other genres. I think it's about working with directors and writers and people that have vision. I've always wanted to work with Kiah since Wyrmwood, which I think he literally made in his grandma's shed. He had friends come through making props, they did everything themselves, and made this cult classic. It was full of craziness and one-liners and energy, and that was something I wanted to be a part of. So that was very much the draw for this film, but I knew it was very different from things like Wolf Creek 2.

Going into Wolf Creek 2, I watched every horror under the sun and tried to work out what gets me. What do I find scary? What do I find annoying? I found out I really like atmospheric horror. The scariest thing for me was when you never quite saw the boogeyman and it was more of a feeling. And what I really disliked when watching a horror is when you're like, 'Well, of course, you're going to die. You ran up the stairs and didn't pick up the kitchen knife.' So in Wolf Creek 2, we tried to make a horror film in which I made all the right choices — I picked up weapons at my disposal, went out the right door, didn't go upstairs — but still found myself in a lot of trouble. And with this one, it's an interesting blending of genres. It was trying to hit that slightly elevated tone of comedy and horror that was the challenge.

DALTON: Without giving too much away, the ending of Sting does leave the door ajar for a sequel. Do you wish to continue the journey of Ethan and his family?

CORR: I'd work with Kiah any day of the week and Alyla again in a heartbeat. I'm not sure as to where a sequel may or may not be. I'm sure it'll be in the recesses of Kiah's mind somewhere. But when little Alyla and I were doing some press yesterday, she told me she has a full idea for the second one that involves other planets. She thinks Sting's main focus is to take people's souls because it ultimately wants world domination. She thinks it should go off-planet, leaning a little further into the alien element, but nothing is in the works as of yet. 

DALTON: For your title, you can do what Alien did —just add the letter S at the end!

CORR: (laughs) Yes! Thanks!

DALTON: Before we wrap up, I want to mention that a quote from Ethan spoke to my very soul. When his publisher gave him a deadline, and he retorted that it was not feasible because he has his day job, I felt seen as someone who is using their lunch break to do this interview.

CORR: Oh, amazing. That's great. I think Ethan's challenge as a graphic novelist is that it adds to his deteriorating mental health, and therefore, it finds its way into his relationship with his step-daughter. But when it comes to stressing over things like working nights, it's about not allowing those elements to define or limit your relationships. I love the metaphor going through this film: when he does allow depression in and when he does make those mistakes, a monster grows. It's a nice allegory for depression and for being there for those we care about.

DALTON: Speaking of comics, I'm surprised you haven't been tapped for a superhero property yet. You have the look for it. 

CORR: Maybe I could be Swamp Thing!

DALTON: They're making that one again!

CORR: I actually auditioned for that many years ago. But what was Swamp Thing's deal? He was a scientist, right?

DALTON: That's correct. An experiment goes wrong, and he becomes this plant creature. Have you had other auditions in that sector?

CORR: I've auditioned for other things in the comic book world. Just recently, I went in for some things that are on Netflix, like One Piece, which is a well-known anime. I've gone in for Marvel before. I was lucky to be part of the Game of Thrones universe for a little while. They're different challenges. All auditions happen exactly like you're speaking to me now. It's a ring light on your mobile phone with a blue curtain behind you. Sometimes, you find yourself having to deal with AIDS in the '80s. Sometimes, you have to lead command of an army. Sometimes, you're pretending that you're Thor. Ultimately, you can find yourself feeling pretty stupid, and my neighbours must think I'm insane. 

DALTON: Well, DC is looking for a new Swamp Thing. Maybe you and I should start a petition to get you in the room.

CORR: Yeah, Ryan Corr for Swamp Thing. My hair kind of looks like I’ve come out from under a bridge. I certainly would love to. Pieces of that size that have that much production design going into them, and you’re getting costumes and a set of armour, and you’re trying to play with that level of status, and trying to make an audience believe in that world is really fun. It’s like cowboys and robbers. It’s why I got into this in the first place. It’s fantastical. It’s imagination. We can’t forget in this industry that we’re lucky to be doing it. 

This article was originally published by FilmInk