INTERVIEW: Christian Camargo can’t stand horror movies, but he loves ‘Witch Hunt’
Photo: Witch Hunt stars, from left, Christian Camargo and Elizabeth Mitchell. Photo courtesy of Momentum Pictures / Provided by KWPR with permission.
Christian Camargo, star of stage, TV and film, has built an impressive career in a wide variety of projects. He has appeared in everything from Dexter to House of Cards to the Twilight films, and he is currently appearing in the Apple TV+ series See with Jason Momoa and Alfre Woodard.
His latest film project is Witch Hunt, a politically conscious horror film from writer-director Elle Callahan. The movie looks at a modern United States where witches are persecuted for their beliefs and practices by the authorities. Their only means of escape is to head across the border to Mexico. Claire (Gideon Adlon) runs an underground network with her family that helps witches cross the border without incident. Camargo plays one of the witch hunters who tries to foil Claire’s plans.
“Well, I really liked Elle and what her vision was as far as using the genre of horror and suspense … as a way to commentate on America and the world and the cultural situation that’s happening right now,” Camargo said in a recent phone interview. “So that was a super cool and unique approach.”
Although Camargo was won over by the ideas in the film, he didn’t know how everything would be pulled together on set. Then, when filming began, and he got used to Callahan as a director, he realized he was in safe hands.
“It was more of a conversation with Elle about what she wanted to do with it and how she envisioned it,” he said. “I saw it coming together and seeing the performances and understanding how she was actually visually putting it together. … She really let me have a little bit of fun with it, with the character, which I always like to do, especially when I have to play bad guys. I really like to enjoy it a bit. She sort of was very much hands off. Once we understand where the tone of the piece is coming from and how she envisions it and we’re all on the same page, she then backs off and lets you play. That was fun. She knew the work that I had done in the past, and she sort of trusted that and let me go.”
Witch Hunt, which is now in theaters and on demand, was shot before the pandemic, which Camargo is thankful for because he doesn’t know if it would have become a reality during the COVID-19 scare. Many indie productions had to shut down, and they never reopened again.
“It was before, so luckily we were able to do it,” the actor said. “Nowadays for smaller movies it’s really challenging to pull off, to be honest, with all the COVID mandates on set. So yeah we were lucky.”
Camargo tapped into this commentary about the U.S.-Mexico border from a personal angle. He has Latino heritage through his grandfather, who came to the United States from Mexico through Southern California, so stories involving the fraught relations between the two countries have been on his radar.
“I didn’t need to do too much research, and also diving into her story, I didn’t want to politicize it,” he said. “I wanted to work with the story in the form it was, you know. I sort of created a fictitious backstory on the Bureau of Witch Hunting and all that kind of stuff. I kept it within the scope of the project and let her make the metaphor that she wanted to make.”
Witch Hunt is very much a genre film, with some scares and eerie settings. Camargo, however, hates horror movies. He appreciates the storytelling, but he cannot take the scares — and this is coming from a person who had a prominent role in Showtime’s Dexter.
“I can’t stand them because I get so scared,” he said with a laugh. “I’m a real wimp when it comes to horror. My makeup artist who is with me right now is a huge horror fan, and he’s rolling his eyes. … I think I saw Jaws way too early. I think it started with Jaws, and then it went into A Nightmare on Elm Street. And then it went into Friday the 13th, and it was just, why are people doing this to each other? Why not be nicer? What is all this? But you know what, they’re super fun to play. I love doing them.”
Camargo added: “If you’re playing that you want to spook someone, you’re not going to spook them. Just create a creepy character. Let the imagination happen with the audience because, you know, horror is all in the heads of the audience. … The audience fills in because if you really stand back and look at it, it’s sort of ridiculous. Freddy Krueger and his mask, sometimes you look at it, and you’re like, this is crazy. Now my makeup artist is about to hit me, so I’ll stop talking now.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Witch Hunt, written and directed by Elle Callahan and starring Christian Camargo, is now playing in theaters and on demand. Click here for more information.
