Caddo Lake, located on the border of Texas and Louisiana, is a gigantic body of water that inspires the imagination. What supernatural secrets rest in the endless swamp? The new film,Caddo Lake, directed by Celine Held and Logan George, makes tremendous use of the location’s natural aura of whimsical mystery to tell a genre-bending science fiction story.
Little Women’s Eliza ScanlenandTeen Wolf’s Dylan O’Brien star as Ellie and Paris, two young people who find their fates intertwined when a young girl goes missing in the forested maze of the murky lake.Caddo Lake,streaming on Max starting on October 10, begins as a search for the missing child, but it quickly becomes a twisting sci-fi saga that evokesthe best ofThe Twilight Zonein its palpable tension, shocking turns, and bold storytelling decisions that make for a memorable viewing experience.
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Screen Rant interviewed Eliza Scanlen about herwork on Max’sCaddo Lake. She spoke about shooting long hours in the muddy water of the swamp and the creative freedom that comes with setting aside traditional Hollywood glamour. She discussed her appreciation of the film’s visionary directors. Finally, she conceded that, despite her Australian upbringing, she’s still scared of insects.
Eliza Scanlen on Caddo Lake’s Mix of Naturalism, Sci-Fi, and Getting Down and Dirty
“It was a lot of dirty, nasty, days walking through mud, which I loved.”
Screen Rant: I love a good old-fashioned brain-twisting science fiction story where at the end you’re like, “Woah, I get it now.” Tell me a little bit about how this one came across your desk. Did your agent go like, “Eliza, you’ve got to read this,” or did the directors reach out to you? What was the process?
Eliza Scanlen: Well, it kind of just landed in my inbox. I hadn’t heard of Celine and Logan as filmmakers, but I love, I love working on indie films, so I Googled them and watched their films and I thought, oh my God, these people are so talented. I have to work with them! Their films that especially affected me were Topside and this short film they did, called Caroline. They just knew how to get really naturalistic, grounded performances out of people and they had a lot of experience working with non-actors and I think it’s always really cool when that’s done well in a film, and they did that really well. Then, when I read the script, I was like, whoa, this is also something I’ve never read before. It’s kind of like this cross-section between supernatural mystery and naturalism. Working with non-actors, telling a very grounded story that’s centered around family, intergenerational trauma, all those things. I just was like, wow, these people are doing really interesting things, and I met with them and we hit it off and it all happened quite quickly.
I love the way you described that, how it’s so naturalistic, so realistic, that once the supernatural or science fiction elements come into play, it feels that much more palpable because of that.
Eliza Scanlen: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Okay, so I’ll say this only because I’m going to follow up and say something else, I’m going to say you look lovely today.
Eliza Scanlen: Thank you.
And I say that because in the movie you are manic and wet and freaking out like most of the time.
Eliza Scanlen: (Laughs) Yes, Yeah.
You are like a high energy firecracker in the movie.
Eliza Scanlen: I can brush up quite nice. But yeah, every day the hairstylist rubbed fake mud in my hair and I had fake acne, and it was a lot of dirty, nasty, days walking through mud, which I loved. I just loved it. It’s nice to not care about what you look like when you’re making a film, and the dirtier the better on this film!
So when you’re shooting in the water, you’re not like,“Ew, this is gross.” Or does it make you feel earthy? Are you into it, or are you just like, I can’t wait to take a shower after this?
Eliza Scanlon: I mean, it’s a bit of both. Well, I’m Australian, so we don’t mind a bit of that. But at the end of a long day, I definitely looked forward to a shower and getting the mud out of my fingernails and my ears and all of that.
I’ve interviewed a handful of Australian actors in my time, and I think my conclusion is, I want to be Australian.
Eliza Scanlon: Thank you. We know. (Laughs)
“I was terrified that the eyes were just going to blink open and it was going to bite my hand off!”
I talked to Dylan and he was like, “I need to know about the alligator situation before I start shooting.” And I imagine for you, you were like, “It’s okay if there’s an alligator, I will wrestle it to the ground.” Oh wait, you actually have a scene with an alligator!
Eliza Scanlon: Well, I was definitely scared of this alligator. Even though it was very clearly dead, I was terrified that the eyes were just going to blink open when I was pulling the alligator away, and it was going to bite my hand off! But yeah, that was pretty gross.
Woah, that was a real gator in that scene?
Eliza Scanlon: Yeah.
Ooh. I was like, that looks so real, but that can’t be real, can it? I guess it is! Okay. But you didn’t encounter any live ones on the set? I imagine they’re scared away by the production.
Eliza Scanlon: No, they are apparently very afraid of boats and so they stayed away. And I think they’re also quite small. And alligators are, I mean, my Australian knowledge tells me that crocodiles are much more aggressive than alligators, I think, or more deadly… I could be totally wrong.
Is that a hurtful stereotype? People probably turn to you and go, “Is that animal dangerous?” Or is it a cool steretype?
Eliza Scanlon: I feel like you can benefit off of the stereotype in certain situations, but when I’m spending time with my mum, I still get my mum to kill the spider, not me. I’m a scaredy cat when it comes to insects, which is an embarrassment as an Australian.
But your insects are the size of rabbits!
Eliza Scanlon: That’s true. I did get bitten by spider once, and I was on crutches for two weeks.
Wow. Okay. So last question, we talked a little bit about the excitement of your character, and once things get into motion, it just doesn’t let up. Is there any kind of technique that you use as an actor to keep the energy up, like exercise or breathing or whatever? Or is it just, ya know, acting?
Eliza Scanlon: It’s just acting, baby! (Laughs) I mean, I guess you jump around a lot to kind of prep, to kind of reach that same sort of tempo that you’re trying to carry throughout the film. But no, I feel like Dylan and I both, we don’t have any crazy preparation methods or anything. But I feel like Selene and Logan brought the energy, you know, like they weren’t going to let us rest on our laurels. They were like, “let’s go!” Generatlly, we all had to have a lot of energy, you know, the whole crew and everyone had to be down for it. So it was definitely a group effort.
More About Caddo Lake (2024)
When an eight-year-old girl mysteriously vanishes, a series of past deaths and disappearances start to link together, forever altering a broken family’s history. The inspiration for CADDO LAKE was sparked after filmmakers, Celine Held and Logan George, came across a photograph of the real Caddo Lake online, leading to many visits to the cypress forest that rests on the border of Texas and Louisiana. The film was shot in late 2021 and 2022 in and around Karnack, Texas.
Caddo Lake (2024)
Cast
Caddo Lake follows a chilling mystery centered around a young girl’s disappearance in a small Texas town. As the community grapples with the unsettling events, hidden secrets and tensions unfold. Directed by nan, this suspenseful narrative explores themes of fear and the unknown surrounding Caddo Lake.
