IFC Films’ We Need to Do Something is out today in theaters, digitally, and VOD. Directed by Sean King O’Grady, the film stars Sierra McCormick, Vinessa
“After Melissa and her family seek shelter from a storm, they become trapped,” says the official synopsis. “With no sign of rescue, hours turn to days and Melissa comes to realize that she and her girlfriend Amy might have something to do with the horrors that threaten to tear her family – and the entire world – apart.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with We Need to Do Something star Sierra McCormick about her latest horror film, some key roles from her past, and more.
Tyler Treese: We Need to Do Something is a really unique horror film. Getting to do a single-room horror film isn’t something that usually is done. Usually you think of big chase scenes and all kinds of wild stuff in horror films. What stood out the most about this filming experience and it being a single-room film?
Sierra McCormick: I kind of knew what I was getting into in signing up for this. You read the script and it was right in the middle of COVID. So I was kind of relieved that there were so few characters and that would be kind of set to a single location beause I felt like that would make COVID protocol a lot easier to follow. I think that what struck me kind of was the fact that it is horror, but you’re right, it doesn’t have these big sort of like kill scenes or big chase scenes or major suspense kind of scenes. It’s a different kind of horror. It’s existential horror. It’s the horror of other people. It’s very Sartre-esque I think, which is what shocked me about it initially and what I liked so much about it. Because I can be pretty nihilistic myself and seeing that reflected in a horror movie was very fascinating to me.
What about the character of Melissa really drew you to her, and what did you enjoy about exploring her?
Something that I really connected to with Melissa is her sort of desire to find validation at home. She’s not getting it at home for sure. So she kind of gets it from this relationship that she has with this other girl named Amy. I think their relationship is one of the things that like majorly struck me and drew me to the character because I thought it was something I hadn’t seen in horror before was 1) this sort of like sapphic relationship and 2) that it wasn’t this like titillating aspect of the film and it wasn’t this sort of negatively framed thing. It was just this relationship between two people that kind of happens to be the catalyst for the events that kind of shape the film.
I thought all of those aspects were really fascinating and also that the film features some really strong, interesting female characters as well. Vinessa, her character as my mom, and then Melissa and then Amy were all three very interesting. I think multi-faceted sort of female characters, which you don’t always see just in general and then especially in horror sometimes. So I think all those aspects were kind of what struck me initially when I read the script and decided to do it.
You mentioned filming during the pandemic and it’s certainly kind of funny that this film is about being trapped inside a room and then we were all trapped inside our houses. How challenging was that shoot and was it filmed at a time when they kind of had the guidelines in place or how’d that go?
We definitely had like the guidelines in place and stuff like that. We had a lot of protocol, we got tested multiple times in the week and we had a lot of social distancing protocol that we had to follow and then essentially they moved like the whole cast and the whole crew into this one hotel that was right across from the soundstage we shot on. So it was very easy to sort of manage, and it was a pretty small crew as well. So it’s pretty easy to manage everybody COVID-wise. Even though we had a few COVID-related setbacks, we were able to get everything finished. Even though it was like a little bit of an effort on everybody’s part, we were able to kind of make sure that everything turned out great and the way that we all wanted it to.
I feel like because of just where I was personally feeling about the world and stuff like that, I think that it was definitely a little draining and this movie is not people going and hanging out and getting ice cream and having fun, it’s this very sort of heavy, very nihilistic subject matter. So, you know, filming was kind of draining. It was a little exhausting. Especially once you kind of get involved with some of the stunt stuff and then some of the big emotional sort of arcs of the film. I was definitely pretty exhausted when I would get home to my hotel room every night after filming, but I think everyone kind of felt a similar way. It was pretty demanding, but I think the people, the crew, and the cast, made it so that we could get through it and it was still a fun and rewarding experience in my opinion.
I imagine it’s also a little bit of a sense of normalcy just after everything that happened to be back on a film set. Did you kind of feel that a bit?
Yeah, definitely. I was itching to work by that point in the pandemic. I was getting antsy as fuck in my apartment and I’m someone that needs to be working all the time or else I get antsy. Um, and so having this like period of many months, like 1) not working and 2) not knowing when I would be working nex was definitely very stressful. So when this came my way, I was like kind of jumping at the opportunity to do anything, but then I read it and I was like, “Oh, this is actually really cool.” Also, like not only do I get to like go work now, but it’s on something that I think personally is really interesting and, sort of cathartic in a way for a lot of people to watch.
Since it is such a film that’s driven by the performances, I thought Pat Healy was excellent as the father. How was it working with him? He’s such a veteran.
He’s amazing. Also, I would just hang on to every word that he said, whenever he’d be telling many, many, many cool stories about just his working experience over the years. I was like glued to my seat listening to him between takes or at lunch or whatever, like talking about just his experiences and stuff. Because he’s got a lot of interesting stories and just watching him perform, watching him and Vinessa perform, I think was in addition to just like really fun and awesome. They’re wonderful to work with. I feel like I learned a lot and I got a really interesting learning experience just by watching them. So overall I couldn’t have asked for better movie parents.
You’ve had a long career in horror at this point. One of your first horror-adjacent roles was Lilith in Supernatural. I’d love to know how that impacted your work. Did it kind of get you hooked on like the horror stuff? If you have any memories about that, I know you were young.
I can’t help but not remember because it was what I regard as my first acting role. I had worked before that, but it was like on game shows, like Smarter Than A Fifth Grader or I was more like being myself and being cute on camera, but that was my first instance where it was like a character I was playing. So I had to figure out how to get into character. I’ll never forget that experience because I was so nervous. Like I said, it was my first real acting role and the director, the late and great Ken Manners, he really made me feel a lot more comfortable and I could try things like I knew what I was doing. He really made me feel at ease on set, even though I was like 11.
So I credit the wonderful sort of experience that I had to him, but everyone on that set is super, super nice. Or at least I remember, they were definitely super, super nice to me. It was just a really wonderful experience. I had always said before that, when people would ask me what my dream role was or what I wanted to do, I would always say that I wanted to be in a horror movie. But I didn’t want to be the girl being chased. I wanted to be the bad person. I wanted to be like the villain. That sort of gave me a taste of being able to do that and sort of play on the fact that I was this cute little girl, but I could really do some brutal horrific stuff. So overall I have nothing but really fond memories of going to Vancouver and like staying in this nice hotel and shooting on the soundstage and stuff. Then just getting to kind of explore the city of Vancouver on my off days. I have really fond memories of doing that.
Another early role, and I actually watched this episode today, but you had this incredible role in Curb Your Enthusiasm and the plotline in it is just completely outrageous and ridiculous. I’m not sure how much you were told going into that.
Yeah. That’s also one of my favorite roles I’ve done ever of all time. Obviously, I think the nature of being an actor is not loving or being the most proud of every single thing you do, but that sticks out as one of my most proud achievements. I actually loved the show before I was on it. I loved Seinfeld and I loved Curb. So when I auditioned, I was really nervous and Larry David actually comes in for the callbacks or came in for the callbacks when I did it. We just kind of like, ad-lib this scene, I love improv, and then you’re correct. When I got on set, they would very conveniently send me away whenever they were discussing the main plot points of that episode.
So my parents didn’t know either. So when it finally aired, we were all sitting down to watch it. I knew the nature of the show. I knew it was like TV-MA or whatever. So there was subject matter, but my parents were not super pumped about when they discovered what the actual plotline for my character really was. My mom was like, “Oh my God.” She was not loving it, but I thought it was hilarious. 11-year-old, 12-year-old Sierra thought it was really funny. I was super amused by it. Then I would actually have adults come up to me every once in a while when I still kind of looked like that and I was young and they’d be like, “You’re the girl with the–,” and they’d be like, “You’re from Curb!” and I’d be like, yeah. My mom also didn’t love that either. But I was like, yep, sure am.
That’s amazing. Going back to horror, you were so great in American Horror Stories recently, and Scarlett was such an interesting character. It was such a cool relationship there as you’re kind of a violent sociopath and you’re in love with another violent sociopath, who just happens to be dead. I’d love to get your take on that relationship.
It actually kind of reminded me of, because I shot We Need to Do Something before I shot American Horror Stories, so it actually kind of reminded me a little bit of the relationship between Melissa and Amy. It kind of called back to that a little bit for me. So, when Kaia [Gerber], the other actress on American Horror Stories and I were kind of like exploring the relationship and kind of talking about it and stuff. I was actually drawing a lot of inspiration from Melissa and Amy, a little bit, even though the characters are definitely different and stuff. I think there’s definitely a throughline in their relationships, the two relationships, because at least I think on my characters and both times what they’re really searching for is [because] they feel like an outcast. They get along with everybody at home [but there’s] some kind of feeling of alienation and they’re searching for validation throughout the arc of the respective medias.
I think that the relationships, the both of those relationships are kind of my characters finding validation, even if it’s like not the best. Maybe it’s a toxic relationship or maybe it’s not the best sort of relationship for safety, but it’s someone’s sort of quest for validation and feeling seen and both of those relationships involve those kinds of feelings. That’s kind of what I was thinking about is that each time, especially in American Horror Stories, like Ruby’s characters would give Scarlett validation, it makes her feel like she’s seen and heard and not a freak. So that kind of also reminded me of the relationship between Melissa and Amy in this movie because I feel like Melissa is searching for something kind of similar. Great. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you.
