Jonathan Groff & Ben Aldridge talk “Knock at the Cabin” and film’s queer representation
Though well-known for his time on Broadway and providing the vocal talent for Kristoff in Disney’s Frozen films, Jonathan Groff has more than proved his mettle in a much darker role with Netflix’s phenomenal series, Mindhunter, and now again, alongside Ben Aldridge (Fleabag, Spoiler Alert). In addition to Dave Bautista and Rupert Grint, the two star in Academy Award-nominee M. Night Shyamalan’s latest psychological horror, Knock at the Cabin.
The book-to-screen adaptation sees Groff and Aldridge as Eric and Andrew, a couple taking their daughter, Wen (Kristen Cui), on a family vacation. They’re a tight-knit unit, singing songs together, acting silly, and spending time in their secluded cabin on a lake, but in an instant, everything they hold dear hangs in the balance. When a stranger by the name of Leonard (Bautista) approaches Wen, their happy getaway becomes a nightmare. Leonard is accompanied by three others armed with weapons, with a message for Eric and Andrew: choose someone to sacrifice or bring about the apocalypse.
While promoting Knock at the Cabin, Groff and Aldridge sat down with Collider’s Steve Weintraub to talk about the movie. During their interview, Groff and Aldridge discuss portraying a gay couple onscreen as openly gay actors and talk about the way the queer narrative is “deftly” handled by Shyamalan, with “family is universal” being a central theme. They both share why they think the end of the world plot device has such a chokehold on society, and Aldridge gets existential about Nostradamus and Revelations. They speak on working with Shyamalan as a director, his meticulous storyboarding and particular vision, and the challenges of “humanizing and connecting.”
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