‘Stopmotion’ Star Talks The Chilling New Horror Film

Aisling Franciosi is a powerhouse. First garnering attention as Lyanna Stark for two episodes of Game of Thrones, she burst onto the scene in The Nightingale, Jennifer Kent’s story of colonialism and revenge. Since then, she’s been seen in films such as The Last Voyage of The Demeter and now Robert Morgan‘s Stopmotion. With an eye of intensity and a voice that never seems to grow hoarse no matter how much a film requires her to scream, Franciosi is an acting force to be reckoned with, especially after watching her steal the show in Stopmotion.

Read the full synopsis:

Ella Blake is a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she embarks upon the creation of a macabre new puppet film, which soon becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.

We spoke with Franciosi about her own obsession with the script, voicing her own little meat puppet, and learning about the madness of stop-motion.

Dread Central: I saw Stopmotion at Fantastic Fest and it was my favorite movie at the festival. Absolutely obsessed with it. What attracted you to this weird little script? 

Aisling Franciosi: I was also obsessed with it. My agent sent me the script and she said, “This script is bonkers!” in capital letters. And then was like, “But I think you’ll love it.” I read it straight away, basically as soon as it came into my email and said, “Yeah, I want to do this. Can we see if we can make that happen?” Then I met with Rob. Honestly, I had no idea whether I was one of a couple of actors that he was talking to. But I was like, “I don’t care. I want to do this, and I’m telling him that I want to do it.”

So I just got straight into the nitty gritty of discussing the character and how I thought she would be in this scenario. And we just got on really, really well. I think we saw the character the same way and the story the same way, but it felt fresh to me. That was what attracted me to [Stopmotion] was that it felt very fresh and I hadn’t read something that had grabbed me quite the same way. I find stop-motion animation can range from being extremely beautiful and delicate to completely creepy. I’ve discovered the tiniest of movements that can make that difference. And having seen Rob’s short animation—if you haven’t seen it, it’s incredible—I realized, “Okay, this guy is definitely on the unsettling and disturbing and creepy side of animation. So I really think that this could work.”

I just was really drawn in by the, well, a couple of things. I was drawn in by the idea of live-action mixing with stop-motion animation. That was really cool. And also, to be honest, it’s weird. The film makes more sense to me now, as in it resonates with me more now than even when I was shooting it. I had a weird work year after having done Stopmotion, which was just the best experience. And so then when I watched, I said, “Yeah, working in a creative industry feels like this.”

DC: I was going to ask about that actually. Does Stopmotion resonate with you as a woman in a creative field trying to just make your mark?

AF: Definitely. I think Stopmotion will resonate with anyone who’s endeavoring to do something in a creative field, especially one within an industry where there are so many different powers at play as to whether you get to actually express your vision or even work in the first place. And then there’s that other idea where you feel like certainly I do. I feel so badly that I want to express something. And the idea that when you are then given the chance to actually execute that feeling because it’s so ineffable, it’s really difficult to do and can drive you crazy when you’re chasing this kind of creative catharsis.

I think creatives and artists will definitely feel something when they watch this. Rob had told me specifically that when he was in college, he would sometimes feel like, “I know I want to say something, but I’m not entirely sure what exactly that is yet” and how frustrating that can be when you have all this pent-up feeling. But definitely, especially watching Stopmotion, as I say, when I watched it a couple of months after having shot it, I was like, “Yeah, this is what it feels like.” It’s hard. 

DC: That’s awesome though. And you’re one of the only people on camera the whole time. What was that kind of pressure, if that’s the right word, like as you’re essentially carrying the entire film? 

AF: This is going to show my naivety, I think, because I don’t want it to sound arrogant. But I genuinely just didn’t actually think about that. This is going to sound so crazy, but often when I’m working, I kind of forget that people are going to see the movie, which sounds ridiculous. 

DC: No, wait, that sounds like a godsend to just help you get out of your head. 

AF: Is it? Because then when you do finish the movie and then you’re like, “Wait, oh God, people are going to see this.” And then I start going back over everything that I did and I’m like, “Oh my God, could I have done that differently with the audience?” I sometimes make the mistake of not necessarily keeping the audience in mind. , I don’t know if that’s a mistake or not, but I don’t work that way. And so then it can become torturous once the film is done, then go, “But when people see it, will they think X, Y, and Z?”

With Stopmotion, I had a blast. I absolutely loved working with Rob. Going into it, I wondered if I was going to be just a human-sized version of a puppet for him, because obviously when he’s animating, he has absolute control over the most minute movements and details. And it couldn’t have been further from what the experience was like. He was so chill, and so pragmatic as well, which is actually quite a rare thing I find in a lot of writer-directors. That’s not necessarily a criticism, it’s just obviously their baby.

He was just so, “Well, I guess we can’t get this scene today, so I’m just going to cut that out, but it’s fine.” I was looking at him with my mouth agog kind of thinking, “Wow, you’re so chill about this.” He just said, “Well, I care about the narrative and the story, and that’s the most important thing, not my certain specific animation things that I want to be doing.” It was so much fun. He let me do my thing, and whenever he had notes, there were always really great ones. 

And I felt like we had a good working relationship. Honestly, it was such a fun shoot. I had the best time and I actually really loved being in Stopmotion. To answer the question about the pressure, I think I possibly feel pressure when I’m in less because you have time to think and go over the scene that you just did. Whereas if you’re in every scene, you don’t have time, you have to keep on it, get changed, go do your makeup change, come back, get the set, be covered in blood, or whatever. And I like that pace. There’s no time really to overthink things. 

DC: Yeah, that’s awesome though. So I think one of my favorite things about your character are these subtle movements, especially in these sex scenes with her boyfriend, where it looks like she’s controlling his movement like a puppet. Did you add those? Were those on the page? Where did those originate from? 

AF: I can’t remember if it was on the page, but it was definitely a conversation we’d had. It’s cool that you say that about the puppet, which is another element that I love that you saw in that. But we were also talking about her being just very curious by the material of his flesh and the consistency of it and, as you say, the muscle and how it all moves. And I love that that scene is absolutely not in any way really a sex scene. It’s very much just her studying a body with other ideas in mind. But I did love those little details.

One of my favorite things that I always forget about until I’m reminded of it is Rob asked me to do all the sounds for the girl in the animation.

DC: That was you??

AF: Yeah, and I remember when we were doing ADR, he said, “Can you try to do this?” And I said, “What do you mean make just little weird, small noises, give her a voice?” He’s like, “Yeah, but with no words, obviously.” So yeah, I spent about half an hour in an audio booth, just being [insert little cute noises here]. That was really fun. It was one of the times when I thought, what is my job? 

DC: That’s incredible. That leads to a question I had about the actual animation. There are scenes when you are interacting with stop-motion puppets. Were the actual figures in front of you, or was that added with a green screen?

AF: It was a combination. The Ashman was very real. They just put an amazing suit on him that was all real. I dunno if this is a spoiler, but him being in the table, that was real. That happens in real-time. But then some things had to happen in terms of rubbish being shot on plates and stuff because it just wasn’t possible to animate at the same time. Or you’d have to paint out Rob from behind them, I guess. And it would just take way too long as well.

I think Rob spent an extra six weeks, I think it could be even more than that, doing so much animation after the shoot. So I think we would’ve lost many, many days if we hadn’t shot it that way. But yeah, it’s fascinating. Rob, when I met him, asked me if I did want to try and I can see how you’d get sucked into it, that could become quite meditative. Once you see it starting to move in a certain way, you just want to keep going. And so I could definitely see how you can get sucked into these strange time warps where you don’t know how many hours you’ve been doing it. 

DC: So you got to do a little bit of your own stop-motion animation in this?

AF: I mean, yeah, kind of a couple of movements. But in the prep though, he suggested it and I jumped at the chance. I said I would love to try and just see what it really is like because it is absolutely minute movements. I think what they do is so beautiful, honestly. But I can also see how you might lose your mind if it doesn’t work out.

DC: I keep getting these TikTok videos of time lapses of Chicken Run and how they make all of the facial expressions. I feel like I would lose my mind. But I love that that kind of meditative movement is the source of horror in Stopmotion. Like you said, it’s original and really interesting, and especially with Rob’s animation style and his puppets, creepy.

AF: He should be the one to say this, I feel like I’m stealing a little tidbit. But anyway, his first puppet from one of his first things in college makes an appearance in Stopmotion as well.

DC: So you’ve been in quite a few kind of horror slash genre adjacent movies. Are you a horror fan? Is that something you seek out as a viewer? 

AF: I really appreciate them, but I am an absolute wuss. So yes, I do watch them, and it sounds negative to say I appreciate them rather than I love them. I frankly don’t enjoy this experience of being freaked out. But I do think that there’s so much exciting work happening in horror because, I hate using this word, it feels elevated, whatever that means. But then it’s not just straight apart. There’s usually some sort of a metaphor going on there, or they’re exploring some part of the human psyche. So I really, really appreciate that. I just wish I wasn’t such a scaredy cat because I mean, I have to watch through my fingers and then sleep with the lights on. I sound like a wuss and I probably am, so I have a love-hate relationship with them. 

DC: That’s fair! I asked Rob this too when I spoke to him at Fantastic Fest, but was it a smelly experience to film this movie? Because there’s a lot of meat, and I know that it’s not actually going to be bad meat that you’re filming with, but I’m still curious about a lot of the different materials that were around. I was just curious what that sensory experience was like on set.

AF: Weirdly, it wasn’t actually that smelly an experience. But the slickness that would be on your hands after touching the puppet, because they’re covered in, I think it might be KY jelly to give them that shiny growth look. Yeah, that was always interesting. Actually it was Caoilinn [Springall] who had to touch most of the meat rather than me.

DC: Well, and I love that this movie is very vague about her. I love that we don’t get a full explanation.

AF: I like that, too. And again, Rob was so cool about this. He wasn’t fixed on any answer being the right one for that. And he’s like, “If the audience figures out at whatever point, it actually really doesn’t matter. It’s not relevant to the story.” He said, “I’m not concerned about what they think and when at what point in the movie.”

DC: What a cool experience. He sounds like an incredible director.

AF: He was so good. I mean, I had the best time. I am hyper-aware that directors and producers do a lot of the putting out the fires and stuff like that. And I’m sure that there were lots of challenges, but certainly the atmosphere on set wasn’t like that at all. And I just had a blast. I loved being in every day, all day. I loved being so tired at the end of the day. And we had a great supporting cast as well. The production design is so cool for me. It kind of makes me reminisce about a ’70s movie, which I love. So yeah, it was really, really cool. And I’m so glad that I got to do it. 

Stopmotion is out now in theaters and is set to hit Shudder on May 31, 2024.

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