Cinema Scholars interviews Hugh McCrae Jr., star of the horror thriller, Human Resources. Written and directed by Bradon Swope in his feature directorial debut, the film also stars Sarah José, Anthony Candell, and Tim Misuradze. Human Resources, from NBD Productions in partnership with Motion Picture Exchange, is available On Demand and Digital now.
Introduction
It seems Hollywood films and TV are done and dusted with the ‘workplace comedy” trope. Long gone are the superlative, empathetic days of The Office and Parks and Recreation. Now we have young goth girls disco dancing and Karate Dads. Now, the horror genre is taking up the mantle. Horror is often at its best when it takes the mundane and ordinary and twists them into something terrifying. What if the boring place you clocked in and out every day turned out to be a house of hidden horrors? Human Resources shines a light on such a place where the blood, sweat, and tears of its workforce literally fuel its existence.
In Human Resources, Sam Coleman (McCrae Jr.) is an anxiety-ridden young man desperate for a job so he can pay his college bills. After his latest rejection letter, he receives a call from Brooke’s Hardware store, which is desperate to fill the void of Keith (Angel Hilton), an employee who has mysteriously disappeared. Plus, they need more bodies on staff for the upcoming Black Friday.
Human Resources lead actor, Hugh McCrae Jr. (also making his feature film debut), recently sat down for a chat with Cinema Scholars’ Glen Dower to talk about his foray into the horror genre.
Interview
Glen Dower:
Hello Mr. McCrae, how are you, Sir?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
I’m good Glen. How are you doing?
Glen Dower:
I’m really good thank you. And thank you for taking the time to talk to Cinema Scholars today. Your new film, Human Resources comes out on the 10th of January. This must feel like Christmas Part Two for you. How does it feel knowing your film is going to be released in a few short days?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
It kind of does. Yeah. It feels like another Christmas for me. It’s been a long time coming, trying to get this project finished, during the whole pandemic and everything. So of course, it is a gift.
Glen Dower:
It is a gift. So, Cinema Scholars is a movie site by movie fans, for movie fans. Are you a big movie buff yourself? And is there a certain movie or a performance that put you on your course to be an actor?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
I wouldn’t say I’m a big movie buff, but no, I wouldn’t say there’s an actor either that really put me on the course. I started acting about six years ago in Arizona. But when I first moved there, I wasn’t ‘financially straight’. So, I went to the library a lot, I rented stuff and got movies as they were practically free. And that movie with Paul Giamatti, what’s that movie called? It’s the one with the wine..?
Glen Dower:
Sideways!
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Sideways! There you go. I watched that movie, like, a hundred times, literally a hundred times straight. And I don’t know why I was infatuated with the movie. I still watch it to this day. I just pop it in and watch it. It’s a comfort thing for me. Sure. That might’ve been it. ‘I kind of wanna do this.’
Glen Dower:
Great choice. Back to Human Resources. We can call it a horror/thriller/mystery. Do you have any movies in that genre that you really like? For example, I believe some of the perfect movies are horror movies such as the original Halloween, and John Carpenter’s The Thing. Are there any movies within the genre you admire?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
I love horror! It’s one of my favorite genres. I like to watch horror a lot. I love to be scared. It was my thing growing up. The Omen, the religious horrors used to scare the crap out of me when I was a kid. I had really religious parents so it was just like, oh, pop The Omen in and I’m pretty sure I’m going to hell.
Glen Dower:
In this film, you worked with the Swope brothers, Braden and Evan. Braden is the director, writer, and various other roles behind the scenes, and Evan is the producer and writer. Do you think one day they’ll be mentioned in the same breath as the Coen Brothers and the Russo Brothers? Do you think they are on that path?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
I wouldn’t be surprised by that at all. They are hardworking, talented kids over there. I don’t know if you can call them kids. Because they’re now, I mean they made this movie at 19 years of age. At 19 I was just doing ridiculously dumb things. So they’re already on the right path to me. Definitely.
Glen Dower:
This is your and their first feature film. Did it feel like they were on their first film, as an actor? Had you seen their short movies so were you prepared to work with them?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Yes, before I even accepted the role, I went right to find out if this would be worth the time to do. Because a lot of the time, films out here don’t even get finished. You’ll put in a lot of hard work and nothing. So I looked at their work first and I was like, oh okay. ‘They did this at 17? Okay, yeah, I’m in. You guys know what you’re doing.’
Glen Dower:
So did it feel like they hit the ground running? Did you feel like ‘This is your first movie really? You’re kidding me?’
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Honest to God, not only I felt this way. The other cast members, Tim (Misuradze), Anthony (Candell), and Sarah (José). We all said the same thing. I mean it was my first feature film after my third year of acting. And I’ve already done pretty much a couple of things and been on a couple of sets at that point. I was on Girl in the Box with Zelda Williams. She was on that in that movie. So, I’ve been on very professional sets before, big sets. And to find out these 19-year-old kids were running this set and they really just hit everything. It was on schedule. It was great food. You know what? We were taken care of, rides, everything. It was good. I was just like, ‘You guys ran a set like it was HBO-budgeted.’ I told Braden and Evan then ‘I promise you, somebody’s going to give you guys a ton of money to do this. A ton of money. Just keep doing what you’re doing. The check’s going to come.’
Glen Dower:
And you’ll sign up straight away?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Yeah!
Glen Dower:
Human Resources was shot in 22 days with a cast and crew circa 150, and I have read that everything about the production was incredibly positive. Everyone involved had a can-do attitude. What was it like going to work every morning?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
No, it was great. The energy was amazing. Amazing energy. I think you probably started with a lot of the NBD (Productions) crew. They went to school together or they made projects together already. This is not their first project, it was their first feature, but it’s not their first project. So they were very comfortable working with each other and the way they just embraced all the actors was just, it just felt great. It was amazing to come to work and it was fun, it was. Really, it wasn’t work at all. It was just ‘Hey let’s show up. We’re going to kick it a little bit. I’ll say these lines and then we’ll go have some fun.’
Glen Dower:
Actors do seem to have the most fun on a horror movie set because you forget you’re making something scary.
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Part ridiculous. It’s a suspension of disbelief. That’s really cool. Yeah, love it.
Glen Dower:
You filmed in four locations, including existing hardware stores during their business hours. Did you ever dip into method acting and become a retailer for the day while the stores were open?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Actually, we did film in a couple of ACE Hardware Stores while they were open, and yeah, there was a lot of customer interaction and there were a lot of things going on. The guy that plays the General Manager, Gene, Anthony literally helped a customer mid-scene! It was one of the funniest things I ever saw in my life. Mid-scene. ‘Yeah, it’s over there on Aisle 16.’ I’m like, ‘we can’t use that tape’. So, lots of customer interaction. ‘Am I on camera?’ ‘Yes ma’am. That’s the camera right there. You’re on it.’
Glen Dower:
That’s excellent. Let’s talk about the story itself. We don’t want to give away any spoilers but when you read the script, did you know what the threat would turn out to be? Because there were so many red herrings or red herrings that stayed as such or others that became real threats. Did you know what was going to end up happening?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Not at first. No, not when we were first doing my auditions and the initial rehearsals. It was only down the line later I was like, ‘Okay, I see. Yeah, I see what’s going on here.’
Glen Dower:
Yes, because we have the store owner whose costume, for example, is reminiscent of one worn by Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in another movie franchise for example. We have the weird worker in the headphones, is he just walking around oblivious?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Yeah. It took a little bit to let that sink in because I thought they were definitely going to go in a different direction.
Glen Dower:
So you were surprised? That’s really interesting.
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
I was kind of surprised when I got to the end of it like, oh okay. I thought we were going to deal with this. But you give that. Okay.
Glen Dower:
Possibly it’s good for an actor, as well, to be blindsided. So you feel your character. Sam’s surprise at what’s going on?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Oh, it was really cool. I felt like Sam in that moment.
Glen Dower:
Let’s talk about Sam. I really like Sam. I want to be Sam’s friend. It comes from that first scene in the Drive-Thru. Where we see him as incredibly anxious, with piles of rejection letters and crumpled resumés. Then we feel his joy as he received the job offer, even though it will turn out bad. We know him for three minutes and we root for him already. Playing Sam, did you have to walk a fine line between him being a very anxious and nervous person, and being really wet and needy? Was that a conscious decision to make Sam endearing and empathetic throughout the film?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
I’ll give all that credit to Braden, the director, really. When I came in on day one with an idea of, I think he wants this, even though we did our rehearsals and did all that. But I came in and we rehearsed specific scenes. So day one we’re shooting a different scene. We didn’t really rehearse. And he is like, ‘I like what you did, but I need more stuttering, I need more nervousness.’ (Sam) was not this in my head, this original super-nervous guy as you know, the finished product shows. But Braden was like, ‘Ramp up the nervousness. I need him awkward and just kind of bordering pathetic. So I’ll credit that to Braden and how the Sam character is portrayed. Absolutely. He did a great job. I fully understood the assignment as far as what he wanted me to get done and get
across. And then from then, it was just…
Glen Dower:
The wide eyes and furrowed brow?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Yeah, the brow! Every day I would have to leave set like ‘oh my head’.
Glen Dower:
You needed a massage. Just that little bit.
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
This muscle right here (points to the mid-point of his brow) was just getting a cramp. So, he’s Super Sam. Such a good kid, man. I love that. He’s such a good guy. You just do want to just give him a hug like it’s okay. It’s going to be okay bro.
Glen Dower:
‘It’s going to be okay Sam. It’s going to be okay.’
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
‘Beat these things!’
Glen Dower:
And we are reminded throughout the film he was doing everything for good reasons. He is paying college bills and wants to be a doctor. Sarah’s character keeps calling him ‘Doctor Sam.’ I am not so sure I want Sam as my doctor…
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
No, no!
Glen Dower:
On the operating table for example?
Hugh McCrae Jr.:
Oh no!
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