As anyone who’s watched the 2015 Polish horror/musical masterpiece The Lure can attest, mermaids are supposed to be scary. They’re not humans with fish tails – they’re monsters of the deep. This appears to be the understanding of writer/director Tyler Cornack as he approached his new horror/comedy/drama Mermaid, starring the ubiquitous Johnny Pemberton.
Synopsis
Mermaid tells the story of Doug (Pemberton), a shiftless addict living in his late father’s shadow. Everything seems to fall apart for Doug at once: he’s fired from his job, he owes his dealer Ron (Robert Patrick) more money than he has, and he can’t connect with his daughter Layla (Devyn McDowell). Hitting rock bottom and seeking an exit, Doug takes his boat out to the water for a rendezvous with fate: a wounded mermaid, whom he names Destiny (Avery Potemri). He brings the creature home and attempts to nurse her back to health, setting into motion a series of events that quickly spiral out of control in ways that can only be explained by way of Florida.
Writer/Director Tyler Cornack frames this film as a “love letter to Florida,” though it’s quickly apparent that his vision of America’s most infamous state is a twisted one. Featuring unexpected performances from Pemberton, Patrick, Kevin Nealon, Kevin Dunn, and Tom Arnold, Mermaid is a lean, near-perfect film for the depraved among us who prefer our fairy tales with dark humor and subversion.
Interview
We had the chance to chat with Johnny Pemberton about his portrayal of Doug in Mermaid as well as his budding career in film and television. Pemberton has been a near-constant presence on screens big and small over the last decade with appearances in FOX’s Son of Zorn and NBC’s Superstore, Prime Video’s Fallout, 2019’s sleeper horror/comedy Tone-Deaf, and (ironically) HBO’s It’s Florida, Man.
Eric McClanahan:
So, we’re talking about the movie Mermaid, which is wild; a lot of fun, dark. The director himself said right in the opening titles that it’s a love letter to Florida. What was your prior experience with the legend of Florida and the “Florida Man”?
Johnny Pemberton:
I grew up in Minnesota but I went to college in Florida; I went to Florida State University for four years – a little more than four years, actually. So my experience with Florida was going to school down there, and also my grandma did live in Florida for a number of years, in Vero Beach, and we would visit her from time to time. But I think Tallahassee, Florida is more… that was the real “Florida-Man” type vibe, I learned.
I remember one night I was at a house party and I met a guy who was about 5’4″, had a ponytail, his name was Rob, and he was selling ecstasy. He had a Southern accent; also he was an alligator hunter. And I thought, “this is insane, that this guy was at a random house party, he didn’t know anybody there, he was an alligator hunter, and he was selling drugs.” Like, that is very Florida to me.
Eric McClanahan:
One hundred percent. Let’s talk about Doug; Doug has a lot of opportunities throughout the film to do the right thing, and in his way he thinks he is doing the right thing, but he’s not necessarily a good guy. Tell me about what personal stories you tapped into to portray Doug.
Johnny Pemberton:
I don’t know that I would say there were any personal stories that brought me into Doug as a character. I think it was more about wearing who he was, his experiences. Maybe I did bring some experience wherein I had major surgery a few years ago and I was on a lot of pain-killers, so I know that feeling: the heaviness, the slowness of being super high to your gills on pain-killers. I would say I tapped into that.
But otherwise, I would agree with what you’re saying about Doug and his morality, it wavers, and is not super clear; I don’t think he really knows, either. So it’s one of those things where I’m just playing the reality of the moment and the reality of the character, as much as I know about the character. Which was something we developed for a while before we started filming, was trying to find this voice of Doug. So, I think it’s just about that, about playing the reality of his voice and that includes that sort of moral ambiguity you’re talking about.
Eric McClanahan:
Speaking of the reality of the moment, the titular mermaid, Destiny, appears to be fully practical, as opposed to acting in something like, say, Son of Zorn. How was having a very practical screen partner able to assist you in the filming of Mermaid?
Johnny Pemberton:
It’s so incredible to have the practical effect there. When I first saw her, because there were huge delays in the creation of the mermaid, a variety of different problems, but once I finally go to see her, I couldn’t look away. It really helped significantly because I think I was, myself, having the reaction that Doug would have, because I was just fascinated by this thing in front of me; it was so life-like and interesting and strange-looking. So, as they say, no acting required.
Eric McClanahan:
While I’ve got you, I do want to talk about Son of Zorn, because I was such a huge fan of the show.
Johnny Pemberton:
That’s great.
Eric McClanahan:
It seemed like an almost insurmountable task. The overhead on that show had to be insane. What was filming that show like for you?
Johnny Pemberton:
Filming Son of Zorn was tough. The first three weeks I had a headache every single day after filming because we didn’t even have a tennis ball to look at. I had to learn a whole new way of acting by tracking something that isn’t there while speaking to it, and I got really good at it. I feel like now I have this weird skill where I can just pick any spot in space and I can focus on it and pretend something’s there. That was really hard, super difficult. Yeah, it was a really tough go at that. Also we didn’t have the actor there who was playing the character you’re speaking with, so [a lot] of it came together in the edit and stuff like that.
It was really difficult, but we found our legs after a little while, pun intended, I guess. Yeah, it was a hard show. I think it would have gone much longer. They were planning on going a few more seasons, but there was all kinds of stuff happening behind the scenes that was out of our control. Also, like you mentioned, the post-production required was so difficult that they didn’t realize how much time it was going to take to do it all so that was another contributing factor to not going further. But I always love hearing people who love the show, because it was such a special show.
Eric McClanahan:
It was so singular, very “lightning in a bottle,” that show. Let’s go back to Mermaid and Doug, because characters you’ve played prior to this all have something of a redemption arc; Thaddeus from Fallout, Bo from Superstore. Did you have a tendency to want to make Doug more sympathetic or genuine than he might’ve actually been?
Johnny Pemberton:
I don’t know. I mean, I think that’s one of those things where every person sees it differently. With Doug that was never a thought; I was never thinking about anything like that. I don’t know if I even think that some of those other characters even have that redemption arc because it just depends on who’s watching. Because some people think one transgression is unforgiveable and some people don’t even notice it. I think with Doug it’s just the reality of the situation and I was playing his perspective and getting lost in that as much as I could, because he was so different than myself, personally, that I had to not think about too much and just live in it, which was not that hard.
Eric McClanahan:
I’ve got time for one more question, and that’s going to be about some of the amazing actors you worked with on this film. What scene partner did you find to be the most intimidating or welcoming that you worked with?
Johnny Pemberton:
Well, I would say that everyone was incredibly welcoming. I had worked with Robert Patrick before on a movie just for a few days that my friend Ricky Bates made called Tone-Deaf. Robert is very intimidating but he’s also just one of the most wonderful people that exists. He’s got so much energy and he just brings so much when you’re working with him. It’s just incredible. I loved getting to work with him so much on this. We’re still friends.
Also, Kevin Nealon, who I got to meet on Mermaid and he’s kind of playing against type in the film. He’s such a funny guy and friendly and just wonderful. Everyone was so wonderful. We didn’t have any problems at all with anybody, whatsoever. Just that, alone, is such a great thing because there are so many horror stories. I’ve been involved with a lot of horror stories where you have the worst person ever whose not only bad on-screen but they’re bad in-person, which is the double [whammy] – you can’t do that. Pick one. You can’t do both. But we didn’t have that problem, at all.
Eric McClanahan:
Well, that’s our time. Thank you so much for chatting with me, Johnny, and best of luck with Mermaid.
Johnny Pemberton:
Thank you, Eric.
