Bad Haircut Interview: “I Was Stuggling To Let The Character Go.”

Bad Haircut cast and filmmakers discuss how there is so much more to this story than meets the eye, during Fantastic Fest interview.

Director and writer Kyle Misak, along with cast members Frankie Ray (Mick), Spencer Harrison Levin (Billy), and R.J. Beaubrun (Dee), and producer Jon Petro, sat down with Mama’s Geeky to discuss their new film, Bad Haircut, at Fantastic Fest.

The film follows a college student who, after getting a terrible haircut, finds himself in a twisted adventure. The team shares their insights on character development, the delicate balance of comedy and thriller, and the emotional core of the film.

Frankie Ray on Embodying Mick In Bad Haircut

Mama’s Geeky: Frankie, I adore Mick. I really love him. Can you talk about finding this character?

Frankie Ray: Finding this character, I didn’t find him. Kyle had already experienced him when he was young and expanded on him. He gave me two pages of who this guy is, which for an actor at my level, you rarely get. Usually, you get a paragraph. It was so in-depth that it scared me. I fucked up and went too far, and I found myself at the bottom of that hole. The pain that I lived as an unloved person, and the striving to find that, much like this character, was struggling to fit in.

The more freedom Kyle gave us, the deeper down into this hole I got. I called a well-known friend and told him I was struggling to let the character go. He said, “Just be honest.” I just came to the understanding that if I’m going to tell Mick in an honest way, I’ve got to let myself and my experience in life just flow through him. My hope was to bring to the forefront of people’s minds that none of us are any different. We all have this base need to be loved and fit in.

For me, there was no joy in it at all, other than I knew I had something that was meticulously crafted by Kyle. I felt a great responsibility for what was at stake for them in their journey of filmmaking.

Mama’s Geeky: I found myself really caring for Mick, which I was like, “I should not care for this person,” but I’m like, “I get it, all he really wants is love.”

Jon Petro: The characters and one in the same in a really twisted way. We wanted people to have empathy for Mick’s character. Kyle can speak to that. We were not concerned, but some of the things that his character does can easily be unforgivable. From our perspective, are people going to be able to have empathy for someone who does these egregious, wild things?

Kyle Misak: I’m really glad that people had that. We always wanted Mick to have that empathy; we just weren’t sure, “Can this happen with how he does these terrible things?” I think it came down to the casting of Frankie and all these guys. They all have this endearing nature about them. It’s kind of like the Home Alone effect, where they talk about trying to find the right kid to play that person, because anybody else other than Macaulay Culkin would have been a brat and really unlikable.

Spencer Harrison Levin and R.J. Beaubrun on the Script

Mama’s Geeky: Spencer, can you talk about what connected you to Bad Haircut?

Spencer Harrison Levin: Similarly to Frankie, I think a lot of us have felt like Billy at one point or another. The outsider-ness, the inability to connect. I remember Kyle reaching out and saying, “I’m making a movie about a college kid who gets a bad haircut.” I said, “Boy, that’s a terrible pitch, man.” Then he sent me pages of explanation, and I read the script in one sitting. It just gets crazier and crazier, and Billy’s just at the center of it. It not only seemed so fun, but it also seemed like a huge challenge. Billy goes through the wringer as a guy who didn’t even want to step outside of his comfort zone.

Mama’s Geeky: R.J., how about for you? What was it like when you first read the Bad Haircut script for the first time?

R.J. Beaubrun: When I first read the script, I was like, “This is me.” I’m just ragging on my boys; we do that anyway. It’s not something that’s different to me. It’s crazy on the outside looking in on characters like Mick and Billy because I’m more the guy who is just laughing and having a good time. Seeing them having to sometimes step away to get to a certain place or something like that… it’s like, I can feel for them. It’s an emotional scene. I felt very connected. I felt like I was almost really playing me at the same time.

The Shaving Scene Has A Major Impact On The Film

Mama’s Geeky: One of my favorite scenes in Bad Haircut is the trust scene when Billy is shaving Mick. Can you talk about filming that?

Frankie Ray: For me, it’s my favorite scene in the film. Direction-wise, to direct that scene, it’s so subtle. The looks between Billy and the tension he feels. For me as Mick, knowing that I’m carrying a lot of the power in the film, it’s the one place where Brad—he’s Brad to me—has the power. And it’s the place where Mick says, “I trust you.” There’s this tension, and all I hear in my mind is I’m laying in the chair, relaxing because I don’t have to do much. And thinking Kyle’s thinking, “Don’t make it sexual.” It’s just so beautiful to have somebody listen and be there. And I wasn’t in a place to communicate that to you back then.

Spencer Harrison Levin: It’s the first, and maybe last, moment that Billy is comfortable. He can watch a movie, he can understand what Mick is liking about it, and he can have a taco. It’s an even playing field at that point. There are no problems in that moment. And they agree. That’s where I think they meet.

Balancing Comedy and Thriller

Mama’s Geeky: Can you talk about that line between campy? It could go very campy, and it doesn’t. Looking at the poster and reading the synopsis, I was like, “This is going to be a fun, campy movie.” And then I was like, “Oh, this movie is making me feel things.” Can you talk about not going that far?

Kyle Misak: I guess in my mind, it never even crossed my mind that it would be campy. Maybe it was just because I had a vision for what I wanted. We always talked about Disturbia being a great movie as a reference for the tone where it was very grounded but in kind of a movie world. It had that great situational humor and that romance thread. And it always felt real but had this kind of heightened sense to it. So that, in our mind as the filmmakers, we always had that as a reference.

Spencer Harrison Levin: I do think there’s a light element of camp. I think the comedy of it, the movie doesn’t take itself very seriously, but it leans into itself nicely, I think. There’s a balance there.

Kyle Misak: It is an interesting tone. A lot of what people are saying about it is they’re like, “This is a bizarre film,” but they have fun the whole time, which is what we wanted. We set out to do a rollercoaster ride that was fun.

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