Exclusive Interview: Annie Ilonzeh, T.I., and Ruby Modine Talk Fear

Annie Ilonzeh, T.I., and Ruby Modine are three of the stars of Fear is in theaters now. .

In this psychological horror, a group of friends gather for a much-needed weekend getaway at a remote and historic hotel. Celebration turns into terror as one by one, each guest faces their own worst fear.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Annie, T.I., and Ruby to talk about Fear is in theaters now. , filming in a haunted lodge, and more!

PC: Annie, the lodge where you all filmed feels like a character in itself. How beneficial was it to have that environment and that ambiance as you stepped into your character’s shoes and this role?
Annie: You get to play with exactly what’s in front of you. I don’t think we had to impose anything to make the place seem haunted. It felt haunted already. It felt dusty as hell. It felt like it hadn’t been lived in by humans, but potentially by spirits and/or ghosts. All the elements were there for us to play off of. We would go into different rooms and see something super odd, greasy, or really weird. There was a tarantula in Terrence Jenkins’ bed. We had all these elements to work with and didn’t necessarily have to come up with things and layer them for our characters. It was there for us for sure. They did a great job with the locations.

PC: T.I., Deon [Taylor] also wrote and directed this film. Is it a different experience when the person who created the film is also at the helm directing?
T.I.: Absolutely. There’s another sense of awareness. He already had the visual aesthetic of the film in mind as he was conceptualizing and writing it. He knew exactly what he wanted to get from the actors. He knew what kind of performance he wanted us to deliver, and he could communicate that very clearly and concisely. I was speaking to Ruby before we started. I said, “Man, I really don’t remember much about the film.” I showed up, I met some great people, we had fun, and that was the case until the day I left. We all had a phenomenal time.

PC: Ruby, all of the characters are exploring their deepest fears, which I imagine requires a lot of vulnerability. As an actress, how do you create this space for yourself to dive into that arc?
Ruby: Like Annie was saying earlier, the house itself was so scary. The atmosphere and energy in this place were so fun to play with. Pulling from that was pretty easy in itself. But we all have fears in general, and to discover and explore the fear that we have within ourselves and bring that into the character was great.

PC: One of Deon’s goals for the film was to have audiences confront their own fears in order to grow, which I know he did having filmed this during the pandemic. Did you all feel similarly? How were you all able to grow as artists being a part of this project?
Annie: I think I was able to. We filmed this during a pandemic. We weren’t really sure what was going to happen. There were a lot of unknowns. To jump into this bubble with this amazing cast and crew, I was still like, “I’m not really sure what we’re doing here.” Everything happened so fast. I had this fear of the unknown and maybe that I wasn’t going to be good enough because I didn’t know what I was doing. It was so, so fast. I wondered, “Do I have this figured out?” I always want to be great. I have to, or it swallows me alive. With that came trust—to trust every dance partner that you’re going to be with. All of us were dancing with each other at a certain point in this film, and we became this dope family and friends. Even though there was this fear, I really trusted that this would work out because of these guys.

T.I.: Right, my experience was very similar to Annie’s. My fear is failure. We were filming this in a closed-off location when they were saying that no films were supposed to be in production. We never knew if we were going to be shut down. We never knew if somebody was going to catch COVID and test positive. Everyone had to step onto this project with faith because it was an independent film. There wasn’t a lot of watching playback or having a lot of takes. We really had to get in there and bring our A-game and trust the vision of Deon and our counterparts. I feel like that trust, that vulnerability, and that concern that we all had for succeeding and performing at our best made for a spectacular film. These two ladies did great. They were phenomenal. They killed it and knocked it out of the park.

Annie: Coming from T.I., I can retire. I’m done. You’re amazing.

Ruby: Annie, I was telling T.I. that when he came on it was profound. He showed up with this energy and was ready to go.

Make sure to follow Annie (Twitter/Instagram), T.I. (Twitter/Instagram), and Ruby (Instagram). Fear is in theaters now.