Exclusive Interview: Wrenn Schmidt on Bringing Care, Empathy, and Emotional Honesty to Beth’s Story in ‘Blow the Horn’

Wrenn Schmidt brings extraordinary sensitivity to Blow the Horn, grounding the film in a performance of remarkable restraint and emotional depth. As Beth, a kindergarten teacher attending couples’ therapy with her husband, Robert (Dallas Roberts), she brings nuance to a woman navigating the complexities of love and obligation. With care and empathy, Wrenn makes Beth’s emotional experience palpable long before its circumstances become clear, giving each revelation a profound human weight.

Directed by Nacho Arenas, Blow the Horn follows three couples who arrive at an artist’s studio in Brooklyn for what each believes will be a private session with their psychologist. Instead, they discover their therapist has left them a letter and eight envelopes, tasking them with conducting their own group therapy session. As pointed questions give way to unexpected revelations, the gathering becomes an increasingly unsettling examination of intimacy, trust, and the truths we conceal from those closest to us.

With Blow the Horn premiering at the Woodstock Film Festival, Pop Culturalist spoke with Schmidt about the care behind her portrayal of Beth, building a shared history with scene partner Dallas Roberts, and finding the emotional truth in what her character leaves unspoken. She also reflected on Beth’s relationship with poetry and the unexpected pursuits that fuel her own creativity.

PC: Blow the Horn is making its premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival this weekend. It’s a project whose impact is going to extend beyond the screen. There’s such a healing quality to it that I think will resonate with audiences. When this project first came across your desk, what drew you to this script?
Wrenn: It was three things. First, it was the cast that Nacho Arenas, our director, had already started to put into place because there were a few actors who were already attached.

Then, there was the character of Beth. I got my Equity card through the national Broadway tour of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I understudied the role of Honey. There were so many things about this role that felt very eerily similar to Honey without being the same. That was a role that I got to do many times in rehearsal but never got to perform on a stage. So I thought, “Well, this would be wild, to do something that’s in the same sandbox but different.”

And then, lastly, I just really liked the story. I liked that I didn’t know where it was going as a reader. I always think when a script can do that, it’s incredibly compelling because when you read a lot of scripts, there comes a point at which you’re like, “I know what’s going to happen.” I really liked that this one had a lot of surprises.

PC: Especially at the end. It does have this play-like quality to it. The film brings us into the lives of these three couples at very different stages of their relationships, and their histories gradually emerge as they have to confront these difficult questions and be vulnerable with one another. How did you and Dallas use that rehearsal process to explore that shared history and build the trust needed as scene partners to portray such a fractured relationship?
Wrenn: That’s a great question. Sometimes, in the work that we do, it’s really helpful to be on the same page about everything. Other times, you don’t necessarily need to be because people can arrive at the same place from different roads. You don’t necessarily have to share that in order to reach that meeting point. But I felt like Dallas and I worked really well together. He was really lovely and easy to work with. There were certain things that we would agree on about Robert and Beth. We talked about where he was from, where I was from, how we met, where he was from originally, what his job was like, when he was around, and when he wasn’t around. Those things helped fill in where the starting point was.

I also did a lot of work on my own about who this person was before she met Robert. What was it about Robert that was attractive to her? There are clues in the script, but I also think there are things in the script that I extrapolated on and that felt like they were important for me to know. But it wasn’t stuff that I needed Dallas to know. There were certain things that would light up a scene or a certain moment for me.

Dallas is also such a good actor. There were certain scenes where I was like, “I don’t even need to imagine anything. I just need to look into Dallas’ eyes, and they’re like daggers.” [laughs] That was good enough for me. So it helps when you have a good scene partner.

I really love analogies. I feel like in a film like this, it’s almost like you and the other actors are sewing a quilt together. Sometimes you’re sewing different pieces. Everybody, like the director and the DP, is adding to that final piece. But each of us actors was filling in things. Then there were other things that we needed to talk about, so it was really a mix of both.

PC: What the script does so beautifully is show the complexity of love and how relationships can evolve and change over time. Something that really resonated with me about your character is the weight and responsibility she feels to be everything for everyone else before considering her own happiness. Poetry was a source of fulfillment for her. What do you turn to for your own creative fulfillment?
Wrenn: That’s a really great question. No one has ever asked me that before. I don’t know if I can answer your question directly, but the thing that’s springing to mind isn’t a creative thing, although I think if you get good at it, it can be. I started training in Muay Thai a month and a half ago. I feel like what that does for me is clear my brain space because it’s so physically and mentally demanding. Because I’m so bad at it, it puts me in a place where, by the end of it, it’s impossible for me to think about anything else. It quiets my mind. I feel like it’s meditative in a way.

Then the other thing that I’ve been doing that I really love is taking a lot of clown classes. It’s one of the most exciting and terrifying things that I’ve ever done in my life. There’s nowhere to hide. You immediately know if people are into what you’re doing or not because they’re either laughing or they’re not. It’s automatic feedback.

What else have I been doing? I sew a lot. I love mending clothes. I used to sew clothes in and after college, but now it’s more about mending. I’m doing sashiko stitching, which is a Japanese method of mending. I find that to be meditative and creative because how you choose to create the design that’s covering up something can be really cool. At one point, I went down to the L.A. Public Library and checked out all these books about how to stitch and embroider in a way that creates a whole new landscape. But I was like, “Crap, I have too much going on for me to do this.” [laughs] I tend to go on tangents. I’ll get really into one thing for a while and then shift to another. But those are the things right now.

PC: That goes back to the analogy you mentioned earlier about sewing. This is such an incredible performance in showing how much can be said without dialogue. Before we understand what Beth’s experiencing, we feel it through the way she carries herself, the looks that she gives, and the moments when she wants to speak but holds back. Given the sensitivity of the subject matter, how did you prepare for the role and navigate that balance between taking up space as a performer and conveying Beth’s more reserved and guarded nature because of everything she’s been through? As audience members, we immediately empathize with her without knowing what she’s been through.
Wrenn: That’s another really good question. There’s this really amazing book that I read a long time ago. It’s so interesting. I’ve come back to it a number of times. It’s a book by an author named Rachel Louise Snyder called No Visible Bruises. I’ve read it a number of times, and there are so many things in that book that are applicable to the film and what Beth is going through.

When you’re dealing with a situation like the one she’s in, everything’s carefully constructed and crafted in a way to not provoke anything, to not rock the boat. Everything is very careful and cautious to keep the equilibrium. There’s a degree of having that always be present in the scene and in her relationship, gauging where he’s at and his temperature.

The other piece to that is she’s a shy person. So I think at times it’s physically painful and hard for her to be in a group of other people, particularly when people are being that open and vulnerable. The thing that she uses to make her feel like her skin isn’t on fire all the time is the thing that she’s not supposed to have.

I think there are a number of people who think, “If I can just quiet these things and relax, things will be all right.” It’s why a lot of people turn to substance abuse. They’re dealing with a lot. That’s another thing that’s going on. She’s an alcoholic. She’s always desperate to drink and has not had a drink in a long time. That’s always a low-threshold hum for her.

To keep up with Wrenn, follow her on Instagram.

Photo Credit: Gwen Capistran