Chloe Van Landschoot is one of the industry’s most exciting new voices. Throughout her career, she’s taken her lived experiences and transformed them into a canvas to tell meaningful stories in front of and behind the camera. It’s that authenticity that’s connected with audiences around the world.
This spring, she reprised her role as Kristi in the critically-acclaimed series, From. The show unravels the mystery of a nightmarish town that traps all those who enter. As the unwilling residents fight to keep a sense of normalcy and search for a way out, they must also survive the threats of the surrounding forest – including the terrifying creatures that come out when the sun goes down.
Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Chloe about From Season 2, exploring her character’s vulnerabilities, bringing her lived experiences to Kristi, and more!
PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling as an actor and a dancer? How have those different mediums lent themselves to each other?
Chloe: I think I’ve always been a creative and a performer, and also had a science brain, too. Getting a job in health care was really aligned with my science brain, and then my creative brain started to see the world of health care as a total canvas for everything I create and all the characters I play. I’ve learned that it’s likely a disassociation because I would start to turn all the chaos into films or dance routines in my head. I’ve always been like that. I’ve always navigated challenging times by creating a film or a story in my brain, and that’s just how I’ve always processed these parts of who I am. They’ve always intersected.
I get asked a lot, “How do you balance nursing and acting and performing.” I’m like, “It’s not a balancing act.” These are parts of who I am that are always in flow. When you’re a creator/artist, your work is a reflection of the life that you’ve lived, and the stories that you want to tell are a reflection of that, too. That’s how I’ve always navigated it.
PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Chloe: I did this film called Lune in 2019 with a woman named Aviva Armour-Ostroff. She’s my biggest inspiration thus far in terms of making my own work. She wrote a play when she was eighteen about having a bipolar father and navigating life. She wrote herself as her father, so she played her father in the play at eighteen. She put it away for a bit and then turned it into a screenplay twenty years later. She wrote herself as a mother and hired me to play the daughter, which was a younger version of herself—essentially, I was her.
Being so close to a story that is so close to somebody else and being a part of that is such an honor and a privilege. She taught me so much about how you are your own stories and that’s what people want to see. You’re unique because no one has lived your life. Tell those stories because they’re compelling. She propelled me into this world of starting to make my own work, starting to really take a look at processing as art, as a form of discovery.
Then a year and a half later, the pandemic happened, and that was a hell hole. I got redeployed to the emergency department, which I hadn’t worked in years. It was chaos and pandemonium, but it was also a total canvas. I always had it in my mind that I was going to turn this into something one day. This experience is going to turn into something else one day. I remember going back and forth with her [Aviva] a lot during those challenging parts of the pandemic. She was like, “Just keep writing. Just keep creating.” I remember her saying that, and then I did. I started dancing again.
I started making all these weird little dance videos when I got home from a really hard shift because I had trouble with words. Words were hard. So many new feelings and experiences were coming up. I didn’t know how to translate it into verbal language, but dance and performance were always such a safe space for me. It was really cool to make these videos and watch them back and be like, “That’s what that was,” or, “Oh, that’s what I was trying to say.” It was an exercise in discovering what I was trying to figure out. Then, it turned into a short film that I created.
It all serves each other in a way. That’s what I’ve learned in the past few years. That’s what I learned on my little journey as an artist. It’s all useful, especially the challenging parts of things that you’re navigating. Those are absolute gold. It’s an experience that people want to understand or learn about, and you can offer that.
PC: Speaking of that short film, Tidal is making its way around the festival circuit. You wrote, co-directed, and star in it. How have your experiences behind the camera impacted the way that you approach your work on screen and vice versa?
Chloe: It was a super interesting process—one of the most rewarding creative experiences that I’ve ever done. I wrote it, but it was mostly improvised. A good friend of mine, Niamh Wilson, who I think you actually interviewed, we directed that together because she’s also a dancer, and a wonderful actor. I really like her instincts with things and because she dances too, we can speak the same language in a way. I really trusted her to be behind the camera while I was figuring it out. We worked really, really well together. That was not only our first time directing something, but also co-directing something.
It was amazing to put into action all of these little things that I took the time to either record or discover during my pandemic days, like all those dance videos, even though they didn’t make it in. They provided a framework for how I wanted to tell the story. To put that into action and find people who want to help you make it, too, is amazing and super special. To be able to translate all of that frenetic energy, that depression, grief, and chaos, into some form of joy to share with other people was amazing.
Being in the editing room with Niamh, especially both being actors, we really took away how micro-moments and how the position of your face when you’re looking at somebody else tells so many stories. It’s these micro-moments that you only get when you’re super present. That was definitely a big takeaway for me. Being behind the camera, going back into acting and playing characters, this device [the camera] catches everything. It doesn’t lie. It’s very powerful.
PC: Season 2 of From is airing now. One of the benefits of television as a medium is the opportunity to live with a character for an extended period of time. Often the showrunners and writers are able to incorporate elements of each of the actors into their characters. How has that collaboration grown from Season 1 into Season 2? How has that trust allowed you to take agency over your character?
Chloe: Great question. I play a med student on the show. Being a nurse and moonlighting as a nurse in my other life was very beneficial and almost immediately established some trust between myself and the showrunners and directors. They didn’t know I was actually a nurse when they hired me, which I love.
There were some scenes in Season 1 where I was like, “This isn’t how this would go. I know we’re in TV land, but could we maybe do it this way? It can still be super suspenseful, but at least it’s medically accurate, and I won’t have med friends being like, ‘Chloe, come on.’” [laughs] I took it on as a responsibility and a duty to the healthcare workers. They were so receptive. They were so grateful and were like, “We want to make it as real as possible. Tell us everything.” That was amazing.
I’m also queer. They originally had Kristi in a heteronormative dynamic back at home. I was like, “Well, you hired me. I’m queer. I’d really like to bring those parts of who I am to her as well.” I was already bringing so much of being an actual health care worker to the role, and leaving this other huge part of who I am behind felt strange. I felt like I had to come at it with all the things of who I am. They were like, “Of course. We love that.” Then, we were gifted with Kaelen Ohm, who plays Marielle, who is amazing.
Again, it’s a reminder that the more honest you are with yourself and who you are, and what you bring, the more they’ll be willing to work with you. It’s super special to have that type of agency over your character. It’s actually not that common, so to be able to bring so much of my life experience to this has been a trip. I’ve come away learning more about my own humanity by playing Kristi. As an actor, that’s what you’re always chasing. It’s been a really, really special meta experience for me.
PC: This season we’re going to get to see Kristi really explore her vulnerabilities, which you brought so much nuance to. As a storyteller, how do you create the space for yourself to dive into that arc, given that it’s such a departure from the Kristi that we meet in Season 1 where she’s so guarded, and holding her cards very close to her chest to do the job at hand?
Chloe: Amazing question. The arrival of Marielle really created a sense of moving all the furniture around in her. She worked really hard in Season 1 to keep her cards close to stay focus because she knows the minute she veers off from that and starts daydreaming about her past life, she won’t be available to her work. I know that firsthand from being a nurse. Interpersonal relationships when you work in healthcare, especially hearing from my med student friends and my doctor friends, are challenging because you are responsible for so much in your day-to-day that you emotionally turn off and that comes home with you. It carries into your relationships and whatnot. You forget how to feel, and it’s a very real thing.
In Season 1, Kristi can get away with that. There are some nuances in terms of how she’s feeling, but she’s not fully embodied in any form of expression. Once she pops that lid, it won’t be good. So Season 2, with the sudden arrival of Marielle, the container on that lid is about to burst. There’s a complete loss of control in that regard because with someone like Marielle, you can’t turn off your feelings, especially when it’s literally out of the blue. You were just considering like fifteen minutes ago, “Am I ever going to see her again? Should I go to Iceland?” It’s these moments of vulnerability. Then, she’s forced to confront everything, and she doesn’t know how. She’s like a cat; she’s frozen and so overwhelmed. She can’t get her words out properly. In terms of arcing that, I didn’t really arc it. I just allowed myself to feel.
Kaelen is a wonderful actor. She brings so much. I just had to trust that the moment will be what it’ll be, and it’ll be true and real, and I’ll go from there. I gave Kristi permission to feel and to see what happens. This season, it’s a lot of battling her duty and her heart. They’re constantly influx. The push and pull and trying to maintain composure in this doctorly way that makes her feel safe and others feel safe, too.
People would start to worry if Kristi was explosive, left, right, and center. She’s always got in the back of her brain, “I can’t lose my cool.” But eventually, she’s a human being confronted with a lot in her life, and her honey is there. She can’t make sense of any of it. What’s interesting is we watch her try, but she’s just losing, which makes it real.
PC: The arrival of Marielle feels like a reflection point for Kristi. How early on did the writers clue you in on her arrival? Did you learn anything new about your character, seeing her from the perspective of another character?
Chloe: I found out before we started shooting Season 2. I wasn’t supposed to find out, but it got slipped to me. I was like, “Wow, okay, crazy. That’s going to be really interesting.” I was like, “Oh, this is how we’re going to get to know Kristi. This is how we’re going to get to learn her humanity.” In Season 1, there weren’t quite those dynamics or scenes to really lean into. Romantic relationships are often how you get to know someone’s insides.
I learned that Kristi freezes when she’s deep in her feelings. It’s not flight or fight; she just freezes. I think that comes from her training and constantly assessing. To see that viscerally, though, when she’s confronted with her, especially in that storeroom in Episode 2 where Marielle is so upset, rightfully so—you see Kristi’s brain trying to figure out what to do. I was like, “Oh my gosh. This poor girl doesn’t quite know what to do. It’s so obvious.” But that deep love she has for Marielle is overwhelming. She just wants to make it right, but she doesn’t know how.
All of that suppression that she’s been doing since she arrived in town, she’s not a very good communicator in terms of her feeling. Who would be in that town? But especially Kristi. She’s completely mixed up. That dynamic this season will be a lot of them trying to find each other.
There’s so much tension there. These two people were catapulted out of each other’s lives and then brought together in a literal hellscape. It’s super interesting to figure out what has changed for Kristi and what’s remained. What’s transformed her? Is she the same person? Marielle would know that looking at Kristi. That’s really interesting and real. It’s funny. A lot of people talk about this love triangle between Marielle and Kenny. I don’t like that word “triangle”. I don’t like to shape a dynamic. It’s not that at all. It’s these three people in these insane circumstances trying to figure out what they mean to each other and how much they’ve changed.
PC: This series has been able to tackle so many universal themes through a horror lens. Why do you think this genre lends itself to this type of storytelling?
Chloe: Because it’s actually not that far from the world that we’re living in on a macro level. It wasn’t that long ago that we were living in an absolute endemic hellscape, and the monsters were microscopic, killing people. You can say that about a lot of the things going on in the world right now. There are wars left, right, and center. There are people being monsters to each other. It’s super real. It’s heightened on TV, and there are different types of monsters, but there are also beautiful people who come together to figure out how to survive and why we want to keep surviving. What’s pushing us to wake up the next day? You find camaraderie with people to keep going. That’s super real. The show does lend itself to exploring those universal themes of what keeps you going.
PC: This is the longest that you’ve lived with a character? Has anything surprised you about the overall experience? What did you learn about your craft through this process?
Chloe: Great questions. I love these. I learned that it’s always best when you bring as much of yourself as possible to anything. These characters, no matter how hard you try to control them, you might share the same breath and heartbeat, but they start to take a life of their own, which I find so interesting. I’m watching it, and I’m like, “That’s me, but it’s not me.” Even though I’m trying to bring all of who I am to this, there’s something else that happens between the writing, a chemical reaction, and the directing that shifts it away and turns it into its own being, which feels like magic and really cool.
You only get to see that when you are living with a character for so long. I’m starting to see she’s become more and more of a departure of who I am, but not for any conscious effort. All I want to do is bring all of me to something, but they start to shapeshift. You’re always growing and changing, and so are your characters. At a certain point as an actor, you’re a parent to it. You nurture it and make sure it doesn’t veer off too much, but you let it turn into what it wants to become. We also have an amazing writer, director, and showrunner who won’t lead you astray either. So, I think letting it take a life of its own is really (and it’s been), really cool. It also takes a bit of pressure off, too. There’s such a surrender to it, which is amazing and special. Then you come away learning more about yourself, too.
To keep up with Chloe, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch From on MGM+ today.
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Wonderful interview. Insightful questions that allowed Chloe to delve into subjects and character aspects not discussed in prior interviews. This interview allowed me to learn more about Chloe and Kristi. Well done!!