Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Beach House’s Noah Le Gros

Noah Le Gros is making waves this year for his breakout performance in the sci-fi horror film The Beach House. Starring opposite Liana Liberato, The Beach House follows two college sweethearts who begin to drift apart. They decided to escape for a romantic getaway with the hopes of reconnecting, but that quickly turns into a fight for survival when unexpected guests and the surrounding environment begin to exhibit signs of a mysterious infection. Pop Culturalist caught up with leading man Noah Le Gros to chat about The Beach House, the art of stepping into a character whom he shares more differences with than similarities, and the film’s important message.

PC: Tell us about The Beach House and your character in the film.
Noah: The Beach House is an indie film directed and written by Jeffrey A. Brown. I play Randall in the film. The Beach House is about two college students, Randall and Emily. Emily is played by Liana Liberato, who does an amazing job. It’s about their experience going back to Randall’s family house on the beach, trying to reconnect and work through their relationship and the differences they have. Then things go in a wildly different direction with the world ending, quite literally, in a lot of ways.

PC: As an actor, you read hundreds and hundreds of scripts. What was it about this particular film that stood out to you?
Noah: It’s difficult to put into words what makes a script good. You know what I mean? With this, I had a feeling. That was really it. While reading the script, I felt something. I could visualize it and it didn’t seem corny or cliché. It’s so original.

I don’t think there’s anything vague about this script. Jeff really knew what he was trying to do throughout the whole process. Sometimes you read things and it seems sort of bland. But with this, it was very clear. That’s what attracted me to it. I also like the genre a lot. Lovecraft is someone I grew up reading, and I like that kind of horror. You don’t see a lot of it, and this was a cool opportunity to explore something like that.

PC: Like you were saying earlier, when we’re introduced to Randall and Emily, they are at different places in their lives. How did you and Liana approach the dynamic between your two characters and the journey that unfolds throughout the film?
Noah: We were both close to the age of these characters when we shot the film. We both know what it’s like to be at that crossroad. I think the cool thing about any film is that you can see aspects of yourself in all the characters.

For Liana and I, we’re both closer to Emily in our real lives as far as knowing what we want and trying to achieve that. But I think everyone has moments where they feel like Randall, especially in your early twenties when you’re like, “What the hell am I doing with my life? What am I going to do?” College is one of those times where you start making real adult decisions. A lot of people at one point or another are looking for what’s next. However many years you get on this earth, you’re always like, “What am I going to do with my time here?” So I think it was very natural as far as the dynamics within those scenes, but I think we have an innate sense of how those conversations go.

Liana’s character has plans. My character has plans. There are things that they’re trying to work through and things they’ve failed at that they’re trying to fix. But then this other worldly force comes into play, and it makes those things very obsolete.

Their relationship could be failing, but when you’re in survival mode, all of that goes out the window. You have to make it work with the people you’re around. In a lot of ways, that’s the story. It’s two people who are drifting apart in a lot of ways that are pulled back together by something that’s completely out of their control.

PC: Great answer. You’ve said in previous interviews that Jeff was one of the main reasons why you wanted to be a part of this film. What was it like collaborating with him on his directorial debut?
Noah: It was awesome. He loves movies so much, and I love movies so much. You want to work with people who have a clear vision of what they’re shooting for. We were very much aligned on influences, and everything he told me to watch, listen to, and read were things that resonated with me. When I met with him, I knew he got it. As far as I can see, all the things that he was saying he wanted the movie to be were things that I thought were cool and I thought would work with the script. He was always so clear about what he wanted, even in moments when he was figuring out how to get there. It was a collaborative effort.

PC: You and Jeff have joked about the fact that you and Randall are very different. How did you prepare to step into his shoes?
Noah: It’s fun to play people that aren’t like you. That’s the whole point of acting, right? That’s what’s attractive about acting. It gives you an opportunity to exist in somebody else’s shoes.

Although I’m very different from Randall in a lot of ways, there are moments when I definitely relate to him. I’m sure, especially now with everyone in quarantine, they’ve wondered, “What am I doing?”

One of the cool things about acting is that you can sit in a character’s shoes for a while and you start to realize that maybe you’re not so different in certain ways as you initially thought.

PC: You all shot this film in 2017 and it’s only grown in relevancy since then. What do you hope audiences take away after they see this film?
Noah: [laughs] Hopefully, they’re less pained. First and foremost, movies should entertain people. It’s interesting. When we made this film, none of us had experienced what we’re all experiencing now. One of the things that I thought was so interesting about the movie is how small and insignificant things like a relationship argument about one person wanting to go to med school and one person just wanting to live by the beach fall in the grand scheme of things when they’re fighting for survival.

Now that we’ve all gone through this experience, people will relate to it in a different way. They’ll look at the issues that some of the characters are facing and they may see parallel experiences in their own lives. But all of that is put on hold when you find yourself in survival mode.

To keep up with Noah, follow him on Instagram. The Beach House is now available on VOD, Digital HD, BD and DVD.