[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Final Destination Bloodlines.’]
Mid-way through his conversation with IndieWire, Richard Harmon paused for a passing truck. Already on location for his next movie, the “Final Destination Bloodlines” actor stepped offset in sunny British Columbia to pick apart his performance as Erik Campbell in Warner Bros.’ hit reboot.
Directed by Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky, the sixth installment in New Line’s beloved freak accident franchise is the best movie of its kind. It also has one of the funniest and most relatable characters in the series: a magnetic fan favorite Harmon was destined to play but who the actor calls “misunderstood.”
“I’m not bad, just drawn that way,” he quipped on behalf of them both. A testament to Harmon’s kaleidoscopic talent — and a fitting ode to the friendly 2000s faces genre fans once had to loiter in Hot Topic to meet — the hilarious alt sweetheart is a great excuse to quote Jessica Rabbit. Promoting the vicious summer blockbuster, which opens on a high-res restaurant collapse set in the ’60s that feels very “Looney Tunes,” Harmon has readily defended his complex performance to the press.
“Obviously, I wanted him to be likable,” the actor told IndieWire. “The amount of interviews I’ve done where people are like, ‘So, Richard, you play a bit of a dick!’ And I have to keep fighting back on that.” An accomplished Canadian actor, who made his debut in the cult classic “Trick ‘r Treat,” Harmon has spent his career haunting across genres with memorable indie appearances (including 2013’s “If I Had Wings”) and a slew of horror TV performances, from “The 100” to “Bates Motel.”
Sacrificed to a second triumphant weekend at the box office, Erik Campbell doesn’t survive “Bloodlines,” but the impact of Harmon’s tragicomic arc suggests a “Final Destination” legacy all its own. From a surprise reunion with former school classmate Max Lloyd-Jones to several alternative Jerry Fenbury reactions left on the cutting room floor, read on for lifelong franchise fan Richard Harmon’s complete post-mortem account of the dreamiest nightmare in his filmography so far.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
You love these movies, famously. Tell me about your history with “Final Destination.”
Well, I was 11 when the second one came out, and I remember me and a few of my elementary school friends were having a sleepover. I forget whose parents’ house it was, but they didn’t look at the rating of the film that they rented for us. Our request was the second “Final Destination,” so that was the first one I saw actually. And we were just howling. We loved it. Well, some people couldn’t watch it. But I could watch it and I loved it. Then, I went back and watched the first one, and then I watched the third, fourth, fifth, and now I’m in the sixth. I’ve watched them over and over and over and over again. The one that I’ve seen the least is mine, but I’m sure that I’ll eventually have seen it the most.
What do you like about them as a comfort watch?
I’m just a real horror movie fan. “Comfort watch” is the right way to put it. It’s very soothing to make light of death, which I don’t think we get the opportunity to do very often in our real lives, because it’s obviously the thing we fear the most. But for an hour and a half when you’re watching a “Final Destination” movie, you get to kind of root for death, which is rare. That’s pretty fun and kind of takes away from the constant fear we all have.
Take me back to your debut with “Trick ‘r Treat” and your first credit as Vampire Kid.
When I was 15, I was thinking about quitting acting, you know? I was a teenager, so I didn’t take it very seriously back then. I just knew that I loved being on set, but I hadn’t booked any big roles or anything up to that point. I kept having to spend time doing auditions that I never booked, and, you know, poor 15-year-old me, I guess, he was frustrated.
Then, I got an audition for “Trick ‘r Treat,” and I said, “OK, fine, this is my last audition. I’ll give it a chance.” Got a callback. Got another callback. Got to meet Mike Dougherty, who directed it and wrote it. He’s an amazing, amazing filmmaker, and I ended up getting the role. But even then, I was saying, “Well, I’ll leave the business this way after this.”
It was a two-month shoot, which at that point was the longest I’d ever done. And of course, I just fell in love with it and suddenly thought, “There’s no way I can quit this. I need to make this work!” I started working a lot harder than I had before, and said to myself, “If you’re really going to do this, take it seriously.” I was already in love with Halloween and horror but with “Trick ‘r Treat,” it was even more so.
How did you end up auditioning for “Final Destination Bloodlines”?
It was funny! My agent sent it to me over an email that said, “You have an audition for ‘Final Destination Bloodlines.’” And I just thought, “No way, they’re bringing back the franchise? I gotta be a part of this!” I auditioned for Erik. I thought I did really well. Then, I didn’t hear back for eight months. I knew when they were supposed to start shooting it, so I was like, ‘I didn’t get that.’ I even auditioned to play my grandfather in the ’60s, but I’m so much more Erik. I’m not this all-American heartthrob like Max Lloyd-Jones. We went to high school together, oddly enough.
Really? That’s crazy.
Same grade. We were the two actors. Now, he’s playing my granddad. [Laughter.] But I knew I was never going to book that — and I didn’t. Eight months went by and the strikes happened. When production came back, they said again, “You have an audition for ‘Final Destination Bloodlines.’” And I got a little pissy about it and was like, “I already auditioned for Erik. I already did this role. They can just see my old tape.”
That’s a very Erik reaction.
[Laughter.] Yeah, but my agent was like, “Richard, please. Just do the audition.” So, I did it and the very next day, I’m getting off this red-eye flight into New York City. I had barely slept, and suddenly they’re asking, “Can you be available to do a Zoom with the directors tomorrow?” I was still in New York, staying on my friend’s couch, and I told my friend, “You got to leave.”
So, I did it with them and I thought it went well. I kept saying to myself, “God, I would love to be a part of this.” They took a week and I knew it was coming down to me and a couple other guys. I’m hoping. I’m praying. Then, I got the call from my agents that I had booked it, and I bawled my eyes out. I cried on my kitchen floor. It was like the greatest thing that’s ever happened. I sit here on this bench now, and I still believe it might be the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. Other than meeting my girlfriend and all that, of course. But this is up there!
When were you able to chat with your former peer/eventual grandfather about both getting cast in “Bloodlines”? What was Max’s reaction?
We were on set, actually. I came to the first day, when they were shooting some of the stuff in the ’60s. I just wanted to get the vibe of the production because every film and TV set brings its own. So even though I wasn’t working, I wanted to show up, hang out, see how our wonderful directors Adam and Zach worked, and figure out how to best prepare myself. That’s where I saw Max. We had a big hug, and it was pretty wild! We couldn’t believe we were both in this(*).
(*) In an email to IndieWire, Lloyd-Jones reacted to Harmon’s performance and wrote, “I’ve been so impressed watching Richard’s rise since we first met in Mr. Grenier’s 8th grade drama class at Sentinel Secondary School.” He continued, “I felt very lucky to share the stage with my boy. His screen presence is magnetic and it made me very happy to watch him get the biggest laughs and in my opinion the gnarliest death of the franchise.”
Richard, you, Max, and Zach, you’re all Canadian, right? I feel like a lot of people don’t know the country’s history with the franchise.
Yeah, a lot of it was shot in Vancouver. All of them except for the fourth one, really. That was Atlanta and New Orleans. But other than that, it’s been a Vancouver franchise. Most of the leads aren’t from Canada, but in this one, we have me, we have Max, and we have Kaitlyn Santa Juana as Stefani, who’s our wonderful number one and my character’s cousin. We’re all locals, which is rare to book a big budget film in Vancouver as one of the locals. You rarely ever get that opportunity. We were finally able to break that door down, I guess.
Do you think that’s part of why you had such great chemistry with your cast? Anna Lore’s not from there, but she was saying what an amazing time she had.
It was so special for all of us. It didn’t matter where any of us were from. Anna’s in Los Angeles now. Owen Patrick Joyner’s from Oklahoma. Rya Kihlstedt is in Los Angeles, too. But it was just sheer luck that every single person on this cast was so nice. We fell in love with each other so much and became a family. I’ve been texting them this morning. We’re on a group chat that hasn’t stopped since we were filming the movie.
Does it have a name?
Final Dipshits.
You’ve got two major scenes in “Bloodlines,” including the rare “Final Destination” fake-out. Let’s start with Erik getting strung up by his nose ring at the tattoo shop. How was that?
It was only the second week of shooting, and it was just amazing to film. I was on wires. There was real fire underneath me. I’m literally being hung by my nose. They built that whole set inside of a studio so they could have wire tracks all along the ceiling. No acting was needed, really.
How did that work from a practical perspective?
There was something inside of my nose. Do you know those things that sort of open your nostrils? They’re for people that can’t breathe through their noses when they’re sleeping. They had that, but they reversed it, almost. It was able to spread pressure across my nose so it wasn’t too heavy on any one area of my nostril. That was great because then I wasn’t in so much pain. Then, they put me up on the wires, which kind of went through the chain that you see attached to my nose. They hid them up through that, and when I moved, they were able to follow me and hold me so I didn’t fall flat on my ass. But, yeah, they basically just lit the fire and let me go. It was incredible.
And you truly had a good time doing all of that? It wasn’t—
It was some of the most fun I have ever had. Seriously.
Let’s keep going in order. Your next scene isn’t Erik’s biggest but you play a critical part setting up Julia/Anna’s moment with the garbage truck. That’s also the first real kill in the Campbell family. How did you feel about approaching that scene and teeing up your sister’s demise?
That’s the thing. We’re all so excited to meet our dooms in these films. That’s what these movies do to you. Like, I wanted to die. I wanted to die horribly! To set that scene up, we actually had a little bit of an issue that day because the dump truck stopped working. It just stopped picking things up, which is obviously a problem when you’re putting a stunt actor inside and legitimately throwing her into a pile of blankets and pillows. We had to move it to another day because, as a rule, you have to make a stunt work like a hundred times without fail before you can even think about putting a performer in there.
When we came back to redo it, I thought it worked beautifully. What I love about that scene is that the whole thing takes place in soft focus in the background while Erik is talking, but you still see everything that’s happening to Julia. You see her get hit in the head with that ball and then just flip right into the trash. It might be my favorite death in the movie. It’s absolutely hilarious.
It’s so effective and snaps the focus onto Erik just as the emotional side of “Bloodlines” is really starting to hit. Chatting with Adam and Zach, they went on and on about how much improv you did for the film. Was Jerry Fenbury in the script? How did we get there?
Ah, Jerry Fenbury. [Laughter.] I’m hoping there’s a bonus feature on the DVD that includes the like 35 different takes we did for that scene. Jerry Fenbury was in the script, but how I reacted to it was not. I knew I was supposed to be heartbroken, go to leave, and then my mom, April Telek, would follow me out. But Zach and Adam were like, “Hey, if you wanna throw something in when you leave, like a little button, just do it.” I’ve got plenty of those. So, that’s where we found, “Is that why he always wants to play catch?” We had a lot of takes, but I did a different one every single time. That was the only time I ever said that.
Can you give me some alts?
One we couldn’t use because we had to call cut when Kaitlyn and the rest of them broke down laughing. As I left the room, I had a tear in my eye, and I turned around and I was like, “Oh, God, is that why he always calls me Buckaroo?“
Another one was like, “Is that why he always hands me hard candies?” Or, “Is that why he came to every single one of my swim meets?” I’m trying to remember all of them now. There were more than 30 of them. “Is that why he always follows me into the park?” “Is that why he sends me Christmas cards every year?”
There was one where he wasn’t a loser. The whole impression you get of Jerry Fenbury from their reaction to it, especially Owen’s reaction as my brother, is that he’s a fucking loser. When Bobby hears it, he’s like, “Oh, God. Not him.” So, for one of the takes, I switched it up to Jerry not being a loser. I heard the cue, looked at April, and went, “Fuck, mom. Fenbury got you too?!“
We had a lot, a lot, a lot of takes that I hope one day I get to see(*).
(*) Speaking with IndieWire, “Final Destination Bloodlines” editor Sabrina Pitre said she’d be happy to take on the project — adding, “I was completely spoiled with choices because of Richard.”
You also had options for props. How did you choose the Show Me Your Kitties mug?
We had five different mugs, and I chose the Show Me Your Kitties mug, which in fact now lives at my house. I fully took it. I forget what the other options were because that had to be it. I don’t even use that mug. It’s on my mantle. One of our prop guys snuck it to me at the end of the day. I was like, “Dude, I want this mug.” He looked at me, then he looked around, and then he shoved it into my hand and said, “Walk away. Now.” And I went, “OK, yep!”
In the history of “Final Destination,” “Bloodlines” is the first film to really capture the feel of the franchise’s overall legacy. Erik is one of the more sympathetic victims of Death’s Design, if only because the Jerry Fenbury reveal tells us he’s in a situation that he could have walked away from. What can you share about getting Erik to that hospital? And who do you think he is at his core?
That was maybe my favorite thing about playing this character, that he looks like a horror trope. When people see the way I look as Erik, and see the tattoos and piercings that they put on me, they make an assumption about every other alt-looking emo, punk-rock character that we’ve seen played in the genre since the ’80s, you know? I feel like that trope came around then and we haven’t left it. First and foremost because it’s a trope that works.
I’m not shitting on any actor that has done that trope and done that trope well. But what I loved about doing Erik was that, when I read the script and saw in the tattoo scene that it says that he opens his phone to see a photo of him and his dad, it informed me. I knew then that he cared about his family more than anything. That’s actually Erik’s driving force, which I don’t know if it originally was supposed to be. But to me the number one thing about him is that he cares about his family. He doesn’t have to follow Bobby, but he’s like, “I’ll be damned, that’s still my brother.” Even if Fenbury-wise, he’s not exactly. That’s still his little brother and he won’t let him die.
And it’s such an emotional scene! I’m telling you, I cried.
Yay! I don’t know why I’m saying, “Yay!” But, yay! I’m so glad you cried.
Erik seems like someone horror fans will really relate to. He’s countercultural and independent, but he also does the right thing — and he does the hard thing — only to get screwed for it. That’s tragic.
Totally. Even when he doesn’t believe Kaitlyn’s character, Stefani, because why would he at that point, he sees that she’s making his mom cry and is confrontational about it. Critics have said to me, “Why was he so rude to her on the way out of the door?” When he’s like, “Fuckin’ stop.” With that, I keep saying it’s because he’s telling her to back off. Like, “I’m the man of the house now. My dad is dead. I’m not gonna fucking stand here and let you break my family’s heart again and again. So fuckin’ stop it right now.” Erik dies next, and he says that to Stefani because he’s starting to realize that she’s going down a path that will hurt his family. Erik would never just allow that to happen.
Please, take me inside the MRI machine. What was it like shooting Erik and Bobby’s deaths and the comedy beats leading up to that? The moment with the nursery is great.
Oh, we love that. So much of that was ad lib. In the script, the line was like, “No, no, we could never.” But then me and Owen just kept looking back at the babies and riffing. My favorite line in the entire movie is actually Owen’s in that scene. Erik looks back at the nursery an obnoxious amount of times and Bobby just goes, “Don’t hurt those babies.” It’s so good.
Owen gave one of my favorite performances in the movie just by being so genuine. He was another one that could have been a horror trope. People shorthand Bobby as a himbo or jock, which is kind of originally what that character was. I remember in the script at one point, he was introduced by handing Stefani a beer. He was going to have a football with him all the time too, stuff like that. But Owen played Bobby as the most genuine sweetheart you could ever find — and that made it so easy for me. Owen is stronger than me. He is bigger than man. But Erik and Bobby still have that brotherly dynamic where it doesn’t matter how big the little brother gets, big brother’s still big brother.
How did you keep that focus while managing everything on the practical side?
Going into the MRI machine was incredible, but with characters, it’s about the details. It was maybe the third scene that Owen and I shot, all during our first week. We knew it was going to be funny, but it was also important emotionally that you could see Erik being cocksure about his plan and also scared of it, because he really doesn’t know that it’s going to work. He just wants to save Bobby
I give so much credit to our directors. I think it was Zach who said, “On the next take, when you say, ‘I’m not gonna let you die,’ you are gonna let him die. So realize that and say it.” That works in the scene because it’s funny but also heartfelt. You have that and you have the tears in my eyes, while I’m looking at him like, “Technically, I’m going to let you die — but I am bringing you back!” That’s where the family love comes in and our chemistry as actors, which came together right when we first met, comes in to help really convey, “He’s my brother.”
There’s a sense of affection in that scene and the rest of the movie that is just so infectious. I’m thinking about the garbage truck moment with Julia again, when she notices that heart-shaped burn on your arm next to the “DAD” tattoo. What does she call you there?
Oh, my God, Kiki. She calls me Kiki! Anna threw that in on the first take, and I was like, “Did she just call me fuckin’ Kiki?” It’s weirdly perfect. Erik. Kiki. Somehow it makes sense.
Knowing how much you enjoy the other “Final Destination” movies, I have to ask you about working with the late great Tony Todd. What do you remember about meeting him?
I mean, you have a legend like Tony Todd, who I’ve been watching since I was a kid. I saw “Candyman” when I was probably 13 or 14. The voice and all that, it sticks with you. Then, you have him come to set and you can see he’s not well when he gets there, but you never would’ve been able to tell by his face — because all he did was smile. All he did was remind us to have fun. He just kept asking, “Are you having fun?” And I said, “I am, Mr. Todd.” And he said, “It shows.”
He also said, “Never forget these are the best times.” And he was right. He was so welcoming and kind, particularly for a man who has played all sorts of evil in his career. He was everything you could ever hope him to be. That ending bit with him when he leaves, that wasn’t in the script either. The directors just said, “Say whatever you’d like on the way out, say goodbye to the fans.”
To me, it was pretty clear that he wasn’t just saying goodbye to the fans. He was saying goodbye to everything. It was beautiful to see. I was crying on the other side of the camera, for sure. It was the perfect goodbye. Not just to the “Final Destination” fandom, but to everyone that’s ever loved Tony Todd and watched him on screen.
It breaks my heart that Erik can’t come back for another “Final Destination,” but you definitely made your mark on the franchise. Are you walking away with any ink for the movie? Are you a tattoo guy?
I have 12, actually. I’m going to get a little skull somewhere, and I think Owen is going to get one as well. It’s the perfect tribute. This movie changed my life. Whatever I book next is going to be because of “Final Destination.” I don’t know what it’ll do for me. I have no idea. But it changed my life. I got to knock-off not just a bucket list thing, but something that meant so much to me that I feel lucky to be part of its family.
From Warner Bros. and New Line, “Final Destination Bloodlines” is now in theaters.
