Gwendolyn Sundstrom on Crystal Lake, Grace’s Killer Twist & Jason Voorhees

[00:00:08] Gwen, thank you for joining me today on Pop Culture Unplugged. Thank you for having me. Congrats on the series. What's been going on? How's it been the last almost a week now? How's it been going on your end with this? It's just been very busy going to New York for Comic Con and doing a panel there and then going to LA and doing like some promotional stuff. Just very busy. What's been the fan reaction now that the series is out with friends and family for you?

[00:00:38] Friends and family, they were all super excited. They were like, Gwen, good job in the show. I was like, thank you. And they really enjoyed it. What was the... I want to go back a little before we jump into the series, the audition process. Was the role that you auditioned for always for Grace when you first went in? Yeah, it was always for Grace. And when I first got the sides for the character, I immediately had a good feeling about this one.

[00:01:04] I was like, I really like the script. I really like the character. But yeah, the audition process, it took about three or so months, I would say. And there's like a big gap where we didn't hear anything, but took a while. Do you remember the description of this character? The description? It was... Yeah. She's quiet, doesn't have a lot of friends, very kind-hearted.

[00:01:33] Did you find it easy for you as an actor to jump into this character to create her the way you wanted? It was a little bit difficult, but it was really fun because I don't have a lot of things in my life that relate to Grace. So I kind of had to make some stuff up to really like get in the mindset for the character and build Grace. Especially like when this character is new to the series. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:02:01] But for you as an actor, did you go back to watch the original movies just to get an idea how you wanted to be in the series? Yeah, I went back and I watched the first Friday the 13th movie to get some background on like what the 70s looked like, how people would act, and then, you know, what Crystal Lake as a town was like. Yeah. So I want to jump into the series now. Grace stands up for Jason in this series.

[00:02:29] When he's being bullied, like for you, like what did you want us to understand about their friendship throughout the way she protects them? I think the most important thing that people should understand about their friendship is how close they are. They're like the only person that the other has. And they really stick up for each other. I think Jason is very important to Grace. It's really hard for Grace to see him get made fun of and get bullied.

[00:02:59] So she really sticks up for him. Mm-hmm. How did you and Kalen built that playful side of their friendship that we, you know, that, so we feel that what she loses him afterwards, what she goes through?

[00:03:11] I think what really happened is just we had great chemistry. We got along really well. On our first chemistry read just over Zoom, we were already like improv-ing and bouncing off of each other and just having so much fun on Zoom so that when we were in person, we could like just become friends and just have a good time both filming and not just on set together.

[00:03:36] Mm-hmm. I like how, you know, she tries to fit in with the older girls, with Claudette especially, you know, but she humiliates her, embarrasses her, you know, how did you decide when Grace would observe that cruelty and when did she figure out, like, it's time to fight back? Yeah, I think Grace really wants to fit in with all of the cool girls because she sees how they all have friends and they all have people that are there for them.

[00:04:05] And Grace doesn't have that. So she's like, maybe if I can, like, fit in with these other girls, then maybe someone will finally be there for me. But she definitely decides to fight back and start hating Claudette when Claudette says no to that idea and she doesn't want her at the party. And she blames Grace for breaking the windshield. I think Grace, Claudette has no reason to be mean to Grace and that really makes her mad and she doesn't like that, clearly.

[00:04:36] One of the questions I was told to ask you, how many times did you rehearse that bathroom scene? Oh, wow. I think if I remember correctly, I want to say we had a full day without any filming to just rehearse that scene and just like get all the moves down and all the falls, like make it safe. We had a whole day dedicated to just that. What was that for you? What excited you about that scene?

[00:05:06] I think what excited me was I got to do my own stunts. That's always been like super appealing and like I've always wanted to do that. So I finally got a scene where I could, you know, fight this other girl and like fall down onto a mat. And I think that was really fun. What about Grace's home life with her mom? You know, like how did you approach those conflicting feelings about their relationship that she was going through?

[00:05:31] Yeah, I think so Grace's mom does not treat her well at all. And that's, you know, not really something that I have in real life. Love you, mom. But I had to kind of, you know, make that up in my head and like try and find something. Maybe it was like something in school where someone was mean to me or find something that I could relate to.

[00:05:59] The meanness and like harshness of Grace's mom. Definitely. As an actor, you know, Pamela killed Valley. But while Grace doesn't initially knows this, you know, like how did you keep what you knew from influencing Grace's reaction around Pamela?

[00:06:19] I think Linda, the actress Linda, she was so nice on set and she was such just a sweet person to be around that you could even see that through the scenes and you could even see like how sweet she is in real life. So she really brought that into playing Pamela.

[00:06:40] And then the other thing is, while I'm filming all of the scenes before Pam kills, you can kind of think about that hasn't even happened yet. She's still just Jason's mom. She's still just looking out for me. Nothing. I have no reason to be scared of her because nothing's happened yet. For you filming the series, what was your favorite like your favorite episode or scene?

[00:07:06] Um, I really liked episode five. I thought that was a great episode. And then I think my favorite scene was the one in the boathouse where Grace kills Claudette and Barry because it was a night shoot and I love a good night shoot. And then it was also such just like a deep, like emotional, gritty scene to film. And I had a lot of fun doing that. You mentioned episode five. That was the LSD scenes. Right.

[00:07:37] Yeah. For you, uh, what was your reaction when you first read the sequence and realized Grace will be involved in recreating? Like that's a Friday, the 13th moment. Yeah. When I first heard about that and I first read it in the script, I was so excited. I immediately was thinking, how are the fans going to like it? Because it's such like a twist to what they already know. So I was like, that's going to be really interesting.

[00:08:06] That grace kind of changes the first kill in Friday the 13th. Hmm. You mentioned the boat scene. How long, how long did you guys practice that scene with, uh, Phoenix and, uh, Danielle? Danielle. Ooh, that one, it honestly went by really quickly because I remember on set, they said we were going to be on the water for about an hour, but it did not take that long. I think it was, we maybe only filmed two takes. It was pretty quick.

[00:08:37] Hmm. I spoke to Phoenix the other day and he was very disappointed that it was you that killed him. You wanted to survive. Oh, Phoenix. Right. Great guy. Great guy though. Yeah. You like, what was the biggest challenge in this series filming as an actor? Hmm. Hmm.

[00:08:57] I think that my biggest challenge was not really relating to grace as a character in real life and having to really like dig deep into the emotions to play grace. I think that was the most challenging. We know that your character, we know your character survives. So what would you like if we see a season two, what would you like, what would you like to see?

[00:09:27] Um, I'd like to see, um, the, what happens to grace after the hospital? Like if she went to go with the hippies or if she's still with Pam, like what pathway does she kind of take? So now that the series is out, you know, like, uh, what's next for you? Any other projects you're allowed to tell us about that you're coming up, uh, for you? Are you just taking a little break? What's, uh, what's happening?

[00:09:56] Not that I know so far, but we're, I'm going to start getting back into auditioning and hoping to do something soon. Amazing. Gwen, I want to thank you for, hope we see season two. I want to thank you for giving me a few minutes today. I want to see what happens with your character. Yes, me too. And thank you so much. Oh, thank you.