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We’re very happy to be speaking today with talented actor and writer Cameron Cowperthwaite; greetings and salutations, Cameron! Before we dive into the deep end, how has 2022 been treating you?
Career-wise, my 2022 has been great. Thank you so much for asking. I’ve had the opportunity to work with many amazing people and make new friends along the way. This business is never a done deal, so I try my best to take the wins when they come my way.
Kudos and congrats on all the intriguing work you’ve recently been a part of and all the exciting projects you have in the pipeline! Starting from the top, what can you tell us about your role as Necro in the upcoming American Horror Stories series?
I can’t say much about the episode yet. I’m honored to be in the penultimate slot for this season, which, I think, is off to such a strong start! Please tune in on 9/1/2022 to check it out. I can say that I got to work with really talented people. Ryan Murphy always pairs strong, talented, and hard-working individuals who seem to click together on the day. Sometimes I think he knows me better than I know myself. All our personalities meshed so well that it felt like we were cruising through the shooting schedule and really doing some good work. The script was wonderfully demented and horribly poetic, which I have my friend Crystal Liu to thank for that. Logan Kibens was our brilliant director who created a space for us to explore this twisted world. And a huge shout out to my co-stars, Madison Iseman and Spencer Neville, who were both amazing to work with.
Going into American Horror Stories, was there any trepidation among the cast and crew in attempting to capture proverbial lightning in a bottle after the success of the first series?
Hell no! They took this black mirror approach to the season this year, which created this new dynamic of having to tell a full story in 60 minutes rather than 8 or 10 full episodes. That kind of storytelling really propels the action and the characters forward in such a fast-paced way that you sort of feel this new life to the series. This new pulse. Its own version of ‘lightening in a bottle,’ as you put it. Also, Ryan and the rest of the team do their best to top themselves every year, and they do it year after year, and it’s really amazing to see. I’m so grateful to be a part of it. They might have created their most twisted season yet!
How is American Horror Stories similar to American Horror Story? How is it different?
Having been lucky enough to be on both shows, I know that a lot of the same people work on both projects, which sort of feels like coming home to family when I get to set. As for the show, some of these episodes live in the same world as other seasons of the Horror Story. I feel like we live in this franchise world now, where it’s about building out these universes. I feel like Horror Stories is such a cool way to tell fresh stories and also find ways of expanding on existing characters or set pieces from the original show that all the fans love. It kind of builds out this network of side stories to dive deeper into the universe that are these two shows. Like, what a treat to go back to the murder house in the first season of Horror Stories?! I feel like Ryan created this as a love letter to the show’s fans and then made it really digestible. You can tune in and expect a different story each week on American Horror Stories.
You’ve got a plum role forthcoming in writer-director Tom Schulman’s Southern Gothic. What can we expect from this particular production?
Well, I know the movie just finished post-production! I haven’t seen the final cut just yet, but I’m really excited to have been a part of it. I’ve been a fan of Tom’s for a while. I feel like Dead Poets Society is every young man’s coming-of-age film that strikes a chord if you’ve seen it at some point in your middle school years. I have to admit I can’t say carpe diem without thinking of that movie. It’s impossible. Southern Gothic is a drama about keno hustlers ( a high-stakes game of billiards that was popular back in the 1990s). It follows Diana, played by the lovely Lili Simmons, on her journey to be one of the best high-stakes players in the game. She runs into trouble when she joins up with a rag-tag group of hustlers run by the man of the house, Nick, who’s played by the talented Kim Coates. This story has a lot of Tom’s youth in it. It’s really about what he saw while growing up in the South, and it’s his memories of that era that are deeply ingrained in this film. It’s a gritty indie that has elements of humor, pool, family drama, and some fun twists!
You play a character called “Douche” in Southern Gothic. How does he figure into the proceedings of this story?
6. When Diana strolls into the lion’s den, which is all male players, I play a part in this toxic masculinity that sort of acts as an obstacle in Diana’s road to being the best. I play a high-stakes Keno player who has lost his touch at the game and is jealous of the player Diana. There is a lot of redemption surrounding my character, and it was fun to get to play both sides of that.
What was your collaboration process like with Tom Schulman during the making of Southern Gothic? Is he what some actors might refer to as “an actor’s director”?
Working with Tom was wonderful. Tom is a writer first, and sometimes that can equate to a precious nature of the script, dialogue, or character choice, but Tom really opened up the floor for everyone to shine. He wasn’t afraid to slash and burn portions of his own script if he liked what an actor was doing. He made himself open and available to discuss scenes and choices. I’m a huge fan of asking for one more take, and I was pleased to see I didn’t drive him crazy! He wanted everyone to feel safe to explore, make mistakes, and find the music of his wonderful script. I’m excited for everyone to see what he accomplished with this film because it’s very original and something special. So yes, to answer your question, I would say he was an actor’s director!
You completed a short film a little while back entitled Cash Cow. What’s the story on this one?
It’s a story about greed. Money changes us all for the worst. It cuts through friendships and relationships and can drive us all mad. I got to work with one of my favorite people on the planet on that short, Maiara Walsh. She’s been a long-time collaborator and friend.
Looking ahead, you’ve got a full dance card populated with such projects as Bury the Bride. Can you give us the scoop on this production? What can fans expect?
Bury the Bride is Spider One’s newest horror film that will be coming out on Shudder later this year, I believe. I’m a huge fan of horror movies. I was a little nervous at first because Spider is so talented as an artist, and his brother Rob Zombie is a horror film legend that I just wanted to do a good job. I remember thinking, like man, I’d be honored to be a part of a cult-classic horror that is beloved by these midnight moviegoers for years to come. And I hope that is what we created. The shoot was guerilla and raw, and I sometimes find that the crazier these shooting conditions feel because we shot in Lancaster, California, in the high desert in the summer, you end up getting a certain energy that comes across on screen. It’s a lean and mean horror that I think fans will really dig.
How did you land upon the acting path Cameron? Is there a Secret Origin story you could share with us?
I guess I find the people that find this business grow up around it with siblings, parents, uncles, or aunts who are in the industry, or they know absolutely nothing about it, have zero involvement family-wise, and it just finds them, whether it’s luck or it’s a calling. I am the first one. My mom and dad met at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival back in the 80s. They spent the majority of their 20’s pursuing that Hollywood dream ( I was born in LA). And I think it’s just in my blood. My mom is still in the business; she has been a script supervisor and a comedy TV director for many years. My sister was a publicist at 42 West for a time coming out of college. So it was something I was always around. Going to see plays on Broadway at Christmastime or to the movies on the weekends was a family requirement. And it’s a tradition I hold dear to this day. Being an actor makes me feel close to my family, and family is so important to me. This business is a lifestyle that requires a lot of sacrifices when you come down to it, so anything that makes me feel closer to them is worth the grind.
My first gig came from my mom, honestly. I owe her a lot. I did a modeling shoot in NYC, thinking that was how some actors got their start, and I didn’t know what else to do. Being the proud mom as all moms are, she showed my pictures around the set, and one of her co-workers saw them and asked if I wanted to be an actor. She said yes, he did, and my mother’s friend sent my pictures to her sister, a theatrical agent in Los Angeles, whose name is Ro Diamond. Ro took me on, and I moved out to LA the moment I graduated from school. I ended up booking my first audition out the gate, which was a false-up because, of course, I thought, oh, this isn’t that hard; wrong. But I was bit by the bug the moment I stepped on that set, and the rest is history. Except for Ro, she’s still my agent to this day!
Any chance you may return to writing in the near future?
Always. I mean, it’s horrible, and I hate it, but what can you do? I’m kidding; it’s not all bad. Nora Ephron said, “the hardest part about writing is writing.” My God, that is so true. Now, with all that said, it’s a wonderful creative outlet if you feel you have the deliberateness to go word by word. I don’t always feel I have that discipline, but when I do, I have to say it is fun to see a story come to life underneath your fingertips. I want to work as a storyteller no matter how that story comes to me, whether as an actor, writer, or director, one day. If I believe in something, I really want to try to make it come to life, whether it’s on a page or off.
I wrote a feature film called Bight with my friend Maiara who I mentioned above. It’s an erotic thriller about an open relationship gone horribly wrong that we shot during Covid. That is in the post-production phase, and I am excited to get that finished and released. I also am working on a horror film, a boxing thriller, and a Limited Series! So I’m just trying to throw darts at the wall and see what sticks!
Are there any directors out there that you would like to collaborate with in the future?
The director is the most important piece of the puzzle. Whether you have a good script or not, and you absolutely need the foundation of good material, a good director puts me at such ease as an actor. I find the better the director, the better I end up looking. I could go on and on about Quentin Tarantino because he is my favorite filmmaker, but I’m worried if he only has one movie left on his slate, I may have missed the boat there. Secretly and selfishly, I hope he comes back for more and our paths cross someday. But some other auteurs I find inspiring and would love to work with are The Safdie Brothers, Mel Gibson, Matt Reeves, Bong Joon Ho, and Greta Gerwig.
Final – SILLY! – Question: Favorite movie about the making of movies – Living in Oblivion, Ed Wood, The Player, or Barton Fink?
Ohhhhhh, okay, tricky. I have to say from the list here; that it’s hard for me not to pick Barton Fink because of fandom over both John Turturro and the Coen Brothers. But I also have to admit my two most watched films about “the business” are Birdman and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
Thank you so much for taking the time to ask me these questions. I appreciate the thought and effort; it means a lot for you to take the time to hear me out. I loved chatting!
Official Instagram for Cameron Cowperthwaite is: https://www.instagram.com/cameroncowperthwaite/
