Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Oh, you thought the Mind Flayer was a spooky motherfucker?
Hes come a long way from hanging out with spiders and torturing his parents.
When Bower auditioned for the show, he wasnt given any indication of how big his presence would become.
Its been incredibly cathartic, he said.
It feels like a weight has been somewhat lifted.
Thanks for the nightmares.Youre absolutely welcome.
Its nice to inject a little more spook into grandfather clocks.
Youve spoken about the obsessive methodology you used to get into character.
But during filming, there were moments I felt very out of body.
Things would come up in my mind that Ive never really thought before.
That was always an interesting experience from a scientific standpoint:Wow, thats there now.
Ill leave it at that.
There was this phrase that kept coming up as we were filming: Let me drive.
It was as if something else was taking over my body and mind.
Not like I had goneinsane,but who I thought I was was no longer there.
My experience had disappeared.
I was constantly thinking dark things.
Im reluctant to say them out loud.
It took me a few months to get it right.
I needed to find the truth of this person, and that didnt come from putting on an act.
It has to come from somewhere deeper.
The mind-layer set is ginormous.
The staircase is exaggerated, and everything is very tall and grand.
Having energy exude from the layer of prosthetic skin on top of me.
So that was my main challenge.
I need to go home and think about this for a minute.
His experience in his family life is that they present a front to themselves.
Thats the thing I really latched onto.
Nobody on planet Earth is free of …
I dont want to be biblical about this, but nobody is perfect.
Lets put it that way.
Everybody has guilt and shame for things theyve done.
Theyre presenting a false version of who they are and they cover it up.
Just saying it now, theres a feeling of vitriol coming up inside me.
That was the thing I believed as the character.
Its all of us.
That was an interesting experience to draw on.
How did that approach enhance your performance?
It becomes more terrifying because youre witnessing the other actors deal with something right in front of them.
Ive been a part of films where you have to interact with a tennis ball or a cardboard cutout.
Youre not dealing with a life.
Youre dealing with an inanimate object.
With this, the terror is much more apparent because its an actual person.
Youd lose that if its just somebody in a green-screen suit.
With CGI, its processed.
How laborious was it getting into all of those prosthetics?There was a lot of labor involved.
We were very fortunate to work with such an incredible team of visual-effects artists.
I way prefer the first option.
It took about seven hours to put on from start to finish.
Wed start incredibly early in the morning.
While the process was long, it became seamless and a bit of a dance.
It also allows me, as a performer, to get into the process a lot more.
How many?One, properly.
Through nothing else other than just doing what I was told.
Let me make that perfectly clear!
Do you find his logic to be compelling?One hundred percent.
I imagine its the same for viewers as well.
Theres a lot of truth there.
The idea that people are putting on a front and presenting a false version of themselves is really beautiful.
I think thats what hes talking about there.
Reshaping the world and remaking it into a place he considers to be his own twisted version of goodness.
So to stay on theme and be personal to myself, Ill go with that cover.
Thats not saying I dont love the original I love Kate Bush.
We love; we stan.
But Ill choose Placebos.
Thats me being well behaved.
Bollocks to anyone who questions that judgment.
