Keir Gilchrist

It Follows + The Stanford Prison Experiment

Interview by James Patrick Herman  Photographs by Jeff Vespa

 

Where are you from? I was born in London, but I usually say I’m from Toronto because I grew up there from age nine onwards. Those were my most formative years. But I was moving constantly as a kid and lived in a lot of different places — Brooklyn, Boston — and attended eleven different schools before I was in sixth grade. So I learned how to adapt to new environments and change my accent because I hated sounding different from other people.

What’s the most Canadian thing about you?  I’m overly polite and apologize way too much.

Are you a Sundance virgin? Yes, I have never been. Now I have two films there. It’s super-weird because I’ve always been in movies that did not get into the festival.

What are you going to pack?  You’ve got to have a scarf, warm socks and a toque — that’s what we call a beanie in Canada.

Let’s talk about The Stanford Prison Experiment first — what’s the buzz?  It’s based on a real experiment they did in 1971. They took college students and made some prisoners and others guards and put them all inside a fake prison. They wanted to study how different people in different roles would change and react. It was supposed to be for two weeks but it only took five days to get completely out of control and abusive. We watched real footage of these kids going crazy. There were guys who got hog-tied and left in closets all night long. The prisoners were begging to be let out and screaming and crying. But the experiment changed the way people thought about the prison guard/prisoner relationship and what being in prison does to you. And what being a guard in prison does to you. Even wearing a uniform and

mirrored sunglasses and carrying a nightstick on set changed my perspective. I could feel that authority.

What did that experiment ultimately prove?  That the prison system doesn’t work.

Tell me about your character.  I play one of the guards. My character begins trying to be everyone’s buddy but he turns into a nasty individual by the end. Even he is surprised by what he becomes.

And what about your other movie, It Follows?  It’s a super-creepy horror film about a shape-shifting being that is basically like a sexually transmitted disease that chases you until you pass it on. It will never stop following you. There are a lot of weird metaphors about teen sex in it. People are saying that we’ve created a new monster.

How would you describe your character in one sentence?  Hopelessly in love and determined to be a hero.

How does it feel to be a Sundance sensation?  I have a hard time getting my head around the fact that anyone cares about me.

Are you a fan of Robert Redford?  It’s hard not to be. You have to like something that he has acted in or directed. But I don’t really follow his career.