Reel life: Dan Stevens was dedicated in making 'Guest'

5 Qs for actor Dan Stevens

Up to now, fans of “Downton Abbey” know British actor Dan Stevens as series regular Matthew Crawley.

This week, Stevens branches out in the action thriller “A Walk Along the Tombstones” plus the horror tale “The Guest” in which be plays the buffed-up sociopath who invades a regular family like a virus.

Q. How did you develop and maintain that beefcake physique?

A. That was a pretty intense regimen. It took about four hours a day. It was two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. First we did martial arts. Then we made a trip to the gun range in the afternoon. We started training five or six weeks before shooting, then I continued to train through the shooting as well.

Q. That's sounds like a lot of dedication.

A. It contributed to the physical transformation, which I had been interested in for quite a while, you know, pushing myself to the limit, something I had never gone through before. First I had to wrap myself around the character's accent. It helped in the psychology of David (his nutty character). A little bit of Southern charm goes a long way.

Q. How did you decide on David's accent?

A. He says he's from Louisville, Kentucky, but we don't know if that's true. We started there, then diluted it a little bit. We modified the accent to match someone who'd been in the military for quite a while. There was an element of that we were playing with. Giving him slightly vague origins was a key. I'm fascinated with all voices and accents, looking at all the vowels and consonants and minutia and how this all affects the psychology of the character.

Q. Did you have any specific movies in mind while creating your character David?

A. Plenty. They were movies I grew up with. There was “If,” Malcolm McDowell's first movie, an examination of violence in a rather mild-mannered setting. I always found it to be weirdly hilarious.

Also, John Carpenter movies, particularly Kurt Russell in “Big Trouble in Little China.” It's one of my favorite movies of all time. The fun that Kurt Russell has in that role is infectious! It's the joy that comes through that steely core. I love watching that.

Q. Your favorite part of making “The Guest”?

A. I love the action sequences. That's not something I really got the chance to get into before. I got to hold a gun in a thing or two every now and then. But to crawl along on the floor under exploding machine gun fire, that was a first for me! And pretty thrilling.

5 Qs for screenwriter Simon Barrett

Screenwriter Simon Barrett wrote the horror tale “You're Next” for director Adam Wingard before re-teaming with him to create “The Guest” with Dan Stevens.

You guessed it. Five questions for Barrett:

Q. Adam Wingard directed “The Guest” after watching “The Terminator” and “Halloween.” What did you watch for inspiration to write it?

A. Probably just a lot of depressing documentaries. For me, I take a lot less inspiration from the movies I like.

Q. Why?

A. If you watch a great movie you like and you're inspired by it, sometimes it's hard to figure out how it does what it does. So if you try imitating a movie, all you're doing is mostly ripping it off or just paying an homage. I take more inspiration from movies I don't like. Films that aren't 100 percent successful.

I look at them and wonder, how would I make that different? So “The Guest” is inspired by movies such as “The Stepfather.” A movie where there's no mystery about what's going to happen.

From the opening scene, we know the title character's up to no good. I wanted to create a story that had that same sort of inherent intensity in each scene. We never know what Dan's character is going to do when presented with a situation of ordinary circumstances.

Q. Do you write characters with certain actors in mind?

A. I try to never write with a particular actor in mind. First, if you do that, you're practically guaranteeing that you will never get that actor to play the role. Plus, you're limiting the character by writing it specifically for, say, someone like George Clooney, then you wind up not casting him.

Q. What's the toughest part about writing screenplays for horror films?

A. If you watch a lot of horror films, the actors are forced to say a lot of horrible expository dialogue explaining who they are and why they're there, and they're saying things that they would never say in real life. I don't know how actors can do that.

In a 1957 film, there's this line of dialogue: “You and I both know I've had a mental breakdown!” It's a terrible line and I don't know how Sidney Poitier would have carried that line off. It's so bad when actors are forced to say things to provide some awkward back story.

If you watch a horror film, the first 10 minutes are filled with people telling each other things they should already know. When I write characters, I think it's important to treat them seriously like real people. And to not make them say things that are narratively convenient and make your job easier.

Film critics notebook

Do you want to know the top 15 greatest villains of the silver screen? I'll be counting them down (this time without my movie partner Raymond Benson) at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, at the St. Charles Library, 1 S. Sixth Ave., St. Charles. Film clips. Movie chat. Free admission, too! Go to stcharleslibrary.org for details.