“I’m a bit of a scared cat”, actress Michele Dawson says in our Zoom interview ahead of the October 14 release of Halloween ends. That’s why, before being cast in one of the longest-running and highest-grossing horror movie franchises of all time, she never had one of the Halloween movies. Of course, once she won the role of Nurse Deb in what is gearing up to be Laurie Strode’s (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) final stand against Michael Myers, “she jumped full throttle and started watching them all.”
Halloween ends marks the final installment in director David Gordon Green’s sequel trilogy that began with Halloween in 2018, followed by Halloween kills in 2021. Although 2018’s Halloween was in fact the 11th film in the entire franchise, it served as a direct sequel to the 1978 film of the same name, repeating all the films that preceded it. For Green and co-writer Danny McBride, according to the first’s 2018 interview with Den of Geek, Halloween was an opportunity to bring the franchise back to its roots while providing an evolved story: “The trick was, how do you make it? Home alonebut not Home alone?” The result was an exciting new direction for the franchise, one that Variety hailed as “delivering plenty of new thrills — and horribly creative kills — for a younger audience.”
Given the gore and intensity of the revamped Halloween franchise, it’s even more interesting that Dawson, a self-proclaimed “scared cat,” would jump at the chance to star in it. However, she reveals that she wasn’t immediately aware that the movie she was auditioning for was in fact a horror movie, let alone Halloween ends. “The movie actually went under an assumed name at the time,” says Dawson, describing how she initially submitted herself to a casting website based on the breakdown of the characters listed. “I was like, there are a lot of adjectives on here about this character that I really relate to, I feel like this is something I should audition for, [but] I had no earthly idea of anything.”
Working with David Gordon Green
Dawson first met Green during her callback, which took place via a Zoom conversation. It was here, she says, that she finally understood that she was auditioning for a horror movie, based on the conversation she had with Green about the material she was auditioning for. “I still didn’t know how hard it was. I still didn’t know it was” [Halloween Ends].” Still, something clicked and later Dawson was offered the role of Nurse Deb. “It wasn’t until I got my [script] that it was revealed to me that this was Halloween ends. At that point I had a little chat with my agent [and] then the seriousness of everything hit me.”
For Dawson, playing Nurse Deb, who she describes as “ambiguous, unfiltered and calculating,” was great, thanks in large part to Green’s approach as a director. “He’s such a wonderfully communicative director, and it’s all about collaboration,” she says. “I’d do something, and that would give me an idea, and then he’d come up to me and give me an idea of something new to do. We just had so much fun on set, playing with different lines, improvising a some things that were super fun.”
Performing her own stunts during Halloween ends
Growing up, Dawson was a gymnast, so it was a dream come true to “merge my two worlds of athleticism and physicality into my acting.” Indeed, the actress did her own stunts in Halloween ends, an idea that, according to her, came about almost spontaneously. “It was the night before we had to do some stuff, and I went up to the executive producer and said, hey, I feel like I can do that, I’m pretty comfortable there, I’d like to do that if you feel like that you okay,” she says, carefully avoiding giving anything away. Green eventually gave Dawson the green light and soon the actress found herself preparing for stunt work. “I loved being able to see how it all works, to see that physically, and being the character who, you know, experiences those things — I just loved the whole experience of it.”
Perhaps the most important thing Dawson takes away from being there Halloween ends is another relationship with the horror genre. Although she initially called herself a scared cat at the beginning of our interview, she now says she’s “so scared. Let’s go. I’m ready.” For her, shoot Halloween ends was equally fun and educational. “I’ve always loved the physicality you get [bring] when it is a horror or thriller or action type project. I like that combination. Now that I’ve seen how things are made in the horror genre, I like it so much – I hope to be able to do more in the future.”
Halloween ends is in theaters and streaming on Peacock from October 14.