Fangirlish got a chance to speak with model and actor Brock O’Hurn and we’re telling you, he’s the sweetest guy. Seriously, coming into this we thought it would be all horror because of how spooky his new movie The Resort was. And part of it was. Talking about seeing a woman in a wedding dress is always spooky. But O’Hurn had us laughing and feeling like we were right along when it came to the filming of this movie by Taylor Chien. Join in on the feeling by reading all about The Resort in our exclusive interview below!
1. How was this project different from others you’ve done before?
First off, the location was something I haven’t experienced shooting before. A lot of times I shoot in studios or sound stages. So shooting Maui was unbelievable, so amazing. And then shooting horror. I’ve never shot like a true horror. I’ve shot a comedy horror, which is a lot different, but shooting a true horror was a fun experience. There’s little eery moments that happen and then you hear all the stories of people seeing something or thinking they see something. And then the locals telling stories. It was fun just to be immersed in it.
2. Are you a big horror fan? Is that what interested you in this role?
I enjoy horror, yeah. But I try not to watch it too much cuz I have a little trouble sleeping sometimes. I was saying earlier, the last time I watched The Conjuring, I had to sleep on my couch because I didn’t even want to put my feet down under the couch. I was like, “I’m just gonna stick here. I don’t need to go to my room, it’s all good.
3. For The Resort bit of it all, were you actually at an abandoned resort?
That’s where the story came from. Taylor Chien, our director, and then Will Meldman, our EP, were out filming. They were out working on a different project and they’re in Maui. And then they went and visited the resort. Some locals actually told them about some weird stuff going on; like why the resort got shutdown in the first place. They said because it was haunted.
All this weird crazy stuff was going on and it sparked Taylor’s mind to go, “I wanna write a story about this. I want to write a movie about this.” And they only had a couple months until the demolition of this place, it was going to be taken down. He had to come up with a script, put the whole team together, raise all the funds, and cast the actors. It was a very short time frame in retrospect to a lot of things.
But I think putting us in the pressure cooker of what it was made it work even better. And made it more, “We’re here and we’ve got these 2 and half weeks to get this done. We better get this done or we’re going home empty handed and we don’t want that.”
4. Was it as creepy as it looked?
We call that production value. We get that for not having to add anything which was really sweet. I’ll just tell you this really quickly. One of the first stories I heard when I got there was one about two security guards that usually worked that property all the time. And one of them, a week before we got there, saw a woman crying in the corner in an area of the resort.
So he went over to make sure she was ok. And he said it looked like she was in a wedding dress or something. It was weird. And when he got close, a couple feet away, realized that she was kind of translucent. As soon as he was, she stood up, turned around and then flew through him. And they said that guy quit that day.
5. Did you experience anything spooky while you were there?
Ummm I didn’t see anything but the vibes. I’m not normally scared of anything. It’s pretty hard to scare me. I’m a big guy and can take care of my own. And just like Chris, I’m a natural protector so I usually take that role. And there were times when I had to run across the resort just to get a wide shot and hide in some little dark corners. And I’m like, “If something grabs me right now I’m gonna lose my mind.” If somebody, one of my castmates or one of the crew, tried to grab me, their probably would’ve been a murder on that set that night.
6. I wanted to ask about the peace and calm before the storm. Was it fun filming that and was Michael Vlamis nude?
Yeah, actually, I don’t know if anyone’s told you but there was actually a pretty funny moment where we’re at this waterfall. And it was freezing cold. And you don’t think Hawaii can be anything but warm but we were in the middle of the island and it was freezing. We’re getting ready to shoot this scene and Michael wasn’t wearing much. And we’re waiting for everything to be set up, but he’s standing there with basically nothing on.
And all of a sudden, I think we’d done a couple takes. But it’d been ten minutes or twenty that had gone by at this point. We had this location locked off, or so we thought. Lo and behold, he’s standing there butt naked, it’s freezing out, and we look up and there’s like 20 tourists looking down at us the entire time. It was so funny and we started dying laughing. It was so funny.
7. How are you managing your time during quarantine?
Honestly, the beginning of quarantine was pretty rough for me, especially because all the gyms were closed. I couldn’t work out and I wasn’t eating right. I started getting a little lazy. I had no work. Didn’t know what was going on. So I started working on my own stuff outside of Hollywood. Working on other projects with other companies, so I started doing that stuff. And then through it, I found myself again.
And I found like a whole new way to approach health, to approach fitness, to approach mental health. And I’ve just been applying that ever since and I’ve been hitting the ground running and feeling great. I’m getting back into great shape again and I’m feeling good about that. Works picking up again. I’ve got a couple projects going on right now. At the end of the day, like most people…Covid invoked a side of me that I didn’t expect. There’s a lot of things I didn’t realize I was doing wrong with my health and with my habits, things I was doing. So I was able to readdress them.
Also, take time to myself and become more introspective and then spend more time with my family when we were allowed to, when we could. For the most part, I’ve come out stronger on the other end of it and I hope the same for everyone else.
The Resort is now available on demand.
