Spooky season is here, and so is the Longaissance. Actor, comedian, director, and ex–mustache connoisseur Justin Long has starred in a number of cult classics — from Dodgeball (2004) to Accepted (2006) to He’s Just Not That Into You (2009). But apart from his rom-com and comedy legacy, Long is a horror freak — he gets his eyes gouged out in Jeepers Creepers (2001), his body mutilated into a human walrus in Tusk (2014), and, in this year’s Barbarian, he gets breastfed by a mother-monster that inhabits the spine-chilling, pitch-black dungeon of his Detroit Airbnb. In Barbarian, Long plays the narcissistic AJ Gilbride, who finds himself stuck in a basement of past horrors fighting for his life. “I like to be scared,” Long says.
Director Zach Cregger’s Barbarian is a jump-scary film that ponders who and what is and isn’t a monster while telling a raw story about trauma and toxic masculinity. Long told us about sympathizing with the movie’s preconceived villain (the Mother), the cut scene in which he was fed a masticated rat, what it means to actually scream, and his definitive take on the worldly idea of a mustache. (Warning: serious Barbarian spoilers below.)
Are you on Airbnb? Do you use it?
I do. In fact, I know those guys who started it (not to brag). I love the company. They do such great stuff, but I feel a little bad because, in all of these interviews, obviously it’s been coming up and not in the best light. I have not been any more hesitant to use it since the movie, but, uh, maybe I should be.
Can you talk about the scene in which you’re being breastfed in the dungeon by the Mother?
[Laughs] Did you ever think you’d say that sentence, Wolfgang?
Honestly, no, but I was excited to ask you!
You can usually only ask infants that, and obviously infants can’t properly answer what that experience is like. I guess some people breastfeed kids later, once they’ve understood language, so they can actually talk about their experiences. But a grown man? No. This is a first for me anyway. It was actually surprisingly funny, because there’s a very thin line between something creepy, unsettling, and potentially cinematic and something that is over-the-top farce — comical for the wrong reasons. And, at least in this case, it would’ve been the wrong reasons, because Zach’s story was so realistically written, and he was having everyone lean toward Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård. They played everything so naturally. I knew that that was the tone of the movie. So you have to commit to something like that. For me, it meant having to stay in a state of heightened agitation between shots. I don’t do this all the time — I wouldn’t say I’m a method actor — but it was not the kind of thing I could come in and out of that easily.
I’ve heard stories about geniuses like Leonardo DiCaprio who can be in the middle of a video game and press pause and go into the scene and be brilliant, then come back and finish the game. I don’t have that skill. I can’t do that. The actor playing Mother was so good: Matthew Patrick Davis. He’s in the full costume — the latex, the pieces — and he looks gruesome, right? I’m trying to stay in this headspace, and he’s the sweetest person. So he was checking in on me between takes, because he saw that I was agitated. From behind this grotesque face, he would say, “Are you okay?” Like, really gently. “You okay, dude? Do you need anything?” It was odd, so I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s ludicrous. Then you realize what we’re doing, and it’s, like, he’s about to shove his prosthetic nipple into my mouth. It all becomes immediately hilarious. It’s such a fine line. I thought it was funny, too, that, without realizing it, he was being so naturally maternal. It was a lot. I remember at the end of that day being very exhausted. It’s exhausting doing that stuff.
There was a moment after that where Mother, because I wouldn’t latch to her breast, she takes a rat — it’s scurrying by — and bites its head off and masticates it and baby-birds it into my mouth. Which was in the script, and I knew it was gonna happen. And we shot it right after we shot the breastfeeding scene. Zach cut that out. He felt like it was a bridge too far gross-wise.
You said you had to be in a heightened state. How did you get to that point?
I guess a lot of it is physical. I mean, because so much of fear is physical. The way it manifests, with me anyway — I know this sounds, I don’t know how this sounds actually — but a lot of it is, like, doing push-ups: I have to get my blood pumping. I don’t know. Tricks. We were shooting in obviously a very dark location. So I would try to get my mind to a dark place. I try to use whatever’s around, and that’s why it was a little tricky with Matthew being so sweet, because I couldn’t use that. So it had to be conjuring up whatever fears I have about being in enclosed spaces, whatever it is, and using whatever’s around. Sometimes there’s nothing. Sometimes you can’t. There’s nothing in the well to draw from. The scene where I had to basically confess — or get as close to confessing as that character gets — and be accountable for a heinous crime, having done something to a woman he was working with, that was something that I had no frame of reference for, fortunately for the people in my life. That was something I had to imagine what that kind of shame must do to somebody.
But usually there’s stuff around. I remember doing a horror movie with Liam Neeson, and I was doing my push-ups to get into the scene. I was meant to be agitated. I got along with him really well. I love Liam. But he turns to the PA, who was gonna give me the cue for action, and he says, “Some actors have to do push-ups to get to the scene.” [Laughs] And fortunately, the PA didn’t tell me this until after we wrapped. I mean, he said it as a joke; he was messing around. But I think some actors don’t need that kind of stuff. You do whatever connects you to the scene — the truth of the scene.
Were you scared filming Barbarian?
No. It’s weird. I get that question with horror, and it’s rarely the case where the location is so scary that it’s enough to put you in that state. Everything was safe. The crew was lovely — a wonderful crew in Bulgaria. It was actually a lot of fun. What I mean by finding the fear in the space is that you have to look for it. You have to go in a corner — or I have to. I think the challenge for me is blocking everything out. Once I get my body into it, I can kind of trick myself. But no, with the actual shooting, I’ve never been afraid.
One of the few times I’ve been afraid, I was involved in a stunt, and I wasn’t all that confident about it. I remember doing Jeepers Creepers, and we were meant to drive into the Creeper, and he was going to jump over our car. I was in the passenger seat, and Gina Philips (who played my sister) was not there. Her stunt double was driving. She was a really capable stunt double; she had all these great credits. And right before we were supposed to drive, she said, “Oh shit.” And I said, “What? What?” She said, “The speedometer is not working.” I said, “Well, why is that a problem?” She said, “Well, because we have to be going exactly 12 miles per hour for this.” It was an old car — I forget what, maybe a Buick. We drove, and I could tell we were going faster than that. Then the stunt Creeper’s harness broke as they lifted him up, and he came smashing through my side of the windshield.
So moments like that. I was a young actor. At the time, you don’t wanna ruffle any feathers; it’s a big movie. You feel lucky. Whenever I have a fear like that now, I’ll stop the production, but there’s nothing like that on this movie.
Your character, AJ, is this unaware asshole. Do you think playing such a narcissist makes it easier for the audience to want him to die at the end?
Oh, I’m sure. There were so many things Zach did with the script that I did not see coming. I had expectations that were constantly being subverted. That was one of them. He has that little moment at the end where he realizes, Maybe I’m a bad person, or am I a good person who did a bad thing? He’s wrestling with it, and it’s the closest he comes to accountability. And I thought, Oh okay, that’s gonna be his moment of redemption — or as close to redemption as that character will get. Then, sure enough, a couple minutes later, that goes out the window, and he throws Georgie off the tower. I liked the idea that there was some glimmer of humanity and that people aren’t totally good or totally bad; they’re a little more complex than that. Zach didn’t let him off the hook. There are two characters left, and one of them continues to be despicable. I think it does make it a lot easier for the audience to want him to die.
At that point, the Mother, who you think is the monster, is becoming a lot more sympathetic and, by the end, is quite sympathetic. There’s something that struck me watching it for the first time with an audience — how moving that final moment is. I mean, if you are invested enough — the audience I saw it with was — it was unexpectedly poignant and tragic and kind of beautiful. It reminded me of, like, King Kong, Frankenstein, or one of those classic monster stories. When the real monster, my character, does finally die, that was a surreal moment to watch with a juiced-up audience at Comic-Con. Everyone broke into applause. Which is an interesting thing in what it says about human nature. I remember being struck by that when Osama bin Laden was killed, and people were beeping horns and celebrating in a way I had only seen with sporting events or something with far fewer mortality implications.
So who is the actual monster in Barbarian?
I think it’s men. It’s whoever is the invader, right? Whoever the barbarian is is the one who invaded somebody’s safe space. And, in Mother’s case, it was obviously her father. It was abusive that he kept having sex with her. It was that character. Then AJ did a barbaric thing by being invasive without her consent. The real barbarian was probably my character and Richard Brake’s Frank character.
Someone tweeted that your horror-film characters always have the worst luck.
[Laughs] Yeah, I guess they do. There was a thing going around, a meme during the pandemic, where it was a bunch of characters I played, and it said, “Which version of Justin Long are you?” — it was Jeepers Creepers, Tusk. That was the first time I realized that I have met a lot of unfortunate endings, but hopefully it means that my actual ending in life will be a lot more pleasant. Or it’ll be ironic that it won’t be. I hope it’s nice and quiet. I go in my sleep surrounded by loved ones listening to the Beatles or something. But yeah, I guess my characters have had bad luck, which is fun for me. I’m a horror fan. To be in an audience of equally excited and passionate horror fans at Comic-Con and to hear them applaud my death — I know this sounds strange, but it was oddly thrilling for me. It meant that they were invested and I did my job. That his character was truly deplorable and deserving of a pretty rough ending.
Is there a horror film you wish you’d starred in?
Oh, that’s a good question. God, I’ve never had that thought. Usually, when I like a movie, I think it’s perfect because of what it already is. My involvement in it would’ve made it something different. I like being scared. So obviously when you’re in something, it’s not quite as exciting, because you know what’s coming. I love Ari Aster. I don’t think I ever would’ve been able to give the performance that those actors gave in Hereditary, but it’s one of the most unsettling movies I’ve ever seen. I would love to be in one of his movies but not the ones he has already made. Because, like I said, I love them the way they are. If I could, I think it’d be cool to work with an iconic monster like Freddy Krueger or Jason or Michael Myers. It would be a thrill to get a selfie with Freddy.
Would you ever play an actual monster?
I feel like I just did, but I would love to play a more obvious monster. That’d be fun. I maybe shouldn’t say this, because be careful what you wish for, but I like all the special-effects makeup and the prosthetic stuff, so it’d be cool to work with Robert Kurtzman or Bill Corso — you know, one of those special-effects greats. Just go all-out monster.
People on Twitter have turned the line you deliver while picking up the phone, “What’s up, faggot?” into camp. Was it in the original script?
Oh, really? I mean, again, he’s such a despicable character. That’s obviously a despicable word to use so blatantly in that context. I thought it highlighted what type of person he was. It was in the original script. It was uncomfortable on set, because it’s a word that makes people uncomfortable. I think it’s important to put that out there, to attach that word to somebody that loathsome. He does rape somebody, he throws someone off of a building. It’s all in that awful potpourri of terribleness.
How do you master a scream?
I always associate a scream with a high pitch, but that’s probably wrong. I want to try to chew on that for a second. Again, you have to commit to it. You can’t be afraid of looking silly. I love Veronica Cartwright. She was in one of my favorite horror movies, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. She was such a good screamer — and she was in the original Alien. She’s the one who has that great reaction where she goes, “Ohhh, Godddd.” She was always so committed in conveying that she was disgusted and horrified by these things. You have to swing for the fences with whatever comes out of your mouth when you’re afraid. I saw this thing on what fear does to a lot of people, and I try to clock it sometimes when I have a moment of fear — well, I’ve seen it. I like pulling pranks. That doesn’t sound very loving, but I love pulling pranks on loved ones. Whenever I’d scare my brother, for example, he would get operatic with his fear. He’ll be like, [ghost voice] “Ohhhhhh!” He had this musicality to it. And I’ve noticed that when you’re afraid, it doesn’t always manifest in a sound. You often don’t have the energy for that. Most of your energy is going to seizing up and being alert. There are YouTube clips of people being scared or people surprising somebody, and it’s rarely like, “Ahhhhhhh!”
Whenever I see that in a movie, it never rings true to me, because you have to muster a lot of energy to put that out, and when you’re afraid, your energy’s already going elsewhere. But then again, it’s a movie, so you’d have to convey that fear somehow. So I don’t know. I know this is a long-winded answer. I’m sorry, Wolfgang.
No! I’m so into it.
The scream depends on the moment. It depends on what is making you potentially scream. But I think screaming — some of the legends do it so well, like Janet Leigh — it’s about committing.
I saw on Instagram that you had a mustache. What’s your definitive take?
Well, mine is off.
Oh.
I think it depends on the face. I don’t think I have a mustache face. But I grew one for when I was playing a cop in another horror movie. I felt a little out of place, so I tried to fill out my uniform a little bit. I tried to work on my body, got the mustache. I gained like two pounds, by the way. But the mustache — it felt like a cop mustache. I hated it. Not so much the way it made me look, though I don’t think it’s the most flattering look for me, but I didn’t like kissing with it. It got in the way, and I love kissing my girlfriend. That was tough. So as soon as they called “cut” on this movie, which ironically was called Spin the Bottle (I’m not kidding), I ran to my trailer and shaved it. I bought an electric razor so I could do it as soon as it was done. And, you know, people looked at me a little funny. Some people have great mustache faces. I saw this guy … Chris Evans? I mean, he has a great face in general. But I think mustaches can look really cool. Like Robert Redford. Mustaches look great on hunks. For some reason, it doesn’t grow right down the middle of my septum.
I feel like it doesn’t have to grow all the way.
Hmm, no, I guess not. Some people have it on two sides, but then it ends up looking like, well … like for Tusk, for example, I wanted to grow it, because I thought it would be fun foreshadowing, since it looked walruslike. I remember I was on Conan once, and Bob Costas was the other guest. I used to be self-conscious about not being able to grow a mustache. I have strong follicles, but they’re sparse. So I found myself on a talk show on national TV talking about my, um, mustache. And after that, I was never all that self-conscious again. It’s funny. It’s like once you actually put something out there and open up about it, it loses a lot of its power. Not to try to tie this up in a bow, but the nice thing about Barbarian is, like, the unseen is always what creates fear. So yeah, I was no longer afraid of my shitty facial hair once I’d talked about it on national TV. I still would rather not have it — for the kissing element.
Wolfgang, can I ask you: What do people usually call you? Do they call you Wolfie?
My boyfriend calls me Wolfie. Friends call me Wolfie. So it’s usually Wolfie. Unless we’re not close. Then it’s Wolfgang.
Yeah, I always think of Amadeus; his wife called him Wolfie. [High-pitched voice] “Wolfie!”
[Laughs.]
Were your parents German?
My grandpa was German, yes.
Oh, okay, so it’s a family name?
Not really, no. People ask me, and there’s no crazy story. My dad just wanted to call me Wolfgang.
That’s cool. It’s a cool name.
Thank you.
I wanna thank your publication, because my friend just sent me a tweet that Vulture put out. It said “the justin longaissance” or something. That’s very flattering!
I actually run our Twitter, so that was me!
Oh! Thanks, Wolfie, if you don’t mind me calling you Wolfie.
No, totally. I don’t mind.
That’s very sweet. It’s funny, because sometimes people will come up to me and say, “Hey, you’re the guy in the thing” or whatever. And, this is always very flattering, they go, “Uh, so what do you do now?” So when there’s a moment of being in movies and out in the world, I think I enjoy it a little bit more now, because I’ve heard “Oh, so you’re still acting?” so many times. This helps make up for those moments.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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