We had a chance to catch up with actor Brendan Meyer and discuss his newest film, The Friendship Game, and his acting career. Brendan Meyer may be recognizable from his lead role in Mr. Young or his work on Netflix’s The OA. I had a blast speaking with Brendan, and I look forward to what this talented actor has in store for us in the future. 

Synopsis: The Friendship Game follows a group of teens as they encounter a strange object that tests their loyalty to each other and has increasingly destructive consequences the deeper they go into the game.

Interview With Actor Brendan Meyer

iHorror: Hey, great movie; I thoroughly enjoyed it. The little trinket, the friendship box, that reminded me – I got a Hellraiser vibe. 

Brendan Meyer: I watched Hellraiser for the first time by accident two months before we started shooting this movie. It was on my list, and I finally got to it. And then I looked over the script again for this, and I was like, “oh yeah, it does have a Hellraiser vibe.” It was funny because it wasn’t recommended to me by anyone in the shoot; it kinda just happened. 

iH: That’s awesome; it has a Hellraiser vibe. How did you get attached to this project? Was it a normal audition? 

BM: Yeah, I did an audition; it was actually wild, though, because they wound up pushing the shooting dates a little bit. Originally, it was supposed to have been shot earlier in 2021; I auditioned in early December 2020, did about three scenes, and sent it off. I didn’t hear anything, and I believe it was supposed to shoot in March at that point. At this point, when you’re an actor, and you don’t hear anything within a few weeks after the new year started, that was no good, and I forgot about it. It was in the summer when they came back around, and there wasn’t even another audition; they were like, “hey, Friendship Game, they are interested; maybe you’re going to meet with Scooter, but it looks like you’re going to get an offer” and I was like “what.” [Laughs] I was like, “oh yeah, I remember it; the script was cool” I did enjoy auditioning for it and everything. It was funny because I thought it had already been shot, so that was a nice little surprise. I had done a normal audition a long time before; I was pleasantly surprised. 

iH: That’s awesome; it is easier for you to record your audition, or do you prefer doing it in person? 

BM: Yeah, there are pros and cons to both. I like being able to tape it at home because it gives me time to get into it and pick and choose. But sometimes, while live auditions were a little more stressful and they required more prep, “ahh, I have an audition today, ehh,” sometimes that can fuel you to give a better performance or a more lofted performance. At this point, it’s more taped auditions, so it would be nice to see some in-person come back at some point, hopefully when people are ready, when people want to, and when it makes sense. I also enjoy that things are a little less stressful. 

iH: and I am sure it is convenient, too. 

BM: Yeah, it is more convenient, and if you travel, you’re not missing things. And if you’re on set shooting, sending a tape in is now very normal. 

iH: What are some things you do to help memorize your lines? Or anything you recommend? Do you have to be in a certain head space, or does it come naturally for you? 

BM: Well, I would say it sort of comes naturally. Again the nice thing about it is there is a lot of repetition now in my life; it is something I have done a lot. I always find that sleeping on it helps. A lot of times, if I work on something during the day and then come back to it a couple of hours later, I usually don’t know it as well as I think I do. But if I work on it and go to sleep, I often wake up knowing it pretty well. It just settles in my brain really well, making a better memory of working on it. That’s why I only know to always work on the scenes the night before. When you’re doing something like this where it’s a bigger part, you’re going day by day. You may think of all the big-picture stuff ahead of time unless it’s a bigger dialogue scene. Even if I have a long day on set, I always come back looking at the next day’s scenes. If it is a bigger dialogue, I will start a couple of days early because then I have two days for it to 

both: sink in. 

iH: Did Scooter allow you to ad-lib in the film, or was it pretty much by the book? 

BM: I certainly think that he allowed it, but we didn’t do a ton of that kind of stuff; there was a lot of fun stuff on the page. Scooter was open to collaboration, and we did change lines here and there. A lot of great stuff was on the pages of the script, and I think that we wound up becoming such great friends off-camera; we were able to do a lot of work with the lines that were given—giving them life and giving them a sense of play. There was certainly a loose vibe on set when we were doing those kinds of scenes.

iH: That’s great that everything was lax; you can definitely see the bond between all of you. How was it working with Paton? I’ve seen her on Cobra-Kai, she was a badass, so I bet that was a lot of fun. 

BM: Yeah, it was; Peyton [List] is great. She’s like a real friend now, and we’ve hung out since the show several times; it’s great when you can make a new friend out of it as well. Same with the other two girls, Kaitlyn [Santa Juana], Kelcey [Mawema], and Scooter [Corkle]. Peyton is great; she is so great in the movie. I met her years ago, back in the day, when she was doing Jessie; we didn’t really know each other but were around the same types of people, so we had that in common as well, and we can talk about the time that we first met. It was awesome to get to know her. She’s a blast, great to work with, and great to watch work; I’m glad she’s a friend now and that people are now starting to see her great work in this movie. 

iH: What horror movie do you revisit every year? 

BM: I don’t know if there is a movie I watch every year; I definitely have a few that I like a lot. One of my favorite horror movies is a classic to say, and that is John Carpenter’s The Thing; I love that one man. That one is so cool; I love the atmosphere. That is the perfect thing when you go for the cool effects, an interesting sort of villain – villain monster, you could say, and the setting. When horror films have those great settings, whether it’s in space like Alien, whether it’s space or the arctic, I love those that have those unique settings! Some horror movies are effective for not having those unique settings, like Halloween. It’s scarier because it could be your own backyard, but The Thing is the one I always go back to. 

iH: do you have anything else you’re working on? Is anything coming up? 

BM: Yeah, last year I did a movie called the Unheard, which will be out sometime early next year, which is another horror movie, which is great. I filmed that right after The Friendship Game, so I am excited about that. I just directed and wrote a short film called Delivery, which is sort of a spooky movie. I put that up on my Youtube channel so that you can find that. I am not in that, but I wrote and directed it. Working on some different stuff, but those are the main things.

iH: and do you ever want to direct a feature?

BM: I would love to do that, man; so much of my energy now (no pun intended) is directed toward writing. Trying to write something that I can then direct. So figuring out something that checks all the boxes, not being too big and not too small or something that is not worth it or not being interesting enough, is balancing those two things; it’s a long process. The nice thing about having acting as my primary focus is that I can use that to take a little bit of the pressure off the writing. I have a feature draft right now; we’ll see, hopefully.

iH: Where can people find you on social? 

BM: @BrendanKJMeyer.

iH: I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me. Congratulations on the movie; it releases Friday [November 11], and hopefully, we can talk again soon. 

BM: I hope so. Thank you. 

For more information on Brendan Meyer, visit www.brendanmeyer.com
Twitter/Facebook/Instagram: BrendanKJMeyer