More than a year after "Happy Death Day," a comical slasher film, emerged on the film scene, the cast is back at it with a sequel called "Happy Death Day 2U." Both movies take on the classic "Groundhog Day" trope of reliving the same day — but with a lot more blood.
Assistant Arts & Culture editor Maeve Sheehey and several other college journalists Skyped with Israel Broussard and Jessica Rothe, the two lead actors in both films. Broussard and Rothe discussed returning to the franchise and reliving the same day over and over again.
Student Journalist (UCLA): I guess a pretty general question: What drew you two to the roles that you play?
Israel Broussard: What drew us to the roles of Tree and Carter? Personally, I liked how kind of innocent Carter was, and how he wanted to keep everyone anchored and sees the best in everybody. I like that about him, I don’t know. How about you?
Jessica Rothe: Yeah. I mean, there were so many things that I loved about the character of Tree. I loved the huge transformation she goes on in the first film from kind of this self-centered, bitchy sorority girl to just a total badass. And I think that transformation is one that you don’t often see, especially in genre films that young women get to portray and get to kind of go on that kind of journey.
And then in the sequel, it’s so exciting because Chris Landon, our amazing director, kind of ups the ante for everybody, and Tree not only finds herself kind of back in the same situation, but she has to grapple with some really, really difficult big life decisions. So it’s kind of a dream to play a character that has that much going on.
Student Journalist (Spelman College): My question for both of you all is I wanted to know, what would you say was the hardest experience transitioning from the first movie to the second?
IB: I’d say trying to keep that same energy and the integrity of the characters. You know, we shot that a year and a half before we got back on set. Yeah, we had over a year of a break to grow into our own paths and going back to that was a little difficult, but it was still a lot of fun finding the good things in each character.
JR: Yeah, and one of the incredible things was that not only did the majority of the cast return, the majority of the crew did, as well. And so it was kind of like this awesome summer camp experience where we all got to come back together, and every single person involved with this film is so incredibly talented and kind and hardworking, and I think it really helped us redefine that magic.
