Midsommar star William Jackson Harper talks 'tough' horror movie shoot

In writer-director Ari Aster’s new, already acclaimed horror film Midsommar, a quartet of American tourists — played by Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, and William Jackson Harper — are treated to a series of ritualistic outdoor meals at remote community in Sweden. But filming the movie in the countryside outside Budapest in Hungary was no picnic (aha!), according to The Good Place star Harper.

“It was hard, it was hard,” says the actor. “I mean, we were basically in this field all day, every day. It was hot, and there were wasps and spiders, these big weird spiders, wth these green abdomens, that I had never seen before that I was sure was going to kill me. So, it was tough, it was a very arduous shoot. The thing is, Ari’s very specific about what he wants things to look like, and so we would do these long wide shots over and over and over and over and over again, until we got it exactly right. So, yeah, it was taxing. We had to make sure that we fit ourselves into this visual vocabulary. But there are ways that maybe it leant itself to where [our characters] wind up going, especially for Florence and Jack.”

Midsommar costars Vilhelm Blomgren. Aster previously directed last year’s horror film Hereditary. Watch the trailer for Midsommar above.

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