Main Disney • Re: Haunted Mansion (2023)

Now that you have had some time and distance from Haunted Mansion, how do you feel about that whole experience? You’ve talked about how things changed and what you learn from test screenings, and you’ve also said that there’s probably a four-hour version because of everything you shot that didn’t make it. When you look at it now, how do you feel about how it turned out?

SIMIEN: I have some mixed feelings about it, to be honest. I’m really proud of myself, as a person, in that process. It was extremely difficult, and when the release came, there was just a lot of conversation that was difficult to be in the middle of, especially during the actors strike and all of those things. At the end of the day, I have to say, I’m really proud of the audience scores of that movie. I read some of the reviews, and that wasn’t very good for my soul, so that took me a second. But I’m proud of what I could control in that process. The audience scores on that movie were one thing that I knew I had control over. We would have these test screenings, and I was able to vocalize what people were reacting to and nudge the production towards those directions. And to see that people were really loving it, on that level, when it came out, felt like a win to me. But the whole thing was kind of a bummer. We came out of the shadow of Barbie, of course. And then, there were people questioning whether or not it was appropriate for me to be promoting the film. That stuff was hard. It was. I’m not gonna lie. But it didn’t kill me. I’m glad to have had the experience and to take everything I learned into the next thing.


It’s always such a weird thing to try to judge the success of anything. There are great movies that people never see, and there are movies that make a ton of money that are horrible. So, how do you find your own personal satisfaction and success in something?

SIMIEN: This probably comes with age. I’m 41 now, and inside of me, there’s gotta be a conversation between my own personal metric for success and what society or culture deems a success because that has something to do with my career and the jobs that I get. It has to a conversation between both of those things for me. With Haunted, of the things that were in my control, and there weren’t a ton of things, I’m really proud about how those things turned out. I am. Whatever people might say about the film, even folks who really enjoyed it and were entertained by it, I’m so proud that there is a movie out there where there’s a relationship between a Black man who is struggling to feel his feelings. The movie hinges on him being able to feel his feelings and connect with a kid that doesn’t have a dad, that needs somebody to take care of him and look after him. That might seem very small, but that’s not a narrative that is common out there, and that speaks to my heart and my soul and the things I need from stories. If nothing else, that’s pretty cool. And also, I know that I can do that. I’m in no way, shape, or form intimidated by a budget that size and a production schedule that long. There are other things that I did learn that I probably won’t do again, but in terms of doing a big studio movie, it hasn’t quite spoiled my thoughts on it just yet.

Statistics: Posted by PatchofBlue — Mon Sep 30, 2024 5:36 pm