It’s mid-December and the temperature outside is close to zero. It’s no warmer inside our shoot location in Lewisham, south London, a vast old building spread across three floors — or is it four? The endless stairways are rather confusing, and it’s a game of cat and mouse trying to keep up with the team as they move between rooms with every outfit change. It’s easier to follow the sound of photographer Kosmas Pavlos as he yells excitedly: “YES!” “AMAZING!” as Ben Aldridge effortlessly pulls off one hot shot after another. The photos are electric. The clothes vary from looks that wouldn’t feel out of place at Berghain through to a full-on Studio 54 glitter moment, via laddish sportswear.
Just as the actor is getting warmed up, it’s time to push him that bit further. A large white freestanding bath is filled with hot water — one kettle at a time — and, clad in a heavy leather suit, Aldridge lowers himself in. It’s all cosy until the shoot wraps, and he needs to step out, dripping wet, into the ice-cold air. But the pay-off is worth it: the location, the lighting, the clothes meld together to create an eerie stillness that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror movie, which is entirely appropriate given Ben’s latest role in the new M. Night Shyamalan film, Knock at the Cabin.
In this apocalyptic psychological horror, Aldridge plays Andrew, who, along with his partner Eric (Jonathan Groff) has escaped for a family vacation with their adopted seven-year-old daughter Wen (Kristen Cui, who nails her debut acting role). Their retreat is interrupted when four strangers invade the cabin, led by the disconcerting Leonard (Dave Bautista in his best role yet), who claims that the apocalypse has begun and only Andrew and Eric can stop it through choosing to sacrifice — by their own hand — one of their family. It’s an extreme premise that requires a fair bit of suspension of disbelief on behalf of the audience. In the hands of a lesser director and were it not for stellar acting by all of the cast, it could have easily come undone.
Aldridge, 37, steals the show with an enthralling performance that pulls you into the character’s despair, playing a man not only conflicted by the bizarre claims of the four people holding his family hostage, but also by his own past which comes back to haunt him. “My character and Jonathan are in a really loving relationship, it’s a very, very happy family,” says Aldridge of his break-out role in a mainstream movie. “I think they’re a very successful family, the three of them. You find out more about their past through a series of flashbacks that happen throughout the film. I’ve played a straight hero before in my life, and I think Jonathan might have, but neither of us has ever played a gay parent. I don’t think I envisage myself having children, I don’t think it’s what I want, but it was really interesting to develop this relationship with the young actress, Kristen.”
To ease her into the role, Shyamalan encouraged the trio to spend time together beyond the two weeks of rehearsals, doing things on PlayStation and going ice skating together. “We formed such a bond, the three of us. It’s Kristen’s first time acting, so Jonathan and I were kind of teaching her, and that was something that intensified our bond between us as actors. And then the three of us,” says Aldridge. “It’s really nice to feel like we’re at this time riding a wave of progress in these films as well, to play this family in a major studio picture. I think Night really just believed that it’s the old adage: love is love, and a family is a family. Night’s a super family man. His three girls and his wife are everything to him. I think he put himself in the shoes of the character and he’s like, ‘How would this affect my family?’ It’s not really about them being gay.”
