ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Hold Your Breath star Annaleigh Ashford about the psychological thriller. Ashford discussed the film’s location, her love of period pieces, and more. It is now streaming on Hulu.
“In 1930s Oklahoma amid the region’s horrific dust storms, a woman (Sarah Paulson) is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: I love the look of Hold Your Breath, and it speaks to the directors as well, especially how they shot it, but the locale seems like a character. How was it filming in New Mexico and dealing with all this dust that’s going around?
Annaleigh Ashford: What a great question. Um, as you said, the locale is absolutely a character in the film and it was absolutely a force While we were filming, we had to clear off the land where the house in the film is, is built and, um, as a result, the land spoke back . You know, one of the threads in, of narrative in the film is, is the effects of climate change. This was a manmade climate disaster, the decal, many people dunno about it, and it happened a hundred years ago, and we’re, as we’re navigating manmade climate disasters right now, um, we cleared that land and then we had a mini dust storm. ’cause the land was like, uh, don’t touch me. I don’t like that. Isn’t that fascinating? That is, yes. It was a character in the film.
The 1930s is also such a trip to see in the film. What did you like most about that time period, getting to wear old clothing and all that?
I love period pieces. I love being transported back in time and space. Also, I have just the luck and so much gratitude that I got to know my great-grandmas and grandpas and two of my great-grandmas and grandpas actually lived through the Dust Bowl. Their family lost farms during the Great Depression in that era, and also that area of the country. So it was really kind of lovely and familial for me to sort of pay homage to my relatives who experienced that time and that pain and that loss. I felt so much empathy for the people who were alive in that part of the country during that era.
That’s really special. One of my favorite moments for you in Hold Your Breath, there’s this really emotional scene where your son is taken. Could you speak to just filming that scene? You really bring a lot of great emotion to it?
I am a mother of one, almost two. I literally could give birth right now, I’m about to go into labor with my second baby. But anytime that I get to play a mom, and especially any mom that has any sense of or sort of heartbreak, it always hits so close to home. I just had so much empathy for this character and this woman and also the women who lived during this era. The lack of support that they had as mothers, as wives, and really as women is so evident in the way that this character is treated in the film. So I’m glad that I got to show audiences that so they could have compassion for people who experience trauma.
Thanks to Annaleigh Ashford for taking the time to speak about Hold Your Breath.
