Over the course of his various projects, Mike Flanagan has built up a stable of talented actors that he calls upon again and again to make his movies and television shows feel like home. The Life of Chuck is no different, with appearances from Oculus' Karen Gillan, The Haunting of Hill House's Kate Siegel, The Haunting of Bly Manor's Rahul Kohli, and Ouija: Origin of Evil's Annalise Basso. But while many of his previous works have dealt with death and the occult from a more depressing lens, his latest effort is nothing short of a celebration of life.

Fresh off its auspicious premiere at the Chiwetel Ejiofor) who can't stop seeing ments thanking Charles for "39 great years" even as the world seems to be falling apart around him. Though the mystery clears up soon enough, the answers are best left to be experienced in a theater.

Screen Rant had the pleasure of sitting down to interview The Life of Chuck's Annalise Basso, who plays the crucial role of Janice Halliday in the movie's second act. While most of her scenes involved dancing, the narrative conveyed through her interactions with Hiddleston's Charles is one of the highlights of the Flanagan film. The actor shared why the role came at such a critical time in her own life, how her previous collaborations with Flanagan have held up, and what makes Hiddleston a superior scene partner.

Annalise Basso Breaks Down Her Role In The Life Of Chuck & Why It's So Meaningful

"I found the why, and I found what I was born to do."

Screen Rant: I heard you lost two toenails during the dance sequence. How did you power through it?

Annalise Basso: I have been dancing most of my life, and I've had a love and ion for dancing—especially ballet. I'm not genetically inclined to being a prima ballerina, and my teacher trained me knowing that I wasn't going to be a professional. We still train together to this day; she lives in her senior living apartment community, and we dance in her laundry room. She wasn't ready to give it up, and we share this mutual love for dance, so she's taught me throughout my whole adult life.

I used point shoes, and I wasn't graceful, but I was disciplined. I would lose toenails and still come to class because I wanted it so badly. It just means so much, so to be able to do that for this movie? It's like, "Who cares if I'm losing toenails?"

Screen Rant: I know you've worked with Mike Flanagan before, but was he like, "Hey, I've written this part that has a lot of dancing, and I want you to do it?" Or did it come to you more naturally?

Annalise Basso: We hadn't seen each other for a while after Ouija: Origin of Evil. I was in Vancouver working on Snowpiercer, and he was doing his own thing, so it was just hard to connect. We were both living in different places, but when I finally reconnected with him in person, I had just been living in New York for a little bit and was feeling pretty down in my career. I was still trying to find something that inspired me and hadn't found it in New York. On a personal level, I love New York, but professionally, nothing was really happening.

I came to LA in the Spring of 2023, and I was ready to quit. I've been working since I was nine and have been able to make a living, and it's been great, but I just didn't have a lot of gratitude. The last year has been super humbling with the strike because everything was taken away. Sometimes you have to have things taken away, and then if you're blessed enough to have it reintroduced into your life again, you realize what it means.

I think everybody who loves this profession can understand giving so much of yourself and then just constantly being rejected. It's a tough industry, even if you are consistently working, and when you aren't? They are tough parts to all of it. But all that aside, when I told Mike that I thought I might be done, he's like, "Don't quit just yet. I have a role for you." And I'm really glad that it took the whole strike for the movie to come together because I needed some time to expand my gratitude for the career that I've had, and also for the people I've worked with.

Over the past year and a half, I've been working with Stuart Rogers at Stuart Rogers' Studios, and he really helped me take ownership of my work. I've been surrounded by such great teachers, Mike being one of them. If you can surround yourself with teachers, then you're setting yourself up for success. I didn't know that I had so much more of myself to give to this, and I've gotten to a point where I'm like, "This is what I'm meant to do." Before, there was always a question mark. "I'm good at this, and I can myself, but why am I doing it?" I found the why, and I found what I was born to do.

Screen Rant: I love how your sequence is a fleeting moment for each of these characters, and yet it leaves such a lasting impact. We get a little bit of your backstory with your boyfriend, but then we don't know what happens to you. What do you think is her future, and even his place in her life?

Annalise Basso: Oh, wow. That's a great question. His place in her life after that... I hope that this movie is who Chuck is to Janice; a beacon of hope. Whether we believe in something or not, whether you believe that your life means something or doesn't— make it mean something. Find out what you're meant for.

I've had plenty of interactions with people outside of the industry who have been benchmarks of my life and chapters with marked beginnings and endings. I think that's who Chuck is to Janice, and maybe she doesn't hope to recreate that moment. I think when magic like that happens, you have to just accept things for what they are and use that to propel you forward instead of trying to recreate the moments in the past.

The Life Of Chuck Actor Details Mike Flanagan's Evolution & Tom Hiddleston's Inner Goodness

Hiddleston is "an incredibly intelligent and talented human being that I have learned so much from."

Speaking of the past, you've worked with Mike Flanagan a couple of times over the years. How would you say he's evolved as a director since Occulus?

Annalise Basso: Honestly, when Mike was telling me that we were playing in a theater of 1900 people, I could see Oculus-era Mike just coming through. He has had this incredible career, but I could still see that person in him just wanting people to love his work as much as he does. He's Mike, so naturally everything he does, people are going to respond to with some amount of gratitude and amazement and respect.

As for how he's grown as a director, I think The Life of Chuck is a testament to how he can create worlds of joy as much as darkness. He's someone who understands the importance of the light but also someone who has experienced and embraced the darkness. He's able to do that and yet not be compromised by it, which is so hard to do.

How he's evolved as a director is how he continues to evolve as a human being. Oculus was a turning point in his life and in his career, because he said, "This is the last movie I want to make that is hopeless." He talks about The Life of Chuck as being something that his children can refer to; that shows there's something worth living for. That's a shift that I've witnessed, and I can see a light in him that's just grown brighter.

Screen Rant: You get to spend more time with Tom Hiddleston than perhaps anyone else in this movie. What's behind the Loki horns?

Annalise Basso: Behind the Loki horns is an incredibly intelligent and talented human being that I have learned so much from. Not only is he an incredible film actor, but he's a theatrical actor, and that's something that I am really interested in. I telling him that I want to be Juliet one of these days because that's my dream role. And he's like, "You will be." His accent just helps everything; it softens everything. The way he says things just sinks right in, then marinates your heart in something so good and warm.

Between filming and coming back here, I auditioned for a theatrical production of Romeo and Juliet and made it to the last stage. It didn't work out, but when I told him, he was like, "You've gotten so close. I'm so proud!" He's someone who really, really cares. When you're dancing with somebody, it's very intimate and can be very vulnerable. You're sweating! But he provided such an eager and ive lead for me to follow, so it was a pleasure to do so. I do feel like a little sister, and he does very much feel like an older brother in the sense that I felt very looked after and care for.

I feel like people of his caliber have the excuse to be like, "No, you're not coming in here." But he would talk to all the background actors and introduce himself. He cares a lot about what he does and the people he works with.

Annalise Basso Looks Back On Snowpiercer & Looks Forward To The Future

"I was lucky enough to stay on and be handed a completely different character that challenged everybody's perception of me."

Screen Rant: As established, you love Mike Flanagan and he loves Stephen King. Any chance you might both take that love into another Stephen King adaptation, or are you looking to branch out now?

Annalise Basso: I know it's such a cop-out answer, but there's so much that I haven't done. There's so much of myself I have yet to give, so I would love to do more dancing roles. There isn't a lot of dancing in a lot of movies today, aside from musicals, and I think there's a way we can go back to that with how innovative and fearless artists are today.

Artists are doing things that are crazy and experimental, and I hope that they continue to take risks with integrity. Those are the kind of projects I want to work on, with people who want to do something different. Not just for the sake of doing something different, but because they honor their own individuality and their own vision and are fearless in their pursuit of that.

I would love to try my hand at Shakespeare and Chekhov because theater is something that I'm really, really interested in, and it's something that I'm so new at. It feels like a brand-new thing. I just want to work with people who love what they do, and that's what makes working with Mike such a pleasure. He sincerely loves the people he works with, he loves what he does, and he loves what he writes. He loves the worlds he creates, and that's very special.

Screen Rant: Finally, I have to say I loved you in Snowpiercer. Folger, but not until after three seasons of wreaking havoc. What would you say you took away from that experience?

Annalise Basso: It was so sad, and that role just gave me so much. When Snowpiercer was originally created, I was just supposed to be a Midwestern farm girl. Then they hired a different creative team, and I was lucky enough to stay on. They even recast some people, so I was lucky enough to stay on and be handed a completely different character that challenged everybody's perception of me.

Up until that point, I was the innocent girl next door or whatever, and then I got to play a psychotic murdering psycho. [Laughs] I know that's redundant, but I can't emphasize how much of a psycho she is. Can't overstate it enough. But I'm so grateful to Snowpiercer for the time I had on it.

More About The Life Of Chuck (2024)

With The Life of Chuck, Mike Flanagan takes a detour from the macabre to explore one of Stephen King’s alternate sensibilities in an adaptation that carries the spirit of his most optimistic work. The world feels like it’s ending and everybody’s saying goodbye to Chuck. Wherever Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) goes, he can’t get away from Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). His face is showing up on billboards, window signs — even TV commercials. What’s so special about this seemingly ordinary ant and why does he warrant such a sendoff?

Their connection includes Marty’s ex-wife (Karen Gillan), her co-worker, his neighbour, and just about everyone else they know. Chuck’s life story soon begins to unravel in front of us, going back to a childhood with grandfather Albie (Mark Hamill), who teaches him about ing and es on a love for dancing, all the while keeping him from a prophetic secret in the attic.

Check out our other The Life of Chuck interviews here:

• Mike Flanagan & Taylor Gordon at TIFF 2024

The Life of Chuck premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6 and is currently seeking distribution.