Annaleigh Ashford is a mother slowly succumbing to the challenges of her time and environment inHold Your Breath. Ashford primarily spent the first decade of her career working on Broadway, working on everything fromWickedtoLegally Blonde: The Musicals,Heathers: The MusicalandRent. The Tony winner would begin expanding her career to the screen with her key role inShowtime’sMasters of Sex, going on to balance her roles between screen and stage with everything fromThe Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime StorytoB Positive,Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet StreetandWelcome to Chippendales, which earned her an Emmy nomination.
Ashford stars inHold Your Breathas Esther Smith, a mother of two children in 1930s Oklahoma who has fallen on hard times, generally being pitied by her local neighbors for her emotional struggles in the wake of her husband’s death. As The Dust Bowl continues to set in and her efforts to get her family out of the area prove troublesome, Esther’s children are welcomed to her family member, Margaret’s, home. However, as Margaret herself begins enduring her own mental struggles, fears arise about whether anyone is actually safe in this region.
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Alongside Ashford, the ensembleHold Your Breathcast includesAmerican Horror Story’s Sarah Paulson,The Bearstar Ebon Moss-Bacharach,My Best Friend’s Exorcism’s Amiah Miller as Margaret’s eldest daughter Rose, Alona Jane Robbins as her youngest daughter Ollie, andThe Old Man’s Bill Heck. Capturing the natural terror of the period while also leaving viewers questioning what is real throughout its story, the movie is a captivating entry into the horror genre.
Ahead of the movie’s release,Screen Rantinterviewed Annaleigh Ashford to discussHold Your Breath, how her character exemplified much of the trauma past generations of women have lived through, the period setting’s parallels to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how being a parent really made the heartbreaking themes of the movie all the more potent for her.
Ashford FoundHold Your Breath’s Two Major Themes Are “So Applicable” To Today’s World
“…I think the film touches on that in an extraordinary way.”
Screen Rant:Hold Your Breathis just quite the powerful film from start to finish. What was it about your character and this script that really sparked your interest to be a part of it?
Annaleigh Ashford: First of all, thank you. Yeah, this script had two narrative threads that I thought were so applicable, unfortunately, to our present day, and also really fascinating themes to explore in the horror genre. I always say a good horror film is something that makes us feel something and scares us, but a great horror film is something that makes us feel something, scares us, but has threads of humanity and heart.
And I think this qualifies, because there’s two threads of narrative, one of which is the impact that climate change had on the 1930s. There was a climate disaster that was man-made, that was not natural, and I don’t think people are educated enough about it. It was really scary, and it had a devastating effect on the humans that lived in that part of the land. And then the other narrative thread that’s fascinating to me is this one that explores having to stay inside because you’re afraid of what’s outside.
The movie was written before COVID, which is so ironic and fascinating, because it was outrageously applicable to our experience during COVID. You were afraid of what was outside, and you had to stay inside. And staying inside was a really big struggle for so many people’s mental health, and I think the film touches on that in an extraordinary way.
Ashford Was “So Heartbroken” By Her Character & Living Through “One Of The Most Horrific Experiences”
“I was reminded in exploring the character of how unfortunate the patriarchy was for women of that era…”
I also really love your character’s arc of wanting to be a protective mother, but obviously not being all there, and struggling with this wasteland of the Dust Bowl. Given that you yourself are a mother, I’d love to hear how much you pulled from your own experience of being a parent to really tap into the heart of your character.
Annaleigh Ashford: Yeah, being a mom of an eight-year-old little boy and an almost zero-year-old little girl — I’m just on the verge, I could have her right now [laughs] — I was so heartbroken for this woman, and it reminded me that, for generations, women had to navigate the unfortunate often loss of children, and it’s something that we don’t even think about in our generation. It’s one of the most horrific experiences and forms of trauma that a human can experience is losing a child.
Losing anybody, but losing a child is particularly painful and trauma-inducing, and was just so common back then, and the way that women were treated when they experienced loss was, unfortunately, really, really cold. I was reminded in exploring the character of how unfortunate the patriarchy was for women of that era and what a lack of support they had for mental health, and what a lack of understanding they had for mental health. So I think, yeah, the film made me really just have a lot of respect and love for those who have come before me. The generations of the past, the constant trauma that they had to navigate. I’m so glad we have therapy, aren’t you? [Laughs]
AboutHold Your Breath
Oklahoma, 1930s. The Bellum family house rests in a valley of dirt as clouds of dust blot out the sun. Margaret (Sarah Paulson) and her two daughters, Rose (Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), tend to their sparse farm while Margaret’s husband has left in pursuit of work. As they struggle to survive the punishing Dust Bowl environment, a mysterious stranger (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) arrives, threatening all they know and love. But is the threat a closer one?
Check out our otherHold Your Breathinterviews with:
Hold Your Breathbegins streaming on Hulu and Disney+ on October 3.
Hold Your Breath
Cast
In 1930s Oklahoma, during the devastating dust storms, a woman becomes convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family.
