Promenade Queen,’ Music, and ‘Monster’

Suzanna Son hoped for a rainstorm. Taking inventory of the darkening afternoon sky from the rooftop of Netflix HQ within the Flatiron District, the actress was optimistic that the climate would possibly delay her flight and provides her additional time to unwind within the metropolis. Son was in New York for a fast spherical of “Worry Road: Promenade Queen” press, however was because of fly again to Chicago the subsequent morning to wrap up manufacturing on “Monster.”

“ I actually can’t say a lot apart from it’s only a dream position,” she says of the upcoming season of Ryan Murphy’s true-crime drama anthology sequence on Netflix. The third season will deal with Midwestern serial killer Ed Gein. “I really feel like I’m the luckiest lady on the planet. I might stop after this,” she says of attending to be a part of the present. “I’m kidding — however wow. I’m studying day-after-day. I’ve grown a lot.”

Son, who made her onscreen debut because the lead in Sean Baker’s 2021 movie “Pink Rocket” and starred in controversial 2023 HBO sequence “The Idol,” is subsequent taking over the highschool promenade and the teenage horror style with “Worry Road.”

“My first day taking pictures, it was this arm-chopping-off scene, and that may be my first time screaming in public as an actor. I used to be terrified,” she says. “Diving into the deep finish was one of the best factor that might have occurred to me, as a result of after that, the strain was off. I used to be not scared to scream. You possibly can ask me to do it now, and I’d. I don’t need to — however I might.”

The 29-year-old actress describes the campy 1988-set movie as “surprisingly punk.” “ It jogged my memory of Scooby-Doo — a whodunit — since I used to be undoubtedly improper about who the killer was,” she says. Her personal character, a loyal good friend to the underdog promenade queen candidate, is the traditional emo highschool misfit, who additionally occurs to odor like Tub & Physique Works’ “Twilight Woods.”

“To me that’s highschool, and that places me in that zone. After which marijuana, she smells like weed. She’s an enormous stoner,” says Son, who likes to assign every of her characters a signature scent. “It’s like a time machine.”

Son can be gearing up for the discharge of her first musical album, following a number of memorable moments singing and taking part in piano in-character on-screen. She sang an acoustic rendition of “Bye, Bye, Bye” as Strawberry in “Pink Rocket,” and serenaded her fellow cult members, and The Weeknd, as an aspiring younger musician “The Idol.”

“I’m simply tremendous happy with it,” she says of her forthcoming album, which doesn’t but have a launch date set. “A number of the songs I’ve been caught on for 5 years. And I completed them in 20 minutes one evening after I acquired dwelling from set.” Music, Son’s past love as a performer, has grow to be a cathartic launch after being on-set all day. “I have to get this vitality out after working all day. Generally I get very hyper after work and it offers me a surge,” she says. “And so piano and singing helps me do away with that.”

Son, who counts Regina Spektor’s 2009 album “Far” as inspiration, grew up taking piano classes and singing to herself in non-public. “It was actually my anchor as a child,” says Son, whose household moved round typically. “I all the time knew that piano could be the very first thing delivered, and no less than I might play that whereas all the pieces’s in packing containers,” she provides. “However I used to be too shy to sing phrases. Solely when my mother would depart the home would I ever attempt to put phrases to music.” 

Describing that interval as a “very unhappy time,” Son started to come back out of her shell throughout school in Seattle, the place she majored in classical music earlier than switching to musical theater.

“One in every of my academics mentioned, in an audition class, ‘It’s best to simply transfer to L.A. and do movie and TV.’ And I checked out her, I used to be like, is that an possibility? After which I spotted I don’t must undergo 4 years of school,” she says. “So I dropped out.” After a detour to New Zealand, she ultimately landed in L.A. 

“That is the place it seems like a lie, however I promise it’s not,” Son mentioned. “9 days later Sean Baker scouted me on the ArcLight Theater. I used to be there on a date seeing, ‘He Gained’t Get Far on Foot,’ and he requested me, ‘Hey, would you wish to audition for my film?’” The “my film” ended up being “Pink Rocket,” Baker’s follow-up to “The Florida Venture” and precursor to the director-writer’s Oscar-winning “Anora.” 

Son spent the subsequent few years hoping that Baker would e mail, and the decision lastly got here early within the pandemic. “I auditioned with a bizarre monologue and acquired the position, and drove to Texas like the subsequent day,” she says. “ And that was my first time on-camera in an performing sense.” The movie, which costarred Simon Rex, went on to premiere on the 2021 version of the Cannes Movie Competition.

As she wraps up “Monster” and appears to the long run, Son provides that she’s “open to something” on the subject of roles, and is continually stunned by what characters she’s drawn towards. “ I can’t clarify what I’m interested in, however I all the time comply with that feeling when I’ve it,” she provides.

Requested what her newest initiatives have taught her, Son loops the dialog again to the intention behind her preliminary hope: the storm. 

“ I type of all the time really feel like there’s a gunshot going off in my physique, and I’m actually studying tips on how to decelerate, take time, don’t apologize after I make a mistake,” she says. “As a result of that simply takes up time and vitality. Transfer on, give myself extra grace; it’s what I’m attempting to study. And: continue learning.”