ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood & Honey 2 star Lewis Santer, who debuts with a sinister spin on the iconic character of Tigger. Jagged Edge Productions’ bloody sequel will be released in theaters on March 26 for a three-day run.
“Deep within the 100-Acre-Wood, a destructive rage grows as Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Owl, and Tigger find their home and their lives endangered after Christopher Robin revealed their existence,” says the synopsis. Not wanting to live in the shadows any longer, the group decides to take the fight to the town of Ashdown, home of Christopher Robin, leaving a bloody trail of death and mayhem in their wake. Winnie and his savage friends will show everyone that they are deadlier, stronger and smarter than anyone could ever imagine and get their revenge on Christopher Robin, once and for all.”
Tyler Treese: Lewis, I saw you had a theater background. Talk to me about a bit about how you got into the arts. I’d love to hear about that.
Lewis Santer: I started acting at quite a young age. I started about 11 years old, and I’ve always dabbled in it at school and college and stuff like that. Then I sort of decided I wanna go to drama school.
So I auditioned for drama school and I got onto this foundation course. It’s just a year course and you do a bit of acting. You do something called theater art. So you sort of try out different styles of acting. So we tried out physical theater, world Performance Theater, and one of ’em was stage combat.
And I just found a new love for stage combat. I wasn’t really a dancer, I wasn’t a singer, I was just purely an actor. So I thought if I pursue stage combat or stunts and that kind of thing, it’s a new string to your bow. You add something else to yourself.
So I auditioned for the three year course of doing acting stage combat, and got into that. I ended up spending about four years at drama school. And in that time we did loads of Shakespeare. We did Shakespeare training, a lot of theater stuff. A little bit of camera work, but mainly stage. So I was very used to that.
And then I graduated last July [and got] my first ever active role. [I was] very grateful for was a play at the Globe at Shakespeare’s Globe. And obviously studied all this Shakespeare. I was at the place where it all started, so I was like very grateful to be there.
Whilst I was there, I then got an email about this character — about Tigger. So it — completely — was one end of the spectrum. Of going from Shakespeare to playing a killer tiger man in a horror film. It was a great sort of change. But it obviously took a little while to get used to it.
Yeah, this is such a fun role. Tell me a bit about Tigger in the film. What kind of mannerisms transferred over? How are you moving around as Tigger in this?
When I first got the role, I watched a load of horror films and thought, “Who do I wanna base off?” And already the director said to me, I want him like sort of Pennywise, Art The Clown, Freddy Krueger, these sort of characters. So I sort of watched all these horror films.
I was making a note of what scares me, and I found it was that frantic, unpredictable sort of character. From slow movement to frantic movement in a burst of a second. So I really studied those sort of characters and that’s what I tried to apply to Tigger.
Obviously, he’s a humanoid, [but] I tried to keep that tiger element to him. So he’ll crawl around and that kind of thing, as well. And obviously you’ve got the cartoon to take into consideration. I made sure he was leaping and he’s jumping on walls and jumping on ceilings and jumping off stuff. It’s like a mix of all these horror icons with the cartoon and also with the animal side of him as well. So I’ve tried to make this perfect sort of potion of character.
In the first film, Pooh does not really speak a ton. Do you speak in this role, or was it more of a physical one?
I would say it’s more physical. That was definitely more the challenge, the physicality of him.
But he does talk, so I do talk quite a lot, and the voice was actually something that’s quite important for the character. So I remember talking to the director before we got on set of saying, “what sort of accent do we want?” We were gonna make him English ’cause it’s in England and the cartoon, I think, Tigger was English.
[But] it just didn’t work. The English accent just wasn’t scary. It wasn’t intimidating, and it didn’t work with the character. For some reason, we made him American and I took inspiration from Freddy Krueger’s voice — and from Ghost Face a little bit, as well.
So he does talk quite a lot, actually. And he has little one-liners – cool, cheesy one-liners. I love it.
This is your first feature film, correct?
Yeah, it’s my first movie role ever.
I literally came outta drama school last July. Then I was at the Globe doing Shakespeare. Literally the next day after graduation, I was there. Then a month later, I had this role. So it was crazy. It was like a whirlwind, going from one thing to the next. And then I ended up playing Tigger. I’m very grateful, and I feel very blessed for the opportunity.
What stood out about being on the set for the first time and seeing this big production? Because I feel like people don’t realize just how much goes into making these films.
So much goes into it. So many people on set, doing their own little thing. It’s all so important, what everyone’s doing — the crew and the cast and everyone.
But just the practical effects of it [were impressive]. There’s little bits of CGI in this film, but the gore was just so good. I was geeking out because I love horror films, and I love practical effects as well. So when you’re on this side of the camera, [it’s a different experience.]
Watching all these body parts, and all this blood, and making it come out of people — ripping bits off — and making it look so realistic… I was just geeking out, and thinking it’s so interesting to see the magic behind-the-scenes. To see it unfold in front of you and how it all works.
So I think that the biggest thing for me was probably the gore, and just the practical effects that we had in film.
So you’re getting your hands bloody here. What can we expect in time in terms of just the violence? Would you tease a lot of gore to expect?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s honestly a bloodbath from the start to the finish. And with Tigger, there are some kills that are quicker than others.
I keep talking about this one because it’s imprinted in my brain. There’s this one kill where I kill the victim and they’re above me and I’m doing soomething – I won’t say because I’m gonna spoil it — but I’m in a literal blood bath whilst I’m killing this person.
I remember I was completely red. Even the director said to me after, “there’s not one bit of yellow on you anymore.” You can’t see any Tigger, he’s gone. It’s just this red creature. And I remember it was like in my mouth and in my eyes. Just pure blood coming down.
It was like a literal shower. I remember the reaction of the crew looking at me. Because the other ones were great, but it was kind of like — “that one’s done now, onto the next.” But this one, everyone kind of took a moment and was like, “okay, that was disturbing to watch. That was a mental kill.”
But it’s loads that I’m ripping off. All sorts of bits of people’s bodies, and doing things with them. He’s eating parts because obviously the tiger’s gotta eat. So just, like… the worst thing’s imaginable I’m doing to people.
That’s so cool. One of the most impressive parts of this film is the costuming and the masks. What was your reaction, when you first saw what your Tigger was gonna look like? ‘
I got the prosthetics fitted back in a month before we started filming and I only had concept pictures. They said, “this is what we wanted to look like.” So I didn’t really have an idea and then got the prosthetics fitted.
I remember Reese sent me a picture just before we started filming, like the gray mold of it — the outline. And then it was only until my first day on set I actually walked over to the makeup trailer and there it was. Waiting for me. This mask on this mannequin head with the fur and the color and everything.
Then about two hours later, it was on me. I remember looking in the mirror. For an actor, it was such a special moment because you’re fully immersed. Like, I’m gone. Lewis is not here anymore. So it was really quite powerful to look at yourself in the mirror. You’re not even another person — you’re another creature <laugh>. It was great for me.
Starting out your career and getting to play such an iconic role this early – what does that mean for you, as an actor? To have this opportunity and especially so early on?
Honestly, I keep saying this, but it’s actually my dream round. Like it really is my dream round. Like I literally, Tig was my favorite character in the cartoon as a kid. I actually have Tigger toys. When I first told my family my nan was like, “you’ve still got all your Tigger toys at home.”
And it’s crazy because I was obsessed with him. And then I’ve grown to love horror, obviously I’ve got older and I love Pennywise and I love Freddy Krueger and I love Art the Clown. They’re all like heroes to me, these characters. And then when I saw the description of mixing my favorite cartoon character with all these these horror icons?
You couldn’t make a better character for me. And it’s all prosthetics as well — something I’ve always been interested in doing. So I keep saying this, but it’s true: it’s an absolute dream to play this character.
