Directed by Desiree Akhavan and written by Emily Kaczmarek, the episode of the Hulu anthology series Monsterland entitled “Iron River, MI” follows Lauren (Kelly Marie Tran), a neglected daughter who longs for the life that she sees her best friend Elena living. In the ten years since that friend disappeared, Lauren has grown close to Elena’s mother, is getting married to Elena’s boyfriend and is seemingly living the life of her dreams, until she comes face to face with her past and must decide what’s most important to her.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, Kelly Marie Tran talked about the appeal of Monsterland, why this story was so interesting to her, finding the truth of the moment for each character that she plays, exploring this character at two different ages, what makes this story so relatable, and wearing a wedding dress for much of the shoot. She also talked about getting to voice a Disney princess for the upcoming animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon, what’s important to her when it comes to the characters that she plays, and whether she’d ever consider returning to Rose Tico (her Star Wars character), if the opportunity to do a Disney+ series came along.

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Photo by: Barbara Nitke/Hulu

Collider: When this came your way, what was it that appealed to you? Was it the anthology concept of it, was it specifically the story, was it wearing a wedding dress for an episode, or was it something else entirely?

KELLY MARIE TRAN: It was a lot of things. Definitely the story and playing with the idea of privilege and jealousy and envy, and that dark part of humanity was really interesting to me. Also, I love Desi [Akhavan], who directed the episode. I think that she does amazing work and I love her. She has a different series on Hulu (The Bisexual) and two films, including The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which is so good. So, it was the story but also the people involved.

Did you guys have many conversations about the tone and the feel for this?

TRAN: We had a lot of conversations about what she was dealing with and the things that she was struggling with. In terms of tone, I don’t know that we had a lot of conversations about that. As an actor, I always tend to focus more on the truth of the moment and what’s going on in front of me, as opposed to trying to play to a tone or a genre. It’s strange, I feel like I’ve been given so many opportunities to play in different worlds and the process of finding the character strangely feels the same, even though you come at it from different ways. In one case there’s monsters and in another case there’s spaceships but approaching the work feels the same, in terms of just finding the truth of the moment and the circumstance.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that I love the shot at the end of this, with you walking through the creepy woods in the wedding dress. What was it like to do that and how many times did you have to shoot that moment?

TRAN: Oh, my goodness, it was so cool. I also did a lot of the running through the forest shots and that was so fun. First of all, I’d never shot in New York before. I believe we were outside of New York for this but it was so beautiful and it was cold and there was some sort of magic in the air, if that makes sense. I felt really safe on set and I felt like I could play, and that’s when the best things come about. It felt like an out of body experience. It was really cool.

Was it fun to explore this character at two different ages, 10 years apart?

TRAN: So fun. It was really cool to be someone going through puberty and being so awkward and just wanting so badly to be desired, and then growing up and maybe still feeling some of those things but in a different way. I think that we all grow up feeling some of those things. The strangest part was that me getting into my 16-year-old self didn’t feel that far away, if that makes sense, diving into that relentless desire to be loved. I think everybody has a little bit of that, at every age, and it’s just tuning the dials.

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Image via Hulu

And most people can identify with having a best frenemy and being a little jealous of someone else. There are multiple levels that make this story relatable.

TRAN: Yeah. Thanks for saying that. That’s the best and worst part of the episode. You can totally relate to this character, and then it’s ambiguous as whether she does this horrible thing. The fact that we can really relate to her emotions and the justifications that she has, it’s worrisome in a way that I think is what we were going for.

The kind of horror that works best for me is when it’s rooted deeply in the character. That’s when it sticks with me and is unsettling and it makes you keep thinking about it, more than if it’s just outright blood and gore.

TRAN: Yeah, absolutely. That’s what I really love about Monsterland. It doesn’t feel like monsters because they’re monsters. It feels like, “There are monsters but we’re also exploring humanity in this show,” which is really interesting to me, as an actor, to have the comparisons. She meets this monster in the forest, and then that monster brings things out of her and they relate and you’re like, “Wait a second.” It’s really cool.

An anthology series like this is interesting because you aren’t playing a character on an ongoing basis. It’s one episode you’re telling the full story of the character, in under an hour. What was that like? Did it feel like you were making a mini movie?

TRAN: Yeah, it definitely felt like a mini movie. Also, we shot the entire thing in six or seven days. We shot it in such small amount of time and the weekend happened to fall on the Oscars weekend and I was presenting, so I had to fly from New York back to L.A., and then right after, fly back to New York to do the last couple of days. It was a weird fever dream but I had an incredible time. It definitely felt like shooting a movie. I got so close to everyone in the group, by the end. I really had a magical time.

I feel like, no matter who you are, there’s nothing normal about going to the Oscars. Is that just a surreal and magical experience?

TRAN: It’s so surreal. I took my dad and he was like, “What is happening?” And I was like, “Honestly, I don’t know.” It was truly a crazy experience.

Because the wedding dress plays such a big part in this story, what was it like to find the dress? Did you try on a variety of dresses before landing on the one?

TRAN: They actually made it for me, which is incredible. The costume department was incredible. There were all of these incredible women who made three dresses in two days and they were just up all night. It was pretty surreal. I’ve never been married. I might’ve worn other wedding dresses in sketches that I’ve done. It was pretty cool.

What was the biggest challenge of the shoot? Was there a specific scene that was particularly challenging, or was it the environment that you were shooting in?

TRAN: The whole shoot was definitely challenging. Everyone involved was amazing. It was just a lot of pages to shoot in the little amount of time we had. I think that was definitely a challenge but it was so much fun. There is nothing like shooting in the middle of the night in the forest, in a wedding dress. It is so much fun. You get like so much adrenaline and it’s such a weird experience.

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Image via Hulu

Especially when you then add in a scary witchy woman in the woods.

TRAN: Yeah. That’s another thing, the make-up and the creatures, and the design of all of these monsters, was so incredible. There is this ethereal, inexplicable, magic thing that happens when you’re on set sometimes. Not every set and not every project but when you have the right people and it’s the right environment and you’re in the right place and you just feel this thing, it’s this beautiful, creative energy that was totally there while filming that episode. It’s such a magical feeling that I wish I could just bottle up and experience whenever I want. It was incredible.

How did you view Lauren? Is she someone that just makes mistakes that turn out very badly, or do you feel like there’s more to her actions, deep down?

TRAN: She’s a very complicated person. I think that Lauren, like most human beings, has a lot of different conflicting desires and emotions. The crazy thing is that, as an actor, you’re always trying to find the ways in which you’re similar to a character. You’re trying to find the gateways into the commonality of an experience. For me, the scary thing was that, in some of these scenes, as an actor, I obviously knew where the episode was going but Lauren, as a character, has no idea what she’s gonna do next. So, the ambiguous ending with all of these options and things that she did, are all very possible things. I just felt it was so relatable. The little choices that we make in life that can totally change the outcome of what happens was something that I found really relatable. I just think that Lauren is a complicated human with complicated emotions and she does really complicated things to try to process this trauma that she’s carrying.

It seems like there’s something almost childlike about her because she feels that she didn’t get to live the life that she wanted to have and it seems like it’s almost stunted her, back at that age.

TRAN: Yeah, absolutely. There’s a lot of repressed emotions in her. The younger Lauren is experiencing all of these things but doesn’t really have the words for them and doesn’t really know how to explain them. I think we’re living in a world now where we’re finally creating words and space to have these complicated conversations about identity and about experience, and about experiences that other people might not have because they don’t have to have them. I don’t think that Lauren had that. I don’t think she grew up as a teenager who was able to openly express herself. Obviously, she and her mom have a complicated relationship. She wasn’t in a position where she could openly have conversations like, “Why am I feeling this way? Why do I wanna feel something so badly? Why do I want all of this stuff?” And you’re right, it does stunt her growth. And then, she gets older and even though those things are aren’t as at the forefront, they’re still very much there, at her core. She has so much trauma from these things she hasn’t processed and that was really fun to play with and also a very sad reality of the human experience.

It was cool to hear that you’re voicing Raya in Raya and the Last Dragon.

TRAN: Thank you so much. I am so excited.

How do you feel about getting to be a Disney princess but also representing that for so many other people who might not have gotten to see themselves in that way before?

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Image via Hulu

TRAN: Oh, my gosh, you’re going to make me cry. It feels totally unreal. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s a completely miraculous fluke. Jamie Roberts, who cast me in that, is just so incredible and has supported me from the beginning. I’m having trouble answering this question because I don’t know that I know how to put it into words. It’s an honor and responsibility, at the same time, and it’s a lot of overwhelming emotions. I’m really, really grateful and excited to be a part of it. I’m so excited for people to see this movie. It’s gonna be good. I’m excited

At this point in your life and career, how are you approaching the types of roles you want to play and the projects you want to be involved in? Is it something where you know pretty quickly, if it’s a story and a character that you feel connected to?

TRAN: Yeah. There is no real requirement for me, if that makes sense. I’m not particular to a genre or a type of character. What I am particular to is the story itself, what it stands for, and who’s involved, and I always wanna avoid perpetuating any negative stereotypes about any particular type of person. That’s something that’s very important to me. But at the end of the day, I just wanna tell good stories. When I read a script, I’m always looking for what questions it’s raising and what world I wanna live in for a bit. I think that acting takes a lot out of you because you are not just on set for hours and possibly away from your friends and family but you’re also just living in someone else’s skin for awhile. It’s the idea of, “Who do I wanna embody for awhile?,” because it’s going to definitely gonna affect your mental health.

In December 2019, director Jon M. Chu threw his hat into the ring for making a Disney+ Rose Tico series. Is that a character that you’d like to revisit, if an opportunity came up to explore other aspects of her in a TV series?

TRAN: He’s so cool. I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. It’s so strange. I had so much fun being in that world but I feel like the pieces would have to fall into a perfect little puzzle and everything would have to feel like it’s the right time and the right moment and the right story, like with any other project. But I don’t know.

She’s certainly a character that has more story to tell.

TRAN: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think there are a lot of characters in that universe that we have yet to hear enough about.

Monsterland is available at stream at Hulu.

Christina Radish is a Senior Reporter of Film, TV, and Theme Parks for Collider. You can follow her on Twitter @ChristinaRadish.