Many actors over the years have played characters who are held captive against their will, often in harrowing horror movies. For Anson Boon, playing such a role in the psychological thriller “Good Boy” required a different approach.
Boon was joined by director Jan Komasa, writer Naqqash Khalid and co-star Kit Rakusen at TheWrap’s studio at TIFF 2025 to talk about their new film, in which Boon plays Tommy, a cruel teen who crashes cars and hurts other kids for social media clout until he is captured while blackout drunk by a couple who chain him in their basement and plan to reform him by any means necessary.
Even when Tommy shows enough progress — seemingly, anyway — to win the couple’s trust, he remains chained up as he is allowed to walk around the house while leashed to a pulley system. For Boon, that meant being chained by his head and feet for nearly every scene.
When auditioning for the role, Boon said he performed with his hands tied behind his back to “try and feel that level of restriction that Tommy would be feeling.” But it wasn’t until a few days before shooting when he tried on the chain that he realized what he was getting into.
“With hindsight, I should have been getting used to this for a long time, because it’s not just the actual metal collar, but the chain is, they’re so heavy, right? And it really weighs you down physically and emotionally,” Boon told TheWrap.
Safety features were put in place, including five alternate chains made of lighter material for more physical scenes and breakaway points to prevent Boon from snapping his neck in case he fell. But Boon tried his best to use the real, heavy chain as much as possible, allowing him to settle into the surreal nature of “Good Boy” in which a personal, realistic drama is couched within a horror film premise.
“After I watched it, I was like, ‘This is like some kind of fairy tale, yeah?’ Like a wicked fairy tale. Because when I read the script, what I loved about it was it felt like this could actually happen. It felt so rooted in reality, and it is rooted in reality, but it has this otherworldly absurdity to it,” he said.
“Good Boy,” which is premiering at TIFF, is currently seeking a U.S. distributor and will screen at the BFI London Film Festival next month.
Catch up with all of TheWrap’s TIFF coverage here.