[EXCLUSIVE] Morris Chestnut & Regina Hall Discuss their Steamy New Thriller “When the Bough Breaks”

John Taylor (MORRIS CHESTNUT) with his wife Laura (REGINA HALL) have a romantic moment while Anna (Jaz Sinclair) watches them from outside in Screen Gems’ WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS.

In the nail-biting thriller, When the Bough Breaks, wannabe parents John and Laura Taylor (Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall) find out how a lullaby life can quickly become a waking nightmare. Young, professional, and successful, the Taylors desperately want a baby to make their picture perfect family complete. After exhausting all other options, the ideal woman walks into their life: Anna (Jaz Sinclair). She’s undeniably beautiful, friendly, and ready to be the Taylors’ surrogate. They immediately hire her, and take her under their wing.

There’s something else growing inside Anna besides a baby, however. As Anna gets further along in the pregnancy, the trust between her and the Taylors starts to crack. She develops a dangerous fixation on John that grows increasingly psychotic. Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall discuss the suspenseful film with Hip Hop Weekly.
HHW: What was it like working on such a nail-biter?
MORRIS CHESTNUT: I think that we’re both professionals. I think the one thing with this film is it was very challenging. It was an emotional film and it was just very challenging for myself. I’ll let Regina speak for her, but I think that working with someone who is professional, such as Regina, professional, such as Jaz, and even our director, Jon Cassar, was pretty much just another day at the office, come to work prepared. I mean Regina definitely makes it fun each day with her sense of humor.
REGINA HALL: For me, I think we were both ready to do something light after the project ended, but we were able to find moments that weren’t intense and take a break and have fun. I think when you’re working, you’re in the mode of the project at that point is most important, more than what you’re going through while you’re shooting because in a few months, you’ll be out of it. I think when you’re shooting, the intensity is part of what’s driving you, so you actually appreciate it because it’s helping your performance.
HHW: What was it about this script that compelled you to be a part of it?
MORRIS: This script was different. It definitely had elements of other thrillers, but I felt it was unique in its own perspective and voice. So, I wanted to be a part of that. I knew Regina Hall was involved, so I was really looking forward to working with her. And also, our director, Jon Cassar, working with Jon Cassar, I was familiar with his work from 24 and he had done a couple of miniseries and I was really looking forward to working with him after sitting down and discussing his vision for the film.
HHW: Regina, can you discuss the female point of view of the characters’ storyline?
REGINA: I think that her desire for a child just overrode success, just like sometimes women do in relationships. You know what I mean? You might like a guy so much that your sixth sense of woman intuition doesn’t kick in because your desire for what you want is bigger than what you pay attention to and your red flags. I also think that maybe the girl, or in my mind, what I created was that in my mind, the girl before the pregnancy and the hormones, it wasn’t as bad, it wasn’t as blatant. It wasn’t obvious, and I think once someone’s implanted with your last embryo, you don’t really have much of a choice even when you do realize it. You can’t even allow yourself to know that it’s a mistake because it’s done, it’s permanent. You can’t go in and scrape it out. You have to go with it at that point.