Julie Bowen opens up about her show Hysteria, what she was like as a teenager in the '80s, her fears as a mom to teens and what it's been like on the set of Happy Gilmore 2 with Adam Sandler.
Julie Bowen has a new series dropping for Spooky Season ... but, despite appearing in a number of horror movies and playing the Halloween-obsessed Claire Dunphy on Modern Family, she's a real life scaredy-cat.
The actress is one of the stars for Peacock's new show Hysteria, set during the height of the Satanic Panic craze of the 1980s. Following appearances in projects like American Werewolf in Paris, Hubie Halloween and Totally Killer, it's the latest spine-chilling project for Bowen, who insists she has no spooky side herself.
"Not even a little. I am the exact opposite," she told TooFab. " I think it's because I'm the perfect audience for it. I'm terrified of jump scares. My kids were forbidden when they were little from jump scaring me, or I would take their iPads away."
"Maybe I'm too gullible. It's very easy for me to get scared. Even sometimes looking in the mirror at the makeup for Claire Dunphy for Halloween, I'd get very scared," she added. "So no, I like more psychological. I loved Let the Right One In; I loved the '80s, Jagged Edge, the sense that something bad is going to happen, I love that. But jump scares, they freak me out, and blood."
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While horror clearly isn't her jam, Bowen said she loves how Hysteria is more of a psychological thriller than a slasher. And with themes like teenagers struggling to fit in and the pressures of growing up, it's a pretty relatable one ... Satanic murders aside.
"I had an old sister. Molly is, and was, very popular, very social; whatever the trend was, she knew what it was. She was cool," she recalled of her own teen years in the '80s. "And I was her much quieter younger sister. I was much more timid. I was not good at sports. I wasn’t good at being loud. You would never know I would turn into the person I am now ... but I was definitely a fringe person."
"When I was a teenager -- and maybe this is unique to me, or girls, or teenage girls -- but there was sort of a desire to out-emote each other, like to have the biggest feelings," she continued. "So we would often say that we saw ghosts, or we would have a real creepy feeling and then that would feed on itself and then everyone would become hysterical. It was always high drama. Teenage girls, there is a lot of hormones and drama."
Now, Bowen is a mom to teens herself. She shares three sons -- including a 17-year-old and 15-year-old twin boys -- with ex-husband Scott Phillips. While she fears her on-screen son falling prey to the devil's music, in real life, her concerns aren't quite as biblical.
"It's funny, because I have three boys and two of them are twins -- not identical -- and none of them are the same. So my worries with each one are very, very different," she told TooFab. "Where one may be too social, one not social enough, one is too into this, one's into that. They're all very, very different people."
"Trying to parent, it's like I have to be three different parents. That is my biggest concern. They're very good kids and thank you Teen Uber, whoever came up with that," she exclaimed. "They tell you when they get picked up, where they get dropped off. Game changer, because before that, I didn't feel comfortable letting them just call an Uber. But I don't want to go pick someone up at eleven o'clock at night. I'm old and I'm tired!"
She may be tired, but Bowen is also hard at work on her next film, a followup to the Adam Sandler comedy classic Happy Gilmore. The sequel finds her reprising her role as Virginia Venit from the 1996 film; with Sandler and Christopher McDonald returning alongside newcomers Margaret Qualley, Bad Bunny and Travis Kelce.
"We are in our third week. I shot yesterday and I'm shooting tomorrow," Bowen said when we spoke with her at the end of September. "Adam is such a loyal and kind person to his crew and to his friends, that this, it kind of feels like a reunion."
"I know Billy Madison was his first movie, but it literally feels like a reunion of everybody from along the way, is all in this movie. Including the production designer, Perry, who was there 30 years ago," she added. "The producers, the director of the original Happy Gilmore is in this movie, it feels like a reunion and its really fun."
See Bowen in action in Hysteria when it drops in full Friday, October 18 on Peacock. The show will also air Fridays on USA and SYFY.
