Interview: Grow director John McPhail on making a pumpkin-season movie for families
The filmmaker talks about balancing British and American senses of humour, working with his heroes, and casting child actors — one of whom is now the new Harry Potter.
John McPhail is a Scottish filmmaker who might be best known for directing the zombie Christmas high-school musical Anna and the Apocalypse.
Where that film took a happy cheerful holiday and turned it into an R-rated (but still upbeat!) monster movie, his newest film, Grow, goes in the exact opposite direction: it’s set during the run-up to Halloween, the official scariest season of the year, but it’s a PG-rated family flick about a girl who moves to a small British town and takes part in the local pumpkin-growing competition—a contest that the townsfolk take very seriously.
McPhail—who jokes that he’s “just trying to hijack seasons”—says he wanted Grow to be a sort of “anti-Halloween movie” that families could watch together.
To that end, the film focuses on a girl named Charlie (The Lazarus Project’s Priya-Rose Brookwell) who has a mysterious ability to communicate with plants. When she is sent to live with her aunt, a farmer named Dinah (Bridgerton’s Golda Rosheuvel), she enters the local pumpkin-growing contest in the hope that the prize money will help her leave and find her mother—but as she gets to know her neighbours (well, some of them, at least), she finds herself putting down roots of another sort.
The film comes out in the US today via Fathom Entertainment, and it will be getting a small release in the UK on October 25. (It’s already streaming on the Sky Cinema platform there.) The film also won the audience choice award for contemporary world cinema at the Calgary International Film Festival last month.
And, as luck would have it, the film happens to mark the screen debut of 11-year-old Dominic McLaughlin, who was recently cast as Harry Potter in the HBO reboot of the wizarding franchise; he plays Charlie’s friend Oliver. (Grow also co-stars Nick Frost, the new Hagrid, as a friend of Dinah’s who helps Charlie with her project.)
I had a chance to speak to McPhail after he returned to Glasgow from the film’s red-carpet premiere in London. What follows is an edited transcript of our interview.
PTC: How involved were you in the conception of this film?
JM: This film was originally written 20 years ago and it was set in the States. The film was produced by a New York company called Double Nickel, run by Adam Richman and Jenette Kahn. They were talking to Sky maybe about four years ago, five years ago, and brought this up. And they were like, “Oh my God, we love this and we would love to reset it for the UK.” So they brought on two British writers to take it and replant it in the UK. And when they were looking for places to shoot it, they came up to Scotland, and the financiers at Sky really liked my second film, Anna and the Apocalypse, and they thought I’d be a good fit. So that got me the opportunity to pitch for the film.
PTC: Twenty years ago, wow.
JM: One of those films. You know, you hear those stories, like, “Yeah, it took us 20 years to get it made,” and you’re like, “Um, really?” But I could actually believe it because of the way the market is and how volatile and how shifting it is all the time.
PTC: So how was that, translating it from a US setting to a UK setting? I don’t know if there’s anything in the film that really matters in terms of whether it takes place in 2005 or 2025, but culturally, for example, there’s a reference in the film to somebody bringing pumpkins over into England.
JM: We just wanted to have a bit of fun with the mythology of it. But I think it’s just a really universal-themed film, you know what I mean? Like, there’s nothing in there story-wise that says this has to be set in X, Y, or Z place. I think the big, fun, silly sort of British town is great fun to play into. And I’m a big fan of American comedy and humour as well. So balancing that British sensibility and American sense of humour was something that I really wanted to work with.
PTC: There was a time when people complained about American holidays taking over the world, and Halloween could be one of those. What’s your sense of that in the UK?
JM: I mean, Halloween’s became very Americanized here. We always did that. It was called guising. You used to dress up and you would go guising. You’d go to somebody’s store and you never got candy, like sweets—very rarely you got sweets. It was usually monkey nuts and fruit. Honestly, I thought it was the weirdest thing. But over the years, it definitely, definitely has become more Americanized.
One of the things is, we wanted this film to be like the anti-Halloween movie. Like, I love a scary movie. In fact, I usually try and watch a horror film every day through October. But that’s not good for families. You know, something for the kids, something for the adults that’s not scary and you can have a good time with. I think it’s rare in there. But in that sort of autumn period, it’s all animation. So something live-action—as I say, it’s for the kids, it’s for the parents, the grandparents as well.
PTC: It seemed to me that stuff like the Smythe-Gherkins [a snobby couple, played by Tim McInnerney and Jane Horrocks, who have won most of the town’s pumpkin competitions over the years] reflected a lot of British class consciousness.
JM: I always wanted them to be posh weirdos. Like, you know, horrible pantomime villains, really. But having them be weirdos was a big thing for me. And there’s a few references in here, like Matilda is one of them. But something that was a massive inspiration to me when I was making this was The Simpsons. I love The Simpsons. And it’s like Monty Burns, isn’t it? It’s like, “Release the hounds! Excellent.” You know, all that. Because it’s a madcap town full of madcap characters, and I love that sort of heightened space that’s a little bit cartoon, but again, feelings are real, and emotions are real. But as I say, everything’s in that sort of heightened space.
PTC: There are lots of British films about small towns and the eccentricities of small towns. And The Simpsons has a very sort of lived-in community. But it’s a suburban community; it feels like a different kind of community.
JM: I mean, it is very British, and we shot it at a place called Culross, which is in Fife, in Scotland. And it’s such a beautiful town and it’s very British. And I chose it for that reason, that you would see that and you’d go, “Oh, that’s in the UK, but I couldn’t tell you where.” And there’s a weird architecture, a bit of a Scandinavian architecture to some of it, which then leans into the fantasy of the film.
PTC: When the girl names the pumpkin Peter, is that a conscious connection to things like ‘Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,’ or maybe the song ‘Peter Pumpkinhead’, or things like that?
JM: The film was originally called Peter. I don’t know how much of the end credits you watched, but if you get to the bloopers, you see the clapperboard along with the word “Peter”.
PTC: But am I correct in thinking there’s a connection between “Peter” and “pumpkin” in the name?
JM: Yeah, that was kind of where I sort of played from. And funny enough, my manager’s called Peter. And one of his first jobs way, way back was on this [when it was] called Peter. Again, like 20 years ago.
PTC: Was he working for Double Nickel back then or something?
JM: No, no, no. He was working for another company. And they were obviously trying to get it sold. And he was, like, a junior and was put on it. So it’s just weird how films can do that, go around all over the place. And the reason they gave it to him is because his name was Peter.
PTC: Do you feel like some of the themes are a little more pertinent or relevant now than they might have been 20 years ago? Like some of the ecological themes—the growing of the plants, the use of weed killers, and just how you treat plants basically.
JM: There’s a proper eco message in there, but I’m really proud that we’re not ramming it down anyone’s throats. Like, it’s there, it’s in the piece, it’s in the character. It’s baked into the story without us saying, “You’re killing the planet, do this!” People are coming to watch this film to get away from the world’s problems, do you know what I mean? That’s what we’re here to do. I’m here to entertain you. I’m here to distract you from the mortgage and the bills and the homework and school. And that’s what you’re here for, and not to be reminded of it.
But at the same time, you know, obviously we have a responsibility—you know, it’s our planet—and having just that little bit of consciousness, maybe care towards the plants in and around you, and particularly with the kids—without, as I say, trying to turn everybody into an eco warrior. And obviously we have a bit of a climate crisis as it is, but as I say, I don’t want to scare anybody or remind anybody of the nonsense that’s going on outside.
And one of the things about it as well, because I’m really proud of this, is we’ve not dated the film. Like, I think the only time we talk about a date is 2010, but you know, that could be anything. I tried, as much as possible, to take mobile phones and things like that out. I was always trying to make sure that this could be sort of timeless, so that in 10 years time, it would just be as important, just as fun.
PTC: What about some of the pop culture references? This is sort of a family-aimed movie, but you’ve got nods to Psycho and The Godfather and stuff like that in there [when a mysterious figure attacks some of the neighbours’ pumpkins], which I kind of hope goes over the heads of the target audience! What was the thinking behind including some of that?
JM: Oh, you know, you need something for the parents. Like, one of the things I’ve loved about this is listening to the audiences and hearing what’s working and what isn’t working. And one of the things I absolutely love is just how much kids are terrified of the Godfather scene, the pumpkin in the bed.
PTC: Really!
JM: It’s like, they’re frightened and the parents are laughing. And then the kids are frightened, they’re trying to, like, cuddle into them while they’re laughing. And again, that’s that shared experience. That’s what it’s there for. I mean, it’s a brief little moment. And I’m a big cinephile. Like, if you watch any of my movies, there’s always references in the background to movies and ridiculous things like that. And making sure that there is stuff there for people to discover is important. So yeah.
PTC: Okay. I assume this was not planned, but at least two of your actors have now been signed up to be in the next Harry Potter. How long ago did you film this? How far in advance of all that did you work with these people?
JM: So, Dominic had never acted before, had never acted to camera. So, yeah.
PTC: And did you shoot this like a year ago, two years ago?
JM: We probably finished shooting in May 2024. So, yeah, I mean, I’m really proud of Dominic. He’s a really clever lad. You only ever needed to tell Dominic once to go on board. And he was really clever about watching everybody else. And working with Nick Frost was like a dream. So the fact that they’ve went on to go and do Harry Potter, I’m just, I’m really proud. I’m really proud of getting to work with them and seeing them go on and do some more amazing things.
PTC: Is there anything else I should have asked? Anything you want to say that we haven’t gotten into yet?
JM: I just wanted to say I loved making this film. I had an absolute blast making this film. And I had such an amazing crew on this. I had an incredible cast as well. Like, there’s names in here that I grew up watching and they’re, like, heroes of mine. And you’re always kind of worried about working with your heroes and things, but I genuinely had the best cast. None of them had any egos. They just wanted to come in and have fun. Like, Golda and Nick refused to go in their trailers. They just wanted to be on set all the time, and have fun. And we as a crew and as a team, we were all laughing—all day, every day, we were laughing. And I feel that kind of bleeds through in the film. I feel like you can feel that kind of joy, that kind of fun. And it was made with love, like real proper love.
And, you know, you mentioned Dominic and Nick, but my leading girl in this is Priya-Rose Brookwell. She was nine years old when we shot this and she’s in practically every frame of the film. And I’ve never worked with a kid who is so talented, kind-hearted, funny, and just committed. She came in like a ball of energy—like, from the moment she got onto the set to the moment she left. She never cried, she never huffed, she never went in, like, strops. She was just the perfect kid and the most amazing actress. And I just want to pay testament to that because I don’t know what hero can come in and do that. I really, really don’t.
PTC: That’s a good point. She is very good. You sometimes hear about how difficult it can be to find children for certain kinds of films. How did you find the casting process?
JM: The casting process was great. Like, you know, there was loads of great kids out there. Charlie was initially supposed to be a boy. And when I’m reading, I’m going, “There’s nothing in there that dictates what sex it should be.” So I said to the casting director, “Can we put it out to girls as well?” So Oliver would have been Olive and Charlie would have been a boy. So we put it to both. And when we discovered Priya and we went, “Oh no, this is who it has to be,” we were like, “Well, we want to change Olive to Oliver, so that young guys could see themselves in it as well.” So you’ve got a front-and-centre female lead, but her best friend’s a boy, so kids can see themselves in it. But as I say, Priya knocked it out of the park. You couldn’t say no.
Grow is now playing in theatres across the US. Click here for more info.