Most people think of film as a passive art form. The viewer sits and watches the story unfold on screen, powerless to change anything, at the mercy of whatever the cast and crew have produced. Over the years, there have been attempts to shake up the average viewing experience: 3D, 4DX, the disastrous Smell-O-Vision. One such format is the interactive movie. Audiences don’t have to simply watch a film; they can directly influence the outcomes for the characters and narrative.

From Night Trap on the Sega CD console to Black Mirror: Bandersnatch on TVs, interactive movies have come a long way—but The Run is looking to take the format to the next level. Directed by Paul Raschid, audience members decide the fate of fitness influencer Zanna (Roxanne McKee) and local farmer Matteo (George Blagden) after Zanna is hunted by killers on a morning run. Designed for communal cinema experiences, audiences make choices by holding up colour-coded glowsticks.

With The Run being screened at the Dinard British & Irish Film Festival, we sat down with actor George Blagden to speak all things interactive movies. As a performer, there are additional challenges when filming different scenarios and outcomes. “The first script that Paul [Raschid] sends through is usually about 1000 pages long”, says Blagden. “Paul does write something called his flow chart, and he gives it to you alongside his script. You [can] have 32 different versions of a scene.”

A lot of work has clearly gone into making The Run, but interactive films aren’t popular—it’s a very niche genre. What makes this feature have the potential to change that? Blagden explained, “What’s really interesting about The Run is its scale. He [Raschid] set out to make something that was mostly location based… it’s a much bigger scale… we’re running through the mountains of Italy. I think people will love that escapism. They’ll come and watch, and be like ‘wow, I get to make choices about which mountain we’re running up and down’, as opposed to which icon do I click on.”

FILMHOUNDS also got to chat with Blagden about classic interactive movies, the Dinard experience, and his voice work on Elden Ring.

You can check out FILMHOUNDS’ full interview below: