Inside The Hand that Rocks the Cradle: Interview With Director Michelle Garza Cervera & Stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead & Maika Monroe.

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle cast and director discuss how they approached remaking an iconic film, and the horror movies that inspired them.

Not everything is as it seems in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. This hauntingly modern twist on the 1992 classic of the same name is now streaming on Hulu and with Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers,* so, there’s no better time to check out our sit-downs with stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who plays Caitlyn Morales), Maika Monroe (who plays Polly Murphy), and director Michelle Garza Cervera, for a deep dive into the movie and their processes. Want to watch before you dig in? Check out The Hand that Rocks the Cradle now. If not, read on.

Note: interviews have been edited for brevity and flow.

Explore Disney+’s Interview With The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Stars Maika Monroe And Mary Elizabeth Winstead

This new film is an iteration of a classic thriller. How did you both go about honoring it to create something new?

Maika Monroe: I love the original. It’s one of those movies you don’t forget seeing for the first time, and Rebecca (De Mornay) is amazing in it, such an iconic role. And [preparing for the] character, there were definitely nerves around that after initially hearing about the project. Then I read the scripts, and it did feel like a completely new take. The only similarity was on the surface level: a nanny shows up at a family’s house and wreaks havoc. I wanted to do the role justice, it’s such an iconic [film]. There are so many people who are such massive fans of the original. I think we did pretty good, we’ll see how it goes. 

Mary Elizabeth Winstead: I had such an awareness of the film being so iconic. I remember when it came out when I was a kid, what a big deal it was, and how everyone was talking about it, and it remained with that iconic stature to it, but I had never seen it. When I read the script, I looked up the original and was reading about it, and I realized how far apart they were in terms of the characters and the back stories and motivations. It felt better for me not to watch it for that reason and to create from scratch this new character who didn’t really exist in the original, other than the connection of them being moms who get terrorized by nannies, but they’re very different people at the end of the day.

How do you find your character’s motivations for darker acts, but make them feel grounded in something real or relatable, even though they are extreme? 

Maika: It was in the script — the trauma that Polly goes through. There are certain things that you learn about Polly throughout the film, and it’s really heartbreaking what she had to go through. If it had happened differently or she had someone to hold her hand through incredibly traumatizing events, would it have turned out differently? It touches upon mental illness. What does that manifest into? All very real things that so many people deal with. I wanted to stay true to that, certain things are heightened, but it all comes from a very grounded place.

Are there any classic horror or thriller movies that you both watch every Halloween season?

Maika: I really love Nightmare on Elm Street. I remember seeing that at a pretty young age at a sleepover, we’d always go to the rental store and get our DVDs. That movie scared me so much, because [the antagonist] haunts and kills you in your sleep, which was really terrifying. Those movies were so iconic and very nostalgic to me. That’s one of my favorites. 

Mary Elizabeth: My go-to is always The Shining, it has been for years on Halloween, but the nostalgic thing makes me remember the first horror film that I was really obsessed with, which I went to see in theaters, was Scream.

Maika: Of course.

Mary Elizabeth: I always leave that out, but that was my first. I was obsessed with it, and none of my friends were allowed to see it, so I would reenact it—

Maika: 
Stop!

Mary Elizabeth: —scene by scene— 

Maika: 
That’s amazing.

Mary Elizabeth: —all the time. I saw it three times in theaters, I would memorize it and tell them everything, every detail.

Maika: That’s incredible.

Mary Elizabeth: Again, just an early love for everything horror.  

What do you hope people walk away feeling or thinking about this movie?

Maika: Oh gosh.

Mary Elizabeth: I don’t know! It’s a roller coaster.

Maika: It is!

Mary Elizabeth: It’s an emotional roller coaster. 

Maika: I hope people sympathize with both of the characters, I hope that they connect in certain ways and understand. And I hope we scare them a little. 

Mary Elizabeth: I hope we scare them a little and that they want to watch it multiple times. It’s the kind of movie, I’ve seen it two or three times now, and every time I see it, I think, “oh my god, I didn’t even know that was in the background, I didn’t notice that while we were shooting.” Little things that I feel audiences find as well, like layers to things or deeper meanings to things that they might miss the first time, that’s always fun. 

Explore Disney+’s Interview With The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Director Michelle Garza Cervera

What inspired you to revisit The Hand That Rocks the Cradle for a new generation, and how did you want to reframe the story for today’s audiences?

Michelle Garza Cervera: It’s such an iconic and legendary film from 1992. It was intimidating at first, but [I like] the concept of challenging [the] classic way of approaching good and evil in thrillers . I wanted to have characters that inhabit the gray areas. The antagonist and the protagonist have blurry lines, where the audience can get to the point of not knowing where they’re standing. There were other themes regarding the perpetration of trauma and cycles of violence that I wanted to respect in my work. [I was] surrounded by a brilliant team that was invested and trusting in building a new movie that could stand on its own and have its own identity. 

You have experience making a previous thriller, but besides the original film, are there any horror or thriller movies that inspired you? 

Michelle: I really love High and Low, the Kurosawa movie — actually, Spike Lee just made a remake. There’s something about social class and trying to take over someone in the high-class world that was really inspiring, and I actually wanted to have a poster in the movie of High and Low. Another would be Tár, because I think it’s such an interesting character. Cate Blanchett, the way she’s shot, that was a cinematography reference for us, how she’s perceived, and her world is falling apart. Other movies that I really love in their craft are Jacob's Ladder, Don’t Look Now, and The Reflecting Skin, horror movies that have a sense of psychological dread and where reality starts distorting, those were some of our influences.  

Can you talk about the casting of Maika and Mary? How did you make the decision that they were a good match?

Michelle: I’m a huge fan of both of them, I’ve loved their work for so long. They both hold an image of being scream queens [which is] so iconic in horror movies, which is my favorite genre. They both have an elegance and a contained way to express very complex emotions. They know how to deal with crazy levels of violence in a way that is very cinematic. There’s sometimes scenes that are completely silent, and it’s just in their eyes, and that’s enough. They are actresses that can take it to that point of explosion, and they hold it. They worked in a way in this movie that they got to a point of magnetism and chemistry that we needed to create that mirror between them that was just masterful to see coming alive on set. 

What do you hope people walk away from this movie thinking about or feeling?

Michelle: I hope they give it a chance. This movie was designed to create a different conversation regarding the way we portray women in thrillers. Nuanced, layered characters can hold contradictions, and you’re suddenly not knowing where you’re standing, I feel that’s very appealing in this movie. It opens some questions regarding the perpetration of trauma, how it’s hard to escape from, how sometimes it’s important to embrace it, and see that maybe it’s not just going to go away. And it [has] some fun moments and thrills.

A lot of your work has examined motherhood, identity, and power. How did those themes evolve in this story between Polly and Claire?

Michelle: I [like] challenging domesticity, the systematic form that tells us that a household is supposed to be all love and harmony. I love to bring horror and challenging emotions to those spaces, sometimes there’s so much more going on below stability. That’s something that I [continued from] my previous film. In this movie, I was able to explore deeper, very contradictory or flawed characters to a point that you don’t know if you can trust them. That makes me love them even more because I can identify with them. We all have so many aspects within us. It was challenging, [I wondered] are people gonna empathize with them? I think that we can because it’s pretty human, no person is only good or only evil. That’s something I’m very proud of. 

Can you share any of your favorite Halloween or scary movies that you watch every year or that you like to revisit?

Michelle: I just rewatched Lake Mungo, which was pretty scary. I’m about to rewatch TheBlair Witch Project. I was terrified by that movie for 10 years. [There’s a] horror movie from the 1960s from Japan that I always recommend, it’s incredible and has some of the best female characters, Onibaba. And of course, Alien has always been my top one, it’s the best horror movie.

What’s the plot of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle?

New parents Caitlin Morales (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Miguel Morales (Raúl Castillo) hire Polly Murphy (Maika Monroe) as a babysitter. However, as time passes, tensions escalate, and Caitlin suspects something is off. Have Miguel and Caitlin made a mistake in inviting Polly into their life? Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera, the film offers a modern twist on the 1992 classic, focusing on blurred moral lines and escalating tension. (Hulu)

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