Suzanna Son was hoping for a rainstorm. Taking stock of the darkening afternoon sky from the rooftop of Netflix HQ in the Flatiron District, the actress was optimistic that the weather might delay her flight and give her extra time to unwind in the city. Son was in New York for a quick round of “Fear Street: Prom Queen” press, but was due to fly back to Chicago the next morning to wrap up production on “Monster.”
“ I really can’t say much other than it’s just a dream role,” she says of the upcoming season of Ryan Murphy’s true-crime drama anthology series on Netflix. The third season will focus on Midwestern serial killer Ed Gein. “I feel like I’m the luckiest girl in the world. I could quit after this,” she says of getting to be part of the show. “I’m kidding — but wow. I’m learning every day. I’ve grown so much.”
Son, who made her onscreen debut as the lead in Sean Baker’s 2021 film “Red Rocket” and starred in controversial 2023 HBO series “The Idol,” is next taking on the high school prom and the teenage horror genre with “Fear Street.”
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“My first day shooting, it was this arm-chopping-off scene, and that would be my first time screaming in public as an actor. I was terrified,” she says. “Diving into the deep end was the best thing that could have happened to me, because after that, the pressure was off. I was no longer scared to scream. You could ask me to do it now, and I would. I don’t want to — but I could.”
The 29-year-old actress describes the campy 1988-set film as “surprisingly punk.” “ It reminded me of Scooby-Doo — a whodunit — since I was definitely wrong about who the killer was,” she says. Her own character, a loyal friend to the underdog prom queen candidate, is the classic emo high school misfit, who also happens to smell like Bath & Body Works’ “Twilight Woods.”
“To me that’s high school, and that puts me in that zone. And then marijuana, she smells like weed. She’s a huge stoner,” says Son, who likes to assign each of her characters a signature scent. “It’s like a time machine.”
Son is also gearing up for the release of her first musical album, following several memorable moments singing and playing piano in-character on-screen. She sang an acoustic rendition of “Bye, Bye, Bye” as Strawberry in “Red Rocket,” and serenaded her fellow cult members, and The Weeknd, as an aspiring young musician “The Idol.”
“I’m just super proud of it,” she says of her forthcoming album, which doesn’t yet have a release date set. “Some of the songs I’ve been stuck on for five years. And I finished them in 20 minutes one night when I got home from set.” Music, Son’s first love as a performer, has become a cathartic release after being on-set all day. “I need to get this energy out after working all day. Sometimes I get very hyper after work and it gives me a surge,” she says. “And so piano and singing helps me get rid of that.”
Son, who counts Regina Spektor’s 2009 album “Far” as inspiration, grew up taking piano lessons and singing to herself in private. “It was really my anchor as a kid,” says Son, whose family moved around often. “I always knew that piano would be the first thing delivered, and at least I could play that while everything’s in boxes,” she adds. “But I was too shy to sing words. Only when my mom would leave the house would I ever try to put words to music.”
Describing that period as a “very sad time,” Son began to come out of her shell during college in Seattle, where she majored in classical music before switching to musical theater.
“One of my teachers said, in an audition class, ‘You should just move to L.A. and do film and TV.’ And I looked at her, I was like, is that an option? And then I realized I don’t have to go through four years of college,” she says. “So I dropped out.” After a detour to New Zealand, she eventually landed in L.A.
“This is where it sounds like a lie, but I promise it’s not,” Son said. “Nine days later Sean Baker scouted me at the ArcLight Theater. I was there on a date seeing, ‘He Won’t Get Far on Foot,’ and he asked me, ‘Hey, would you like to audition for my movie?’” The “my movie” ended up being “Red Rocket,” Baker’s follow-up to “The Florida Project” and precursor to the director-writer’s Oscar-winning “Anora.”
Son spent the next few years hoping that Baker would email, and the call finally came early in the pandemic. “I auditioned with a weird monologue and got the role, and drove to Texas like the next day,” she says. “ And that was my first time on-camera in an acting sense.” The film, which costarred Simon Rex, went on to premiere at the 2021 edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
As she wraps up “Monster” and looks to the future, Son adds that she’s “open to anything” when it comes to roles, and is constantly surprised by what characters she’s drawn toward. “ I can’t explain what I’m attracted to, but I always follow that feeling when I have it,” she adds.
Asked what her latest projects have taught her, Son loops the conversation back to the intention behind her initial hope: the storm.
“ I kind of always feel like there’s a gunshot going off in my body, and I’m really learning how to slow down, take time, don’t apologize when I make a mistake,” she says. “Because that just takes up time and energy. Move on, give myself more grace; it’s what I’m trying to learn. And: keep learning.”
