Alex Vincent was only 6 years old when he, as the character Andy Barclay, first met and defeated Chucky in the original Child’s Play film. This week, he returned to those roots — alongside his fellow Child’s Play 2 alum Elise Christine, reprising her role of Kyle — to blast away yet another wayward doll in episode six of SyFy and USA’s Chucky. It was a moment longtime fans have been dying to see since the series’ premiere.
As it turns out, Vincent’s just as delighted and shocked to still be battling the serial killing doll all these years later. “Returning to this character, you know, a character that I started when I was 6 years old, and I’m 40 playing the same character, it’s such a rare thing that it couldn’t be anything but tremendously gratifying,” he tells PRIDE.
Vincent’s return to the franchise as an adult actually began with a post-credits cameo in the 2013 film Curse of Chucky, which ended with a crowd-pleasing confrontation between Andy and Chucky. It’s one Vincent admits was a struggle to keep quiet at the time. “I had to keep it a secret for a year, which was challenging, ‘I actually had to lie to the entire fan base for years’ is a better way to put that,” he laughs.
Curse was followed by Cult of Chucky in 2017, which offered a larger role for Andy, whose life had become consumed with vengeance against the doll who ruined it. It also featured another surprise cameo in the post-credits scene, this time from another popular character in the franchise, Kyle, played by Christine Elise.
While the actor was excited to return to the role, she faced the same kind of pressure to keep the cameo hush-hush. “Alex had shown up at the end of Curse, so people were anticipating another surprise at the end of Cult. And most people correctly guessed that it would be me,” she recalls. “But I wasn’t allowed to say that. So much like Alex for a whole year, I had to answer the question, ‘Are you going to be in Cult?’ And I wasn’t allowed to say yes. And I wasn’t allowed to say no.” That being the case, Elise was relieved that this time around neither she nor Vincent had to keep their roles under wraps.
Returning to the role that she first played 31 years ago was surprisingly easy for her. “I always really identify with Kyle... it wasn’t a reach to be sisterly to the real-life 7-year-old boy [in Child’s Play 2],” she says. “My relationship with Alex [has been] sort of that ever since then...we have that same dynamic now, where I have this older sister thing to him. So it felt easy and natural.”
The end of Cult saw the two characters on a mission to take down Chucky once and for all, which is where their storyline picks up in Chucky’s sixth episode. In a Tarantino-meets-Supernatural-style cold open, Kyle and Andy hunt down and dispose of a homocidal Chucky doll. Gone are the days when you could call either Andy or Kyle a victim, which was really important to Vincent. “We wanted to make sure that Andy was no longer a victim and that if one person was scared in that relationship, it was Chucky of me and not the other way around,” he says.
“Cape Queer” wasn’t only an, ahem, killer watch because of its returning fan faves, but because also since it proved to be, as the title promised, the queerest yet.
The previous episode saw Jake and his crush Devon share their first kiss, officially taking them out of the friend zone. It was incredibly sweet, especially for a series about a killer doll. In this episode, their relationship continued moving forward with a promise of a date and Devon effectively coming out to his mother.
But that’s not the only queer love story in town, since Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) had a confession of her own, telling Nica-Chucky (Fiona Dourif) that she knows that Nica’s still inhabiting her body (from time to time) and that she’s fallen in love with her. It’s a twisted, high camp, and all of the things we love so much about the franchise. That this storyline fits in so perfectly alongside the vulnerable and sincere teen love story unfolding this season is a true testament not only to all the actors involved, but to the strange alchemy that its out creator, Don Mancini, has brewed up with this series.
For Vincent, ensuring that LGBTQ+ people watching Chucky feel both represented and entertained is very important. “Anytime that your art gets the opportunity to touch people in any capacity is a thrill and blessing and really, kind of what drives most artists, to begin with,” he says, specifically talking about the show’s queer audience. “Instead of just fear or laughs — Chucky is certainly good at causing both — touching people with feelings of acceptance, and validation, and representation...it’s satisfying for us. I think it’s a tremendous thing.”
Chucky is currently airing Tuesdays on SyFy and USA.
