IGI Logo

Canadian actor Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman says the horror thriller "Spiral" took an emotional toll on him as the film intersected with many personal areas and traumas of his life.

The film was shot in a small farm town in Alberta, Canada, just an hour away from where the actor was raised in a small, white farm town. Bowyer-Chapman recalls being adopted as a baby by a white family and growing up as a queer person of colour. He says he faced homophobia, racism, as well as emotional and physical abuse.

"Going back to the scene of the crime, it brought up so much of it. So many of the traumas and the triggers were just so immediately there. It took a big emotional toll on me, and then I came back home to LA after filming and it was still really lingering with me. But because I was so raw after coming back," Bowyer-Chapman said.

He added: "I was so aware of what could remain in my life and what could no longer remain in my life because anything that was even remotely painful to me prior to going and filming this movie was unbearable when I came back -- it was an opportunity for me to kind of revamp my whole life."

The actor said that he ended a long-term, very emotionally abusive relationship that had allowed him to stay in.

"So as challenging as it was, it ended up being a personal evolution that was necessary," he added.