Alex Barima Talks Scary Movies and FOX’s ‘The Exorcist’ [Exclusive Interview]

Alex Barima is facing his demons in The Exorcist Season 2.

I recently spoke to Barima about his induction into the horror franchise and his role as Shelby on The Exorcist.

Barima’s experience with horror before now was limited. As a self-described “super scaredy cat,” he hadn’t seen the film or watched the show before auditioning for The Exorcist.

His fear started early on. “I remember going into a haunted house with my dad when I was a kid, and I don’t think we made it to the other side because I was too scared,” recalled Barima.

Seeing a couple of scenes from the movie later on added to his innate fears.

“I remember, this must’ve been 12 or 13 years ago, I saw a couple scenes from the original movie, and they just scarred me. To this day, they are burned into my brain. I can’t unsee them. I’ve never watched the whole thing because after seeing those two scenes, I can’t do it” Barima admitted.

Being cast in The Exorcist Season 2 challenged the actor to start facing those fears. “I did force myself to watch the first season before I started working on Season 2, and I was surprised how much of it I was able to watch all at once because it was so entertaining, ” he said.

“But I was, like, scared. I watched it daylight only. [It] still kept me up at night.” It was no surprise, then, to learn that he hadn’t read the book, but he doesn’t count it out.

“If there’s a horror movie that I am curious about seeing the whole thing from start to finish, it would be The Exorcist. I’ve seen a couple of parts, and I’ve always been curious to see how it ends. Then if I watch the movie and I make it through that I might go to the book. But, I think it might take my whole life to work up to that.”

His reluctance with the genre did not quell Barima’s enthusiasm, however. “As an actor ,this is everything you work towards—having a job where you can actually go to work every week, and work on something of this size and a role this important—it really is a dream come true for me,” he said.

“It really is a blessing to be a part of this project,” he added. “It’s been nothing but excitement ever since I’d been involved in the project. I was excited to start shooting. And then we started shooting, I was excited for the show to finally air. And now that we’ve started airing, everything feels like it’s really gaining a lot of momentum, and it feels great.” 

Barima found similarities between himself and the character of Shelby on The Exorcist. “The way he is when we catch up with him on the show is very close to the way I am and was at that age.”

“I grew up in a religious family. Christianity’s always been a big part of my life, but it’s never been something that I talk about that much with friends or at work or anything like that. Shelby is kind of the same way — where everybody who knows him knows that his faith is really important to him,” Barima explained.

“It’s not something that he pushes onto other people, but it’s something that drives his life, and it’s something that guides him and what he does.”

“I also love that he is an intuitive character who actually knows that there’s something wrong going on, and he catches onto it very early, but nobody wants to believe him,” he continued.

That element was something he had been drawn to before.

“Whenever I watch horror movies, those are always the characters that I side with immediately. If you just listen to this person you might not be caught so unaware. You might actually be able to fight back,” Barima said, describing another connection to the character.

He further commented, “[Shelby] finds his way into Andy’s family where he finally has found this home that he cares about, and he’s scared that it’s about to be destroyed by the devil himself.”

Although he related to his character, playing Shelby was not without its challenges.

“I have never had to do horror before. I’ve never had to play terrified, so that’s been a pretty cool thing to get into, and seeing what kind of new ways to trick myself into being scared, and really diving deep into the situations that we’re shooting,” Barima expressed, adding, “I know if it were me and there wasn’t a camera crew around, I would be crying like a baby.”

“When I got the first couple of scripts I definitely started, not worrying, but I was a little wide-eyed reading those scenes, like, we’re really taking this to some scary, freaky places.”

Luckily for him, things were kept light on the set. Barima shared a behind the scenes story that involved John Cho and an accordion:

“I remember he found this accordion and he picked it up, and he’s never picked up an accordion in his life. He started playing it so loud, and it was so obnoxious. He started singing as well, and he’s like, ‘I’m going to learn how to play this by the end of the day.’ Sure enough, like, 25 minutes later he had learned how to play a tune on it, and he had written this short improvised song.”

“I knew it was going to be a fun time,” Barima laughed.

Barima wasn’t able to divulge too much in the way of plot, but he did say that The Exorcist takes a compelling turn early on in the season.

“I think what’s most interesting to me about this season is the fact that the story is really happening on two fronts, and we do have some big plot points coming up in the next few episodes,” he hinted. “When the two stories start coming together, I think it will shift in a way that will take a lot of people by surprise.”

The Exorcist airs Fridays at 9/8c on FOX.

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