How ‘Control Freak’s Kelly Marie Tran Scratches The Self-Help Itch

“It’s a complicated thing. When I get sad, I listen to graduation speeches on the internet, so I’m definitely not above self-help,” Kelly Marie Tran says with a laugh as we discuss her new movie, Control Freak.

She plays Val, a motivational speaker tormented by an unrelenting itch on the back of her head. However, that itch turns out to be much darker and more malevolent than anyone could imagine. Control Freak is now streaming on Hulu.

“I think there are moments when we all need some sort of motivation, inspiration, or a thread of hope to hang on to. I am never going say that motivational speaking is all bad,” she continues. “I don’t think this is true of all motivational speakers, but this might be true about a specific type of person that can be found in this sphere of humanity, which is the duality of projecting perfection while being really broken.”

“We see that a lot in public-facing people who, for a period of time, we might think are good people, and then suddenly, ten years down the line, we’re like, ‘Wait a second. All this stuff came out about them.’ It’s like a cognitive dissonance because we’ve been, I don’t want to say, brainwashed, but taught, maybe by the media or by their PR teams, that they’re a specific type of person and they’re the opposite. It’s terrifying. I thought about that a lot as we were finding who Val was.”

However, Tran is also realistic about the journey to enlightenment that many take and appreciates that many others don’t have the luxury of being able to take it in the first place.

“I think that it takes a long time for people to get there, and I think the majority of people maybe may not get there,” she muses. “I have to recognize my privilege because we get to be in the world and think about characters, stories, and motivations. Then there are a lot of people who are like my parents. My dad worked at Burger King his whole life. He didn’t have the time to sit around and think about his motivations, his subconscious biases, who he was and who he wanted to be, and how to feel self-fulfilled. The fact that we’re allowed to do that and have the ability to do that is such a privilege, and the fact that you are in a place where you feel okay with not being certain is the place that I hope we all get to get to.”

Kelly Marie Tran Says ‘Control Freak’ Makes Her Want To Do More Horror

Control Freak has been adapted from a short called Control, which was part of the second season of Hulu’s Bite Size Halloween. Writer-director Shal Ngo was at the helm of both projects. Control Freak is not Tran’s first foray into horror. However, it is the deepest she has tested the waters.

“I did this series called Monsterland. It was an anthology series, so I was only in one episode, but it was a horror anthology series. That was me dipping my toe in, but this is very much jumping in the pool of horror,” the Raya and the Last Dragon and Star Wars actress enthuses. “I had such a good time and hope to do more horror. It was such an incredible way to explore themes that I’m really excited about and interested in.”

“I had not seen the original short. I had just read the sides and the script, and I really related to Val’s fear of vulnerability and feeling like she had to project this person that she wasn’t because Val wanted people to think that she had it all together. Shal is a collaborative human being, and we were able to talk through many of the scenes, as well as Val as a character. We had tons of conversations about inspirations like motivational speakers that we were looking at, and I had talked to Shal a lot about people in my life who had narcissistic tendencies, how they were unable to look at themselves, and how that felt to me.”

Control Freak leans into the use of practical effects, embracing gruesomeness. An extreme itching scene even shocked Tran when she saw the finished film.

“It was gross, but it looked amazing. We had such an amazing effects team,” the actress says. “Honestly, the team that Shal put together was just incredible, so you’re seeing stuff on screen where a lot of that I hadn’t seen in its final form, or I didn’t get to see until I got to screen the movie a couple of nights ago. It just looks incredible. I’m just so proud of everyone involved.”

Equally impressive is the design of the entity known as Sanshi. In Japanese culture, Sanshi are demonic creatures living inside the human body and trying to hasten the death of their host. Tran swears that having a physical manifestation to interact with is why the terrifying sequences work.

“Shal showed me a little bit of the creature design beforehand, but Stanley, who played Sanshi on set, is an incredible actor. A different actor did the voiceover later, but Stanley was on set with me,” she explains. “I think an actor is only as good as the people around them, and I’m just purely reacting to what Stanley’s giving me, so I can’t take credit for that. That’s all down to the creature team, the effects team, and Stanley’s performance.”

Control Freak isn’t Tran’s only noteworthy project this season. After receiving an incredible response at the Sundance Film Festival, writer-director Andrew Ahn’s remake of The Wedding Banquet lands in theaters on Friday, April 18, 2025. Tran’s co-stars include Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-chan, and the legendary Joan Chen. She’s delighted that the film has already received such a positive response.

“I am so incredibly honored to have been part of Andrew Ahn’s incredible ensemble that he put together,” the actress concludes. “The themes of that film are really personal to me. That film really recognizes and celebrates parts of my identity that I think I was scared to share as a young girl, so I feel very honored, and I’m just really excited for everyone to see it.”