ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Pinocchio Unstrung star Richard Brake. The talented actor discussed playing Geppetto in the slasher movie, acting with animatronics, and reflected on both Batman Begins and Game of Thrones. Pinocchio Unstrung will be released in theaters by Viva Pictures on July 24, 2026.
“A chilling reimagining of the familiar fable, Pinocchio Unstrung unfolds inside an elite London prep school. Influenced by a sinister Cricket (Robert Englund) and created by Geppetto (Richard Brake), Pinocchio launches a violent crusade to carve himself into a real boy like his brother James, one piece at a time,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Richard, congrats on Pinocchio Unstrung. I wanted to ask you about playing Geppetto because that’s a role everybody knows. How was it really putting your own stamp on this character that’s been so celebrated and portrayed not just in film, but in all these different mediums for over a hundred years now?
Richard Brake: That’s a very unique stamp, isn’t it? It’s not quite the Geppetto from Disney. That was what really got me wanting to do it. I read the script and was surprised. Initially, I thought, “Oh, it’s just going to be a crazy puppet film.” It turned out it had a lot of soul and heart, particularly with Geppetto’s relationship with Cameron and Cameron’s relationship with his friends. It was the opportunity to play a lovely, caring grandpa who has a slightly twisted motivation for creating Pinocchio. That was fun. It was fun to take the role on. It’s an iconic character in literature and film, so I was happy to do it and add my little psycho twist to him.
I was curious about filming with the actual Pinocchio. What did you have to interact with during filming?
We had to have the actual animatronic puppet there the whole time. There were a few. There was a stunt one that was less expensive and could get thrown downstairs and do assorted other stuff, his stunt double. But the actual puppet was there. A lot of times it was by itself, and sometimes it had some help here and there from puppeteers. Somebody had to be off camera voicing it. So I think we were almost always working with Pinocchio himself.
It was fun. I’ve done a fair bit of that kind of work in different films over the years, whereas the young guys hadn’t. They were amazing. Cameron had to do a lot of work with Pinocchio, and he handled it so well. When I saw it, I was really impressed by how great he was with Pinocchio. It’s not an easy thing to do for your first film.
I was really impressed by Cameron Bell, the young actor who plays your grandson in the film. What impressed you most about his performance? He was very put together, and he really stood out as one to watch.
He just came very prepared, very professional, very focused, and always open to learning and getting better. If he felt he could do better, or if he took notes from the director, he handled them very well. He’s everything you’d want in an actor, not just a young actor. Any actor. He was also just easygoing.
It was a long, hard shoot. These independent horror films, or any film, have to be made in record time. There’s never enough time and never enough money. He was a real trooper the whole time and gave a great performance.
You mentioned the great puppets that you had to work off of as an actor, having that tactile puppet there to act against. How much does that help you as an actor versus something that’s completely CGI? We see these other films where you’re acting against nothing whatsoever.
It’s much better having something there. Especially for Cameron and those guys, definitely, because they had no experience working against nothing. I’ve done the thing of acting to nothing while imagining it’s a six-foot creature trying to eat you. But I would say it’s definitely a lot better.
This twisted version of Pinocchio is particularly fun because even though he’s murdering people, there’s still this innocent quality to him. What did you like most about that? You can still see the Pinocchio who wants to be a real boy. There’s an innocent core to him despite all the sick stuff. It’s really sad in many ways.
Richard Brake: The whole Pinocchio story is really sad. There’s a lot of soul to the original Pinocchio. Obviously, we’ve taken it in a completely different direction, but I think one of the things they’ve done so well is preserve some of that real sadness and innocence that Pinocchio is all about.
That’s what appealed to me a lot when I read it. Before I said yes to it, one of the reasons I did was because it really captured that. It was obvious that Rhys and Scott had really thought this through. They’re amazing filmmakers. The two of them really impressed me. I’m grateful that I did this and got to meet them and work with them because they’ve got something special.
I want to ask you about the director, Rhys, because it’s been interesting seeing him improve so much over the past couple of years. He was doing these real no-budget horror movies, and now, while these aren’t high-budget affairs, he has more of an actual budget and can have much better props. He’s really stepping it up. How was it seeing him continue to grow as a filmmaker? I was really impressed by this film.
It’s funny. When I got sent the script from my agent, he said, “It’s the Winnie-the-Pooh guys.” I was like, “Oh, I heard about that film.” I hadn’t seen it. I thought, “Do they really know what they’re doing?”
Then I saw he’d made loads of films prior to that, all of them for no money. Literally a thousand quid or dollars or whatever it was. When I met them and realized what had happened, I understood that he had basically taught himself. He made those films for no money, somebody distributed them, he got the money back, and then he could make another one and another one.
Then Winnie-the-Pooh took off and they made decent money, but they put it all back into making more films. They could have bought a flat or done something else, and they didn’t. They just put every penny back in.
As a director, he learned how to improve and learned everything about filmmaking over many years. Now it’s paying off. He and Scott talk about film all the time. All they do on their days off is go to films, discuss their films, talk about what the next script is going to be, and how they’re going to create it. That dedication and drive are really impressive. It’s why they’ve achieved what they’ve achieved.
He’s a great director, and he’s only going to get better and better. That’s what I think.
Speaking of great directors you’ve worked with, Christopher Nolan has The Odyssey coming out. When you worked with him on Batman Begins, what really stood out about him? Could you tell he was going to be something special behind the camera, or how was that atmosphere?
Yeah, without a doubt. I think Batman Begins was his first really big-budget movie. He was probably about my age, so maybe in his mid-30s at the time, maybe a bit younger.
I remember being struck by how calm and collected he was. He’s got this massive film that he’s in charge of. There was no guarantee it was going to become what it became, this huge hit that reshaped the whole Caped Crusader world and comic book universe and the way we do them.
It was how calm he was and how he knew what he wanted. If you gave him what he wanted as an actor, he was happy and moved on. It was really no surprise that he’s gone on to make masterpiece after masterpiece. There was no question when I saw him that first day.
You were famously the Night King in Game of Thrones, and because of scheduling issues, you weren’t able to return after two seasons. How was it starting off this run for this iconic character and then watching the ending from afar? That’s a unique experience we don’t see too often.
Richard Brake: I was disappointed we couldn’t make it work, but at the same time, looking back, I’m really grateful. It was great to be a part of it and an incredible honor to play the character when I did. I had my favorite scene, raising the dead in Hardhome.
But the reality is that there were so many films I was able to do afterward because it would have taken up a lot of scheduling. Watching it from afar was not difficult. I enjoyed it as a fan and wondered where it was going.
Unlike many people, I thought they did an incredible job, particularly having him killed by a little girl. Arya was always my favorite character, and I thought that was a stroke of genius.