LOS ANGELES, April 25 (UPI) -- Jack Quaid and Jeffrey Dean Morgan have each starred in elaborate film and television productions, including Quaid in The Boys and Morgan in The Walking Dead. So when their new movie, Neighborhood Watch, in theaters and video-on-demand Friday, filmed with a skeleton crew on location in Birmingham, Ala., the pair found the experience both daunting and invigorating.
In Neighborhood Watch, Quaid and Morgan play neighbors who take it upon themselves to find a kidnapped woman when the police won't help. In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, the actors shared the trials and tribulations of making a movie without the resources of a major studio or streaming service.
"[It] brought me back to a time where I was first starting to get used to sets in a cool way," Quaid said. "It reminds you how good you have it when you're like oh, we shut down an entire freeway."
Quaid, the son of actors Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, made his screen debut in The Hunger Games and has since starred in Scream, Oppenheimer and Prime Video's superhero show The Boys.
Morgan also appeared on The Boys and currently stars in The Walking Dead spinoff Dead City. His Hollywood movies include Watchmen and Batman v. Superman. In Neighborhood Watch, he plays Ed Deerman, an out-of-work security guard who agrees to help neighbor Simon McNally (Quaid).
Coming from productions with hundreds of people on the crew, Morgan said Neighborhood Watch had at most 10, including director Duncan Skiles and cinematographer/camera operator Luke McCoubrey.
"It was very intimate," Morgan said. "Jack and I were pulling cable. We were helping whatever we could do to get shots. If that meant laying cable up and down stairways then we would do that because there was always a time crunch."
Covert filmmaking on 'Neighborhood Watch'
The production was small enough to literally hide, even from Morgan. On a Saturday off, he saw Quaid and did not realize he was filming a different scene because the crew was hidden unobtrusively.
"I started to run down the street trying to catch him and I realize they're filming him," Morgan said. "There's cameras hidden around Birmingham, Alabama."
Quaid remembered the interruption while they captured shots of Simon walking around Birmingham.
"Jeff has his day off, your one day off and you're like, 'Jack, Jack!'" Quaid laughed, adding that he responded, "Hey. I'm filming. I don't have a day off, sir."
Morgan received a scolding from McCoubrey.
"Camera guy steps out from like a doorway," Morgan said. "He's like, 'Way to ruin the shot, man.'"
Challenging roles for both actors
The script to Neighborhood Watch by Sean Farley also offered the actors challenging roles. Having played killers like The Walking Dead's Negan and a border sniper in Desierto, a CIA agent in Rampage and a businessman dealing with the mob in Magic City, Morgan appreciated Deerman's vulnerability.
Deerman is a widower who has lost his campus security job. He's also avoiding doctor's appointments for hearing impairments and regular screenings.
"Not being the tough guy or much of anything guy, guy trying to find his own identity at a late stage in life was a lot of fun," Morgan said. "I think he just is trying to get up in the morning and have some kind of a purpose."
Police don't believe Simon because he has tardive dyskinesia as a side effect of taking Risperdal and Loxapine, which are usually prescribed for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Quaid read books and spoke with people who have experience dealing with mental health conditions, but did not want the symptoms to define Simon.
"I'm trying to find the man underneath the illness," Quaid said. "Just playing an illness, that's not necessarily a character but I think the script really created a rich character underneath all that and I'm really trying to access him the whole time."
A busy year for Jack Quaid
Neighborhood Watch is Quaid's third movie of 2025 after Companion and Novocaine. Though filmed further apart than they were released, Quaid said part of the appeal of all three films was that they presented challenges that scared him.
"That's usually a good sign that you're in the right place if it makes you a little bit afraid to do it," Quaid said. "You've got to take some risks. You have to put yourself out there."
His fear in Neighborhood Watch was making sure he gave a respectful portrayal of Simon's mental illness. In Companion, he played a man who turns on his female companion robot.
"He was a villain who didn't know that he was a villain," Quaid said. "That's a tough line to walk."
Novocaine cast him as a man who could not feel pain in an action hero role.
"Novocaine scared me from a stunts perspective," Quaid said. "Not in terms of my safety but in terms of would I be able to accomplish all these action scenes and do it in a way that made sense for that character?"
Morgan teased Quaid for his high profile this year, including his publicity for those films.
"Everywhere I look it's Jackie Quaid," Morgan said. "My favorite is that I then turn on a basketball game and then there's Jack Quaid at the basketball game."
At the March 9 Clippers vs. Kings game, Quaid returned to his seat each quarter with new injuries, mimicking his Novocaine character's injuries. Quaid said he would suggest new injuries to a makeup artist, but refused to acknowledge them to any fans.
"It was like doing sketch comedy but at a Clippers game," Quaid said. "Anyone who asked me about it, I would just say, 'It's a wonderful day for basketball.'"
Quaid is filming the final season of The Boys, which will air next year. He admitted wrapping up the show is bittersweet.
"It's a show that's changed my life overnight and made it so that I can do things like this movie with Jeff or any of the things that I've been up to," Quaid said. "I'm going to weep like a baby when it's all over."
One week after Neighborhood Watch opens, Season 2 of The Walking Dead: Dead City premieres on AMC May 4. Morgan has played Negan since 2016 on the original Walking Dead.
"I think I'm finally getting to the point where I can see sort of the end maybe," Morgan said. "We're going to do another year at least, maybe two which I'm contractually signed on for. But I'm keeping my mind open and looking for other opportunities as well."
