Appofeniacs Star Jermaine Fowler on Piliero Horror Thriller, AI & More

Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Appofeniacs

Appofeniacs Star Jermaine Fowler on Piliero Horror Thriller, AI & More

Jermaine Fowler (Barbershop) spoke to us about his latest tech horror thriller film, Appofeniacs, director Chris Marrs Piliero, AI & more.

Published Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:47:09 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• Jermaine Fowler breaks down what drew him to Appofeniacs, praising its sharp script and his unsettling role as Cedrick.
• Fowler explains how director Chris Marrs Piliero’s precise visual style and collaboration shaped Appofeniacs.
• Appofeniacs pushed Fowler into dark territory, with COVID-era research into real-life villains informing Cedrick.
• Fowler shares his candid take on AI, deepfakes, and why human creativity still matters in stories like Appofeniacs.

Jermaine Fowler prides himself on his versatility; however, it can challenge him, no matter the genre or scale. Among the mainstream work he's been involved with recently are Hulu's Only Murders in the Building, Prime Video's Invincible, and the upcoming Barbershop. On the smaller scale and indie projects recently, he's starred in horror films Faces of Death (2026) and RLJE's Night Patrol (2026). His latest is the tech horror thriller Appofeniacs from writer-director Chris Marrs Piliero, involving the use of artificial intelligence and deepfakes. Fowler spoke to Bleeding Cool about how the COVID pandemic inspired him to tap into some dark places and how Piliero's flexibility fulfilled that, getting into his villainous character, Cedrick's headspace, and how he feels society is taking to AI.

Amused by exploiting our instinct to believe what we see and hear, Duke (Aaron Holliday) treats deepfakes like a contagious party trick. Not because he has something to prove, but simply because he can. Soon blood starts to spill, but Duke isn't the one who has to clean it up. Intersecting storylines catch the fallout of Duke's petty pastime: Poppy (Simran Jehani), heading into the desert for a weekend of cosplay and foreplay; Clinto Binto (Sean Gunn), a legend in the scene with a reputation too expensive to fake; and Lazzy (Paige Searcy), a stranger who picks the wrong line, the wrong coffee shop, and the wrong day to argue.

Appofeniacs Star Jermaine Fowler on Tapping into Dark Places for Cedrick and Humanity's Relationship with AI

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Appofeniacs?'

Fowler: The script was well written. Chris did a great job putting the story together, and the Cedrick character was someone I've never really had the chance to play before, so that interested me the most.

What distinguishes Chris from other creatives?

He is very intentional with particular visuals that I, as an actor, may not notice or even have thought about. Sometimes, I'm so immersed in my kind of orbit, whether it's a prop or whatever's going on in my head as the character. Chris will suggest a pitch for me or Aaron, who's the only other person I act with in the film. I've only done my scenes with Aaron, but everything was for a reason. All the things he sees in that beautiful mind of his, and when you see the finished product, you're like, "Wow! Okay. That's why you might've moved this piece of lighting over here. Oh, this is why you had me sit in this particular chair. Oh, that's why you wanted me to say this particular word in this way."

It was just things he needed to implement to fill out this canvas he was painting. As an actor, it's a dream, because I love being directed. I love being told of a…because you'll bring ideas to the set and to the character, but it's always something you probably didn't think of. Even if you're locked in and have something ready to go, having a director who challenges you differently for me is always pretty helpful. He's very collaborative, and he knows what he wants, so that was just a small piece of Chris that made it so enjoyable to work with.

Aside from the script that Chris provided, was there anything external that you may have tapped into as inspiration to help you play Cedric?
I'm not going to lie, I spent most of COVID researching villainous, dark, horrific people throughout the quarantine. There were projects that I was doing that were more on the thriller, suspenseful side that I was approaching and trying to add layers to and pieces to build from, and it required me to study some pretty horrendous people. Towards the end of COVID, I believe that's when we started to work on 'Appofeniacs,' and when I read the Cedrick character, I was honestly already familiar with people like this person. It was already kind of ingrained in my knowledge and my orbit a bit, so it was already like a familiarity there. I spoke to Chris, and we picked each other's brains. We decided on the approach and clothing, and we were off to the races, but it was fun to build a character from the ground up with him, and also add some things that I've learned throughout that time period to inject into the character, molding him a bit.

Given how much AI is incorporated into this story and everything, I was wondering how you felt about how comfortable content creators and Hollywood are with the technology. Do you feel like there's any form of organic growth, or do you feel like this is going too fast, and perhaps too much abuse is going on right now?

I don't know. I believe that as a consumer and as someone who has his own iPhone, sometimes I don't even realize that I'm using AI when I am. With Google, I had no idea I was using Gemini to learn. I was like, "Oh, I'm not using it." I didn't know. I had no idea I was using it, and there are some tools I think are very helpful, but at the same time, I like learning things on my own. I like finding things for myself. I love making my own mistakes.

I don't technically…I guess. I love being a human being, and part of being a human being is getting your hands dirty. It's building things on your own, and sometimes you can get lazy when you lean on technology too much, and I personally don't want to do that. As an artist, I believe there are still people out there who want to see the artist's raw product. I believe people still want to see what a human artist is thinking and feeling, and that's why people still want to go to the movie theater. It's why people still want to go to art galleries and go out to eat food. It's a part of us and who we are. It doesn't really scare me as much because I feel there's just this pattern of…I'm 38, so I've seen a couple of patterns: technology scaring people, then turning out to be all right, then not so all right. It's just a pattern, just a cycle: Y2K. There are always going to be a war, a virus, and something that's going to cause people to be hysterical, and I can only control so much. All I can do is focus on the life in front of me, and the small amount of time that I'm on this earth, and I just want to focus on those things.

Appofeniacs, which also stars Michael Abbott, Jr., Will Brandt and Harley Bronwyn, is in theaters.

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