Jermaine Fowler didn’t have to rely on his imagination to feel “weirded out” while filming his new thriller Terrestrial.
That’s because the production took place at the mansion where late music producer Phil Spector killed actress Lana Clarkson in 2003.
Fowler leads the cast of Terrestrial as Allen, a troubled aspiring science fiction writer who welcomes three college friends to his home for a reunion weekend. Allen is keeping a secret and as the truth unravels, the gathering takes a deadly turn.
In an interview with Urban Hollywood 411, Fowler recalled the unsettling experience filming at a notorious property just outside Los Angeles and discussed why he chose to work on the film.
“We shot this at Phil Spector’s old mansion in Alhambra, California, and that was creepy, extremely creepy,” he shared.
The house has since been sold and remodeled, but Fowler said a tour of the property led to a shocking discovery.
“I remember the producer of the film Josh said, ‘Hey, do you want to see the one thing they preserved from Phil Spector’s original home in the mansion?’” Fowler recalled.
The cast of the twisty thriller went upstairs and found the answer.
“Phil’s old security room is in the attic, and it’s just one old TV from the ’90s with the VHS tape installed in it still, and it’s just weird because he would watch people from this little TV in this room, and I’m like, ‘They kept this? Why would they just keep this?'” Fowler said.
The actor was disturbed thinking about Spector monitoring people from the small room.
“It’s just so odd and it was just weird. I had to walk away,” he said.
Another troubling discovery came after the cameras began rolling. According to Fowler, the production filmed its first scene in the same part of the house where Clarkson lost her life.
“I didn’t know that till after we filmed it, and I was just like, ‘Goodness, goodness gracious! Can we find another Airbnb?’” he said.
Spector fatally shot Clarkson in the mansion’s foyer on Feb. 3, 2003. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 19 years to life, according to the Associated Press. He died while serving his sentence in January 2021, at age 81.
The estate, formerly known as Pyrenees Castle, sold in 2021, the Los Angeles Times reported. Built in 1925, the property was restored after the sale. The estate’s website says it’s now called Wrensmoor Castle and is rented out for film and photo shoots.
“Every actor was just weirded out by the whole experience, and I think it strangely added to the atmosphere of the film too,” Fowler said about filming at the property.
Asked about the production schedule amid recent discussions of movies being filmed in just four days, he laughed and said Terrestrial needed more time.
“We shot Terrestrial in a month. It’s an indie movie. That’s usually the length of time they take,” he said. “We couldn’t shoot this in four days. That would have been impossible. It was one location though.”
After previously starring in The Blackening (2022) and Sting (2024), Fowler said there’s a reason he keeps making scary movies.
“These bills. I got so many bills,” he said jokingly. “No, I love the scripts.”
Directed by Steve Pink from a screenplay by Samuel Johnson and Connor Diedrich, Terrestrial also stars James Morosini, Pauline Chalamet and Edy Modica. The supporting cast includes Rob Yang, Brendan Hunt, Max Kalvan and Gable Swanlund.
The thriller is the first release from independent distributor Aero Films and arrives in select theaters across the U.S. and Canada on Friday, Oct. 23. Check local listings for showtimes.
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