‘Clock’: Dianna Agron and Alexis Jacknow Talk the ‘Incredibly Personal’ Experience Behind Hulu’s New Psychological Horror Movie

At the heart of Hulu’s new psychological horror movie Clock is an “incredibly personal” story for both Alexis Jacknow and Dianna Agron. The film’s director, Agron, and co-star Saul Rubinek opened up about the kernel of truth that makes Clock so terrifying in an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com ahead of its April 28 premiere, sharing how the film took on a “whole different life” with the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. 

Agron stars in Clock as Ella, a woman who enrolls in a clinical trial to try and fix her seemingly broken biological clock after facing unrelenting pressure – including that from her father, played by Rubinek – to have children. (Jay Ali and Melora Hardin also star). The whole idea of the biological clock “isn’t real,” Jacknow begins, pointing out that the concept was “made up by some guy in the ’70s” and joking that women have been “screwed ever since.”

“There’s no such thing, but society tells us there is. And it’s an incredibly personal story,” the award-winning director explained. “For me, it has been the thing that’s kept me up at night – the decision about whether or not to become a mother. It’s been something I’ve really struggled with and thought about, and I would say was even tormented by. So it’s the perfect place to write a horror story from.”

At age 36, Agron also immediately identified with the message behind Clock. “I had a lot of experience personally, [because] I am not a mother at my age and that, being in my later 30s, is something that people have opinions about,” she told PopCulture. “And so when I read this script and chatted with Alexis, I just knew that I wanted so much to be playing this role and to be living in this world with her. It was just an obvious yes to me.”

The damaging pressure on women to reproduce is not lost on Rubinek, who previously explored similar themes in his play Terrible Advice. The actor told PopCulture he intentionally made Ella’s father “as likable as possible” in the film, as he thought it would be “too easy” to portray the aspect of familial pressure as villainous, instead of as complicated as it is in real life. 

As production on Clock began, the film took on a “whole different life,” Jacknow explained, as the Supreme Court opinion regarding Roe v. Wade being overturned leaked on the final day of principal photography, a moment Agron described as “really, really disheartening” and a “very strange experience.” Jacknow added, “The movie has taken on a weight and a heaviness that I certainly did not anticipate,” noting that while Clock is “unfortunately very prescient in that way,” she hopes it can also be a timely reminder “to keep people motivated to make change and vote and find a way to get their autonomy back.” Clock begins streaming on Hulu Friday, April 28.