Why Donnie Darko’s Signature Rabbit Is Still So Haunting

Some folks might think the film Donnie Darko is a complicated one. But to actor James Duval, that’s not the case: “The movie really is simple. It’s just about love. It’s about possibilities. I’ve always been able to break it down to those two aspects.”

It’s actually a pretty good interpretation of the 2001 cult favorite, now back in theaters thanks to Fathom Entertainment. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, the pitch-black comedy about a very unusual time for the titular Donnie and his friends and family is rich with details about its spooky storylines. Perhaps the spookiest being the presence of Frank, played by Duval but most often seen in an all-consuming “stupid bunny suit” (in Donnie’s words).

Without getting too deeply into spoilers, the movie slowly reveals that the Frank in Donnie’s imagination is a “guardian angel” of sorts (in Duval’s words), helping guide Donnie through the strange days ahead of him. Duval says the first time he read the script, he was “blown away and moved and left pondering,” going back to reread sections to understand it better. It was work that paid off: When he went in for the audition, he was actually asked if he understood the script: “I said, I did. And then that I could explain it if anyone needed me to. I think I had a complete hold on what I wanted to do and how I saw it.”

That said, the Frank depicted in the script was a little different from the one who ended up on screen. Director Richard Kelly remembers that when he was interviewing costume designers to take on his seminal 2001 movie, there was a problem with their ideas for Frank. “They came in with their own sketches and across the board, every sketch just looked like an Easter Bunny, like the one that you see standing next to Donald Trump at the White House,” he tells Consequence. “And I’m like, ‘That’s not what I want.'”

Costume designer April Ferry eventually nailed the look, but Kelly designed the Frank mask himself — all the sketches seen during the movie (including in Frank’s bedroom during the final montage) were drawn by him. The first of his drawings was the black-and-white one that Donnie’s mother Rose (Mary McDonnell) sees on the calendar: “I showed it to the producers, and they were immediately like Donnie’s mother. ‘What is this? This is really terrifying-looking.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s supposed to be terrifying. It’s supposed to really disturb you when you look at it.'”

The sketches were then retraced by a computer to “three-dimensionize them a little bit,” and then sculptor Dale Brady handled crafting the actual mask, which Ferry incorporated into the rest of the costume. Kelly credits Brady with finding the truth of what he was looking for in the original design: “He’s like, ‘Richard, this is like 50% wolf or coyote, actually. It’s kind of a coyote mixed with a rabbit.'”

Initially, Duval’s thoughts about Frank were deeply influenced by the classic Jimmy Stewart comedy Harvey, in which Stewart is guided by an invisible, yet friendly six-foot rabbit. This changed during the first wardrobe fitting, when he saw the “cute bunny suit” — “you know, it’s furry and it’s soft” — and then he saw a sketch of the mask. “That’s when I knew, okay, this is a slightly different kind of bunny than I was imagining. But I think the spirit’s the same.”

For the eyes, Kelly had the idea to paint them a flat white matte, so they would pop in contrast to the shiny silver tone of the rest of the mask. This was necessary because per the script, Frank is only ever seen at night, and Kelly needed to make sure that cinematographer Steven Poster could light it.

The team, Kelly says, was “really skeptical” of this design element. “Everyone was sort of like, ‘Are people going to laugh when they see it?’ Because people who finance movies, unless it’s a comedy, are terrified of laughter. They don’t want anyone laughing at anything that’s meant to be scary or suspenseful,” he says.

Those worries were gone after the first day “the rabbit” came on set, while shooting the sequence in which Donnie sleepwalks through the high school. “The smoke was creating a sort of a moody atmosphere inside the empty school, and the whole crew got really quiet, because everyone was realizing that the imagery of the rabbit costume was casting a spell on them,” recalls Kelly. “The silence spoke volumes.”

Duval was excited to find out that the producers wanted the actor cast as Frank to play the character both in and out of the bunny suit, and also perform the character’s voice. “I was going to ask if I could do that, because I’m just a working-class kid, you know, and that means I get to work more days and I’ll make more money,” Duval says. “But I thought it was very cool, that whoever was playing Frank would do everything. And it was a fun experience.”

Inside the suit, Duval said that his job as an actor wasn’t too challenging, because “Frank doesn’t really move much. I don’t mean to bust the bubble for everybody out there, because it’s still magical, but I would put the mask on and stand with my hands at my side. ‘Jimmy, turn your head to the left, look straight, turn your head to the right, look straight, look up, look straight, perfect, cut.’ I remember thinking, ‘This is one of the easiest jobs I’ve ever had. And it’s creating so much magic.'”

Plus, he got to have the experience, from inside the suit, of watching Gyllenhaal and co-star Jena Malone work their way through the movie’s richest scenes: “It was really quite incredible, to be quite honest, watching it unfold before my eyes.”

His vocal work as Frank, Duval adds, was recorded months after filming, which was when Duval worked with Kelly and editor Sam Bauer to play with the cadence of Frank’s lines. “That’s what’s in the movie, what we crafted together in the room that day.”

Duval says that he does feel some pride over the fact that he’s not just a part of the movie, but the human behind its most iconic image. “But there’s no ownership. I mean, I don’t mean to sound cliché when I say this, but I think it belongs to the fans because without them, I don’t think we’d be talking about it, honestly.” He remains thankful “to be a part of something like Donnie Darko — it’s all because of Richard’s vision. And it was just a joy to be one of the colors on the palette of that painting.”

The story of Frank’s creation, Kelly says, confirms how “there’s just some things that you have to stay laser focused on. If you believe you’re doing the right thing and you believe that the vision is going to work, you need to stick to your guns on it, because otherwise, why are you even in the director’s chair to begin with? You’ve got to pick your battles and stick to your guns on certain things. And the rabbit was one of them.”

Donnie Darko returns to theaters for its 25th anniversary beginning October 2nd, thanks to Fathom Entertainment. Visit the Fathom website for tickets and more information.