Mackenzie Davis speaks no evil about new film
Universal Pictures and Blumhouse (© Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved)
If you haven’t seen the trailer for “Speak No Evil” in the past few months, you must be living under a rock.
The internet has been very vocal about how often the trailer plays in front of other movies in the theater. Yet no matter how many times you hear James McAvoy say, “Of course, I’m a bloody doctor,” one thing the trailer doesn’t tease is how gender dynamics impact characters like Louise Dalton. When you get the chance to watch the film as a whole, you won't miss it.
“I think, especially for women, there is this desire to be easy and cool a lot of the time,” said Mackenzie Davis, who plays Dalton in the film. “Sometimes you’re bearing the weight of society that sometimes doesn’t want you or isolates you, but you don’t want to complain about it all the time because you’re kind of like a killjoy.”
On Sept. 10, The Panther had the opportunity to join a roundtable interview with Davis and ask her about her character in the film and her career leading up to her latest film.
“Speak No Evil,” an American remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name, follows an American family invited to spend the weekend at an idyllic and isolated farmhouse of a charming British family they befriended on vacation. What starts out as a dream holiday for the couple and their daughter soon warps into a psychological nightmare that will have them running for their lives. The film also stars McAvoy as Paddy, Aisling Franciosi as Ciara and Scoot McNairy as Ben Dalton.
Even though she was 24 when she started her career in Hollywood, Davis said she has always felt like a late bloomer.
“When I first started working, I was just so thankful to be there,” said Davis. “I think that’s a really nice energy to have, but it’s been nice to grow up and feel more collaborative in my participation in the industry — that I have something to offer and less like ‘Yay, I’m here.’ A fun part of growing up in general is getting to stand on your own two feet and own that you belong somewhere.”
Those unfamiliar with the early filmography of Davis and McNairy may not know that this is the second time the two have worked together. The first was in 2014 on the AMC series “Halt and Catch Fire,” a show following the personal computer revolution of the ‘80s and the early development of the World Wide Web.
The Panther got to ask Davis about her experience working with McNairy a second time around.
“It was great because I really respect Scoot and (“Halt and Catch Fire”) was one of my first jobs I had when I started working,” said Davis. “I really looked up to him, he’s not that much older than me, but just at the time, he was like my elder and this really experienced, cool performer. (In “Halt and Catch Fire”) I was very much playing his asexual underling in the show, or at least that’s how he would have seen me. We are playing husband and wife this time.”
While gender dynamics may be hidden in the film’s trailers, there have always been horror films dealing with complicated gender roles in society. “Rosemary’s Baby.” “Carrie.” Even “Alien.” Once you watch “Speak No Evil,” you will see how neatly this film has found its way into the bunch. Davis knows the film goes deeper into the gender dynamics in relationships, and during the roundtable, she spoke about how she thinks things are always going to be gendered because genders are always involved.
“There’s also dynamics in relationships that require one partner to give something up for the other partner,” said Davis. “There’s a whole history with these people being married, there’s been a transgression. In order to atone for it, my character is being more compliant and allowing her husband to take the lead as a gesture of solidarity. I don’t think that’s necessarily sexist or subservient, but it's an element of being in a relationship. You kind of offer tokens sometimes.”
One of the most cathartic moments in the film also highlights the complicated friendships that occur between men.
Universal Pictures and Blumhouse (© Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved)
“I think the film really does quite funny investigations into gender performance, especially with the men. (There is a) beautiful shot of them screaming on a hillside with a giant phallus in the background, and it’s nice because it’s not hitting you over the head, and it doesn’t feel like homework to watch. It is quite a fun exploration of how gender impacts our sort of social behavior.”
Developing a story and bringing characters to life is no cakewalk, and creating Louise Dalton was no exception. Davis struggled at first to understand why her character was so silent when she had such great instincts. It was a challenge for her because she believes she is the complete opposite of her character — quite impulsive. Davis did lots of character work in finding deeper meaning behind why Dalton was acting the way she was in certain situations.
“I think (prepared for the role) in sort of answering those questions that didn’t make sense to me,” said Davis. “The sort of stuff that I was like, ‘What are you doing? Say something? Why are you looking at your husband?’ Trying to make an argument that I could believe of why she would be behaving like that — that wasn’t just like, ‘Oh, she’s like his sub.’ I wanted her to be more layered and complicated than that.”
The Panther also got to ask Davis why she specifically thinks actors, like herself, are drawn to acting in horror films. She says actors want to try their hand at everything. While she doesn’t want to only do horror films for the rest of her life, this experience got her excited in searching for the next one.
Universal Pictures and Blumhouse (© Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved)
“This one was great because it mostly shot in the day,” said Davis. “The bad thing about shooting horror movies is it’s all night shoots most of the time, and you’re probably wet and cold, and that is hell. This (was) dry as a bone, and it was almost all shot in the day. So yeah, if I could find another one like this, I’d do it again.”
Actors may be drawn to horror because they yearn to dip their toes into every kind of project possible, but why do horror fans love horror? Why do they continually subject themselves to discomfort and jump scares?
“There’s something ritualistic about sitting in a room and having these cathartic moments together,” said Davis. “At a screening last night of the movie, people were erupting into applause at the screen and groaning. The whole theater becomes one organism, and that’s so cool. You don’t get that anywhere else. Even in the theater, you have to be quiet. But in a horror movie, more than any other genre, you can have this big ecstatic reaction. I think we crave that.”
“Speak No Evil” releases in theaters on Sept. 13.