The latest thriller from M. Night Shyamalan Old hits theaters on Friday, July 23rd. The film stars Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie as a family whose vacation goes fatally wrong after landing on an inevitable beach that leads to rapid aging.
RELATED: Alex Wolff Interview – A Child Aged Playing, Coming to Work with M. Night Shyamalan
“Visionary filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan unveils a terrifying, mysterious new thriller about a family on a tropical vacation who discovers that the remote beach where they relax for a few hours somehow ages them quickly … day,” reads in the official synopsis.
ComingSoon editor-in-chief Tyler Treese spoke with Old Star Thomasin McKenzie on her role, working with M. Night and the challenging filming of the film due to COVID-19 and hurricanes.
Tyler Treese: One of the things that really impressed me about the film was that your character retains that childlike quality in your acting even as you age. How difficult was it to win over these young people for your performance?
Thomasin McKenzie: Thank you. I’m just a very young, silly person, I suppose. I think that was just a part of me that shows through. I feel like Maddox has been very grounded and kind of present throughout the film. She was one of the few characters who was able to accept what was going on and just roll a bit with the punches. I think this type of presence is something that is often seen in younger children, where they are not distracted from the worries of life, just being there in the world taking in what is going on rather than being absorbed by their phones to become.
The shooting was very complicated. You had hurricane season on top of the pandemic, but you would never know it was so hectic when you saw the movie. Can you say something about the difficulty of the shoot and everyone’s professionalism to make it through and stay calm?
Yes, it was. Before we even started filming, I was supposed to be leaving for the Dominican Republic in a few days, which was delayed because of the hurricane season. One of the sets had been dragged out to sea so they had to rebuild it. There were definitely many obstacles in nature and it was also like it was raining all the time and working in the heat and sand. I find it so exhausting to walk around on sand because you never have the feeling that you have a grip on something. There were definitely a lot of challenges, but I have the feeling that everyone really pulled it off and we made it.
M. Night is such a talented writer and director. How exciting was that for you personally?
It was really good because he’s such an iconic director whose films are often referred to. It was amazing and very surreal. I think every director I’ve worked with has brought a different style of directing to the films, a different approach. So I always find it very interesting to work with new directors and see how they do their job.
I love hearing about preparation. This is based on the graphic novel called Sandcastle. Have you read that or do you prefer to stick with the script?
I read Sandcastle which I really enjoyed. The script is different than Sand castle. It’s not exactly the same, so I relied more on the script because we worked with this material. But it was really great to read Sand castle and get a better idea of each of the characters and try to build the character of Maddox. It is important to draw from as many resources as possible and when they are available I want to be able to use them.
