00:00I was terrified of cats before I made this movie.
00:03I was so terrified that I would cry if a cat approached me in a room.
00:08And then I fell in love with the idea of playing Sam in this movie,
00:13and she had a cat, and so I had to face my fear of cats
00:17and get exposure to them through a therapy process.
00:21And I overcame my fear, and by the end of it,
00:24I was so in love with the cats that I got myself one.
00:30You're kind of a certified scream queen at this point.
00:47You've done a lot of horror movies, Little Monsters.
00:49I would say 12 Years a Slave is a horror movie as well.
00:53But historically, there wasn't really a lot of space for black women in the genre,
00:57and you've been kind of integral in changing that in the last couple of years.
01:00What is it about horror that keeps bringing you back to this genre?
01:04You know, the first thing I'm attracted to is the character that I'm presented to play,
01:10and I just happen to have gotten these three great characters in the horror film genre.
01:17I do really love scaring people, and I've always loved scaring people from when I was little.
01:22So now, actually, my mom is like,
01:24finally you can put it to good use, you know, and stop terrorizing your family members.
01:29But I think that horror, why it exists, is perhaps because there is a catharsis
01:37in experiencing something uglier and more terrifying than your real life,
01:42and fear is not an emotion that we run towards very often, right?
01:48We actually spend most of our lives trying to get as far away from fear as possible.
01:52We don't want to be unsafe.
01:54And in that, we can bottle up a lot of it,
01:58and a horror film is a chance to just let it out.
02:01It's permission to be afraid.
02:04It's a place to put that emotion.
02:06It's cathartic.
02:07It's kind of like being on a roller coaster.
02:09You dread it, you're on it, and then you realize it was a thrill,
02:12and you want to do it again.
02:14Very well said, and I think that's why a lot of us like the horror genre.
02:17Speaking of which, since you're so good at scaring people,
02:20what is it that scares you?
02:22Okay, okay.
02:25Heights terrify me.
02:30Closed spaces terrify me.
02:34And cats used to terrify me, but not anymore.
02:38How was that when you had a cat the whole?
02:40You see, I was terrified of cats before I made this movie.
02:44I was so terrified that I would cry if a cat approached me in a room,
02:49and then I fell in love with the idea of playing Sam in this movie,
02:53and she had a cat, and so I had to face my fear of cats
02:57and get exposure to them through a therapy process.
03:01And I overcame my fear, and by the end of it,
03:05I was so in love with the cats that I got myself one.
03:08Really?
03:09Yes.
03:10That's amazing.
03:11Changed my life.
03:12What's your cat's name?
03:13Yo-Yo.
03:14Yo-Yo, that's so cute.
03:16Speaking of Sam, she's on her own mental and emotional journey
03:20that's kind of equally as terrifying as the physical one that she's on in the movie.
03:25Without giving spoilers, of course,
03:27what is it about her unique fight in this that really drew you to playing her,
03:31enough to get over your fear of cats?
03:33Yeah.
03:34Well, she's a very unique character for a horror film
03:39because in most horror films, everybody is trying to survive.
03:46Sam has a certain outlook on life that challenges that,
03:52and it's a complete departure from the way I approach life,
03:55so it was like she's such a contrast to me,
03:59and that was both fascinating and terrifying for me
04:03to have to figure out how to play in a convincing manner.
04:08Yeah, and she is not your everyday hero,
04:13and I think there's an every-woman quality about her
04:17that will be relatable to a lot of people.
04:20I think that is true of both Sam and Eric,
04:23who ends up being her reluctant companion through this apocalypse.
04:28Now, with Sam, it seems like there's a lot to tackle on.
04:32There's also a physical transformation that you went through to play her.
04:35What was it like trying to prepare for everything
04:39that this role was going to take out of you?
04:41Oh, my goodness. It was daunting. It was very daunting.
04:45I remember just like, I mean,
04:49I had to start working on the physical transformation
04:53immediately after releasing Wakanda Forever,
04:58so I was going to the extreme opposite end of things,
05:03and it's just, it was really daunting.
05:06I was quite afraid of it, but then I just had to lean in
05:11because that production date, it's not going to move,
05:14and I had to be ready, and really the physical transformation
05:18informed so much of my understanding of Sam,
05:22and it really informed every single physical and emotional choice I made,
05:28so it was the bedrock of building my character.
05:33When you first read the script, I feel like Quiet plays the whole series,
05:36though they are horror movies, there's an underlying emotional story,
05:40there's an underlying message for everyone,
05:43and I know that most actors don't want to tell the audience what to think,
05:46but for you, when you read the script, what was the takeaway from it for you?
05:49We need each other.
05:52In the first two films, we are following the Abbott family,
05:57and they are a nuclear family,
06:00and we as human beings understand intrinsically
06:05why they would want to stay together.
06:08We get that. They are members of the same tribe. We get that.
06:11But in our film, we are following two strangers
06:15who have no ties to each other,
06:18and they have to come together in order to navigate this new world,
06:22this new terrifying world,
06:24and the question is why on earth would these people stick together?
06:29And at the end of it, I just remember reading the script and thinking,
06:32wow, this is such a great study of how much we need each other
06:36and how much, at a certain point, it doesn't matter what tribe you belong to.
06:40What matters is the ability to survive,
06:44and I think it's a wonderful thing to meditate on.
06:47Now, what for you was the toughest scene?
06:49Again, it took a lot out of you just to even get to play this character.
06:52What was the toughest scene that you had to take on?
06:55If you can, go through it.
06:57Well, without any spoilers, there was one sequence
07:00that takes place in the subway, in a flooding subway,
07:06and we had water.
07:10We were wet, and there was a cat,
07:14and if anyone knows anything about cats, they don't like water.
07:18So the measures that had to be put in place in order to do this
07:23added even more challenges to the scene,
07:26and it was, oh my God, it was a coordinating hell,
07:31but it was also what made it so much fun,
07:34and actually in that scene, my training from Wakanda Forever
07:38really came in handy because I can now hold my breath
07:41for long periods of time underwater,
07:44and so the shooting was more efficient as a result,
07:47and yeah, I just felt like that was the scene where I was like,
07:50wow, this is cool, and I'm a badass.
07:54This is all right.
07:57It challenged me in a way, and I overcame those challenges
08:01in a way that really made me feel great.
08:03And which one was the most fun for you?
08:05Maybe that. It's that.
08:07It's the most challenging thing that would be the most fun too
08:10because, yeah, it's like you're trying to,
08:14there's so many things you're trying to do at once,
08:17and it's daunting but you have the support you need
08:20and you have a goal to reach,
08:22and when you reach it, it's euphoric.
08:25When they say that's a wrap on that scene,
08:28oh, you feel so good.
08:31It's a rush like no other, and then you see it in the final thing
08:34and it's like, oh yeah, that looks pretty darn real,
08:36and that feels great too.
08:38Absolutely. Now we've seen you in action,
08:40we've seen you in drama, we've seen you in horror,
08:42we've seen you in a little comedy as well with Big Mouth here and there.
08:45What genre have you not yet had the opportunity to tackle
08:48that you would love to take a lead in?
08:50I really would love more opportunities in the comedic sphere.
08:55I would...
08:57I don't want to be running from monsters for the rest of my life.
09:01And I'm really interested in romantic comedies.
09:05I find them just life-affirming.
09:08It's nice to have a love story and a happy ending
09:12and some laughs in between.
09:15Yeah, and just comedic.
09:17Not just rom-com, but just the comedic sphere.
09:20I would like to do more of that.
09:24Yeah, hopefully I get to do that soon.
09:26Yeah, I think there's a side of you people don't get to see very often.
09:29Yeah, exactly.
09:31I don't get to flex that muscle much in cinema.
09:37It's a question of I came out, the gate was highly dramatic,
09:43quite sober material.
09:46Yeah, someone's just got to take a chance.
09:50Well, hopefully they do.
09:52You've had a streak of amazing roles, of course, since winning the Academy Award.
09:55When you're looking at scripts,
09:57what type of woman are you drawn to that you really want to play?
10:02The woman I want to play is different from the woman I just played.
10:06So my body of work will inform where I'm trying to go to next.
10:13But also the character that I've just played
10:16will mainly inform where I want to go to next.
10:19Because I don't think that my creativity is infinite.
10:23I do run dry of certain things.
10:26So now I've run away from monsters, now I'm hanging out with a cat.
10:30I'm not going to be trying to do that again anytime soon.
10:33I've done that.
10:35So I will try and lend myself to something that I still feel I have the fuel for
10:42while I replenish that other side of me.
10:46And I look for roles that will stretch me.
10:49I want to have an inkling for the characters that I'm offered,
10:52and then I want to have something that terrifies me
10:54that I don't understand about them.
10:56Because that's how I learn.
10:58It remains interesting.
11:00That's the way I feed my curiosity.
11:03I don't want to understand everything about a character when I first read them.
11:09I like to go on a journey to find them within me.
11:14All right. Thank you so much for your time today.
11:16Thank you.
11:17Really appreciate it.
11:18Thank you.
11:19Thanks.
11:20Take care.
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