Social Discomfort, Toxic Masculinity and Holidays Turned Horrible: James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis Chat 'Speak No Evil'

Who hasn't gone on vacation, soaked up their idyllic temporary surroundings but felt pangs of envy towards a few specific fellow travellers who seem to be having a better time than everyone else? That's how Speak No Evil begins — and it's meant to be relatable. The situation that Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis, Station Eleven) and her husband Ben (Scoot McNairy, Invincible) find themselves in while travelling to Tuscany with their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler, Dead Boy Detectives) is a classic grass-is-greener setup. When the American couple look at the brash but charismatic Paddy (James McAvoy, His Dark Materials) and his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi, Stopmotion), and as they get to know them over dinners and drinks, they wish that they too were that happy, that carefree and that relaxed.

Hopefully no one has endured IRL what comes next in this Blumhouse horror movie directed by Eden Lake and The Woman in Black's James Watkins, which remakes 2022 Danish film Gæsterne, also called Speak No Evil in English. Reluctantly on Louise's part but eagerly by Ben, the Daltons accept an invitation to spend a weekend with Paddy and Ciara, plus their son Ant (Dan Hough, Hollyoaks), at their rural property back in Britain. Actually, we've all been in a scenario where passive-aggression simmers behind smiles and plastered-on friendliness, social discomfort flavours every interaction and toxic masculinity festers. For the Daltons, however, this second getaway turns particularly grim when they discover what lurks behind the blissful facade that their hosts were such experts at projecting in Italy.

Both versions of Speak No Evil take viewers on an unsettling trip — but only the do-over boasts powerful performances by McAvoy and Davis. While no one in the cast puts a foot wrong, including Davis' Halt and Catch Fire co-star McNairy, The Nightingale standout Franciosi and the feature's youngest actors, its two leads are tasked with encapsulating the film's clashing sides. Paddy presents himself as earthy and approachable, packaging up his ideas of manhood — notions that can be called traditional at best and outdated if you're still being polite — with a seemingly wholesome, laidback vibe. Louise is understandably constantly anxious and worried, and yet just as persistently eager not to cause a scene. The more time that she spends in Paddy's farmhouse, the more that she realises that she's being forced to ignore her every instinct about him. Speak No Evil also unpacks why that reaction also feels so familiar.

These are complicated and layered roles to play, and a balancing act on both McAvoy and Davis' parts. That's one of the things that attracted them each to the movie, the two tell Concrete Playground. For McAvoy, he's back in the darker psychological terrain that he traversed in Split and Glass for M Night Shyamalan — chatting with us back in 2017, the filmmaker called the actor's work in the former "fearless; he was just very fearless about the whole thing" — and also in the unrelated Filth before that. He credits his excellent, can't-look-away efforts both in Split and Speak No Evil to great writing first and foremost. "I was lucky enough on those two particular jobs, this one as much as any other, to be able to feel really strong going into it and make strong choices," he explains.

For Davis, she adds another complex portrayal to a resume teeming with them (see: the aforementioned Station Eleven, Black Mirror's 'San Junipero' episode, Blade Runner 2049, Tully, Happiest Season and more), all while ensuring that she's never repeating herself. "Not retreading footsteps that I've already walked in" is what gets her excited about any new role, she advises. "That's a weird mixed metaphor. Honestly, I read so many scripts and I barely like any of them, and then one comes and you're like 'oh, maybe this is a fucked-up little thing to do'."

Davis sums up Speak No Evil perfectly, as audiences Down Under can experience in cinemas from Thursday, September 12, 2024. We also chatted with the film's lead pair about the rollercoaster ride that the movie takes viewers on, where inspiration came from to flesh out their parts, being able to see themselves — or aspects of them — in their characters, digging into what it means not to speak up, ensuring that the movie's emotional journey feels logical and more.

On McAvoy Having No Fear When Diving Into Dark Roles, Such as in Split and Speak No Evil

James: "I think when you've got a good text and you've got a good character drawn well with a good arc, you've got a solid foundation from which to jump. And that was definitely the case with Split, and that was definitely the case with Speak No Evil.

And they both happen to be Blumhouse movies, which is great because they're underpinned by something — not just pieces of entertainment, which they are, which they deliver upon, but they've also got something interesting to say socially.

So it was a really strong foundation that it jumped from. I think when the text isn't so strong, maybe I'm not so fearless and maybe a bit more fearful. But I was lucky enough on those two particular jobs, this one as much as any other, to be able to feel really strong going into it and make strong choices."

On Davis' First Reaction to the Script, and What She Saw That She Could Bring to the Role

Mackenzie: "I loved it. I hadn't seen the original, and I knew it existed but wasn't really familiar with anything else other than the title. So this is my first exposure to the conceit — and I just love things that feel as dangerous as being hunted and killed, being placed on that same plane. 

Because committing, not like a social faux pas or a gaffe, but like really offending someone or hurting somebody's feelings in a really meaningful way, you can get kind of the same adrenaline response as you do when you're trying to save your life. And they do feel like mortal dangers at the time, and I liked how it how it dealt with that.

I wasn't sure at first, honestly, because there's a lot of Louise looking to her husband to act, and that worried me a little bit. But I had lots of long, really meaningful chats with James Watkins, the director, and he assured me that he was really interested in Louise's experience of being silent. Like, it's one thing to not speak, and it's another thing for the camera to be interested in why they're not speaking and what they're thinking while they're not speaking.

And as long as that was part of it, then I thought it was a really interesting role. I think James [Watkins], before we started making the movie, convinced me that that was important to him. Then in the movie, I really see that, that he's interested in how Louise is feeling and it's not always through a monologue."

On Working Through Speak No Evil's Many Layers

James: "I was just so glad that I was getting to be involved in something that could be entertaining, could make people laugh, could make them jump, give them the horror experience or the scary experience that you want in the cinema in a communal, sitting-down environment — but at the same time, it had stuff to say as well, which elevates it.

Blumhouse do that time and again, and they do it so so well. So it's a privilege to be a part of something like that because you get to do two things at once.

Also part of it was about a conversation about masculinity, which I feel is quite timely as well — and what men are attracted to at the moment in terms of looking for answers. Somebody like Ben, who's really drifting, really lost, really hurt, really damaged, he's looking for answers.

And here comes along this sort of totem of toxic masculinity, but he seems to have the answer to one of the questions in life, which is how to be happy. He seems really happy. In fact, I would argue he is really happy. As much as he's rage-filled and anger-filled, he's also capable of great joy and happiness, and he really enjoys his life.

And that's an attractive quality, but it's also a scary thing in somebody who's also got such worrying doctrine."

On the Film's Relatable Situation, Including the Balance Between Trying to Keep the Peace and Recognising Your Instincts

Mackenzie: "What's important to me is that I can see myself in that situation. I relate to the choices she makes, even when they're stupid. I can understand why she's doing the thing that might feel wrong to an audience, because you get that there are other things at play other than the right thing and the wrong thing.

There's the marriage and keeping that intact. And then there's 'oh my god, did I just make some sort of enormous, grievous misunderstanding of a situation where I thought I was saving my family, but actually I was villainising myself and really offending these lovely people who are hosting us?. And am I being a snob?'.

There's so many currents of thought that are going on all the time, and you kind of have to choose one to follow. And I get why, for a lot of the movie, she's prioritising, with difficulty, keeping the peace — and then at a certain point the dam breaks and she just cannot do it anymore. I think that's really, really relatable, trying to be all things at once."

On the Balancing Act Required for McAvoy to Play Someone Who is Charismatic, Earthy and Seemingly Free-Spirited, and Also Angry, Reckless and Unsettling

James: "The whole film is a balancing act, and the whole performance for me is a bit of a balancing act, because you can't go too far one way or the other. You can't go too scary or too safe. You've got to be right in the middle, until the end anyway, because you dissipate the tension of horror or a scary movie if you just go full bore too quickly.

And that's the same either side. Too safe, too dangerous. Too masculine, too not masculine. Too safe masculine, too toxic masculine. Too politically correct, too politically incorrect. You have to ride this line so that both versions of him are possible at all times without ever jumping down and nailing your colours to the mast on one side or the other.

So it's a bit of a balancing act that was orchestrated by myself and by the director definitely on the day, James Watkins. He did a lot of that on the page, but even then on the day, it was about getting shades, colours and levels so that when he was in the edit, he had the opportunity to calibrate as he went in that environment as well."

On Acting Opposite McAvoy's Powerful Performance

Mackenzie: "There's a moment in the movie where he has this sort of smile and then his eyes go dead, but then his mouth twitches a little bit still, and it's so unsettling. And he's playing three different things in like one second. And that's what it feels like to work across from him.

He's really surprising. He's enjoying what he's doing so much, which is so fun, because you shoot one scene for like six hours. You're hearing the same lines over and over, and what you want is an actor that's finding a new way into it every time so that it feels exciting and stimulating to engage with it, and he just does that in spades. He's a wonderful person and a really great actor."

On What McAvoy and Davis Each Drew Upon to Help Flesh Out Their Complex Characters

James: "I've got a friend who will look into my eyes and sing me an entire song, and there's something weirdly sort of threatening about it — because I don't know the song and I'm not singing it back with him, but he's singing it like he's singing some old favourite that we both know. I drew on that, because that's a kind of masculinity. That's a kind of 'I'm dominating you right now'.

And I actually do that in the film with Scoot — and my mate will watch this and be like 'you're totally doing me right now'. He's nothing like Paddy, by the way.

What did I draw upon? I guess, weirdly, myself. I'm not like Paddy, but I could be, and I could be if I'd made different decisions or indulged different parts of my personality and animal instincts when I was younger, or if different things had happened to me and I reacted to them differently. So those parts of Paddy that are objectionable or even attractive that aren't immediately apparent or inflated in me, they're still in me.

So it's about imagining them growing. It's imagining them into your mind, and imagining them into your soul and into your heart, and then letting them out on camera. They'll never become a part of me properly, but if you just quite imagine who you would become, who you would be if your life had been different and things had changed in different ways.

I think the parts of Paddy that we find objectionable and frightening are in us all. We all have the capacity to kill, and we all have the capacity to steal and to hurt others, to be selfish and to put ourselves before everyone else. And that's kind of what he does. And I think we all have that in us.

It's just we've had different experiences or made different decisions to get us there. But you can look at yourself and recognise Paddy, I think."

Mackenzie: "For me, I just want things to make sense. I'm almost a bit mathematical about it in going through the script and being like 'okay, well, why does she do this and how does that make sense, and if she does this, then what does this mean?'.

And as long as I can make the math — and everybody has their own particular math, there is not one unifying, it's just the logic of that person — as long as her logic feels believable and at least consistent enough, to me, that the inconsistencies are exciting and surprising, then I'm great. 

It's when things just feel random and I can't find the throughline that I'm like 'meh, probably I'm not the right person to play this part'."

On What Davis Would Do If She Was in the Same Situation as Louise

Mackenzie: "I think you'd be charmed by dreams. I think it would be fun. I think were I in the situation, I can see myself being like 'I don't want to spend two days at their house, we don't even know them'. And then being like 'you know, you've got to have adventure in your life. At the very least, it'll be like a good story'. And it was.

So maybe I would make the same decision. I keep saying I wouldn't, but now I guess I've kind of convinced myself it'll be fun to do something weird."

Speak No Evil opens in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, September 12, 2024.