Actress Storm Reid scored the lead role in last year’s highly-anticipated A Wrinkle in Time, offering her the opportunity to share the screen with Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Zach Galifianakis, helping open up a number of exciting opportunities for the young actress. Reid continued the trend of sharing the screen with acclaimed actors with this year’s Don’t Let Go, in which she stars with David Oyelowo, Mykelti Williamson, and Brian Tyree Howard. What the film also has in common with her previous efforts is that the new film, which is full of suspense, blends a number of genres to tell a unique and compelling story.
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In the film, after Detective Jack Radcliff’s (Oyelowo) family appears to be victim of a mysterious murder, he receives a startling phone call from his niece (Reid), seemingly from the past. Now Jack must race to unravel a mystery to prevent a death that has already happened.
ComicBook.com recently caught up with Reid to discuss working on the film and her connection to the horror genre.
ComicBook.com: What’s interesting about Don’t Let Go is it blends a number of different thematic elements, but one prevailing trend is there’s definitely some horror in there. Are you particularly a fan of horror movies personally?
Storm Reid: Yes, I do enjoy watching some horror movies. Some things are just a little too scary for me. But I don’t really think I’d consider Don’t Let Go a horror movie. I like to call it a psychological thriller but I would like to do a horror movie in the future.
Do you have a particular favorite franchise that you’d like to join?
No, hopefully just something may come across my plate and, hopefully, it will line up with what I want to do and I’ll do it.
What was it that originally drew you to the project?
Well, I hadn’t found a psychological thriller before so that was very intriguing to me, but I also love that no matter what was happening and the circumstances of Ashley’s life and Jack’s job, they have that unconditional sacrificial love for each other and I feel like I have that as well so to be able to convey that into a character and into the relationship they have as niece and uncle was amazing to me. I’m glad I was able to do that with David.
And what’s interesting is that the two of you only actually share a handful of scenes together but you’re interacting throughout the whole movie through the phone. Did that make it difficult as a performer, having that disconnect?
We actually made it a point to be on set with each other when we were doing our phone calls because I feel like that was important for us to establish how connected we were even though we were on, let’s say two different parts of town, or if we weren’t together in a scene physically, it was good for us as just actors to be on set together and have our presence on set so we know that the other person is in the room and I feel like it helped us connect on the phone even better as well.
Your more fantastical work in your career means acting in scenes where you aren’t actually seeing everything, did that make filming this movie easier for you?
I feel like it’s important when we were doing a scene to give 100%, give 150% whether you’re on camera and it’s your coverage or it’s not your coverage and it’s somebody else’s coverage, because I feel like not only does that help you develop as an actor, as an actress more, but it also helps the scene because you’re actually helping your scene partner. So I just did the same thing while we were on the phone and conveyed as much emotion through talking as I could, whether that was crying or screaming, I made sure I did that on the phone to help David and he did the same for me.
The whole conceit of the movie is that your character dies early on and the time travel element could perhaps prevent that from happening. Was it emotionally challenging playing a character that you knew was doomed to die?
It’s challenging to think that way so I really just had to step outside of myself and step into Ashley’s shoes and become her, but not neglect how I would feel as well if someone told me that I was going to die in the next couple of days, what I would do and how I would feel. That’s my approach to all of my characters, whether they’re going through an amazing situation and they’re so joyous or if they’re going through something devastating and traumatic.
The specifics of the time travel elements are never fully explained in the film, but did you and the cast specifically detail how such a supernatural event could occur?
I feel like we did both where we tried to explain and then sometimes we just left things to be interpreted by the audience, but I feel like just really solidifying the relationship between Jack and Ashley plays into that a lot. And then with the sci-fi aspect, we were very subtle about the time travel but there were things that needed to be very realistic like the red X or the gum under the table, where we’re trying to prove to the audience that these things are happening but trying to prove to the characters that this is happening as well, to answer everybody’s questions, because not only will the audience be questioning what’s happening while they’re watching it, but Ashley is very doubtful and is still a young kid and still on the cusp of adolescence so she might not understand everything that’s going on.
If you could pick up the phone and talk to your younger self on the other end, is there any message you’d like to give?
I would tell my younger self that patience is key and you got this and it is a marathon, not a race.
You do have one horror project on the horizon, which is Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man reboot. Is there anything you can say about that project?
No, not too much that I can say about that. They already have started filming in Australia but I’m about to go to Australia again to start filming that and it’s a really amazing script and I’m glad to be a part of that project with Elisabeth Moss and everybody that’s a part of it. So, I think it’ll be good and people will enjoy it.
*****
Don’t Let Go hits theaters on August 30th.
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