The First Omen Star Nell Tiger Free Compares Margaret To Other Horror Heroines

The First Omen is being released in theaters on Friday, and the film stars Servant‘s Nell Tiger Free as Margaret, a young American woman who is sent to Italy to begin a life of service to the church. However, things take a dark turn when she starts to uncover an evil conspiracy that will lead to the events of the original The Omen (1976). ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Free about the film, and she spoke about her love for the original and addressed Margaret’s place in the long history of horror heroines and final girls. 

“I don’t know if she does,” Free replied when asked how Margaret stands out from other women in horror. “I think she happily joins her sisters in the world of horror. I think that we’re all doing it together, and she’s just another girl who had a series of very unfortunate events happen to her and she prevails against … I think that she just hopefully joins the ranks of these wonderful leading ladies in horror.” 

You can watch our interview with Free at the top of the page.

The First Omen Director and Producer Priase Nell Tiger Free:

ComicBook.com recently spoke with The First Omen producer Keith Levine and director Arkasha Stevenson, and they both had nothing but praise for Free and her performance. 

“100%. Yeah,” Levine shared when asked if he was involved with Free’s casting. “She’s incredible onscreen and offscreen, just like the best possible human being, incredible to work with. Obviously, she carries the movie on her shoulders, and yeah, we couldn’t have found a better person, I think, to play Margaret.”

“She felt like she had a little bit of genre cred, but also wasn’t like, … ‘Oh, I know her, and I like her. I’ve seen Servant,’ but they haven’t really seen her flex muscles beyond that,” he continued. “And I think what’s so cool about our movie is she gets to do everything. She starts off and she’s sort of this quiet young woman arriving in Rome, and when you find her at the end, she’s been through some sh*t and she’s a little badass, but also experienced a lot of dark stuff.”

“So it is a certain, I think, skillset that is able to handle material like that. And Nell took it and just exceeded everybody’s expectations, but we all believed in her so much to begin with, so we couldn’t be happier with her,” Levine added. “I mean, again, if you had to give the award out for ‘Most Outstanding’ … it was her and she’s on set every day. She’s basically in every scene of the movie.”

“No, it was a dream,” Stevenson said of directing Free. “And I joke with her that she makes directors lazy, just so good, and has such great instincts … It was so nice to have a partner on this film. And she does a lot of heavy – this is a big boulder for her to carry. She’s in every scene just about, she’s on set every single day.”

“It’s extremely physical as well as mentally taxing. And she was able to do those peaks and valleys so seamlessly and effortlessly that she was able to be present as a collaborator, which was wonderful,” she added.

The First Omen lands exclusively in theaters on April 5th.