Longlegs: Alicia Witt Details Her Unique Creative Process With Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage’s titular terror is being concealed from everyone. Ahead of the theatrical release of Longlegs, NEON Films has made extra efforts to keep Cage’s Longlegs hidden from clear view, only showing the character from his shoulders down or masking his face with the environment around him. Whispers about what horror Longlegs’s face will show have been prevalent, as early reactions and full reviews to the film have emphasized that the character’s full reveal is among the scariest moments of the cinematic calendar. As it turns out, audiences are not the only ones waiting with bated breath, as the Longlegs ensemble was also kept in the dark about the nominal antagonist.

Alicia Witt Details Unique Creative Process on Longlegs

Like her co-stars, Longlegs star Alicia Witt let her entire dynamic with Nicolas Cage play out exclusively on camera.

Speaking to ComicBook, Witt revealed that her character of Ruth Harker and Cage’s Longlegs only ever interacted on screen, as she and Cage never had creative discussions off camera.

“It was purely on screen,” Witt said. “And that’s as it should be because you see our relationship happen in real time. Without giving any spoilers away, the moment that Longlegs and Ruth interact, that’s really me meeting  Longlegs for the first time. That is really special.”

Witt’s Ruth finds herself in a unique position within Longlegs. As the mother of Maika Monroe’s Lee, Ruth grows concerned with her daughter for pursuing this dangerous serial killer case and reminds her to say her prayers, which Lee often neglects.

“I felt like every bit of preparation I had done as Ruth to imagine what her reaction might be, to know who she was going into that moment, my job as an actor I think is always to do the work and then show up on set and let it be, let it unfold,” Witt continued. “It’s so much about the symbiosis between the actors. To see Nic show up as Longlegs for the first time, I always like moments like that to happen on camera. I was careful to not look very much at him until the cameras were rolling. You only need to glance at this face to know that that man is really not right. The reaction kind of took care of itself.”

Longlegs slithers into theaters on Friday, July 12th.