ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to The Radleys star Kelly Macdonald about the horror comedy. She spoke about working with co-star Damian Lewis, playing a vampire, and more. Lionsgate will release the film in theaters, on digital, and on demand on October 4, 2024.
“Award-winning actors Kelly Macdonald (No Country For Old Men) and Damian Lewis (Billions, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood) star in a dark comedy thriller about a seemingly average suburban family with a juicy secret: they are vampires. In the light of day, the Radleys might seem normal, but they can only abstain from their natural cravings for so long until the bloody truth bubbles to the surface and turns their quiet country life upside down,” says the synopsis.
Kelly, congrats on The Radleys. I feel like as an actor, just getting to play a vampire is inherently very alluring. So what really drew you to this project beyond just getting to play a vampire, which might be enough in and of itself?
Kelly Macdonald: Honestly, that kind of is enough in itself, for me. Working with Euros was very appealing as well. The director, he was kind of my first word of call and we had a really, really nice Zoom meeting. He was in a train station at night. It was very sort of, you expected a vampire to sweep in at any moment. It was like in this Welsh train station platform outside at night, and we had this really, really lovely, fun sort of conversation. I could have spoken to him for hours. Also, I love his work. Then finding out that Damian was gonna be playing these two characters that in the book actually weren’t written as twins. I thought that was a sort of stroke of genius, really.
Damian’s a really great actor, but how was it working off him because his characters couldn’t be more different. So how was it getting very different energies from him as a scene partner on the same project? Because that’s a very unique situation.
Yeah, it is. But he made it very easy because it was completely obvious before I even spoke, who he was, who was dressed as, who he was portraying in certain scenes. We would play everything where the brothers were in a room together. Generally, we would play Peter’s stuff first, and then Damian would run off and get changed. He was pretty harassed, I have to say. He handled it with grace and everything. But he was like being sort of hurried into rooms to do a quick change and back again. It was a bit like if you were doing a play, like quick changes like that.
But the fun aspect really, I mean, for him getting to play two characters that look the same, like twins is a dream for an actor, but actually playing opposite that is really fun when you’ve got very diametrically different opinions on the different characters. So Helen is married to one and can’t be in the same room as another. So that was really fun for me.
The whole situation with the vampires is very interesting too, because it’s this like a addiction and sobriety parallel. What did you like most about just how it was using vampires? Because this isn’t your typical like, “Oh, they’re just blood sucking all their neighbors” story.
They’re very conscientious abstainers and what I quite liked about the character Will is that he’s kind of just a mess. He doesn’t have real love in his life. He’s sort of over the whole vampire thing. The drugs don’t work anymore. He pretends it’s great just because everybody in the film is pretending basically.
This role is also very interesting for you because you have a lot of emotionally charged scenes, but there’s also this really strong humor throughout the film. So how was it kind of like finding that balance?
Yeah, I think it’s just about playing it straight, really. I mean, the scenes are written like, it’s the situations that are quite funny. Just sort of playing it straight is the thing to do. We knew it was a comedy, but it was still sort of a surprise almost when I watched it. I got sent a link to the film, and I kinda had forgotten about that because I’ve played a lot of mothers in my career, and mothers that care and are sad and struggling. It was kind of that again. Then, just because of the situation, it becomes kind of hilarious.
You mentioned that it was unique to the movie that they were twins. Did you actually go back and read the book? Because I’ve had great actors go both ways on this. Some love to read the source material, and some just go purely off the script.
I think oftentimes it’s not totally necessary to read if it’s been based on a book. But I generally do, even when it’s, I did Anna Karenina and my God, there was like so much farming written about in that book. It was so boring. Chapters of farming. If you’re into that then that’s that, you know, but I did my homework.
With this one, I had actually mismanaged my time a bit, so I started the book kind of too close to the start of filming. By the time we had started shooting, I thought, I’m gonna have to just [stop] because I’m learning my lines. I wanted to enjoy it more, and I knew everything that I needed to know, you know? It was all there in the script. Because it’s the film that you’re making. It’s not the book. Then I read the book afterward, but I’ve done similar before.
You mentioned having that great Zoom call with Euros. How is it actually working with him?
Oh God, he’s amazing. I love him. My goal when I was shooting was to become his friend., but I don’t know if that’s happened. I mean, it is always really nice to see him. I saw him a couple of months ago. He came up to Edinburgh, to the festival, and it was lovely, but he’s just really cool. He’s just so talented, and he’s so enthusiastic. That’s the great thing as well. It was like a really fun set to be on because it just felt like that lucky thing where every now and then, you feel in the room that it’s the right people for you. You’re all meant to be there.
That’s all to Euros, really. He had a very strong vision. I liked that even though he had a very strong vision and could tell you any questions you had or what something was gonna look like, he was all over it. But he was also super open too. It’s a great thing in a director when they’re open too. If you come on set and you’re like, “What about this? What about that?” He listens to everything and he loves it when you’re as involved as he is.
I just wanted to ask you quickly about Brave because that movie’s still so beloved, and I noticed my friends who are parents; their kids love that film. How is it seeing it continue to be so beloved? It’s a great story for kids too.
I think so. She’s a very good role model, I think, particularly for little girls. I just love the fact that she just isn’t interested in Suiters. Like she’s not most Disney princesses. It’s all about the Prince and kind of, you know, the Prince finding her. And um, and Meredith’s like, yeah, she’s getting no truck with any of that. And it’s just, it’s, it’s about a relationship between a mother and daughter, which was kinda novel.
Thanks to Kelly Macdonald for taking time to talk about The Radleys.
