Edgar Wright on the Inspirations Behind Last Night in Soho

Director Edgar Wright’s stunning psychological thriller Last Night in Soho, starring Thomasin McKenzie (Leave No Trace) and Golden Globe winner Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit), is now playing in theaters. The Baby Driver helmer also co-wrote the screenplay along with 1917 Oscar-nominated scribe Krysty Wilson-Cairns.

“Eloise (McKenzie), an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie (Taylor-Joy),” reads the official synopsis for the film. “But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.”

ComingSoon’s Senior Movie & TV Editor Kylie Hemmert spoke with Wright about how Soho and dreams played a part in inspiring the film, the similarities between his mother and the character of Eloise, and more.

Kylie Hemmert: I was lucky enough to actually get to see the film at Fantastic Fest and was absolutely blown away by the movie. With Soho essentially being its own character in the film, can you talk about how it played a part in inspiring the project and what it was like shooting on location?

Edgar Wright: Yeah, I mean, Soho inspired the project in the sense of in the last 27 years that I’ve lived in London, it’s probably the neighborhood that I’ve spent more time in than any other. I think I spent more time in Soho than I have in any couch in any apartment I’ve ever lived in. So, it’s something where it’s just … it’s a very kind of, like, sort of compelling and exciting but also sometimes disturbing area because it’s like the center of the film and TV industry, sort of a massive entertainment district, but it also has, you know, the darker side of London right there and in plain sight. And in the 27 years that I’ve lived in London, that’s been gentrified away to a certain extent. It’s still there, and there’s always like sort of a strange energy change that happens after midnight.

So, it’s just something where it’s like, I guess the area haunts me in a way, and it keeps bringing me back like a magnet. That was sort of one of the many inspirations for making the film is I want to make a film about this area, which used to be on-screen a lot more in the ’60s and ’70s and ’80s, but not so much in the last 30 years. And that’s partly because it genuinely is an area that’s open 24/7 and a very challenging place to shoot. But of course, we wanted to take the bull by the horns and go for it.

Dreams are obviously a big theme in the film, from Eloise’s dreams to go to the big city and become a fashion designer to her literal dreams about the past and of Sandie. What do you think is so fun and interesting about playing with the concept of dreams in storytelling, especially within this genre?

Well, I think it’s a big part of the inspiration because I certainly have lots of dreams where I believe I am somebody else, or I’m in somebody else’s body, or, you know that you’re you, but you look like somebody else. And, you know, I grew up with a mother who’s very supernaturally switched on and she would sort of have dreams about, like, previous inhabitants of the house that we lived in and stuff. So I think all of those things sort of together started to kind of ferment in my mind of where this was going. It’s the, what if at night you could go back and live the life of the previous inhabitant of your apartment, and for good and for bad. I mean, the good part is the dream. And then when things take a darker turn, that’s when it turns into a nightmare.

And also the thing with dreams and traveling in time through dreams is that you’re merely an observer. You’re not like Marty McFly. You can’t do anything to change the future in the past. So, that’s something that I find quite nightmarish is the — and I think it ties into those dreams where you cannot ever complete a task, you know, in a dream — is the idea that you cannot avert disaster in the past. And that’s something that I find truly scary.

I have to ask real quick because you did mention your mom, I remember at Fantastic Fest you said that you realized that she shared similarities with Eloise, but she had not seen the film yet. So, I was wondering what her reaction was to the film and if she had picked up on the comparisons between her and the character.

Oh yeah, I mean, I sorta did mention it at Fantastic Fest, but I’d forgotten actually that I’d asked my mum to sort of write down every sort of paranormal encounter that she’d had. And she sent me and Krysty [Wilson-Cairns], my co-writer, a word document called “Spooky Goings On” [laughs] and that detailed every time that she’d felt a presence or seen a ghost, of which there were quite a few. So when she watched the film the other day, I think she kind of accepted it quite kind of matter of factly. Maybe she thought it was a documentary, but she saw herself in the character and she sort of totally understood it in terms of the — she’s just very open to the supernatural. And in a way, I guess, as a young horror fan, there was probably a part of me growing up where I was envious that she’d seen a ghost and I hadn’t.