The Banshees of Inisherin star Kerry Condon has a lot more respect for horror actors after starring in Night Swim, her first-ever horror venture.
"I think it was probably a little harder to act, to be honest. I kind of looked at horror actors with a lot more respect than I'd had in the past because it's quite difficult to imagine something that's kind of unimaginable and how you would react to that in a way where you have to be truthful," Condon tells GamesRadar+. "I always have to try and think about it being truthful. And that was one of my concerns initially. I wanted to try the genre just because cause I hadn't done it and it would be something different, but I was afraid that I would be too truthful and not able to sell it as a horror movie. But I was reassured by Jason Blum and that's what they needed: you had to have it grounded in reality."
The film is a feature-length adaptation of McGuire's 2014 viral short film of the same name, and is the first to be released under Blumhouse and Atomic Monster's joint banner following their recent merger.
"You have to believe the family is really a family in order to be invested enough to be scared," Condon continues. "And that the scares were more a post-production thing and more Bryce's job and more sound department's job and not my job. My job was to be play it truthful and real. So I knew I could do that. So it was a bit of a leap of faith and I thought, well, I'll just try it and see what it's like."
"They're kind of hard," she says. "They’re exhausting, you know? And it is a leap of faith. Whereas like with other movies, or Better Call Saul, there's a gauge of how many emotions you would actually feel in this particular [moment], you know, you can imagine it. But imagining is this pool is [possessed] – you know what I mean? – it's hard. So it would have to be very special and at a time when I was very up for it."
Night Swim hits theaters in the United States on January 5, 2024, moved up from its original January 19 release date. Also check out our interviews with Condon's co-star Wyatt Russell and director Bryce McGuire.
