MOVIE NEWS – A mysterious terror lurks in the swimming pool of a family home in the film Night Swim, which is produced by the two great masters of scary cinema, Jason Blum and James Wan.
The female protagonist is Oscar nominee Kerry Condon (Ghosts of the Island), who is not the first to encounter the genre – although, as it turns out, she does not particularly remember the antecedents. However, in the cult TV series The Walking Dead, she played an important character, Carla, who voluntarily turns into a zombie to be with her undead husband. When ScreenRant asked the Irish actress if her zombie experience ten years ago helped her get into the chilling atmosphere of the new film, Condon had a surprising answer.
“The thing is, I forgot.” I mean, not that I was in The Walking Dead, but that it was horror. My character didn’t experience reality as a horror, but considered it natural, so I didn’t store it in myself as if I was in a horror movie. Anyway, it happens more than once that I completely forget where and what I played, because as soon as one job is over, I quickly let it go so that the next one can come smoothly. This could be some sort of acting self-defense mechanism: I instinctively do not allow one role to settle on me permanently, because then there would be no room for the others.
The male hero of Night Swim is a former baseball star, Ray, who is forced to retire from elite sports due to his illness, but secretly hopes that there is still a way for him to return to the top. He believes that the swimming pool of their new house can help with this as a rehabilitation tool, because he can get back in shape in the cool foam. Ray is played by Wyatt Russell – the son of Kurt Russell – who was himself a professional athlete, but due to an injury he had to retire from the track, just like his character in the film. This experience came in handy on set. “It wasn’t the character of the retired athlete that caught my attention the most, but rather how tight the story is, which can always take me off my feet,” said Russell to ScreenRant. “But it came in handy because I know how it feels to cherish ambitious plans, and then the knock comes.” In some places, I touched on the scenario: I said that it is not authentic here, because psychologically, things don’t work that way. No one was offended, in fact they were happy that I brought up the topic.
(Night Swim – domestic premiere: January 11, 2024)
Source: UIP
