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, 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."
Night Swim, directed by Bryce McGuire, follows former baseball player Ray Waller (Wyatt Russell) and his family as they move into a new house and attempt to settle into a normal life. This is interrupted, however, when they come to learn that their backyard swimming pool is possessed by a malevolent force. Condon stars as Eve Waller, the matriarch of the family. Amelie Hoeferie, Gavin Warren, Nancy Lenehan, and Jodi Long also star.
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."
The critically acclaimed dramatic actor is hot off of winning a BAFTA for The Banshees of Inisherin, for which she also received a Golden Globe nomination. She also played Stacey Ehrmantrout, Mike's daughter-in-law, in Better Call Saul as well as Molly Sullivan in Ray Donovan. In 2024, Condon is set to join the Star Wars universe in the upcoming Disney Plus series Skeleton Crew. She says she wouldn't mind doing another horror movie, but she wouldn't be "lining up" to take more on.
"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. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond.
