Speak No Evil Helped James McAvoy Understand How Men Get Radicalized Online [Exclusive Interview]

In 2022, director Christian Tafdrup unleashed "Speak No Evil," a bleak, relentless examination of how politeness is one of the quickest ways to put us in danger. By disregarding red flags for the sake of social pleasantries, a Danish couple and their daughter find themselves trapped in the clutches of a Dutch couple at their house in The Netherlands countryside after befriending them while on vacation. But the more the Dutch couple reveal the truths about themselves, the more horrific the Danish family's life becomes.

The film's ending has since earned a notorious reputation, but as Tafdrup recalled in 2023, viewers from around the globe have related to the core conflict of suppressing one's feelings to better perform societal expectations. When it was announced that the horror mavens at Blumhouse were going to remake the film, hardcore horror fans lamented it "unnecessary." But in thinking about Tafdrup's comment, there's an argument to be made for a "Speak No Evil"-esque film for any number of cultural difference pairings between vacationing couples.

The true power of "Speak No Evil" is relatability, forcing audiences to reckon with the painful truth that they too could find themselves victim to nefarious forces by refusing to upset the applecart. For James McAvoy, who plays the charming yet dangerous Paddy in the remake by director James Watkins ("Eden Lake," "Black Mirror"), portraying a convincing figure with heinous intentions also helped him better understand why young men have become prey for radicalization online by perceived "alpha male" figures like Andrew Tate. By switching from Danish/Dutch sensibilities to that of the USA/UK in this version, a new layer of horror emerged.

I recently sat down with McAvoy to talk more about this breakdown of politeness and masculinity, as well as learn what it took for him to enter the headspace of one of the scariest villains of the year.

Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Do you know how scary you are in this movie?

I watched it with an audience a couple of nights ago in San Diego and I got a sense through them that they found it quite scary at times. [laughs]

Oh yeah, you're absolutely terrifying. You did a fantastic job because –

Thank you.

I had both sensations of one, like, "Oh, let me out, I got to take him down," and then also "... I will lose this fight. I need to sit back here."

He's also kind of funny as well!

Yes.

Which is weird because he's such a bigot. He's an a**hole. He's got the worst kind of opinions about f***ing politics, gender politics, everything. And yet you're enjoying being with him and you're like, "Ah, this feels horrible. And I'm still laughing at him." It's weird.

It's a total mind trip to sit in that world. One of the questions I have for you is that this is a character that exists from another film, and this is not the first time –

I was like, "There was a prequel? What? Are we talking multidimensional here?"

Could you imagine if there was a "Speak No Evil" multiverse? That would just be the bleakest multiverse ever created.

The Paddy-verse. [laughs]

But this is not the first time that you've played a character that exists either in another film or a book. In many cases, these characters are already beloved. So when you prepare for a role like this, do you watch the source material or do you just build it from the ground up?

I was really glad I hadn't seen the original film. If I had have seen it, I might not have taken this role. So no, I actively chose not to watch the original until we were finished making our version of it.

How do you feel about your character and what you brought to it now that you have seen the original?

I'm really proud of what we did. I'm really proud of the humor in it. I'm really proud of the tension in the film because we managed to somehow ... the film gets drawn like a bow so tight, by about an hour in it's just like shaking. You feel that the bow's going to break or the arrow is going to get loose, and yet there's a lot of laughs along the way and there's a lot of scares along the way. And yet somehow you'd think it would dissipate the tension every time that happens. But it [doesn't]. It somehow, everyone goes, "Whoa!" and it kind of ramps up each time. It kind of ramps up and ramps up and ramps up. And that's a testament to James Watkins, the director. He managed to orchestrate and calibrate this really fine tightrope walk where we had levity on one side and scariness and fear and frights on the other side. And yet he managed to walk this line where both things managed to coexist without dissipating the other. It was really deft from him.

Absolutely. And the levity in this movie almost feels like it has an asterisk because you can just sense that this humor that's coming ... there's a lot of uncomfortability with that humor and having to sit in it. And this film has so much to say about both the art of politeness and polite society and the things that we are willing to ignore in the face of politeness. But also there's some very fascinating stuff about masculinity in here.

Yeah, totally.

I would love for you to talk about what it was like playing in these very complicated sandboxes.

Listen, I mean, I regularly do walk away from people like Paddy as well. I'm not talking about murderers and kidnappers and people like that, but as soon as you get guys giving it like, [imitates a blowhard] "Here's the thing about me," do you know what I mean? [continues imitating] "Let me tell you. No, let me put you straight here. Okay?" And you're just like, "F*** off." I don't like being around it. I really enjoyed examining and getting to play somebody like that. But you've got two kinds of versions of masculinity in the film. You've got this kind of beta masculine, then you've got this kind of alpha masculine, and I'm sure there's a version of alpha masculinity, which is also okay and nice and in some way great, but this is a very toxic version of it. 

But then you've got a beta masculine guy here as well, but he's f***ing toxic as well, because he's not spreading health in his life or in his family. He's helping that toxic environment, which you think surely is a different thing because it's not front-footed, but this guy who's sitting there, can't look at himself in the mirror as a professional, can't look at himself in the mirror as a husband, as a father, as just a man. He feels like he's failing on every level. And so you get this guy who comes – yes, he's toxic, yes, he's dick-swinging, but really, he's projecting positivity and happiness and it seems genuine. And I actually think it is genuine. He's genuinely capable of being jolly and genuinely happy. And why wouldn't somebody as vulnerable as Ben look at that person, and go, "He's got the answers. I want to try and get like him." Even though he would never, at any other time in his life, subscribe to these toxic views.

And it helps me to understand a little bit why these people online are appealing to so many young men at the moment, who are growing the worst possible opinions and the worst possible sort of relationships now because of it and the way that they're behaving towards people. Anyway, it was interesting to play with that dynamic between two grown men as well, not just kids, but two middle-aged men.

Absolutely. I think when we talk about the patriarchy, we often forget how much the patriarchy hurts men. It hurts young men as well.

Absolutely.

And I love that this movie is playing with that, because in both the original film and in this film, just the primal screaming, letting a man feel an emotion, for the love of God, and getting to see that, it's this thing that twists in your brain where I watch this, and I'm like, "Oh, he needed that. He really needed that."

Do you know what as well? I also like it because Paddy is somebody who, he's not afraid to cry. He's not afraid to feel emotion. So you look at it and you go, "God, he's so great being vulnerable. He's so capable of being vulnerable. That's actually a modern man. That's a good version of masculinity." And you're like, "Eh, it kind of is, but he's still actually an a**hole." I love that scene where we get to do the primal scream simply because he cuts from just the midsize shot of us two to the wide shot and you just get this huge phallus standing upright. It's like, "Hey!" [laughs]

It was perfect, absolutely perfect, everything about it. And this movie also plays with so much subversion and then just kicks you in the gut towards the end of it. I've heard that the set, though, was very lovely and everyone was very happy.

Yeah!

So how do you pull yourself out of that mindset? Are you someone who needs a decompression or are you a light switch actor?

Light switch. Honestly, since they shout "cut" and I'm like, "Was that good? Yeah, I thought that was good. Or maybe I could go again. All right, whatever." And then it's back to me. But I mean, it's always me. It's me in the take and it's me outside the take and it is ... I just think save it for the take. You know what I mean? And be relaxed for the take. And you can intellectualize in between takes, but don't try and ... I would never try and be in the scene or be in the character or be in the moment. I think it just creates tension and takes your eye off the storytelling ball.

Fantastic. My last question for you is you have such an interesting relationship dynamic on the screen, specifically with Mackenzie Davis. She feels like the one who is equal to you[r intensity]. So what was it like working with her as the scene partner?

She's wicked, man. She's so good. And she had a really difficult job, certainly in the first half of the film as well, where her character is not so actively telling the story of the film. It's more in a passive way, which is not something that I think we're used to seeing Mackenzie Davis do. Her wheelhouse is so built on active action. So to watch her do that and still absolutely draw the audience in was brilliant. And then she takes over a bit in the second half, and she becomes more of the active protagonist and the leader, really. But she's brilliant. She's got such a strong presence. In fact, all four of the actors, all three of the other actors that were in this little adult foursome anyway, were amazing.

Aisling Franciosi plays somebody who's totally being groomed into this situation and abused in this situation and yet layered it to the point that you go like, "I think she actually does love him though as well" [...] but you don't even know because she's played it so strongly that the love is real, even though abuse is part of their everyday. It's an amazing performance.

And Scoot [McNairy] was just incredible. The amazing thing about Scoot is he's more the Paddy than I am in real life. Not a murderer, doesn't do anything that, but he is a man of the woods, hunter/stalker, build his own house, could fix any car. Like he is that guy. So the fact that he was playing this weak beta male figure, I was like, "Good on you, man, because you could out-Paddy me any day."

"Speak No Evil" hits theaters on September 13, 2024.