It Follows is looking to be the hottest, most horrific thriller of 2015, garnering five star reviews from every angle. Featuring a young, and up-until-now unknown cast, it stars Maika Monroe as Jay, a 19-year girl who has sex with her boyfriend, only to find that he has passed on a fatal curse – she will be relentlessly followed everywhere and anywhere. We meet 21-year old California girl Maika as she discusses her love for kite boarding, Australia and most of all scary movies…
**Grazia Daily: So talk us though It Follows… **
Maika Monroe: The director told me the idea came from a nightmare, it was a consistent dream that he had had as a kid. It was this ‘thing’ which would slowly follow him and it was always there and wouldn’t go away. He could run from it and try and get away from it but it would always be there and he had this feeling of dread.
GD: Have you got any recurring nightmares or situations that would make a good horror film?
MM: That’s a good question! I better start paying attention to my nightmares. I have nightmares all over the place and most of them are not even coherent, so it probably wouldn’t make a great movie.
**GD
MM: It’s very odd! I don’t know, I never expected it and it’s been pretty amazing!
**GD
MM: Yeah! My dad taught me when I was about 13 and so it kind of started from there and I fell in love with the sport. Acting happened when I was about the same age. I grew up doing dance and I think the production company contacted the dance group I was with and they needed young kids as background dancers so I kind of just fell into it by chance.
**GD
MM: I remember my dad showing me a lot of old films like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and the Shining. Those were movies that I loved, the old Star Wars as well. For me I read a script and I look at a character and if it is something that I am interested in doing then I want to do it.
GD
MM: I am drawn to those darker, weirder roles for whatever reason but I am a happy person! I think with everyone there is a darker side. I think for me it’s very easy to tap in to the darker side in roles and for whatever reason I find those roles more interesting
**GD: How dark did it get on set? A lot of directors tend to do some horrible things to their actors... **
MM: [Laughs]No we were lucky, we had a very nice director but there were definitely some very creepy places where we were filming which added to that tension. We were filming in Detroit so there were a lot of abandoned buildings and there were a lot of night shoots. There are all these plants, vines and trees are growing over these massive buildings and then you see houses that are burnt down and are just left there. It is quite a bizarre place.
**GD: What do you imagine when you’re summoning those fearful looks during the scary scenes? **
MM: I never really thought about how difficult it would be to make a horror movie at least as real as possible. I have never experienced running for my life (which is a great thing), and feeling that complete terror, so I guess you just have to try and tap into the darker places in your mind and then the other half is your imagination.
**GD: Do you have an escape plan if that was to happen to you? **
MM: I would get on a plane and go to Australia! It’s my happy place… Happy, happy, happy!
GD: **So what are you working on at the moment? **
MM: I just finished production on The 5th Wave which is a young adult novel with a pretty massive fan base so we’re turning that into a trilogy and then up next is a movie called ‘The Tribes of Palos Verdes’ which is a dark drama. I play Ringer - she is the badass of the group which was really fun. There was a lot of training involved, which was probably one of the coolest parts. It takes place now, but in a really insane situation.
GD: **Do you feel like you’re going to become Hollywood’s kind of ‘go-to’ action girl? **
MM: I’d like that! I didn’t ever think about it, but hell yeah, I hope so!
It Follows is in cinemas now