SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for David Fincher’s “The Killer,” now streaming on Netflix.
The next few months will be stacked with conversations about the year’s best film performances, but we’d be remiss to let 2023 go dark without mentioning one of its most exciting turns: Kerry O’Malley in David Fincher’s “The Killer.”
A veteran working actress who has appeared on “1923,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and in features like the “Annabelle” franchise, O’Malley more than held her own alongside Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton in the unexpectedly funny tale of a contract killer gone haywire.
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O’Malley stars as Dolores, an average-seeming New Orleans woman who serves as dutiful assistant to a lawyer (Charles Parnell), who also happens to dole out high-paid hit orders on the rich and powerful. Fassbender, a protégé of Parnell’s, has been betrayed and seeks revenge — but must first tangle with Dolores, who confuses his own sense of vigilante justice with her pragmatism and air of innocence.
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O’Malley’s sequence in the film makes for some of the most riveting character work we’ve seen from Fincher as of late. Dolores is a woman fully aware of how she earns her living, yet appeals to a broader sense of empathy in the viewer (and her own potential murderer). In a chat with Variety, O’Malley discusses auditioning virtually with Fincher, working with Fassbender and the “banality of evil.”
How did you land this incredible gig?
I did a Zoom call with David Fincher and it was just a tremendous experience. He really directed me. We did the bathroom scene multiple times, and he gave me multiple adjustments and kept honing it. And at the end, I felt like — even if I don’t get the job, I just got directed by Fincher. Two weeks later I got the offer.
Did you have any expectations for the audition, knowing how meticulous he is?
I’d read that he likes to do a lot of takes, but people don’t usually ask you to do it multiple times in an audition. It felt like a real luxury to do that with him, like we were making it together.
Once you booked the job, did you have rehearsal or jump right in?
They started in Paris and the Dominican Republic before my section in New Orleans. We read through the scene once with Michael Fassbender and Charles Parnell, then we shaped it as we shot it. There are a ton of props in that scene, so it takes some time just to get the ballet of it all.
There’s something fascinating about Dolores. She presents as a dutiful and average assistant in some harmless office, but she has full knowledge of this very deadly business she’s a part of. How did you balance that tension between a very normal woman’s experience and then this extraordinary criminal activity.
It’s a testament to the writing and to David, that so many people are affected by what happens to her and this empathy that [Fassbender] may or may not have for her. A lot of people have talked about the idea of the banality of evil when it comes to this film. I kept thinking about, in this line of work, there are the people who book the plane tickets and do the paperwork and the wire transfers. But she winds up confronting violence in a way she’s never had to. I think it’s notable that she doesn’t ask Michael’s character not to kill her. She knows what she’s done. She just asks not to be disappeared because her kids need the life insurance. That shows a lot of intelligence to me.
There’s an incredible scene where you’re tied up in a van and alone for the first time since you’ve come across Fassbender. You let out this visceral scream. How many takes did you do for that one?
It wasn’t many. You have to shoot it from a few different angles. I truly love that moment. It’s one last desperate attempt to save herself. Right after, the garage door to her home starts rising up and you think – here it comes, this is it. Also in that scene, I think it’s one of the first times Michael actually speaks in the movie. He delivers this wonderful silent movie performance. Deep, deep craft and skill and specificity.
I want to talk about an earlier scene, one with both Fassbender and Charles Parnell. You’re tied up to a bathroom sink and spot a bottle of pills. Later, we see the bottle open and on the floor in front of you. There was a lot of chatter about that. Do you think Dolores was trying to take something to calm down, or was she considering taking her own life?
I don’t think it’s a suicide attempt, I think it’s just she takes Xanax to just try to calm down. She hasn’t been hurt at all yet. It’s a moment of, “I’m just gonna keep my shit together.”
Let’s talk about Dolores’ big moment. She has one of the most interesting ends in the film. He kind of just turns the lights out, it’s elegant and simple and empathetic. Why?
I feel like he gave me an honorable death, right? He let it look like an accident. It’s from behind me. It’s quick, like I fell down the stairs. She got what she asked for, even though he’s breaking his own rules. Michael is so amazing in that scene.
Is there a moment being directed by Fincher that will always stay with you?
He knows exactly what he wants in a particular shot, and he will show you on his tablet. He doesn’t leave you in the dark, so you can be an active participant. He also enhances everything you’re doing. He chiseled away everything that wasn’t Dolores and got to the heart of the storytelling. It was a refreshing, creative and peaceful way to work.
“The Killer” performed very well on Netflix. Has that big viewership trickled down into your life yet. Have you gotten recognized from the project?
I’ve gotten some very nice comments on Instagram and Twitter. People are reaching out to me from my hometown and my parents’ church in New Hampshire, things like that. It’s so cool.