From director Anthony Byrne, who co-wrote the film with his partner Natalie Dormer, the dramatic thriller In Darkness follows Sofia (played by Dormer), a blind pianist who overhears a struggle in the apartment above hers that leads to the death of her neighbor, Veronique (Emily Ratajkowski). As a result, Sofia finds herself in the presence of Veronique’s father, suspected war criminal Milos Radic (Jan Bijvoet), and she’s drawn into a dangerous world of corruption where everyone is keeping secrets.
At the film’s L.A. press day, Collider got the opportunity to sit down and chat 1-on-1 with actor Ed Skrein (who plays Marc, a mysterious man that keeps crossing paths with Sofia) about why In Darkness appealed to him, the unique intimacy of the project, making the most of a small budget, shooting outside on the street, and the experience of filming a sex scene. He also talked about signing on for Maleficent 2, playing a cyborg in Alita: Battle Angel, and what it was like to write/direct his first short film.
Collider: This is such an interesting movie with very mysterious characters. What were you most excited about, when you read this and learned about who this guy would be?
ED SKREIN: Roles for actors are like American presidents. They’re reactionary. You do one thing, and then you wanna do the opposite, and it swings a lot. It might not be so good for the political system and getting things done, but it’s certainly good for an actor. It’s better for an actor’s dynamic. It was like a dream role, in many ways. To work opposite Natalie [Dormer], and to work with Nat and Ant [Byrne] and enter into this relationship and dynamic was a hugely exciting task and challenge for me. The intimacy of the project was so unique. After gaining some experience in this industry, I’ve realized that I like the feeling of intimacy and closeness and team ethic and camaraderie, and I felt that, from the beginning, with those two. I bought into them, as human beings, as a brand, as writers, and as director and actress. It really was a dream to work with them and to be able to play Marc.
Anthony Byrne and Natalie Dormer have said that they didn’t want anyone but you for the role of Marc.
SKREIN: Yeah, that’s crazy!
Did you know that?
SKREIN: No, of course, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that they were writing it. That’s what I think is so interesting and exciting about art. There’s someone out there right now, writing something, which they’re going to send to me in six months, six years, 16 years, or whatever. There’s an actor that’s being born now that I’m gonna work with in 15 years. I just love the romantic alchemy of these things. It was fascinating because Ant said to me that he’d seen a photo of me in something, in 2011 or 2012, where he was like, “That’s Marc! I don’t know who that guy is, but that’s Marc!” And then, as my career progressed, he was like, “Oh, that’s that guy! That’s the Marc guy!” That’s amazing! It’s affirming to know that people are thinking of you, even if it started off as just an aesthetic, and then led to them feeling like there was no one else for the role. That’s an amazing feeling.
So, if you hadn’t been available, they would’ve been really screwed.
SKREIN: I would have moved hell and earth to be a part of this. I turned down a lot of stuff, so that I could do this. This moved around a bit, and my agent would phone me and say, “This has come in.” And I was like, “There’s just no two ways about it. Don’t phone me again and ask me about In Darkness. I’m doing it, a million percent.” I’m so glad I did. It’s still one of the most enjoyable experiences that I’ve ever been a part of. When I think back to all of the most enjoyable experiences, they all had that same feeling of a team working towards something, trying their hardest, and trying to punch above their weight. This is a $2 million movie. With Deadpool, we had $59 million, but we were trying to make a $120 million movie. We were trying to compete against The Avengers, and such. With this, we made a $2 million movie, but we’re trying to compete against $10 million, $15 million, $20 million, $40 million and $50 million movies. It’s exactly the type of project that I want to be a part of, in the future, as well.
And then, you decided to go do something huge Maleficent 2.
SKREIN: It’s just fun. I’m so lucky and grateful.
That’s the definition of a big fantasy movie.
SKREIN: It really is. I’m just so grateful that I can flirt between these tiny independent movies and big studio blockbusters, and dance in between, as well. There’s so much fun to be had, in both of them. Catering and craft services is better on the big ones, and the trailers are so nice. On In Darkness, I don’t think we had trailers. We just got changed in a room together. I liked getting changed in one room, with people leaving a pile of clothes in the corner, where it was like, “Ed, sorry, can you come out of there, please? Emily’s gotta get dressed,” or “Nat has gotta get dressed now.” I like that feeling. Although, as I’m saying it, I’m realizing that I shouldn’t be saying that out loud because now producers are gonna start writing trailers out of my contract. I’m gonna go back to Maleficent and there’s gonna be no trailer there.
It’s been said that your character in Maleficent is a villain. What can you say about him and the kind of villain he is?
SKREIN: I can say nothing. I can say that it’s an interesting character, and it’s another role of a lifetime, in a very different way from Marc. It couldn’t be more different from Marc, in every way. My job is always just about conveying human emotion, trying to be honest, and representing real human experience to the audience members, so it’s the same thing, in that regard. I’m just gonna show up and try to be relaxed and honest.
Seeing you in the trailer for Alita: Battle Angel, it’s clear your character in that is very different. What was it like to see yourself as a cyborg?
SKREIN: It was awesome! It was so awesome! When I was there, I was dressed like a Teletubby. I was wearing a gray mo-cap suit. I’d go get my body scanned and stick on all my mo-cap sensors. I arrived in Austin with a six pack, and left with a pot belly of brisket and sausage. That Texas food was amazing! I loved it, and I love Austin, Texas. I fell in love with it. I made friends for life there. It was a wonderful place. We shot that in November 2016, I believe. It’s gonna be two years, by the time it comes out, so what an exciting experience to see the trailer and to experience it on my laptop, in a remote part of the world. I saw it and was like, “That looks so awesome!” I saw concept art, and me and Robert Rodriguez, the director, would geek out. And Jon Landau, the producer, would show me stuff on a laptop and I’d be like, “Oh, my god, my character look so bad-ass with the detail.” I’m excited to see more and to see what they’ve done. It’s an interesting process. Being there during the prep and the pre-production, being there during the shoot, and then stepping away from it in the post, it’s a strange dynamic, but it’s exciting.
In Darkness has such an interesting visual look and aesthetic to it.
SKREIN: Yeah, I agree. I think a lot of that comes down to the DP, Si Bell. He’s just a very inventive DP. They say the obstacle in creativity is the path, and when you’re shooting a movie for $2 million in London, there are a lot of obstacles, so we had to find ways around doing things.
Especially shooting outside on the street for some of it, I would imagine.
SKREIN: Yeah. We had permits for most of it, but it was still difficult. The scene in Camden Market was the first scene of the movie that I shot, and that was intense. We had 50 extras, but we couldn’t close the market, so there were hundreds of people there, all holding camera phones, and we had paparazzi with long lenses, by the time lunch time came around. It was a challenge, but I think the credit for that just has to go to Ant and his vision, from the beginning, and Si Bell, the cinematographer.
I would imagine that shooting any sex scene is awkward, and in this case, you had to shoot one with your co-star, for her partner, who was the director. Do you just have to have a laugh about that?
SKREIN: They’re never awkward, to be honest. They’re not really awkward. They are what they are. It’s not really a weird thing. Sometimes in this industry, when I’m doing stuff, I can step outside of myself objectively and go, “This is fucking weird. This is a weird dynamic. This is gonna be a weird story to go home and tell my boys.” That was one of them. I was like, “This is fucking weird.” But we’re professionals, so all three of us just got on with it. I was so invested in their dynamic, and the three of us were so close anyway, that we had this shorthand. We weren’t messing around. We could just cut straight to the chase, so it wasn’t awkward, but the thought of it, when I look back, I just laugh about it. It’s one of those things, where it’s a good story to tell of what a strange dynamic that is, and what a weird and wonderful job that I have.
I thought it was actually really beautifully done. A lot of times, sex scenes in movies are boring or feel obligatory, and this was very character based, which was interesting.
SKREIN: Yeah. I have a bit of a problem with a lot of sex scenes, to be honest. I find them so gratuitous, so much of the time, and they rarely drive a movie forward. If a movie’s only charm is beautiful people, fair enough, then just have some beautiful people and some naked bodies because that’s what you’re doing, but it’s only for that. But if you’re really trying to make art – and I’m usually very curious as to why things are in there, other than maybe producers trying to get the lead actress to get her bum out, or the actor to get their torso out – it sits uncomfortably with me, especially in the recent #MeToo movement. I think the industry, as a whole, may start to look at sex scenes a bit more and see how necessary they are. Obviously, sex sells, as does violence and things blowing up. It’s indicative of the world we live in, and the industry is an industry, by definition, that’s based on money, but I hope we can start to be more sensitive about these things. And I agree that this was handled in a sensitive way, and also was kind of beautiful.
It felt like there was a reason for it to be there.
SKREIN: Yeah. You choreograph a sex scene, in the same way that you choreograph a fight scene. Instead of, “Okay, it’s gonna be the elbow, duck, and then we punch,” it’s like, “Okay, I’m gonna come in here. We’re gonna kiss, and then I’m gonna do this or that.” It’s funny when you think about that, but it just felt so right. Marc is not emotionally literate. He’s not an open person. He’s not in control of his actions until later on in the movie, so that was a really poignant moment. Real life intimacy often comes from just needing a fucking hug. That’s where the sweetest physical contact can be, between two human beings. But in Hollywood, they just wanna see two people having wild sex. They don’t wanna show the intimacy and the real side of it. So, I’m glad that Ant and Nat handled it in that way. Every step along the way, it reaffirmed my feeling of safety around them, as an artist and a performer.
When you do something like this and work with people who are clearly making what’s such a passion project for them, having spent so many years trying to get it made, does it make you want to get more involved, in that sense? Are you looking to jump behind the camera, at all?
SKREIN: I have. Since this, I actually wrote and directed my first short film.
Very cool! How was that experience?
SKREIN: Amazing! It was illuminating and wonderful, and very helpful for me, as an actor. It was very natural. I’m weird like that. Even with acting, I just did it because someone asked me to do it. They said, “Will you act in this short film,” so I did it and liked it, and it stuck. I’m still here. Directing felt the same. I had this urge to do it, so I wrote something very personal to me and cast it with some young guys from the charity that I work with, The Big House, which is where we take at risk young people and we mentor them and work with them through drama, as therapy. We found these two amazing guys and started working with them. It was a very personal project. It was amazing. I think it’s really helpful, as an actor, to step outside of the realm of an actor. I was driving to the camera rental places and picking up the cameras for the re-shoots. Being a part of the post is an interesting notion for me, and being in the edit, doing the sound design, and working with the composer is a very interesting and illuminating experience. The fact that In Darkness was such a passion project for them was the reason that I wanted to get involved. With everything I do, I do it at 100%. I think any director that’s worked with me would say, “Yeah, Ed gives 100% and is pure passion.” When I’m looking for something, I’m looking for that passion. Until we finish [this short], it’s all that matters. When we finish, cool, we’ll mosey off into the sunset, like cowboys or cow-people. So, it has to be full of passion. As the director and writer, it was great to be at the helm of a project. I worked with a lot of the people from In Darkness. I had the same DP. Si Bell worked on my short film. Our first AD and a lot of the crew came on board. There was this wonderful feeling of camaraderie that carried on from In Darkness, which means they didn’t hate working with me, completely.
That’s cool! Next, you’ll have to try a full length feature and see how that goes.
SKREIN: Yeah, one step at a time. I’ve got a couple of short films that I’ve written that I want to execute first. I’m in no rush to go for a feature yet. It was also fucking exhausting being a director. Three days of shooting and I was like, “Whoa, this is like three months of being an actor.” It’s a lot more tiring. It made me very thankful to go back to Maleficent and just be the actor rather than the director. When they’re like, “Yeah, you can go back to your trailer for a bit,” I go back and read comics and listen to music. The director can’t do that. They’ve got a million and one decisions to make. But it was illuminating and rewarding, and I can’t wait for the world to see it.
I’m excited to see it!
SKREIN: Yeah, I’m excited to show it to you!
In Darkness is in theaters and on-demand on May 25th.
