Actress Michaela McManus talks to Fest Track about approach, intent, understanding and motivation in regards to her new film: "Redux Redux" playing the Midnighter section at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
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00:00This is Tim Wastbrook from FesTrackOnStreetTV.
00:29I'm here at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
00:33My interest is really in like these human stories, character connections, really grounded
00:40dramas. That's really what as an actor I'm drawn to and as a viewer I'm drawn to.
00:46And so with sci-fi my first question is like, am I going to be pausing this and asking questions
00:52with the person I'm watching with and trying to follow it? And so what I think is really
00:57cool about Redux Redux is it has a little bit of everything for everyone. And for me
01:04as a viewer I'm really pulled into the characters that they've created and that storyline that
01:12takes you all the way through. And I think the sci-fi element is so interesting but I'm not,
01:17I can follow it. I'm not bogged down by all of the minutiae of what that means.
01:22Reading the script, it was kind of intimidating because I'd never read anything quite like that
01:27for me specifically. And it's ambitious and I was sort of caught up in the, okay, well, you know,
01:35how am I going to do this? Because not only is it tricky when you're shooting out of sequence,
01:40whenever you film anything, we're filming out of universe. And I was like,
01:44you know, trying to wrap my head around it. But honestly, I was sort of overcomplicating it.
01:49And whenever I talk to my brothers, the cool part about working with my brothers is there's
01:54a shorthand and there's an ease and they just can give me like one word. They simplify in a way that
02:02as an actor, it's such a gift because you're not wading through all of it. It's just clean
02:09and simple and it just really helps me keep my character grounded and just stay on a steady path.
02:15Is Neville working tonight? He a friend of yours?
02:24No. Please. Where's her body?
02:31How many times have you killed him? A lot.
02:37I have been traveling through the multiverse looking for my daughter.
02:42You're not from around here? No.
02:44Great. Neither am I. Looking for a world where she wasn't kidnapped and murdered.
02:50You know, in some ways I relate to the character of Irene more than any role I've played,
02:55which I know would surprise people to hear because she's a killer.
03:00But I loved it. Right. Like the core of this woman is, she's a mom. She's a single mom. And
03:07her daughter was her whole world, her whole life. And it was taken from her in the most brutal way.
03:13I'm a mom. I have three kids. And I think people know me as a pretty laid back, go with the flow,
03:22nice person. But when it comes to my kids, I'm like a fierce mama bear.
03:28So playing that dichotomy of this character who is soft and there's a softness there,
03:36but also she will kick your ass if you cross her. I can actually relate to that,
03:42which I know is kind of crazy, but it is. It's very real. Yeah. Yeah. But I love how in the
03:52script they peppered it with all of these really beautiful relationships. Like you mentioned Deb in
03:57the diner. She kind of has like a maternal relationship with my character. I love the
04:03actresses, Deborah Christofferson. And right off the bat, it was just like her eyes. I could just
04:09like, it was looking into her soul. She has this warmth to her, which I was so grateful for because
04:15I really felt like that relationship was important. And she needed to feel like she had this bond.
04:21This was a woman she would see over and over again. That scene in the end of the film is
04:27probably one of my favorites where we connect over having kids and losing them.
04:57They're grown now.
05:00One of mine left today.
05:03You know, when are the scenes where she's really falling apart? When is she holding it together?
05:08There's quite a variation because there are moments where she's kind of on autopilot and
05:12she's going in for the kill and she's done it a million times and she's a little numb to it.
05:18And then there are moments where she's falling apart. And I think that there's a freedom when
05:25you're acting in that place because at the top of the movie, there's a really emotional scene where
05:32she confronts him. He's sleeping and she pulls down the curtain and she's got the gun right up
05:37to him. And I was struggling a little bit with that particular scene. She's kind of falling apart.
05:44But I'm like, well, she's done this so many times. So would she be falling apart in this moment? But
05:49the reality with grief and anybody who's lost anybody knows this. It could be 10 years have
05:55passed, but it's always just like right under the surface. And the smallest thing can just
06:01bring out the emotion in you. So I think that allowed me to play with the variations of this
06:09character. And then it always makes sense when she's falling apart or when she's keeping it
06:14really steady. At the top of the film, she's kind of stuck on a loop and she's choosing that life
06:21for herself. She's choosing not to move forward. That happens much later. And she needs the run-in
06:29with Mia to get her to that place. She's caught in this sort of obsessive addiction of revenge.
06:36And I think I love the script because when you find Irene finds Mia and it's totally catching
06:45her off guard. Like we mentioned, the parallel universes are also so similar. So this is a huge
06:53shock to her to see this another 15-year-old kid. And that's really the turning point for Irene.
07:01And then you really start to see her shift gears. And now it's not just about
07:07her anymore. It's about protecting this kid. And obviously she sees a daughter figure in her.
07:14You lost your daughter? It was a long time ago.
07:17She's been dead in all of them. So I just keep killing the bastard who did this to her.
07:24What the f**k just happened?
07:46Listen, this was the most challenging work I've ever had to do. Because you do have to hold on
07:51to such an intensity with this character. It was really hard. It was really hard work.
08:00Super rewarding. But I think the way that we were able to make this film was there's such
08:07a built-in trust with my brothers. We've worked together since we were kids. And so to take on
08:13such heavy, intense material, I'm really grateful I got to do it with them. I didn't have to get to
08:20know them. And it's not figuring out how we work together. That's already there. All that work is
08:28done. So I could be whoever I wanted because they know who I am. You know what I mean?
08:33In some ways. Yeah, no, I really feel like that was so valuable to this whole process is that
08:41our shared history. My brother shared with me something that I really love about the movie
08:46that the audience won't know but I knew as a character, which is there's a couple of times
08:52in the film where you see Irene smoking. And we're shooting that scene. It's in the beginning of the
08:59movie. And she goes and she finds a pack of cigarettes in the closet. And she's leaning
09:03up against the wall and kind of taking in the height chart, the height marker on the wall across
09:08and smoking her cigarette. And my brother shared with me this backstory where Irene
09:14caught Anna with a pack of cigarettes in her room. And they get into a big fight,
09:20and Anna runs off. And that's the last time Irene saw her daughter. I know. So now it's like
09:28the meaning behind her smoking that cigarette. It's a way of connecting with her daughter.
09:35And it just added so much color to the character of like the weight of the guilt of I'm somehow,
09:42my character is somehow responsible for what happened. It just, it's really heavy.
09:49But it's also like it was a really important part of my character's, you know, internal world
09:56while I was playing the role. So they give you these little, you know,
10:00nuggets and gifts like that, that just really help inform.
10:07I can't stop. I can't quit.
10:12He's taken everything from me.
10:20I don't even know what I am anymore.
10:24Whenever I'd get into that machine, talk about claustrophobia.
10:30It was, we spent a long day. It feels like an entire day where we were shooting inside the box.
10:39And it was hot. And, you know, we're trying to work out, you know, what does it feel like to
10:45move from universe to universe? And yeah, it was super intense. But I like how you were able to
10:53take that away as a viewer, the claustrophobia element. Yeah, that's really interesting.
10:58So much of the casting process and the chemistry when you're on set, so much of that is luck.
11:04You're just hoping that you get matched with the right person. But it also really requires
11:09directors who can see it before you're on set. And I think that is a special skill that Kevin
11:17and Matt have. You know, they did it in Block Island Sound with Matilda Lawler, who played my
11:22daughter. She was so spot on, just perfect. And Chris Sheffield, who played my brother in that
11:28film. Neville, I mean, they've done incredible casting throughout their career. I think they
11:35really have an eye for it. And they can tell right off the bat, sometimes sooner than me when the
11:42chemistry is happening. And they know, they just, that's a skill. That is a really special skill
11:50that they have.