Meghann Fahy Is a Full-On Action Hero in Horror-Thriller Drop: "It's Actually So..."
The digital tech thriller is a genre breaker in many ways.
This story contains spoilers for Drop.
When you look over writer/director Christopher Landon and actress Meghann Fahy's resumes, it becomes clear they've both tackled a lot of genres in their respective careers.
As a director, Landon is best known for making horror and supernatural films with a comedic tinge, from Freaky to We Have a Ghost, as well as the pair of Happy Death Day films. Fahy, meanwhile, is a fixture in plenty of drama series, including The White Lotus, The Bold Type, and The Perfect Couple, as well as Peacock's upcoming series The Good Daughter.
However, the latest Blumhouse-produced thriller Drop affords both Landon and Fahy an opportunity to expand beyond their known genres and swing for the creative fences.
RELATED: Everything to Know About New Blumhouse Thriller Drop: Cast, Director & More
Drop encompasses several genres, succeeding as a charming rom-com, an action-thriller, and a Hitchcockian "whodunnit" with a digital twist. For Landon, this is his first time directing a mystery/action/thriller, and for Fahy, this is her first time doing massive stunts a la John McClane of Die Hard fame.
NBC Insider recently sat down with Landon and Fahy to get their thoughts on working in a fresh creative playground with Drop.
Christopher Landon talks original Drop screenplay
Landon last dabbled in the thriller genre with his screenplay Disturbia (2007), and it was that vibe that he said pulled him into Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach's screenplay.
"The first thing that grabbed me was this very modern, but Hitchcockian concept," he shared. "I thought that was really unique. It felt like a throwback, but also something new. And that grabbed me first. The pace of the script was excellent. I could not stop reading it. And I was very drawn to Violet's journey; her story and her arc. I just thought it was really special."
RELATED: Who Stars in Drop? Meet the Cast of the New Blumhouse Thriller
Having worked so consistently in horror and comedy the last few years, we asked if he threw himself into researching mystery/thrillers.
"Funny enough, I didn't," he said. "I typically stay away from watching similar kinds of movies when I'm making something. But I always keep a catalog in the back of my head of movies I have seen that had a big impact on me.
"Of course, Red Eye was a film that I thought a lot about when I read the script, so that was top of mind," he said of director Wes Craven's 2005 terrorist thriller. "A lot of Hitchcock movies and [Brian] De Palma; all of those directors and those influences are very present when I'm making something. But it just comes down to what feels right on a gut level."
Meghann Fahy discovers the stunt woman lurking inside
As teased in the Drop trailer, Fahy's Violet is thrown into some dire physical situations, including a crazy stunt wherein the character is sucked out the window of a skyscraper. It's the first film to ask Fahy to perform stunts of this caliber, so we asked if there was a specific sequence that made her most nervous to execute.
"There is a sequence towards the end that required a little bit of a dancey kind of thing," she said, trying not to spoil. "That was tricky. We got it. But it took a little bit, yeah. I needed a lot of help from the stunt team and Chris was also really helpful in terms of some of the physicalization of the particular movements.
"It's stuff that I'd seen in movies my whole life growing up that I thought, like, 'Oh, that looks so easy to do,' and then it just isn't. It's actually so hard for me," she added, laughing.
Drop is now playing exclusively in theaters. Click here for tickets!
