Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Abigail!
Alisha Weir is bringing her dancing talents to a whole new genre with Abigail. After becoming a prominent stage actor in Dublin, Ireland, the young star quickly found her breakout role with the Netflix adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel Matilda, in which she starred as the titular girl with telekinetic abilities who uses them to rebel against the cruel headmistress at her private school. Taking a musical approach to its production in comparison to Danny DeVito’s 1996 movie, Matilda the Musical garnered rave reviews from critics and audiences alike, with Weir’s performance in particular singled out for praise.
Heading into Abigail, Weir brings over some of her theatrical experience, starring as the titular young ballerina who finds herself kidnapped by a group of six mercenaries who take her to a mysterious old mansion and held for a $50 million ransom from her father. Initially unbeknownst to the group is the fact that Abigail is a centuries-old vampire, with the young girl turning the tables on her captive and toying with them as she takes them out one by one. Despite her confidence and experience, the vampire will find herself encountering some formidable pushback from the group.
Alongside Weir, the ensemble Abigail cast includes Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Will Catlett, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, and Giancarlo Esposito. Hailing from recent Scream duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the movie has garnered largely positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, with particular praise pointed at Weir and Stevens’ performance, as well as the unique mix of bloody horror and gut-busting comedy, something the directors had already shown success with on their Scream installments and Ready or Not.
Ahead of the movie’s digital release, Screen Rant interviewed Alisha Weir to discuss Abigail, the unique challenges of making the jump from the more family-friendly Matilda the Musical to the horror-comedy, how she incorporated more dance into her performance, and bonding with Melissa Barrera on set.
While jumping between genres might sound like a troublesome task for some, for Weir, it was the ultimate dream when she was approached for Abigail, remarking that being in a horror film “has always been on my bucket list” and feeling there “was no question about it” when she learned the character would be a ballerina vampire:
With the movie requiring Weir to step outside of her comfort zone, the biggest creative challenge she found in tackling her role was playing the different sides of Abigail, viewing them as being “almost like two different characters” and even doing so when reviewing her script:
With ballet being such an integral part of her character, Weir found herself undergoing “a lot of preparation” in order to authentically portray the elegant side of Abigail for the movie, particularly its opening sequence in which she is dancing on a theatrical stage. Interestingly, though, early plans for the character didn’t have much of this dance imbued in her, with Weir working closely with Radio Silence to expand on this in the movie:
Situated among the gruesome carnage of the movie is a unique bond that forms between Melissa Barrera’s Joey and Abigail, with the former’s pinkie promise to not let her get hurt proving difficult when the vampire begins feasting on her cohorts, only to then join up in the movie’s ending to take down the powerful Frank. When it came to building this dynamic off-camera with Barrera, Weir was overjoyed to get to work with the Scream star, admitting to being a big fan of her costar’s prior work and recalling how they “clicked straight away“:
One of the biggest mysteries throughout Abigail‘s story is the identity of her crime lord father, with the character revealing she has acted as a hitman for him in the past and has centuries’ worth of experience as a vampire. In a moment of vulnerability, though, Abigail also notes the poor relationship with her father, something reflected in the ending when he does finally show up, and Weir teases plenty of room to explore this in a future installment:
When it comes to whether she would stay true to her promise to leave Joey alone after letting her go in Abigail‘s ending, Weir believes that she indeed would “never, ever hurt her“, but does also think the “close bond” they formed could lead to a reunion in a potential sequel:
After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.
Check out our previous Abigail interviews below: