ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Whistle star Dafne Keen about her new horror movie. The Marvel star discussed working with director Corin Hardy, her bond with costar Sophie Nélisse, and joining the Percy Jackson Disney+ TV show. Whistle is out now in theaters.
“A misfit group of unwitting high school students stumble upon a cursed object, an ancient Aztec Death Whistle. They discover that blowing the whistle and the terrifying sound it emits will summon their future deaths to hunt them down. As the body count rises, the friends investigate the origins of the deadly artifact in a desperate effort to stop the horrifying chain of events that they have set in motion,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Congrats on Whistle. I love the core conceit of the Aztec death whistle and people dying the way they were meant to meet their ends, but it just happens way earlier. It would’ve been so easy to just make it kind of like a Final Destination-type movie, but it feels very unique instead. What about that concept really excited you as a storyteller?
Dafne Keen: I thought just from like a technical standpoint, the deaths could be a really cool, interesting, different way for a horror film. I think Corin was kind of perfect for it because of his background; he comes from art. When I met him on Zoom, he was in his studio, and he was surrounded by sculptures and sketches. I was really sold by that.
But also, I thought what was really interesting about the script and what really drew me to it was how character-driven it was and how beautiful Ellie and Chrys’ love story was. There was something quite special. I just keep saying the word special, but there was something quite special and quite unique about it, and I just really trusted all the creatives on it. The script was great, the deaths were written so beautifully that yeah, it was kind of a no-brainer.
Yeah, I really loved watching Chrys and Ellie’s relationship develop over the film. It’s really quite sweet, and they embrace each other’s perceived flaws, which is really nice to see in the film. How was it working with Sophie to really portray the finer points of that romance?
She is a really close friend of mine now. I adore her. It was kind of love at first sight to be honest with you. We met, we were in this really scary hotel. She messaged me, saying, “This is really scary. Do you wanna sleepover?” We’d never met before, and I was like, “Yeah.” We had a really fun sleepover, and then we went to work the next day, and it was just so… I really dunno how to describe it. It was just so easy. We were kind of so enmeshed with each other and so in understanding of each other’s brains, and it kind of felt like I’d known her my whole life, and like really weird to kind of beautiful way.
It was so fun playing those characters with her because it was so easy to pretend to be in love with Sophie Nélisse. Do you know what I mean? She’s so easy to fall in love with, and she’s just such a generous scene partner, and she’s so kind, and she’s so funny, and she’s so charming, and she’s so everything. So I had the best time working with her.
One thing I really liked about this film is that at first it almost feels like a young adult drama, and then you’re shocked when these super gory death scenes happen, and there’s a ton of violence. As an actor, how is it finding a balance between those tones?
Dafne Keen: I think what was really important to Corin and to us, the central part of it was the characters. These weren’t horror characters in a horror film. These were characters who happened to be living a horrible situation. But it was important for us not to be playing into the horror aspect too much because these are people living their lives, and they just happened to be going through this very terrifying thing.
But it was really important to us to really tell Chrys and Ellie’s story and to tell Chrys’ story with her grief and her addiction and really get to experience Rel’s relationship with Grace. Just in general, it was important that, like I said earlier, it was so character driven, which I think, as an audience you get more attached when you understand the people and you connect to them in like a human way as opposed to just kind of throwing you into the horror of it with no like human connection, if that makes sense.
Chrys’ fashion is really fun in this film too. She has an edge and a very punk look. Yeah. What do you like most about Chrys’ style in this film?
I loved everything about it. I mean, creating her visually, it was so fun for me. Um, I came into the job with like, I had a whole mood board. I was like, what do we think of this? What? And Karin was like, yes to this, no to this. Like he also had such, he’s such a visual person. He had such a clear yes or no thing. We were so kind of in sync about things.
But it was so cool to get to experiment, and I think she very much expresses herself through her clothes. I think there’s like a little bit of a journey there where you can see her becoming more confident in coming into herself. It’s barely noticeable, but she gets less baggy clothing as the movie goes on because she’s coming into herself. She’s not trying to hide in all these layers anymore, and in the comfort of these jackets and these things.
Until at the end, I don’t wanna say anything, but you find her, and she’s changed her hair, she’s changed everything. She’s sort of like this new sort of lighter version of herself without losing her coolness and her edge and her darkness because her darkness is kind of what makes her her. But just a more sort of confident version of herself. But for me, it was a lot of us drawing from and very referential to the nineties, like goth grunge vibes. The nails were a big part of it. Like her nails were always chipped. The hair, the whole look. It was really fun.
It’s so exciting that you’re gonna play Artemis in the Percy Jackson Disney+ show. She’s such an iconic figure in Greek mythology. She’s great at hunting, but she’s also very feminine and the ideal beauty. How do you even approach playing a literal goddess? How do you even approach that as an actor? ,
Dafne Keen: I don’t know. You literally are calling me from my hotel room for Percy Jackson right now. I’m here filming. I’ve been here for like a month now. I think I kind of just trust that casting can see the vision. And so I’m just kind of being like, you know what? Put me in whatever you wanna put me in. I’m gonna do everything in my power to train. So I look the part, so I’m like ready to be completely believable with a bow and arrow, and I need to work on my poise and the way I carry myself and my speech. But there is a certain… It’s kind of terrifying because someone’s like, “Now play a God.” You’re like, “Oh God, I’m not beautiful enough that that’s terrifying. I’m a person.” But I’m kind of trusting that they have a vision because they’ve been so good with casting so far. So I’m like, let’s believe what Dan Shotz is saying. Do you know what I mean?
It’s also kind of like playing a comic character because there’s so much source material. You got the books, the script, and there are all these classic myths you can dive into. How do you make sure you don’t get overwhelmed by all that stuff and don’t overthink the role?
Yeah. I think it’s the same with every character that I’ve played. You don’t wanna, it’s obviously different ’cause we do have a lot of source material here, but you kind of, you wanna do the prep so then you can forget about the prep, and you can just exist within the character without being overthinking it. My family’s all huge fans of Greek mythology to the point where I’m named after a Greek myth. So, the first thing I did was call my parents and be like, “So what do we think of Artemis?” So my parents were like, oh, well, this and she’s the God. We had a whole conversation about it.
Then obviously I did all my research, and I know that we have so many people on set that know everything that they need to know. I’ve done all the prep I kind of need to do. So I know that even if I mess up, someone’s gonna pull me on something if they’re like, “That doesn’t make sense for the character.” So it’s kind of having trust in everyone around you, and I think it’s so important for me, at least as an actor, to do really extensive prep and then forget about it. So I’m not freaking myself out on the day, and I’m not feeling like an imposter, if that makes sense.
Thanks to Dafne Keen for taking the time to talk about Whistle and Percy Jackson.
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