‘It Was Just Absolute F–king Pandemonium’: Talk To Me Star Recalls Shooting One Of The Horror Flick’s Wildest Sequences

Sophie Wilde in Talk To Me
(Image credit: A24)

It’s always great to be a scary movie fan whenever an upcoming horror movie drops with a new take on an old concept or incorporates fresh mythology and manages to impress at the box office. That's precisely what we horror hounds got when this Talk To Me landed on the 2023 movie release schedule and introduced us to a fabulous new scream queen, Sophie Wilde. And according to her, one of the movie's most wild and memorable sequences was as frantic to shoot as it was to watch. 

The actress caught up with NME and revealed challenges while filming a thrilling montage set to Édith Piaf's "La Foule." According to the Tom Jones actress, the cast and crew had a very fixed amount of to shoot the entire sequence. The result? One of the best horror movie sequences in recent memory. In the rising star's words: 

We actually only had 20 or 30 minutes to shoot that whole montage when we were meant to have an hour. It was just absolute fucking pandemonium. Us improvising, doing all of this random shit to get as much content… When you don’t have time to be in your head and just be in your body and present in the moment, that can produce some of the most incredible work.

With the rave reviews for the film, I can’t help but nod in agreement with the You Don’t Know Me star. The scene in question is shot with the camera gracefully circling Mia and her friends, who each take turns with the mysterious hand. They become vessels of demons and the dead, eliciting scares and the laughs. The time crunch for the crew, unable to overthink, surprisingly worked in their favor. The pressure to think on their feet birthed an environment of creativity, resulting in a genuinely unforgettable montage.

With the rave reviews for the film, I can’t help but nod in agreement with the You Don’t Know Me star. The scene in question is shot with the camera gracefully circling Mia and her friends, who each take turns with the mysterious hand. They become vessels of demons and the dead, eliciting scares and the laughs. The time crunch for the crew, unable to overthink, surprisingly worked in their favor. The pressure to think on their feet birthed an environment of creativity, resulting in a genuinely unforgettable montage.

While the Eden alum has expressed interest in partaking in sequels to Talk To Me, though it might be hard given Mia's fate at the end, Sophie Wilde has moved on to her next project. She returns to the small screen with Everything Now, a school-set drama positioned as a successor to Netflix’s acclaimed British hits like Sex Education or Heartstopper. Wilde takes on the role of another young woman named Mia, this time navigating the complexities of social reintegration after a hiatus from school to recover from an eating disorder. The actress says she and new character are very different, but she did find parts of herself in the role.

She turns in an award-worthy performance in Talk to Me but, based on awards history, she will unlikely be nominated for any gold statues. Despite the acclaim for horror film performances such as Toni Collette in Hereditary and Keke Palmer in Nope, Wilde points out how scary movies continue to be snubbed during award season. The Portable Door actress continued: 

It’s really interesting that horror doesn’t get recognized in the same way as other films. I think that with horror, you often get such wide-ranging performances from artists who have to go to so many extremes. People just don’t take horror seriously or maybe because it’s just a commercially mainstream genre that they think it doesn’t have the gravity of a traditional drama. But it requires the same level of integrity and craft as any other performance. Like Mia Goth in Pearl: snubbed!

Ms. Wilde, you're speaking my language when it comes to horror flicks. We're totally on the same page. Still, it's likely that horror movie fans won't soon forget the hard work she and her colleagues put into Talk to Me. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be thinking about that tricky montage sequence for some time.

If you want to watch Sophie Wilde's incredible performance and that heart-pounding montage in Talk to Me, you're in luck. It's available to rent or buy on digital streaming, DVD, and Blu-ray – wherever you usually get your entertainment fix. And don't forget to check her out in the new series, Everything Now, which is available with a Netflix subscription

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Ryan LaBee
Writer

Ryan graduated from Missouri State University with a BA in English/Creative Writing. An expert in all things horror, Ryan enjoys covering a wide variety of topics. He's also a lifelong comic book fan and an avid watcher of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.