The star talks to RadioTimes.com about her new film, the upcoming entry in the Planet of the Apes franchise and what’s next for Ciri in The Witcher.
Thanks to her role as Ciri in Netflix’s hit fantasy series The Witcher, Freya Allan has established herself as a major TV star, but until now she’s been seen relatively little on the big screen (a small role in the 2021 film Gunpowder Milkshake is her only film credit to date).
But that’s all changing in 2024. In a few months, she’ll have a main part in the fourth instalment of the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise, and before then, she is the lead in new horror film Baghead – which arrives in UK cinemas this weekend.
Adapted by screenwriter Lorcan Reilly and director Alberto Corredor from their 2017 short film of the same name, the movie stars Allan as a young woman named Iris, who in the opening scenes learns she has inherited a Berlin pub from her estranged, recently dead father.
Naturally, she travels out to investigate, and quickly learns that the boozer is hiding a deeply sinister secret: In the basement, there lives an ancient shape-shifting monster known as Baghead, who possesses the ability to conjure up a dead person of your choosing for a two-minute conversation.
This being a horror film, it’s no spoiler to say that things don’t exactly go well for Iris when she puts this morbid possibility into practice.
Allan was sent the script and the original short film by Corredor before she was cast in the role, and was instantly interested in the concept, noting during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com that the idea fits into “a realm that intrigues everyone”.
“It’s that kind of question of death and where people go and whether you would want to speak to people that have died,” she says.
Although Allan is well-versed in the world of fantasy, the horror space is something that is quite new to her – but starring in the film has helped her to appreciate it more as a genre, both for its escapist qualities and its ability to explore serious topics and themes in such a different way to more traditional dramas.
“It seems like an odd concept to say you go to see a horror film to escape,” she says. “It’s not like you’re escaping to a fantasy world where it’s beautiful or anything – it’s kind of like you’re being terrified or disturbed or whatever. So it seems like an odd thing to say.
“But I guess there’s an escapism in being distracted by all of that, and watching something which is disturbing or scary, and there’s something to that which, like, distracts from everyday life, because it’s creating a reaction or there’s a survival instinct in people.
“I think there is fun in scaring yourself. I mean, that’s why people ride rollercoasters – it’s a similar kind of thing. And I think there’s definitely a place for that – and they can open up questions.”
The question that this particular film opens up is obvious: If you had the opportunity, would you bring someone back from the dead, even if you knew there was a very high chance things might go horribly awry?
For her part, Allan says that although things get a bit hairy for the characters who make use of Baghead’s powers in the film, she can completely sympathise with their decision to do so – and indeed, she would do likewise if she found herself in a similar position.
“Inevitably, shooting the film and watching the film, the main question that arises from it is who would you bring back and would you want to?” she says.
“And I think naturally, like… I mean, I personally understand why the characters all kind of want to themselves, because I would want to, I’d want to bring back my grandparents.
“There’s a lot that they don’t know that’s happened, and I would love them to know about it. So, I think it’s a sad concept, but it’s interesting to think about.”
You sometimes hear stories of actors getting so involved in shooting horror films that the process can begin to take an emotional toll on their own psyche, especially when dealing with themes as dark as this one.
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But although Allan was happy to ponder the hypothetical scenario posed by the film, she’s not someone who gets too caught up in the darkness when the camera stops rolling, explaining that she’s learned over the years that her preferred way of working is to switch off between takes.
“We shot this, like, two years ago, so it’s so weird talking about it now, because I feel like I’m always learning new things and I’m always learning about the way I like to work,” she explains.
“But definitely, in the current, present time, I think that it’s actually sometimes more beneficial for me personally to separate the fact that when you’re rolling – or, like, at least maybe 10 seconds beforehand – you get into the zone and you’re in the scene and that’s you being that person, and then when it’s ‘cut’ you’re not that person.
“I think I’ve worked out now that that, for me, is easier for my brain to sort of understand and to blur the lines between the two. So that’s the way I have currently been working – but who knows, it might change again!”
Allan wasn’t too scared while making the film, then, but what about when it came to watching the finished product?
Well, she fondly remembers wrapping production on a different job and flying straight back to Berlin for a cast and crew screening, an experience which she found very rewarding, thanks to the terrified responses of those around her.
“I was with my two friends, and I was honestly, like, shocked at how much everyone was jumping,” she recalls.
“You know, it was satisfying to see that the jump scares were working on everyone in the audience, including my friends. They were just constantly grabbing onto me saying, ‘Why did you bring me here?’ and I was like, ‘Wow.’
“Because obviously, I’ve shot it. So I’m like… I think I jumped once, though, to be fair, like they did even get me once. But I was kind of really in hysterics at watching my friends be so terrified, and was really quite satisfied that people are scared.”
Allan has been involved in the industry long enough now that she’s used to seeing herself on the screen, but she says the extent to which the experience of watching something corresponds to that of making it can vary a lot from project to project.
“Sometimes, you’re pleasantly surprised, and you’re like, ‘Wow, they’ve edited it really well,’” she says. “And then sometimes you’re like, ‘How have they butchered this so much?’
“So, honestly, I’ve really learned that so much lies in the editing, and you can be saved in the editing or you can be annihilated in the editing – or the film as a whole can be. And so, yeah, a lot lies in the editor – so be friends with the editor!”
One project that Allan has recently had the chance to catch some of, and which sounds like it doesn’t fall into that latter category, is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which sees her star as the main human character, Mae.
The film is released in May, and is set some 300 years after the previous entry in the series – 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes – and Allan is very enthusiastic about the time she had working on the project.
“It was honestly the best experience of my career so far,” she says. “And I think the thing that was very noticeable was that I really was able to lean on the director, it felt like it was our project, and he was able to provide me with things that I had never thought about.
“It’s difficult when you’re shooting a TV show, where you’ve played the character for years and you’re having new people constantly come in and out.
“And I think there was so much precision in this shoot and the stuff I’ve seen so far [that] I really – and I’m very critical – I really do think it’s going to be a good film. So I’m excited for people to see it.”
Meanwhile, production is set to get underway in the coming months on the fourth season of The Witcher, which will be the first since Henry Cavill was replaced in the lead role of Geralt by Liam Hemsworth.
Allan has already read one script, and is looking forward to getting back – especially given Ciri’s journey is set to go to some very interesting places.
“I’m honestly just intrigued how they’re going to translate that story from the books because it’s… for Ciri’s journey, it’s a very pivotal moment in her storyline, and takes quite a dark turn,” she says.
“And I’ll be intrigued to see how they translate that to the TV version. But the prospect is exciting, to get to take her through that journey.”
As for what’s next after that, it was revealed shortly before Christmas that Allan had been cast in another genre flick – this time a fantasy horror thriller titled Triton.
Meanwhile, she’s also on the lookout for the chance to star in something a little more grounded.
“In general, I want to do everything,” she says. “I just want to work with good scripts and good creatives. And that’s my main priority.
“But I definitely feel the desire and craving to do something which is just, like, stripped back, and there’s nothing supernatural or anything like that involved. And it’s just purely about like the acting and the scenes… that’s what I’m craving doing. But I’m open to everything!”