We spoke with actor Scoot McNairy leading up to the release of his latest acclaimed film Speak No Evil, which sees him facing off against the reliably sensational James McAvoy in a weekend-from-hell sort of premise. We had to congratulate McNairy on his career of late, as he’s been working his butt off and keeping ever so busy with a number of projects releasing this year and beyond — including the highly anticipated Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.
“An opportunity to be in an iconic biopic comes along very rarely; to be a part of the Bob Dylan iconic biopic is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” McNairy told MovieWeb. “I wasn’t going to hesitate one minute to try and get to be a part of that job. James Mangold, I’ve been a huge fan for so long, not to mention Timothée is incredibly talented. But what he did with this project, I can’t wait for the whole world to see. It’s an exceptional performance, as well as the film. Anybody who’s a music lover, Bob Dylan fan — I mean, even if you’re not, I think you’re gonna love this film, and I’m just as excited to see it as anyone else is.”
We last spoke to McNairy amid the release of his acclaimed indie thriller Blood for Dust, and Speak No Evil is yet another example of the actor’s ability to play a vast range of characters on the big screen. “I constantly pinch myself. I’m so grateful for opportunities that I’ve had and a career and whatnot, but I definitely don’t take it for granted,” he told us. “This particular film itself, I had to campaign really hard for. I really wanted to be a part of it, based on what I had seen in the original. I thought the authenticity of that film of playing into these tiny, little nuances of uncomfortability and politeness… And also, I love psychological horror, and Blumhouse does that better than anyone. James Watkins is amazing at it.”
On McAvoy’s ‘Absurd’ Performance
McNairy has a number of spellbinding scenes opposite the dynamic McAvoy in Speak No Evil that might just haunt your nightmares and leave you cringing in your seat — in the best possible way. “Every scene that James did, he would always want to push it so far to uncomfortability,” said McNairy. “He would go over the line, yes, and it would be comedic because it was so absurd. But I think that he was enjoying it so much, of playing it and finding it, that we all enjoyed really watching him enjoy himself find it, and he just did an absolutely exceptional job at playing all the colors of all those different personalities.”
For those unfamiliar, Speak No Evil is actually a remake of an acclaimed Danish film of the same name from 2022. McNairy, whose character was played by Morten Burian in the original, spoke about the source material’s impact on his own performance:
“The direction on that movie from the director was incredible. I thought what Burian did was incredible… I really leaned into Burian’s performance and what he did with it. I loved it so much that I ended up taking it somewhere else. But that was my starting point. I was really mesmerized with how still he was, and I just thought it was incredibly impactful.”
From Universal Pictures, Speak No Evil is now playing in theaters.