Sophie Thatcher has been in intense movies and TV shows like Yellowjackets and Heretic, but a scene in Companion was one to really give her nightmares.
The critically-acclaimed new horror sci-fi sees Thatcher play Iris, a "companion" robot to Josh (Jack Quaid) who learns her true nature during a weekend getaway with friends after a violent incident.
We'll keep any spoilers out of here as the fun of Companion is watching it unfold, but we will tease that there's a scene where Iris speaks German. A fairly innocuous thing, you'd think, but a terrifying prospect for the star.
"It was playing in my nightmares every night, the German scene," Thatcher told Digital Spy.
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"I was talking about it, and then we also had a six-month break, the day before we were supposed to shoot that. So I got six months to perfect it. Or 'perfect' it, we'll see."
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Quaid added that Thatcher "crushed it" and it's certainly one of the stand-out sequences, of many, in Companion.
"That was the hardest to do, but then also during the day we had like, we were running so behind, we had one take for the wide shot, one take for the close up, which added to the heightened emotions of it all," she added.
"So if anything, it kind of worked [in our favour], but that was the most technical. But I thank God I had a dialect coach."
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As well as speaking German, Companion also gave Thatcher and opportunity to play with "lightness" in a way she hadn't before.
"I think I didn't really know who Iris was going in, but then also in the beginning, she doesn't really know who she is," she explained.
"There's a lot of lightness in her in the beginning and I feel like I'm drawn to darker projects. This movie becomes darker but it was fun to play with that lightness in the beginning.
"She has such an amazing arc and really just turns into a completely different person. To map all of that out was fun, just playing with it in the moment, and shooting it in order really helped."
Companion is released in cinemas on January 31.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
