Nell Tiger Free didn’t know what was going to happen when director Arkasha Stevenson called a scene where her character is possessed by the antichrist “action” in The first omen.
“We didn’t have a choreographer. We didn’t have any rehearsals,” the 24-year-old British actor told Jugo Mobile. When it came time to film the scene, which pays homage to Andrzej Å»uÅ‚awski’s 1981 horror classic, Possession—Free remembers that “this feminist rage took over me.” Some crew members were so disturbed by the performance (which Free said included barking) that they walked off the set. “Scaring grown men has become a perversion of mine,” Free said, laughing.
The first omen is the sixth film in the horror franchise and a prequel to the film that started it all. The Omen (1976), follows a young man named Damien, who, it is slowly revealed, is the antichrist. The first omen It stars Free as Margaret, a young American nun in training sent to an orphanage in Rome. There, she soon discovers that certain members of the Church are actively trying to father an antichrist child. And they need women’s bodies, like Margaret’s, to do it.
Directed by Arkasha Stevenson in her feature film debut, The first omen was praised by critics for its depiction of forced birth and female body horror when it premiered in theaters in April. Starting today, May 28, The first omen is available to purchase on digital platforms and will be streamed on Hulu on May 30 (also arriving on Blu-ray and DVD on July 30). Jugo Mobile spoke with Free ahead of the streaming release about the fear of forced birth in a post-Roe world, the shot of the vagina that had to be cut off to avoid an NC-17 rating, and her hopes for a First omen continuation.
Warning: The first omencops ahead.
DECIDER: This idea of forced birth in The first omen It is especially frightening for American women, following the reversal of Roe V. Wade and the decline in access to abortion. I know you’re not American, but did you and Arkasha Stevenson talk about that political angle?
NELL TIGER FREE: Yes, definitely. Kasha is a big fan of female body horror, and a big part of this movie is the idea of being forced to have a child you didn’t want to have. Obviously, that starts a political conversation, naturally, because it’s very topical for women. It is a topic that is talked about a lot about us. Sometimes it feels like our bodies are talked about and spoken for, and that’s an incredibly frustrating feeling: feeling like what I can do with my body is someone else’s decision. That’s a big theme of this movie. It’s not in the film to make a political statement; It’s a horror movie and it’s part of the plot.
But it’s something that Kasha and I were very aware of, and we had a lot of conversations about what we felt comfortable filming. We didn’t want anything to feel gratuitous, because it’s not there for any kind of macabre pleasure. We’re not doing torture porn. We are here to tell a story, tell it well, and handle it with care and respect.
For me, the most heartbreaking and terrifying moment was during the birth scene, when Margaret is pleading, “It hurts,” and they completely ignore her.
I remember when that was on the page, Margaret’s line was, “Help me, I’m in pain.” Yes, she takes your breath away for a second. It’s so fragile and scary… such a scary thought. I repeated it over and over again and that ended up in the final take. But that’s only because that’s how I genuinely felt at the time, too. She is being closely watched, treated like an object, almost like a vessel to raise this creature. She becomes something forgotten, at that moment. Her screams fall on deaf ears.
How did working with a female director on a horror film that is so specific about women’s fears affect your experience on this project?
I think it’s a pertinent question, but it’s funny how often that question comes up. If I was working with a man, no one would ask me about it, you know what I mean? There are women who are not sensitive to the topic of women’s bodies, and there are men who are obviously not sensitive to the topic of women’s bodies. I just had to be a human being who had those sensibilities, that lens, and those feelings. In my opinion, Kasha was the best person for the job.
But you know, bringing more women into directing positions and bringing more women into horror, that’s a fantastic thing. I hope it continues and grows, to the point where it is no longer an anomaly. Which is no longer something interesting, because it is very common. Honestly, I don’t think anyone knows horror more than women! I think we’re the ones experiencing most of it and there’s a lot of real-life horror in this movie.
Tell me about filming that possession scene. You gave a fantastic performance and said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter That some crew members were so distraught that they walked off the set?
We didn’t have a choreographer, we didn’t have any rehearsals, we didn’t really know what the fuck was going to happen. No one really knows, especially me! All I had was this reference to this movie, [Andrzej Å»uÅawski 1981 horror classic] Possession. I saw that clip. It lasted maybe two minutes. Kasha and I had many conversations (Kasha and I love to talk!) and then the day arrived. It was somewhere in northern Italy and I honestly wish I had a more interesting answer, but I really did it and hoped for the best!
We had two takes. It was strange, this feminist rage took over me. We spend a lot of time telling ourselves to look pretty, perfect, beautiful, put together and attractive. Being asked to do the exact opposite, to be as free as possible with your body… I mean, I was barking at one point! All the anger in my body came out. Curiously, the only people who left the set were the men. Scaring grown men has become one of my perversions. [Laughs.] You know, I’m pretending, I’m telling stories, this isn’t real. But in that moment, making people feel like it’s real, having people know me as the clumsy British peanut that I am and then having them freak out, it’s a really great feeling.
I read that the movie almost got an NC-17 rating. Do you know what was changed to keep the R rating?
Originally, [in a scene where Margaret witnesses a different nun giving birth] There was one shot where it was just vagina. Vagina, and then the jackal’s hand comes out of the vagina. NC-17 was because there was only vagina, before the hand came out. They wanted to cut the scene where it was just the vagina and only have the part where the hand came out. The mutilated vagina was less scary than just an old vagina, which I found really interesting. Originally that take lasted about two minutes. So it had to be truncated. A simple vagina was not allowed!
The ending sets up another movie for your character, Margaret. Have you heard anything about another prequel movie? Any conversations with Arkasha?
Kasha and I talk about it all the time. There are no official conversations or anything like that, but Kasha and I like to chat about it: what it would be like, what it would be called. Today, literally twenty minutes ago, we were thinking about maybe starting a conspiracy that The first omen exists in the same universe as Sisters law. [Laughs.] Actually we are going to do Sister act 3.
I love it, let’s get on Whoopi! Do you want there to be another one? Omen Movie or do you feel ready to move on to new things?
I’d love to. I love history. I love the character. I’d jump in front of a train through Arkasha. So if it’s Arkasha, and me, and The Omen, I feel like I would make a hundred of them.
Many people will look The first omen for the first time on Hulu this week. Any suggestions for them to have the best viewing experience at home? How do you watch horror movies at home?
Well, you have to turn off all the lights! And I think also, look at it with people. I’m a weirdo, so sometimes I curl up and watch something horrible on my own. But I think the best experience is to live it with others. It’s always more fun, right?
