scorecard
  1. Home
  2. entertainment
  3. news
  4. 'Freaky' star Kathryn Newton said she had no idea she could pull off being a serial killer until she walked around set 'holding a chainsaw' and scared 'everybody'

'Freaky' star Kathryn Newton said she had no idea she could pull off being a serial killer until she walked around set 'holding a chainsaw' and scared 'everybody'

Libby Torres   

'Freaky' star Kathryn Newton said she had no idea she could pull off being a serial killer until she walked around set 'holding a chainsaw' and scared 'everybody'
Entertainment3 min read
  • Kathryn Newton, star of the new body-swap horror film "Freaky," told Insider in an interview that working with costar Vince Vaughn was "the coolest experience."
  • Newton plays Millie, a shy high schooler who switches bodies with the infamous Blissfield Butcher (Vaughn) after a violent attack goes wrong.
  • "The day Vince and I met, we were doing dance rehearsal," Newton said. "So immediately we were looking at each other in the mirror, just trying to see where we could copy each other or imitate each other."
  • Newton also said she didn't know she was pulling off being turned into a serial killer until she was "on set...holding a chainsaw."
  • She added, "I'm like covered in blood and people would walk away from me and I'd be like, 'OK, it's working, I'm scaring everybody.'"

Kathryn Newton is a self-proclaimed "scaredy-cat," but in her new film "Freaky," the actress is transformed from a mousy and roundly unpopular high schooler named Millie into a confident and vicious serial killer trapped in a teenage girl's body.

Newton's co-star Vince Vaughn plays the infamous Blissfield Butcher, whose attempt at murdering Millie one night goes terribly awry, causing the two to swap bodies. This means that the violent Butcher is now masquerading as a teenage girl - and Millie has become a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Nailing Vaughn's mannerisms was "easy," the actress said.

"The day Vince and I met, we were doing dance rehearsal," Newton told Insider of her experience, working with her costar. "So immediately, we were looking at each other in the mirror, just trying to see where we could copy each other, or imitate each other, and get certain mannerisms."

According to Newton, she and Vaughn collaborated quite a bit on their characters' physicalities, both pre- and post-body swap.

"[Vaughn] had so many great ideas. To just be collaborative like that, it was easy," the actress said. "We both determined [to figure out] how Millie would walk and how the Butcher would walk. And they were two totally different things."

"And so once we were on the same page with little mannerisms like how I run with my hands - Vince just kills that when he's Millie - it was easy because we had each other to bounce ideas off of," Newton added. "I'd be on set being the Butcher, and [Vaughn] would be there too, so I could just ask him or he could ask me like, 'What do you think of this? What do you think the character would do here?'"

Newton said that she was unsure at first if she was successfully portraying the Butcher when he's trapped in Millie's body.

"I had no idea if people bought it," she told Insider. "But on set, there would be times when I was holding a chainsaw, I'm like covered in blood, and people would walk away from me and I'd be like, 'OK, it's working, I'm scaring everybody.'"

The actress, who was a big fan of Vaughn's before they began filming, told Insider that she was grateful to have been able to collaborate so closely with a costar.

"I'm never going to have that experience again, let alone with someone I've looked up to my whole life," she said. "Like, I love Vince Vaughn. So to get to ask such a great actor what he thinks for a scene - it's just the coolest experience."

And the actress revealed that ultimately, she was pleased with the way the film concluded Millie's story and subverted traditional horror movie tropes.

"It just felt good to win," Newton said.

"Freaky" premieres Friday in theaters. You can watch the trailer below.

READ MORE ARTICLES ON


Advertisement

Advertisement