ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Lucy Hale, Virginia Gardner, and Laura Murphy about the new comedy thriller movie F Marry Kill. Hale and Gardner discussed getting to unhinged and comedic characters in the film, while Murphy touched on how the movie was partially inspired by Alfred Hitchcock.
“When true-crime junkie Eva Vaugh (Lucy Hale) is shoved into the dating app world by her besties on her 30th birthday, she suddenly finds herself at the center of a real murder case,” the official synopsis reads. “As new details about the murders are revealed on her favorite podcast, she realizes that one of the three men she’s dating could be the infamous ‘Swipe Right Killer’ terrorizing the city! Now it’s up to Eva and her ride-or-die friends to figure out which date is a f-boy, a potential husband, or a killer in this whip-smart comedy-thriller. “
F Marry Kill is now playing in select theaters in the United States. It is also available to watch on digital.
Brandon Schreur: Lucy, I want to start with you because I just want to say that I loved your performance in this movie. I thought you were so funny — you have so many funny lines, but I also just really loved the chemistry you had with, like, everybody in this movie, pretty much. Can you tell how much fun it was being able to play someone like this? And, also, in terms of the comedy, I’m curious if there was any improv in these scenes you have with so many different actors?
Lucy Hale: First of all, you’re so sweet. Thank you so much. I’m really glad you liked the movie. We had such a great time filming it. I mean, Eva’s unhinged. She’s a little left of center, so I had a lot of fun playing her. I just loved the idea of someone who was kind of settling in her life for a decade and, then, really deciding that she wants more for her life. Outside of the serial killer murder mystery, she has this really beautiful arc of a woman taking her power back. She somehow finds her power through this insane journey of trying to prove her friends wrong that she’s not dating a serial killer. But, improv! We did a lot of improv.
Laura Murphy: So much improv.
Hale: Laura encouraged us to do that. It was kind of the first movie where I’d ever explored a lot of improv. I feel like a lot of our one-liners were kind of on the fly.
Virginia Gardner: You’re so good at it.
Murphy: Yeah, you really are.
Hale: Thanks, guys.
Murphy: Obviously, we knew that Lucy was really talented and had such range. I don’t think I knew how good she was at improv. So many of those lines made it into the movie. The great thing is, the first take would be as scripted. The second take would be like, ‘Let’s make it a little scary.’ And the third take would be, ‘Let’s do a really fun one and then find where we can build on the comedy both in performance blocking and dialogue.’ And we’d just push it. I mean, the whole thing about book club.
Hale: We had so many one-liners that unfortunately didn’t make the cut. We had this whole C-storyline about a neighbor who has a book club, and Eva is so sorry that she can’t make the book club. Anyway, it didn’t make the cut. There were a lot of lines that got cut about the ant farm. Some of the ant farm stuff made it in, but, yeah, we had such a good time. I think the blending of genres with this movie is what made it so fun because, visually, it looks very scary and it’s shot like a thriller, but there’s obviously so much physical comedy. That’s what made this script stand out to me, it was a marriage between the two.
Sure. And I think that fun totally translates, too, I was having so much fun watching you guys. Virginia, I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time, ever since Runaways. I’ve loved everything I’ve seen you in since then. This character you’re playing here is really fun. I don’t want to get too much into spoiler territory, but there are a lot of different sides to her. It’s a murder mystery, everyone’s a suspect, and it’s fun watching you explore that. When you got the script for the first time and were reading through it, what aspect of this character were you most excited to play and lean into?
Gardner: You know, I love any excuse to get weird. And Kelly gave me an excuse to get really weird and crazy on so many different levels. It just felt like something I hadn’t had the opportunity to do before. I wanted to be part of a movie that was doing some really fun genre-blending, which I really enjoy. Kelly, you know, it’s the sanctity of marriage. It’s her obsession, and her friend is her obsession. It was just really fun to create this character and still try to ground her and understand why she’s doing the things that she’s doing. But it was a really fun challenge as an actor to sort of be blending all these different things and still find a way to ground her.
Totally, I loved that. Laura, one thing I loved about this movie was the modern-day setting. There are some elements of Hitchcock in here — I was reminded a lot of Vertigo, just like, ‘Oh, you don’t know who you’re really dating.’ But I loved how you worked that all into modern-day. There’s a lot I think you say about modern-day dating, dating apps, and all of that. Can you tell me a little bit about what you’re hoping people take away from F Marry Kill in that aspect and what the inspiration for putting it in this time period was?
Murphy: The cool thing about anytime that you want to get a little messaging across, it’s, like, do it with comedy because then you can kind of sneak it in. I think there’s an element of that there are real risks in dating. But from a self-deprecating standpoint as women, we also can be paranoid because we watch nonstop true-crime stuff. And then it’s like, ‘Why am I scared of home invasions? Well, I listen to podcasts about crime to fall asleep at night.’
There’s commentary in there. There’s commentary on female friendships, dating apps, risks, true crime, and paranoia. And I think the best way to package all of that is with comedy. Then it was important to me that the movie looked like a thriller. Rear Window and Vertigo were definitely inspirations, the color palette was very Hitchcock. But, then, with a modern spin, which was very Fincher. That allowed us to push the comedy as much as we could. I knew that nobody would forget it was a thriller because the visuals were really doing that work. That let us really have fun with the comedy.
Thanks to Lucy Hale, Virginia Gardner, and Laura Murphy for discussing F Marry Kill.
