It’s been widely reported that James McAvoy's performance as charismatic villain Paddy in Speak No Evil was influenced by Andrew Tate – but the film’s writer/director wants to assure viewers his film isn’t a one-note exploration of toxic masculinity.
James Watkins told Zavvi: “This is a movie, not an editorial in The Guardian! When I first started working in film in the 90s, the idea of making something commercial was a dirty word, which I think is b*llocks – you make movies for an audience, not to be put on someone’s DVD shelf and never watched.
“The filmmakers I admire the most are Alfonso Cuaron and Christopher Nolan; guys who make movies that speak to a wide audience but have something to say. I want to make a movie that’s an absolute blast, but with deeper themes embedded within – those two things can easily co-exist, and I’m passionate about that”.
A remake of the acclaimed 2022 Danish film of the same name – albeit with a third act that significantly departs from the source material – Speak No Evil follows American expat couple Louise and Ben (Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy) and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) as they fall under the spell of Paddy whilst on holiday. Invited to the remote West Country home where he lives with his wife and child, it’s immediately clear something isn’t right, and there’s a sinister undercurrent to his offbeat family man persona.
McAvoy was the only actor Watkins could picture in the role whilst he was writing the screenplay, and he couldn’t believe his luck when he said yes.
He explained: “There’s a mythology in filmmaking where audiences assume actors are destined for certain roles, when they’re usually the seventh person that script has been sent to, so it was very rare for this to happen. When I first met with him, it was clear we were both picturing the same movie, and he loved the opportunity to play a character who can attract you and repulse you; it’s like that saying, “the devil has all the best tunes”, that’s Paddy!
“We did discuss various demagogue figures in the public eye and in politics who Paddy felt similar to – I don’t need to name any names as people will instantly recognise this kind of guy. He’s the kind of public figure who claims he's a man of the people, and can offer a different, more fulfilling way to live, only to lead people up the garden path like the false God he is.
“Specifically for a city-dwelling American man, Paddy is the kind of outdoors-y guy there’s some attraction towards. He can hunt and make a fire, and looks like a quirky, eccentric Brit, and it’s unclear to them whether there’s something more sinister lurking beneath that British humour.”
In the original Danish film, the cultural tensions were between an unassuming Danish family and a not-so-quietly evil Dutch one. When first approached by Blumhouse to script a remake, Watkins was adamant that this story needed to be set in Britain to perfectly translate the cultural tensions, rather than just follow two different American families.
“I didn’t know the original film until Blumhouse sent it to me, and I loved it – it was probably the darkest film I’ve ever seen. The first thing I asked them afterwards was if I could set it in England, as that way I could bring my own DNA and the dark British sense of humour, and as a British filmmaker, I think we’re pretty crap at mythologising our own landscapes in cinema like the Americans do, and I believe we should try to do that!
“This movie is very indebted to what (Danish director) Christian Tafdrup made, with similar scenes and characters, but I think of it as being in a slightly different key. If he made the stripped down, sparse acoustic version, this is the full electric version with James McAvoy as a towering rockstar – but the Englishman in me wanted to stop it becoming too American.
“Yes, the danger is more overt and doesn’t bubble under the surface for as long, and these characters have more agency than the family in the Danish film, but I didn’t want them to become invincible Navy SEALs at the end! It’s a survival thriller, but the characters are still all a bit crap at playing those roles – even as Ben steps up to fight, he can’t be that old school version of a man, and when Louise steps up, she’s still got her marigold gloves on.”
Tafdrup has a producing credit on this remake, at one point visiting Watkins and his team on set, and there was one piece of advice he passed on that proved particularly helpful.
“It’s easy for people to be dogmatic about making an English language remake of a foreign language film, and I sometimes get that same impulse to complain when I hear about them.
“He doesn’t want me to make his movie in exactly the same way again – and I agree, there’s no point in me doing that. His movie exists and it’s brilliant, and I think that it’s fantastic that this movie will drive traffic to his film, and that the two films will have a conversation with each other.”
It’s hard to disagree that Watkins was a perfect fit to tackle this material, having already made a bruising, bad-vibes thriller about a middle-class couple on a miserable, intense holiday: 2008’s Eden Lake. What is it about these dark fish-out-of-water tales that intrigue him as a storyteller?
“I hadn’t thought about the similarities to Eden Lake whilst making this, but I’m fascinated by making relatable stories in this context. We live in an age of anxiety, so everyday issues like calling people out when they’re behaving badly is something I love exploring within a psychological thriller or a horror movie.
“To address these issues from our lives in this way can really push an audience’s buttons...”
Speak No Evil is released in UK cinemas on Thursday, 12th September
