Alycia Debnam-Carey on Discovering Her Voice in ‘The 100’ & ‘It is What’s Inside’

The Massive Image

• Welcome to a brand new episode of Collider Women Night time with
  It’s What’s Inside
  star Alycia Debnam-Carey.
• Debnam-Carey discusses her journey from engaged on
  The 100
  and
  Worry the Strolling Lifeless
  to taking over one of the thrilling performing challenges — performing in a body-swap movie.
• It’s What’s Inside
  marked certainly one of Sundance 2024’s greatest gross sales, and rightfully so. It’s phenomenal. Don’t miss it on Netflix now!

It’s What’s Inside rapidly grew to become certainly one of my favourite movies of the 2024 Sundance Movie Pageant and I used to be past thrilled to get the opportunity to chat with director Greg Jardin and his ensemble whereas in Park Metropolis. However, one individual was lacking from the dialog and, in case you’ve seen What’s It’s Inside, you properly know that the movie’s idea hinges on each single member of the solid having the ability to ship top-tier work as a unit. Fortunately, Netflix scooped up the movie on the pageant for a whopping $17 million and now It’s What’s Inside is offered to stream on Netflix. That meant the lacking member of the group was busy selling this huge style storytelling feat, and you may guess I jumped on the chance to talk together with her. It’s Alycia Debnam-Carey.

Jardin’s wildly spectacular feature-directorial debut is a body-swap movie. The evening earlier than Reuben’s (Devon Terrell) marriage ceremony, he reunites his group of buddies for a bit pre-wedding social gathering. When an estranged member of that good friend group, David Thompson’s Forbes, reveals up, he has a mysterious suitcase in tow. He pitches they play a celebration recreation with its contents, a curious machine he helped design. They agree, hook themselves as much as the system, and Forbes flips the change. Instantly, all of them swap our bodies. The sport? Determine who’s in whose physique.

The strain is excessive throughout the board and each single character in It’s What’s Inside rocks complicated layers which can be fascinating to discover through the body-swap state of affairs. However, one explicit character’s scenario comes with some particularly excessive stakes as a result of she’s acquired so much to lose. On high of that, who she is and what she’s created has an particularly heavy affect on fairly just a few members of the group. It’s Debnam-Carey’s Nikki, a vastly profitable social media influencer.

Whereas celebrating It’s What’s Inside’s release on Netflix, Debnam-Carey swung by the Collider Ladies Night studio to dig deep into Nikki’s predicament and break down how the solid ready to finish some severe performing gymnastics and craft a seamless body-swap expertise. On high of that, we additionally took a while to look again on her journey as an artist, starting with the popularity that she was meant to be an actor, not a percussionist.

Performing vs. Percussion for Alycia Debnam-Carey

“I bear in mind making ready for my audition and immediately being like, ‘I am not doing this, truly.’”

Rising up, Debnam-Carey juggled two completely different types of artwork — performing and music. Extra particularly, she was a skilled percussionist. “I used to be in 1,000,000 bands doing various things, like orchestras and jazz ensembles. You title it, I used to be in it.” Debnam Carey continued, “However I believe for me, it was extra of a love and a ardour, and wasn’t one thing that I then needed to create a profession out of.”

That call was cemented in when Debnam-Carey was gearing as much as audition for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She recalled:

“I bear in mind making ready for my audition and immediately being like, ‘I am not doing this, truly.’
It was an actual second that I had that type of shift.
I believe as a result of performing was all the time one thing I used to be doing within the interim, it type of was like, possibly I would fallen out of affection with it a bit bit after which needed to refine that love. It is such a aggressive and taxing profession. It isn’t a meritocracy. It is also very exhausting. It is numerous rejection, and I believe it’s essential transfer with the ebbs and flows, and so I believe possibly music has all the time been that type of constant ardour and love-fueled spine.”

After Some Fast Wins, Debnam-Carey Didn’t Work for a Yr

“I did not work for a 12 months. I had no cash … I used to be similar to, ‘Oh, I am going residence.’”

Debnam-Carey’s instincts had been spot on. A love and keenness for music could all the time be there however after initiatives like It’s What’s Inside, The 100, Worry the Strolling Lifeless after which some, it’s abundantly clear she was meant to pursue the performing path.

Nonetheless, that’s to not say forging a profession in movie and tv was with out challenges. One of the vital important studying curves Debnam-Carey skilled upon making the transfer to Hollywood, one many artists grapple with? The belief that filmmaking is each an artwork and a enterprise.

“I believe I got here into it with a lot youthful harmless naivety of, ‘Should you’re adequate, you are able to do it,’ and type of had this bright-eyed bushy-tailed dedication to it, which I believe you want. You possibly can see that effervescence, you possibly can see that enthusiasm from folks, however there’s a lot technique, I suppose, as properly, that I simply do not suppose I used to be actually conscious of. It is continued within the 10 years that I have been working the place, at each degree, there will be a brand new understanding of how deep that stuff actually goes.
There are such a lot of politics — who it’s essential know, getting in the correct rooms, assembly the correct folks, going to the correct issues.
I believe I used to be simply so pure in my response over right here. Sort of like, ‘I’m simply gonna come out and do my greatest.’ I believe that is so vital to have, it is best to have that, however that is once I suppose there was a realization of truly how a lot luck is concerned. You possibly can help that with exhausting work, and it is best to, and it’s essential, however in case you’re actually desirous to do it, there’s going to be intervals of ready.”

Positive sufficient, Debnam-Carey hit a interval of ready that she needed to energy by way of.

“I acquired actually fortunate the primary 12 months I used to be out right here. I acquired two initiatives off the bat and I used to be like, ‘That is straightforward. Oh my god, it is precisely what I assumed it was gonna be.’ After which
I did not work for a 12 months. I had no cash. I had, like, $2,000 in my checking account, and I used to be similar to, ‘Oh, I am going residence
. I’ve acquired to reconfigure, how am I doing this?’ Then, realizing that you simply’re type of crafting the journey with the playing cards which can be specified by entrance of you. And I believe there is a false impression that individuals have of, ‘Oh, you possibly can decide your initiatives.’ You possibly can decide the issues that you’re saying sure or no to, however there are penalties to them.”

‘The 100’ and ‘Worry the Strolling Lifeless’

“Comparability is the thief of pleasure, however it additionally robs you of your skill to have enjoyable and uncover extra about your self and what you are able to.”

Discovering one’s voice in a high-pressure enterprise is commonly a difficult endeavor, however Debnam-Carey’s been lucky to do exactly that in two explicit supportive and creatively fulfilling environments — the units of The 100 and Worry the Strolling Lifeless. An impotent ingredient of benefiting from these alternatives? “The belief that your greatest inventive being is who you might be to your truest self. As a result of there is no such thing as a one else such as you.”

One of many first occasions Debnam-Carey put that thought to make use of? On The 100:

“I really feel like I used to be exercising a few of that on
The 100
. I believe there was a second the place I used to be capable of actually be concerned within the costumes and the make-up and hair. There was a lot lore, and there was a lot historical past with these characters in that story that there was so much to play with. I believe I used to be capable of actually entrench myself in that, and I believe that was one of many first examples. Since then, it is most likely all the time been stretching myself to remind myself of that as a result of
you are all the time evaluating your self to another person or another person’s profession
. As we all know, comparability is the thief of pleasure, however it additionally robs you of your skill to have enjoyable and uncover extra about your self and what you are able to. It isn’t straightforward. I am all the time reminding myself, however I really feel like I’ve slowly been fortifying that.”

On Worry the Strolling Lifeless, Debnam-Carey acquired the possibility to see what she was able to in a model new method — by working as a director. She recalled:

“I believe it is revealed itself in numerous methods, too. Once I directed on
Worry the Strolling Lifeless
, I believe that was a second the place I used to be like,
‘I am asserting myself as a inventive in a distinct capability, and I need to be increasing and rising.’
That is part of my creativity, too, so I used to be so fortunate that they had been actually receptive and needed me to try this.”

A bit additional down the road, certainly one of Debnam-Carey’s Worry the Strolling Lifeless collaborators would determine yet one more alternative for her to grab her potential and broaden her creativity but once more. It was Colman Domingo who prompt she get entangled in It’s What’s Inside.

“It was truly delivered to me by Colman Domingo from
Worry the Strolling Lifeless
. Certainly one of my closest, nearest and dearest. I like and love him endlessly. He was govt producing it, and he introduced it to me as a result of — though it had a horror bent, I actually consider it as a sci-fi thriller, darkish comedy. The horror actually exists within the extra psychological locations … He introduced it to me figuring out, ‘It will broaden your vary. It is new for you. It places you in a distinct lane.’”

The right way to Make a Profitable Physique-Swap Film

“It was immediately terrifying to be like, ‘Okay, I assume now I am performing in entrance of all these folks I’ve simply met.’”

Along with affording Debnam-Carey the chance to faucet into completely different genres and character qualities, It’s What’s Inside additionally gave her the possibility to play with an particularly bold and thrilling story construction. She famous, “It is type of an actor’s dream to play a number of completely different folks.”

A inventive dream, sure, however not one with out nice strain. A body-swap film easy doesn’t work until everybody concerned can craft a totally realized character with a powerful basis for themselves after which effortlessly go away that behind and work throughout the blueprint their co-stars have established. Within the case of It’s What’s Inside, Debnam-Carey and co. completely nail it, closely contributing to the completed movie functioning as one of the good types of film magic.

How precisely did they make that occur? Debnam-Carey walked me by way of their drama school-like prep course of:

“We had been all in a rehearsal interval, which was fairly an intimidating first expertise. We had been in an attic, there was an enormous desk, we had been throughout the desk, and we went from the start — ‘Okay, it is one read-through. You’re your character the entire method by way of. The second read-through, now you are doing it as your character, however now you have seen how the opposite folks do it, so now you are attempting to do it like them. Now we’re truly going to rise up one after the other and also you’re gonna movie the opposite individual’s freakout.’ It is like movie college. This was like drama college.
It was immediately terrifying to be like, ‘Okay, I assume now I am performing in entrance of all these folks I’ve simply met, the actors that I am gonna be with, and I’ve acquired to be good. I’ve acquired to stay as much as a popularity or no matter.’
And I believe, on the identical time, that meant that everybody landed on the identical taking part in subject. It meant that it neutralized every thing as a result of it was like, ‘Let’s get the foolish, let’s get the stress, the intimidation out of the best way. Now, you are all simply capable of play.’ So I believe, if something, I actually realized so much from — I do not know if folks had been saving face, however everybody was so able to play, and that was inspiring. For me, it was like a degree of, ‘Get out of your head. Cease attempting to think about what everyone seems to be considering of you. Simply do one of the best job that you are able to do.’”

Debnam-Carey’s Nikki Is on the Heart of Certainly one of ‘It’s What’s Inside’s Most Complicated Concepts

“There was a lot about who desires to be her, who desires to hate her, who desires to be in her, who desires to manage her.”

It’s What’s Inside is a vastly entertaining thrill. Should you’re merely within the temper for a wild trip, it’ll be a giant winner. However, one of the rewarding parts of the movie, is its thematic heft, notably it’s skill to evaluate very actual human truths through its excessive idea.

The entire characters in It’s What’s Inside faucet into this, however one of many strongest storylines of the bunch on this respect — and the one which has the best ripple impact — is Debnam-Carey’s Nikki.

“We begin out seeing her as a social media influencer who seems fairly concerned in her picture and could be probably fairly narcissistic, however she is savvy and there’s a actual understanding of success and her potential and what her future can appear like. So
she truly has so much to lose
. She’s one of many characters that basically has created a platform for herself that could possibly be broken, and one which she’s additionally very pleased with. She’s type of probably the most profitable of the group.”

Success can spark some may complicated and probably darkish emotions in others, which grew to become abundantly clear to Debnam-Carey and the It’s What’s Inside solid the extra they labored on the character. Debnam-Carey counted:

“After we began filming increasingly,
we acquired into the best way girls are considered by way of one thing like social media
, the best way we understand girls, how we need to be perceived, these ridiculous magnificence requirements, the thought of what every thing is meant to appear like. She is the mannequin for that. She is the blueprint for all of that analogy. We additionally need to see that
whereas she’s a beneficiary of it, she’s additionally the sufferer of all these issues
which can be on the opposite aspect. In some ways, there’s numerous the objectification of what Nikki represents, which is a much more layered observe. You are going into this film and it is like, ‘Wow, it is a actually enjoyable, wild trip,’ however there are numerous attention-grabbing layers beneath that, in case you’re actually concerned about it. And the extra occasions you watch it, I believe you actually perceive that. At one level, in the midst of filming, we had been type of like, ‘Ha ha, it’s like, who’s in Nikki’s physique?’ As a result of
there was a lot about who desires to be her, who desires to hate her, who desires to be in her, who desires to manage her
. There’s numerous what she represents in our society.”

Searching for much more from Debnam-Carey on her journey in movie and tv to this point together with her expertise making It’s What’s Inside? You possibly can catch our full interview within the video on the high of this text!

It’s What’s Inside is now out there to stream on Netflix.

Watch Here