With ICK hitting theaters this weekend, we had the chance to sit down with Malina Weissman (A Series of Unfortunate Events; Supergirl) to talk about her role as Grace in Joseph Kahn’s new monster movie.
In our conversation, Weissman shared what drew her to the script, the challenges of filming the movie’s intense VFX-heavy sequences, working alongside Brandon Routh and Mena Suvari, her personal take on what the Ick represents, and even her thoughts on the future of Supergirl.
Watch our full video interview with Malina Weissman below and/or keep scrolling to read the transcription. Plus, remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: What initially excited you about the script for ICK and the character of Grace?
MALINA: Joseph, for one, totally drew me to the script. He has done so many iconic things and worked with so many iconic people, and the second that I met him on Zoom, before we went to go film. I loved him. We initially clicked, and I think he has such a driven view on what he wants, and I was so inspired by it. And Grace's character is super relatable, super fun to play. She's super sardonic. She's, like, not impressed by anything, but she's also really perceptive, and picks up on things that other people miss, and I thought that was just such an awesome, interesting character to play.
ROHAN: This film is packed with VFX, and you’ve worked in that space before. Was there anything about this project that gave you a new appreciation for what’s possible?
MALINA: Absolutely insane, because when we started this process, none of us knew what the Ick was going to look like. None of us really knew how it affected humans, and we were not playing with anything real, we were playing to green or boxes, and there was one scene where we are all running across the tennis field to the light, to the tower, and we had to be jumping over Ick. But we had no idea where it was coming from, what it would be, what it would look like. And I just remember feeling so stupid jumping over random things or just air, and we had to pretend like we were jumping over Ick. And that was so fun, but obviously so amazing to now see what it looks like and how talented the VFX people are to create this whole world?
ROHAN: You get some sharp and witty dialogue in this film. How did you approach Grace’s lines—did you deliver them straight or with comedic intent?
MALINA: I don't see myself as a funny person. I tell my friends this, I don't really think I'm very funny. And I think what Joseph and I loved about Grace's character is that she's also not trying to be funny. I don't know if she does anything funny. I don't laugh at some of the things she does, but I think it's a big part of who she is, that it comes so naturally, that it's just how she speaks. And I think most teens feel fed up with the world, sometimes, like no one's listening to them, or the world's upside down, and I really connected with that. But also I think that that just comes off as dry comedy, and I think funny things are relatable when - like dark comedy, I would say.
ROHAN: There’s a sequence with you under the bed being attacked by the Ick, and another where you’re upside down in a car. Was there a particular scene that was especially tough to film?
MALINA: Brandon and I have this long car scene, and the car moves, the car flips and, yeah, we were on this rig where we had to both be upside down. Now I applaud Brandon so much he had to do most of his dialog upside down in real time, and as you can imagine, your blood rushes to your head and you are not easily able to speak. And I applaud him so much. He did such a good job, but that was very, very difficult because we had to make sure that he had enough time to be upright and, like, catch his breath. And it was fun. It was a lot of fun, but that was definitely difficult to figure out. And there was another scene where I'm under the bed, under the covers, and the Ick is attacking, and they had a bunch of crew members with stuffed animals, just like attacking me on the outside with the stuffed animals, which was actually more fun than difficult, but it was difficult to act scared, I’ll say. It was so much fun. Everyone was laughing.
ROHAN: Joseph has mentioned that the Ick is intentionally undefined, almost as a metaphor. What did it represent to you?
MALINA: I would say that the Ick is a metaphor for so many things in our world, in my generation, um, and it's about monsters - I think it can be a metaphor. It's about monsters we live with in our life, like fear, denial. It could be about climate change, about politics, about so many things in our world, there's a sense of over a lot of the characters and the whole town is overlooking what's going on. They're trying to ignore it. They're looking past it. They don't want it to be real. Grace, my character, is telling everyone that they're being stupid, but I think that that's a huge metaphor for so many things going on in our world right now.
ROHAN: You and Brandon Routh share a great surrogate father-daughter bond on screen. How did you build that dynamic?
MALINA: Yeah, well, our first scene that we filmed together was actually the last scene of the movie. So, us opening the letter, the maybe daddy letter, was our first scene together and I think that was really helpful for us to just immediately click and find some sort of connection. And it was super easy. And I think that Brandon is one of the sweetest guys I've ever met, like he is so, so incredibly kind and welcoming, and just made me not feel like we had to try to act. It came very naturally, and I learned a lot from him. He’s Superman, yeah, it was so great. It was so great to work with him.
ROHAN: What was it like working with Mena Suvari as your on-screen mother?
MALINA: I mean, I was so excited knowing that she was going to be in the film. And so, before I met her, I was like, fangirling, for sure, and she is just so kind hearted to everyone. And I couldn't even believe it, like she comes on set and she lights up the room, and she brings such a fun energy. And she is just so so sweet. And, yeah, her energy that came into the room was so warming and beautiful, and I really hope to work with her again.
ROHAN: You played young Kara on Supergirl. Have you been following the new Superman movie, and what are your hopes for how this next iteration of Supergirl?
MALINA: I was really young. I think I was around ten years old. I don't fully remember, but I was around ten years old, and it was one of the first things that I had ever done, being on a big set. And I was able to fly. They put me in a harness. And it was so, so exciting and super empowering as a young girl, to be playing Supergirl, or the young version of her, obviously. And I hope that the new development is just keeps their empowerment towards women.
From acclaimed director Joseph Kahn comes his latest film, ICK, a pulpy horror comedy bursting with splattery bedlam starring Brandon Routh, Malina Weissman, and Mena Suvari. For almost two decades, a viscous vine-like growth known colloquially as “The Ick” has benignly crept into every nook and cranny of American life while the residents of small town Eastbrook remain blasé about its existence. The exceptions are former high school football star-turned-hapless science teacher Hank (Routh) and his sardonically perceptive student Grace (Weissman) who are thrown together by Grace’s mom Staci’s (Suvari) closely-guarded secret and a mutual suspicion that the Ick is about to unleash some monstrous mayhem.
A wild ride driven by a power punk spirit, ICK is a dizzyingly fun and hilariously grotesque homage to throwback PG horror flicks, as well as an ode to Millennial nostalgia manifested in soundtrack needle drops by American Rejects, Paramore, and Blink 182.