Interview: Connie Britton Talks Here After, Having 2 Films Out on Same Day

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Here After star Connie Britton about the supernatural thriller. The actress discussed her role, doing scenes in Italian, and having Winner also coming out on the same day. Directed by Robert Salerno, Paramount Pictures will release the film in select theaters and on digital starting September 13.

“Connie Britton (Nashville, The White Lotus) stars in this gripping supernatural thriller. Claire Hiller is overjoyed when her daughter Robin is miraculously revived after a fatal accident. But her relief turns to dread as Claire notices changes in her daughter, suspecting something dark has followed her back from the brink of death,” says the synopsis for Here After.

Tyler Treese: Here After has such an interesting premise because your daughter in the film has this near-fatal accident, but she survives. Even more frighteningly, she comes back just changed and indifferent. I love that the frightening nature of this premise comes from a real human dynamic of bearing that this person won’t be the same as they were. What did you like most about that setup?

Connie Britton: Well, I thank you, first of all, for seeing all that because those were all the things that I really loved about the movie, too. My son is now 13, and you hear all about teenagers, but to me, as I was making the movie, I kept thinking, “Oh, this is kind of what it’s like when your child changes so dramatically that you don’t recognize them anymore.” But it’s like the horror story version, which of course this wasn’t, because this is an exploration in so many other elements as well of that, including life after death and also mother guilt and all of those [feelings]. There are a lot of different themes running through this movie. But I do think that there’s something interesting about the idea that, as parents, to see your child turn into something else or someone else, how terrifying is that? What does that feel like? And to really kind of explore that no matter what the causes of that are, or if it’s just the natural process of growing up. Whatever the cause is, it was fun to explore the sort of feelings of that as a parent.

I love that you brought up parental guilt because that’s definitely one of the big themes of this film, and it is something very relatable, even if not to the extent your character deals with it. Everybody feels like they could have done better in situations and focus on negative points. This has some really heavy scenes, especially in the back half. As an actress, how was it just grappling with all these themes? Because I could see that weighing on you as an actress.

It was a lot. I will say, because also there was a lot of work in water. Again, we don’t wanna give away too many spoilers, but there was something very interesting about literally going into another world, which represents her darkest guilt, her darkest moments, and her darkest pain, and also having that be underwater. As an actor, I had a lot of fear around that. So it was interesting exploring and doing all that through my own fears as well as really letting the fears of the character come to life.

I have to say, too, the way that the whole thing was envisioned, I really give a lot of credit to our director Bob Salerno, because even when I read the script over so many times, I was kind of like, “I don’t know. What is this gonna look like? How are we doing this?” He really was able to establish and to create that vision of those ending scenes, which were harrowing at times to shoot, but ultimately so important. It was important to have the feeling state of what those scenes created in the sort of climax of the movie.

You’re always great in either film or TV, but one element that impressed me here was your Italian. There’s a lot of dialogue in Italian, and granted, I’m not the right person to compliment that as I have no knowledge of Italian, but it sounded great to me. So how was it performing those non-English exchanges? That had to be an interesting challenge.

God, thank you for saying that. I was also terrified. Because I’m like you, like I love Italian and I’ve always sort of [said], “Oh, I have such a great Italian accent,” you know what I mean? Like, I could do [an accent] because I have a good ear, but I cannot speak a word of Italian. I had to learn those lines and it was hard. It was challenging to learn the lines. Because I have to know what I’m saying and all this stuff. Anyway, so I spent a lot of time with that, so thank you for acknowledging it.

I was just shocked by how great Freya Hannan-Mills, who plays your daughter, is. She’s such a young talent. I looked her up, she’s writing and directing her own films. How is it working with her?

She is amazing, honestly. Gosh, I just feel so lucky that I got to work with her. Because that was a really challenging role that she had to play. She is just so intelligent and kind and gentle and she really just allowed herself to just turn into this character. It was wonderful to watch and she was a great partner in doing this and made it so easy for me to feel maternal toward her. She’s excellent, and she already is a huge talent, but I think she’s gonna be doing great things for sure.

Here After is coming up the same day as Winner. How special is it that you have these two movies coming out on the same day, that that’s such a unique and special experience for you?

Thank you for saying that. I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen in my entire life. Two such different films and both I hope will be really meaningful to audiences. Both are very different tonally. But it’s a very cool thing because I really do try to do projects that certainly mean something to me, and so, therefore, when they come out, I really hope that they’re gonna mean something to audiences. So, that’s gonna be an exciting day. September 13, they both come out.

Thanks to Connie Britton for taking time to discuss Here After.