Kika Magalhaes Talks The Eyes of My Mother
Staci Layne Wilson
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In The Eyes of My Mother, Kika Magalhaes plays Francisca. She is a young woman who has been desensitized to the thought of death from an early age because her mother, formerly a surgeon in Portugal, imbued her with a thorough understanding of physiology and anatomy. When tragedy shatters her family’s quiet life in the countryside, her deep-felt trauma gradually awakens irresistible curiosities within her. As Francisca grows up, her desire to connect with the world around her takes a distinctly dark turn.
Not unlike the leads in other slow-burn black and white horror films – think Repulsion or A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Kika manages to put across a technicolor performance full of texture, nuance, and levels of depth.
We sat down to ask her what it was like to play such a flawed but interesting character, and more about the lauded film in general.
Dread Central: The Eyes of My Mother is a stunning film, but as such it’s not for everyone. Tell me about some of the different types of feedback you’ve experienced since it started playing in film festivals and screenings.
Kika Maglathes: Well, so far I’ve been getting all kinds of great feedback, and people love the movie. Everything has been very, very positive, I’m very surprised. Starting from Sundance we got all those amazing reviews, Rolling Stone, Variety was writing about me, specifically about my performance which was incredible. I was not expecting that, I didn’t think anyone was going to pay attention to me. But I also read some reviews, I understand that the performance cannot be that exciting. My dad was the most interested in seeing it, and I was interested to see what they had to say, my family flew all the way from Portugal to L.A. to watch the movie at AFI Fest, and my dad said the movie was boring! He said he wanted to see me doing comedy because I’m a very inventive and happy person. But that’s the beauty of the role because I’m so different from her.
DC: Are you a fan of the horror genre?
KM: I like horror movies, but after working with Nick he made me really enjoy them. I wasn’t aware of so much in the horror world, and it’s amazing, I hadn’t seen so much of it and didn’t even know… so working with Nick gave me that interest. He showed me some amazing work that I’d never even heard of. I’d never watched those movies. It’s not the kind of stuff I would ever know about and Nick was like, watch this, watch this. He had me watch all the Hitchcock movies, Audition, Under the Skin, Antichrist, all that crazy stuff, and now I’m like: Thank you for introducing me to all of this cinema I didn’t know, now I’m a fan.
DC: Welcome to the club! How’d you meet [director] Nick Pesce? You’d worked with him before, so tell me how the two you brought Francisca to life.
KM: Yes, I met Nick way before we shot this. We met doing a music video and we bonded. He like the way I worked so he said he was going to write something for us to work together; so, I got involved with Eyes of My Mother before it was even a project. So, he kind of wrote this thinking of me for the role which was great because one day he called me and said, Oh my god, I’m writing this part for you, let’s talk about it. I brought a lot to the table which was amazing for me as an actress. He was so open minded to hear my ideas and we would talk for hours about the movie, about the character, and we would exchange ideas for the scenes. The character is Portuguese and he wrote that knowing I am from Portugal so that was great. He wasn’t aware of the culture and I got to bring a lot to that role. Right before the movie I spent a month in Portugal so when I was there I was thinking of interesting references I could bring. One day I was home and my mom was listening to Fado [music] and I thought this would be amazing in the movie so I texted Nick right away and sent him some stuff from Amália Rodrigues, and he was like, Yeah, this is beautiful. The food that she’s eating is a typical Portuguese meal that is cooked with chicken and the blood of the chicken and yes, my mother cooks it with the blood. So, a lot of this stuff Nick wasn’t aware of and it was a lot of brainstorming. It was awesome, he always wanted to hear my ideas, so I feel very grateful to work with a director who was open minded. I know there are some people who have their own thing and that’s it. I guess because I was involved in this project from an early stage it was a blessing for me to have input.
DC: You did a great job weaving all that cultural stuff in, because honestly, I saw the movie not knowing anything about Nick and assumed he must be a Portuguese filmmaker!
KM: Oh, wow, that’s great! He’s not, he’s American.
DC: The Eyes of My Mother isn’t one of those “fun” horror movies… what would you say to people who want to see it but don’t know what to expect?
KM: Well, it’s definitely not a happy movie so if you’re going through a hard time in life, maybe you should not watch… But I don’t know, besides that, I think the mythology is amazing. There’s a lot of hidden messages that could be very positive if we look deeper into the movie, such as Francisca is not a crazy killer, she’s a victim. We’re very quick to judge other people’s actions when we don’t even know them, like the way Francisca grew up and all of the things that happened to her. In the end she’s not trying to hurt anyone, she’s just looking for love, and that’s the base for every human being. She’s not a monster and maybe that’s why people who see the movie sympathize with her. People who think the movie is too dark… it’s really just a sad movie, really. The script is very smart and there are some very beautiful scenes so people who think it will be very dark, don’t be discouraged. It’s not a slasher movie, you don’t see any blood, bones or open bodies, there are no scenes like that. But it’s unforgettable.
The Eyes of My Mother, from writer/director Nicolas Pesce, is getting a limited theatrical and VOD release on December 2nd. Kika Magalhães, Will Brill, Flora Diaz, Paul Nazak, Clara Wong, Diana Agostini, and Olivia Bond star.
Synopsis:
In their secluded farmhouse, a mother, formerly a surgeon in Portugal, teaches her daughter, Francisca, to understand anatomy and be unfazed by death. One afternoon, a mysterious visitor shatters the idyll of Francisca’s family life, deeply traumatizing the young girl, but also awakening unique curiosities. Though she clings to her increasingly reticent father, Francisca’s loneliness and scarred nature converge years later when her longing to connect with the world around her takes on a dark form.
Shot in crisp black and white, the haunting visual compositions evoke its protagonist’s isolation and illuminate her deeply unbalanced worldview. Genre-inflected, but so strikingly unique as to defy categorization, writer/director Nicolas Pesce’s feature debut allows only an elliptical presence in Francisca’s world, guiding our imaginations to follow her into peculiar, secret places.
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