In Jerren Lauder and Beth Hanna’s new film, You’re Killing Me, rising star McKaley Miller plays high school student Eden who recently got waitlisted at her dream college. Desperate to get out of her hometown and join her best friend at school, she resorts to begging a rich peer for a recommendation letter from his Congressman father. But, while attending his Heaven and Hell party, Eden’s grand plans go south quickly as she discovers a deadly secret.
Dread Central spoke with Miller about working with the late Anne Heche, rolling around in the mud, and more.
McKaley Miller: <laugh>. It was so much fun to film. I am kind of a crazy person though, and I love crawling through mud and getting dirty and bloody and fighting until five o’clock in the morning, you know? So I had the time of my life <laugh>. But yeah, it was really fun.
MM: I did as much as the stunt coordinator would let me do. <laugh> There were quite a few times where I was like, put me in coach. I can do this, I can do this. And she was like, no, no, McKayley, no. Um, but I did as much as I was allowed to all of the, you know, blood rigs and things were me. Um, but you know, some of the more intense things like falling off of certain things, um, I was not allowed to do rules and eh, boring, but <laugh> I did as much as I was allowed to do. Yeah.
MM: Yeah, I really loved this script. By some random chance, I had had a meeting with Jerren Lauder, one of the co-directors, about a year or so ago, and nothing ever came of that. But then I randomly out of nowhere got this script sent to me and they were like, it’s Jerren and he’s doing it with Beth [Hanna]. and they’re doing this together. Would you like read this? And I was like, oh, I loved Sharon. Okay, awesome. So it kind of came about in that way and I read the script and I didn’t set it down. I, from start to finish just was, it kind of hooks you like, it kind of keeps you on from the get-go. Um, and I just knew I wanted to be a part of it after reading that. It just something about, you know, the, the story and just how intense, but fun and, and scary. But, you know, you love the characters. It just had sort of every box ticked.
MM: It was very interesting. We shot this only about a year ago, so we shot it in the middle of the pandemic. The news of her passing came, I mean, only a couple of months after we had wrapped, so it was very, very fresh. But she was just such a light and every day she was just so present and so fun and brought such great energy and ideas. It was just really, really incredible to work with her. So when we all heard the news of her passing, obviously we were all devastated and we sort of just looked for support in each other.
MM: That’s the best way to describe it. Just badass women being scary badasses. And some of that [scene] was her idea. She just throws herself into her work and it was really fascinating and really, really special to get to watch her do her thing.
MM: Oh goodness. There are just so many little moments in there that are so special. I think maybe my favorite one was on one of our last days. We thought we were done with all of the heavy, intense things, and all of a sudden Jerren and Beth come over and they’re like, “OK we’re gonna like throw this scene in here. Crawl through this mud and get on the ground and get really dirty. We just wanna see how dirty we can get.” Mentally I was not prepared, but I said, “OK, let’s go.” And the amount of worms and spiders and bugs. I have the funniest picture of me back in my hotel room after that night, smiling in the mirror just covered in dirt and my hair sticking out to here. I think that was probably one of my favorite moments. It was just really fun to get dirty and just have things thrown at us.
MM: <laugh> It was challenging for sure. <laugh> Those things got in the way a lot.
MM: I love the symbolism of them and I mean, they look incredible. <laugh> So it was worth it. It was worth it.
MM: With Keyara, [and really] the entire cast, we all just sort of clicked from day one, which is, I don’t wanna say rare, but it’s really special when everybody from day one just hits it off and connects. So it was really easy to bring a bit of ourselves into the characters. It just was natural to banter with her and just make things up with her. The whole scene of us entering the party and the dance sequences, some of that is really just me and Keyara being me and Keyara. It was really fun to just bond with these cast members and feed off of each other the entire time.
MM: I love horror movies. That’s always been my thing. My brother and I used to every summer just binge-watch horror movies. [As an actor] I’ve always done more lighthearted comedies. Now, You’re Killing Me, I think this is my third scary movie. I love getting to explore this world and experiment here and live in this world. That’s really fun.
MM: Oh gosh. Well, you know, the classics like The Ring, I love that. We’re big fans of the Insidious franchise.
MM: So good. Insidious is good. The Conjuring world is great. There are a lot of really good, current scary movies that are just awesome. And then of course everything Jordan Peele, I love him. Then there are all the classics like Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th.
MM: I just got a flashback of The Blair Witch Project. <laugh> I just thought, “Oh yeah, Blair Witch scared the living hell outta me.” I watched Child’s Play too young. Those two were the two that I really had a hard time sleeping after watching. <laugh>
MM: I would love nothing more. <laugh>
MM: Yeah, I’m not opposed to it at all. I just finished, a comedy, so it’s nice to break it up a little bit. There’s potential to do another horror in the coming months. So I’m all for it. Listen I will be a scream queen. I am so for it