'Longlegs' cast, director shared vision of creepy killer

LOS ANGELES, July 11 (UPI) -- Writer-director Osgood Perkins and actors Maika Monroe, Alicia Witt and Blair Underwood concurred that creating Longlegs, which opens in theaters Friday, was an intuitive process.

Monroe, 31, plays FBI agent Lee Harker, who investigates a series of murders attributed to a mysterious killer named Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). Cage adopts pale skin, white hair and a nose prosthetic to portray Longlegs.

Perkins, the son of the late actor Anthony Perkins, said Cage needed little direction to interpret the description of Longlegs in the script. Perkins said maintaining a relaxed set, despite the intense subject matter, allowed such performances to come naturally.

"If we create while we're relaxed, better things will happen," said Perkins, 50. "The really gratifying thing is watching someone as gifted as him find a way to tailor himself to meet the text, as opposed to tailoring the text to meet himself."

A horror veteran from films like It Follows, The Guest and Villains, Monroe said she was drawn to the unique combination of elements in Longlegs. She could play a professional investigator but explore the film's more unsettling revelations.

"It mixed a lot of some of my favorite films, like Silence of the Lambs, Seven, these classic crime thrillers," Monroe said. "And yet it sort of became its own thing by the end."

Throughout Lee's investigation, she speaks with her mother, Ruth (Witt), on the phone. When Lee finally visits Ruth, the malevolent force that drives Longlegs appears to touch Ruth, too.

In Witt's scenes, Ruth displays an unsettling smile as she tells Lee secrets of her childhood. Witt, 48, said she portrayed Ruth by instinct and little specific instruction from Perkins.

"I felt like I had found a creative partner that I could only dream of," Witt said of her director. "We could communicate with nothing but a glance across the room and I would know what he needed from me or if he got what he needed."

Witt said she shared a similar intuition with Cage, who remained in character on the set. Witt clarified that Cage was still polite and friendly, and she felt his unspoken approval during their collaboration.

"I loved those looks that we had where he was like, 'I see what you're doing,' and I was like, 'I see what you're doing,'" Witt said.

The investigator characters also were privy to Perkins' intuitive process.

Underwood, 59, plays Lee's superior, Agent Carter. By the time Underwood joined the production in the second week of shooting, Perkins had materials from the first week to show him. Underwood said this helped him know "what it felt like as much as what it looked like."

Underwood said Perkins got as specific as showing him the wide, long lens, so Underwood would know how his performance would translate on screen. He also watched Perkins' three previous films to understand how he creates different moods.

"It's not fantasy," Underwood said. "It's not overly extreme. It's very grounded in reality. I think that adds to the unsettling aspect of it."

However, there is a question about Lee's investigative skills. The film does not explicitly suggest that she might be psychic, and Monroe also declined to take a definitive position.

Perkins allowed that there is something more than old-fashioned detective work driving Lee.

"She's got help," Perkins said. "She's being helped by something unseen. She's got a guiding hand. She's got an unfair advantage."

Lee is an enigma to Carter, too, Underwood said. As long as that instinctive ability can lead Lee to Longlegs, Carter will support her.

"She's quirky how she presents herself, but she's dialed in, somehow," Underwood said. "So I think he believes from the very beginning she has an intuition that he's just going to try to ride out, but he doesn't quite understand."