The thriller reunites her with director Michael Mohan, the two having previously worked together on the Netflix high-school dramedy series Everything Sucks and the Amazon Prime Video erotic thriller The Voyeurs.
Immaculate, with a screenplay credited to Andrew Lobel, follows a devout American woman, Cecilia, who makes her way to a remote Italian convent. She becomes pregnant while still a virgin – a seemingly miraculous event that soon takes a sinister turn.
Here Sweeney and Mohan talk about the movie and touch on its startling ending, but there are no spoilers beyond anything that’s already in the film’s trailer.
Sydney, it is already part of the origin story of “Immaculate” that you auditioned for this 10 years ago and then revived the project. What was it about this story that stuck with you?
Sweeney: Originally the script was vastly different. Once I got my hands on it and we hired Michael, we drastically revised it so that it could fit who I am today and the world today.
But the through line of the story always has stayed the same. And I think one of the reasons I loved it so much was that some of the scariest and most raw, guttural moments in this movie are in real life.
Michael, what was your reaction when you first got the script?
Mohan: I was terrified to read it. I knew Syd was making this movie with or without me. And we had shared some scripts before and some of the scripts that I had read I didn’t feel like I was uniquely suited to. And I didn’t want to just sign on just to sign on.
I wanted to feel like I could elevate what was there. And when I read the script, the concept just felt so plausible and it felt very terrifying and prescient.
The twist that the narrative takes I didn’t see coming. As someone who writes movies with twist endings, that’s a big deal.
But also, I just really wanted to work with Syd again. It’s just so easy. I don’t want to deconstruct it too much. It’s this appreciation for the craft of our crew and what they bring to it.
Talk about your move into producing. Is this about you taking more control of the material you are agreeing to be a part of?
Sweeney: I am a very hands-on collaborator. I like being able to give ideas, be a part of it, help come up with solutions. It just changes the whole process.
It’s so hard for me now to be on a set and not be able to help in any type of way and be able to take action. And being able to actually have a voice and have a valued opinion – it means so much.
And I still have a billion things to learn, but I love being able to be a part of the process from the beginning to the end. I’ve always built my characters from the ground up. And so I feel like I’m getting to do that on an entire script-level.
What has it been like for you to see Sydney evolve as a performer and as a persona, a celebrity, since you first met her?
Mohan: It’s unsurprising, to be honest. We sort of knew when we cast her in Everything Sucks. This is a born leader.
Even back then, Syd really helped us in terms of the morale of the cast. She was the camp counsellor to the rest of the kids, the actors who were younger than her.
Everyone close to me knows in real life I’m more of a comedian than a dramatic person.
The fact that she’s doing everything right now and is everywhere and all over the place, it’s just like, of course.
Sweeney: How much of a dork I am. That’s the thing. I am actually super dorky. I make very sarcastic dry remarks, and everyone close to me knows in real life I’m more of a comedian than a dramatic person.
You seem really unafraid of using your body in your performances, including taking off your clothes. And this role feels different. For the most part, it is more contained and buttoned-up. How conscious a decision was that for you?
Sweeney: It didn’t serve the character. It’s always whether it serves the character or not. I’m living someone else’s life. So if it serves to the development or the emotional state of a character, then it makes sense. But she was a nun. It didn’t make sense.
Now I want to ask you about some of what happens in the movie, but I do not want you to feel like we are spoiling anything. How are you talking about the film?
Sweeney: We definitely don’t want to spoil the ending. We really want people to discover it for themselves. Granted, people write reviews and that’ll be out there, but we’re trying really hard not to spoil the ending. I will say that was the first take. That was one take.
Mohan: We did shoot alternates. We covered ourselves in case audiences rejected the execution that we went for. But when we did the take, it was undeniable. We saw it and we were just like: this is unbelievable. This is what it is. And thankfully, everybody supported us.
The only thing I can say is whenever you’re on set and you see Syd do this, it’s genuinely like watching someone do a magic trick, because the instant I call cut, it’s just like, boom, back to Syd. And it’s like nothing.
Sometimes as a director, the best direction you can give is to stay the f*** out of someone’s way.
Sydney, where does that come from, that ability to turn a character on and off like that?
Sweeney: When I was first starting, I had – I don’t even know that you would call him a life coach or not, not quite an acting coach, but it was my friend’s dad.
It wouldn’t be rehearsing, wouldn’t be running lines, it would be truly just talking about the characters and building who they were.
And the number one thing he always told me was to make sure that I separated myself as much as possible from my characters. Don’t put any of my own memories, emotions, feelings, people, relationships, anything in the thoughts of my characters, so that I can jump in and out.
Sydney, even just within the last couple weeks, it seems like your fame has grown. Does it feel to you like things are accelerating too fast?
Sweeney: I am such a homebody that life kind of stays the same for me. I just hang out with my dog and my family and my close friends. There’s just more people who say hi to me when I go outside. That’s all.
Does it all just seem normal to you now?
Sweeney: Nothing about this industry is normal. And I think it’s really important to remember that.