The stars of new psychological thriller Drop say they fell in love with Ireland when they were shooting the movie in Dublin, with White Lotus star Meghann Fahy praising her Irish stunt double Aoife Bailey.
Directed by Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon, Drop sees Fahy play Violet, a psychotherapist recovering from an abusive marriage who goes on her first date in five years and gets far more than she bargained for.
Once she is settled in a high class restaurant with her date, handsome photographer Henry (It Ends With Us star Brandon Skelnar), she starts receiving a series of increasingly threatening airdrops on her phone and finds herself being blackmailed by a mysterious stranger.
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The movie was shot in Ireland with an Irish crew and it sees Dublin stand in for Chicago and Ardmore Studios in Wicklow used for the interior shots.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Fahy said, "Boy, did we love Dublin! We went all over that city. We got downtime at weekends during the shoot and we had some evenings too."
Her co-star Sklenar added, "What was that other place we went to outside the city? Howth!
"We had a great time. I love Ireland, I love the Irish people. Our film crew were genuinely the nicest, most efficient crew I've ever worked with and so sincere and nice and everybody wanted to have a chat and not in an annoying way."
"They were so helpful and lovely," says Fahy.
The Irish crew also included Fahy’s stunt double, marital arts and stunt performer Aoife Bailey, who has previously worked on movies such as An Irish Wish with Lindsay Lohan and Abigail with Alisha Weir.
"Aoife is an angel," says Fahy. "I am so in love with her, I learnt so much from Aoife, I’ve never done stunts of any kind before and I was so unfamiliar so to see them showing us the sequences first as we were learning them . . . the way that they set up these action moments is so impressive.
"It’s so nuanced and beautiful and they made it seem so easy but it wasn’t. They took such good care of me and I can’t say enough good things about that whole crew. They were just excellent."
Drop is a neat little movie with an intriguing premise that recalls the twitchy paranoia of Hitchcock and De Palma but Skelnar also says that it also reminds him of the thrillers of the 1970s.
"It feels like that. It’s just contained," he said. "It’s a filmmakers’ movie and although there is a technological element, there is modern camera work and imposed graphics but at its core it’s a filmmaking driven movie - it’s about how it’s shot and the acting.
"There’s not a lot of effects and there’s not a lot of cheap thrills. It really is on the page; it’s driven by the performances and the camera work."
Asked if they’d like to return to Ireland, Sklenar said, "We’d love to! In a heartbeat. I’ve gotta get out to Powerscourt in Wicklow and Galway, I’ve heard a lot of Galway stories."
Fahy added, "I love Ireland. I cannot wait to come back."
Drop is in cinemas this Friday
