Paapa Essiedu Won't Do Things By Halves

It's surprising to discover that the British actor Paapa Essiedu does not enjoy horror, given his appearance in Alex Garland's folk horror film Men, the latest release from A24. "My reticence with horror comes from a particular experience I had when I was six years old and I watched like, Friday the 13th or Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something and it was just way too soon. I remember being so scared of the film that I also developed a fear of the actual VHS tape and then I also developed a fear of the box that the tape was in," says Essiedu, laughing. "So I don't think there's a particularly rational reason why I'm not into horror. When I got the script through I had to kind of get over my childish, infantile, but very real fear and just treat it as another script."

Men opens in the idyllic British countryside as Harper (Jessie Buckley) attempts a solo getaway from London to recover from trauma, but finds herself unable to heal as she meets a variety of intrusive men (all played by Rory Kinnear) in the village who pester her with varying forms of neediness reflecting the worst facets of masculinity. The 31-year-old Essiedu plays her late husband James, who lives on as a jarring memory in Harper's mind, puncturing her picturesque escape as a grim remembrance. Although many different men materialize to torment Harper throughout the film, Men is essentially about one man, James, as Harper reckons with her loss, and culminates in a truly horrific climax as she comes to terms with her grief.

As Harper processes the death of her husband, Essiedu appears in flashbacks as she recalls the intense argument in which she informs James she wants a divorce. In response, James threatens to commit suicide. Despite only seeing a glimpse into the couple's relationship at their worst moment, the chemistry between the actors tells a fuller story of their journey before coming to this low point. "Jessie and I talked about what got them to this point and really wanted it to not be a situation where [it was] like, 'These guys were never right for each other, they should have never gotten married.' We wanted this relationship to feel real and feel like it has stages to it and that the end wasn't actually decided at the beginning," explains Essiedu. "We spoke a lot about how they came together, why they got together, what their relationship was like, and how it got to the point that we reach in the film. We felt it was based on a lot of love and a lot of passion and a lot of frustration and a lot of loss.”

These scenes reach a horrifying instant when James comes to his lowest point and strikes Harper. Distressed, she kicks him out of the apartment while he pleads and grovels. Forcing his way into the apartment above to try to regain access through the window, he falls to his death, leaving the answer of whether he jumped on purpose ambiguous. "It's the kind of scene that requires you to give a huge amount of yourself to it," says Essiedu. "Even though it's quite a brief scene but what we're trying to capture is the center point of their entire marriage and also the point before James goes on and does something catastrophic. The stakes are so high, so it's really important to go there and honor that situation."

Beyond the demanding emotional strain of shooting such a scene, the intensity of the role took a physical toll on Essiedu as well. "Afterward, I had to go to physiotherapy because there was so much tension in my body. My focus was so sharply concentrated on Jessie and on the scene that I completely kind of lost focus on what my body was doing and by the end, I was injured. I couldn't go running for a month after that," he says. "It is so funny because I've shot other things where you're doing physically really intense stuff and I've come out of that fine and this one thing I've done where literally I don't think I've ever done something that's less physical, and it's something that I came out with an injury."

Ultimately, the confrontation between Buckley and Essiedu was shot in just one day. "It's one of those things that you don't want to do twenty times because there's something about the electricity and the immediacy of it that you can only really capture four or five times," he says. "[Garland] shot it in a very particular way, a very odd way for a scene like that, he shot it mainly in profile and kind of let us do it. So it felt like doing a scene in a play but without the beginning or the end."

Essiedu is familiar with the stage—having studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2012 and rose to prominence as the titular role in their 2016 production of Hamlet, gaining critical acclaim and earning an Ian Charleson Award for his electric performance. "With Shakespeare, I like the scale of it, I like the ambition of it, and I like the timelessness of some of the themes. There's something about the subject matters that he's dealing with that even though they're four hundred years old, they feel very unresolved in us," he says. "We're still obsessed with jealousy, betrayal, families that break apart, and the lengths that you'll go to in the name of those you love. These are things that are so human and questions that are in our boardrooms, they're in our nurseries, they're around our family dinners. It is quintessentially what it means to be human and I still think that there's something about the way that he captured some of those questions that provide a limitless curiosity for me."

In preparation for the role, Essiedu tapped into many sources of inspiration, including one of his favorite musical artists, Kendrick Lamar. "Much like Shakespeare, I think he's a great poet, and I think he captures a lot about what this world is struggling with and going through at the moment," says Essiedu. "I watched him live in Paris and in London, and there was a big part of his performance style that's always about commitment and it's about charisma, and it's about courage, I suppose, but there's a big part of that that inspired me when I was doing Hamlet. Maybe not in a literal way but there was something fundamental about an energy that he taps into when he's performing which I think is useful in many artistic mediums."

While Essiedu has been familiar to audiences in the U.K. for years, it was the Emmy-winning show I May Destroy You that brought him broad recognition in America. Created by Michaela Coel, a personal friend of Essiedu's since they met at Guildhall, the show follows Coel’s character Arabella as her life changes following a sexual assault in a nightclub and the ripple effect it has on her career and her relationships. Essiedu earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Arabella's close friend Kwame, a gay man exploring his sexuality whose trajectory sparked many conversations about consent and the gray areas of relationships both on and off the screen.

"I know that we felt proud of what we were doing and we felt that what we were doing was truthful, and we felt that there was something innovative about it because I had never read a script like it and definitely hadn't seen a story like that told in the way," says Essiedu, reflecting on the remarkable reception of the show. "We believed in what we did and I feel very proud I suppose and it feels significant that people responded to the characters and the show in the way they did. I guess it is a good thing because it seems like it's opened the door for more shows like that to be produced both in the U.K. and in America."

Essiedu's recognition for his work is well earned—with each performance, whether on stage or on screen, there is a palpable dedication to the craft which seems to be motivated by a drive from within. "I feel like I put pressure on myself with any character that I play because they mean a lot to me and I find it really hard to do things by halves," he says. "I try not to think too much about second-guessing how people are going to respond to characters because that's not something that's in my control but I try to have maximum respect for my characters and make maximum time and energy to bring them to life in a full three-dimensional way, so I put a lot of pressure on myself."

Essiedu acknowledges "the amazing people in my life" who offer support and stability to keep his sense of pressure manageable and allow him to be as ambitious as possible, and he is quick to credit the influence his mother has had on his career as well. "When I was eighteen or seventeen I was going to be a doctor. I was going to go to university and study medicine, which obviously my mom was really happy about. At the last minute, I decided not to, for no real reason. Basically, I was like, 'It's quicker than seven years of medical school,'" he laughs. "But I had to make that call and have a conversation with my mum which was a very big thing actually because it's meaningful to a first-generation immigrant in London to have a son doing something like that and it's a big thing to take that away from someone. She always said, 'Look, if you're going to do acting or do this other thing, that's fine I'll support you one hundred percent, but you've just got to make sure you do it properly,' and that's stuck with me forever. It is a motivating factor in why there's no point in doing this just for fun and games or doing this just to have an easy life. I feel like I owe it to my mum to be as ambitious as possible and to try to achieve, or at least try and learn as much as I can about the craft and the artistry of this job."

Men is out now.