USA TODAY International Edition
‘Hereditary’ kid joins exclusive, scary club
Actress Milly Shapiro loves horror movies and actually wants to creep you out.
Milly Shapiro is now a member of a very exclusive “club.”
With “Hereditary” (in theaters now), the young actress becomes the latest kid to creep us out in a horror movie, joining the hallowed ranks of Samara (“The Ring”) and Regan (“The Exorcist”). Nerdist calls her the film’s “standout,” and Vanity Fair says she’s “the scariest kid we will see on screen this year.”
“I love horror movies, and the kid is always such a big part,” Shapiro says. “Kids are usually seen as so innocent, like, ‘Oh, they can’t do anything that creepy — they’re kids!’ That’s what a lot of horror movies draw on, so getting to join that club is really cool.”
Shapiro, 15, plays the pivotal role of Charlie Graham, a troubled preteen with peculiar hobbies, to put it mildly. She draws pictures of her recently deceased grandma (who appears to her as an apparition) and cuts off a dead pigeon’s head with scissors to make it into a toy.
Despite the character’s sinister quirks, “I really connected with Charlie because I wanted to take care of her,” Shapiro says. On the outside, “she’s like a turtle, because they always go inside to try and protect themselves. But on the inside, she’s like a snake, because she has a hidden darkness and is mis understood.”
Shapiro has been acting since she was 5 and won a special Tony Award when she was 10 for sharing the title role in the Broadway musical “Matilda.” She remembers freaking out at her audition for “Hereditary,” which marks her screen debut.
“Every other girl there was a redhead, and they were all younger than me, so I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not going to get this part,’ ” she says.
But “as soon as she walked into the room, she just had this really unique presence and was incredible,” director/ writer Ari Aster says. “She’s so intelligent and mature, and she wants to be creepy. But in real life, she’s the happiest girl in the world.”
Shapiro lives in New York with her family and attends the Professional Children’s School for young actors.
Although she hasn’t yet lined up her next project, she continues to go out on auditions. She says Tim Burton and Tom Felton of “Harry Potter” top her list of people she’d like to work with.