TORONTO – When Jane Levy’s covered in blood, all is right in her world.
TV fans know her for lightheared fare, shows like “Suburgatory” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.” Horror fans think Jane’s scary-movie playlist is pretty extraordinary, given her memorable roles in “Don’t Breathe” and “Evil Dead.”
She’s back in that mode with the slasher movie “River” (expected in theaters next year), her first lead film since becoming a mom in 2024.
During filming, “I was breastfeeding in between takes and I was not having the strongest core strength I've ever had in my life,” Levy tells USA TODAY the morning after the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The joy of acting – and glee of being in a horror movie – came back to her doing
a scene when her character tussles with a masked kiler: "I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is like riding a bike. My homicidal instincts are kicking right back in!’ ”
Levy and Jessica Rothe (“Happy Death Day”) star in “River” as estranged sisters who reunite with their younger brother (Max Mattern) to spread their late father’s ashes. They quickly have to get back on the same page as a family when they’re stalked by a dark figure with murderous intent.
Getting put through the wringer on a film set is one of the aspects that keeps her coming back to horror.
“I’m like a horse that needs to be run. When a director blows the whistle, here I go,” says Levy, 36, who was a Division III soccer player at Goucher College. “I love the physicality. I think I have a lot of rage as a woman, and (horror’s) really great outlet for that. I also just love kicking ass.”
Her sense of humor is another saving grace. “I get pleasure out of freaking people out. Sorry, not sorry,” Levy adds with a laugh. “There’s perversity to me. Obviously, the genre is perverse, and it literally tickles me. It lights me up.”
But how she tackles horror has changed over the years. When she did 2013’s “Evil Dead” and “Don’t Breathe” three years later, “I was new to this business and I didn't necessarily know how to pace myself like I do now.” Levy says. “A lot of people can relate to this in all sorts of careers that you sort of have too much effort when you're younger, and as you get older, you know how to take your foot off the gas pedal, and you realize you don't have to go 150 miles per hour at all times. I have learned how to work stronger and it not destroy me.”
Levy has a supporting part in the upcoming thriller "Whalefall" (in theaters Oct. 16) and is in her second week of production on "Sunset P.I.," a new NBC workplace sitcom about LA private investigators costarring Jake Johnson and premiering in February. "I'm having the best time," Levy says. "I laugh until I cry every single day."
Becoming a mom to 2-year-old Desmond hasn’t affected the roles she takes on yet. “You would think, but pretty weird choice to make a hardcore slasher,” Levy says. Motherhood has changed her as a person, though, “obviously in ways that I probably couldn't articulate because I'm so in it, and maybe I can reflect when I'm a little bit older about the ways in which I've changed.
“Of course, it's going to reflect in my art and my choices, but I haven't thought, ‘We gotta make some gentle film,’ clearly. I hope that when my son's older, he can watch ('River') and think, ‘Wow, his mom's pretty dope that she made that while I was a 9-month-old.’ ”
So what from mom’s filmography will be first up for Desmond?
“Probably the cinematic masterpiece ‘Monster Trucks.’ Ever heard of it?” Levy quips with a smile about her 2016 kid comedy. “That would probably be ideal to show a 4-year old-boy. He's never seen a movie but he loves trucks.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Jane Levy loves being a horror mom, even covered in blood
