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Subservience Director on Reuniting with Megan Fox for Sci-Fi Thriller

Director S. K. Dale (Till Death) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest AI sci-fi thriller Subservience, Megan Fox, casting & more.

S. K. Dale has grown as a director since starting in 2012 with his first short, Soul Trader. Since then, he's worked on three others with Beyond the Water's Edge (2016), The Coatmaker (2018), and Tommy (2020). He made his feature debut in 2021's Till Death, a psychological thriller starring Megan Fox as a woman who's trapped, handcuffed to her dead husband while trying to flee two killers. Dale decided to retain her for his AI sci-fi thriller Subservience for Vertigo Releasing and XYZ Films, this time as the antagonist, Alice, a domestic AI who serves a struggling father (Michele Morrone) to help run the household along with his daughter (Matilda Firth) as his wife (Madeline Zima) is recovering from a medical episode. The director spoke with Bleeding Cool about his growth over 12 years, how his time on Till Death led to Subservience, and the film's family dynamic.

Subservience Director S. K. Dale on Taking on A.I. Sci-Fi Thriller

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Subservience?'
As a filmmaker, I feel everyone wants to play around with sci-fi at some point, and when a script came along, ['Subservience'] had certain elements I was excited about. I couldn't say "No" to jumping into this, and it also felt like a challenge. I wasn't sure if certain scenes could work, and that unease usually attracts me to figure out, "How would I do this? How can I make this work?" Slowly, that reeled me in, and I jumped on board quickly.

Before this, you come a long way from doing shorts and your debut feature, 'Till Death,' what did you learn from the invaluable experience that helped you for 'Subservience?'

With the short films, it was a group of friends getting together, so you took the lead on many different roles. I was doing the cinematography, first AD, then directing and editing. I was focused on catering and all this stuff, so when I got to my first feature of 'Till Death,' you have these teams coming in, and these incredibly experienced people who were taking these roles, and it was more creatively freeing going from short films to feature since I could focus on the creative elements.

That was probably the most exciting thing, but having made those short films, I was also aware of who to talk to about this or their limitations on certain things. It gave me a certain amount of knowledge that helped me communicate ideas to them and everything like that. When I talk to crew members about other directors they've worked with, sometimes people who worked up the ranks through writing and then jumped on board directing. They talk about how they can freeze up and not necessarily know what to do or who to talk to about this, which helped enable me that way.

Can you break down Megan Fox's presence in a film? Was she someone you wanted to bring in, specifically for the feature after 'Till Death,' and who you had in mind initially for Alice?

I thought about [Megan] early on when we were doing the film, having worked with her once before. She showed me her acting strengths we hadn't seen before, and it would be fun. My only hesitation was my nervousness about having two movies with the same [lead] actor. Once you know the producers, who brought that detail up because we worked together on 'Till Death,' I said, "You're right. I think she would be great for this role."

I remember this moment on 'Till Death,' when she was wearing a red dress, looking in the mirror, and said, "Did we ever have a female character play the Devil?" We were talking about 'Bedazzled' and a few other things, and something about that stuck with me when we prepped [for 'Subservience']. I kept thinking this could be a character we discussed. This could be fun to play with.

Can you discuss Michele's performance in the film, contrasting his chemistry with Megan and Madeline as you define Nick's relationships with Alice and Maggie and the family dynamic?

Having seen ['Michele'] in '365 Days' (2020), I wondered how he would approach the family dynamic in our early talks. The big thing I tried to get across was that This is a family man, and I didn't want him to come in and play everything. I was like, "This is different from '365 Days,'" and he was excited about that. He wanted to try something different and then talk, seeing he had his kids. I thought, "This could work well." Seeing him in that family dynamic was so natural on set.

He is a nice person and gave the children the time of day because they were nervous coming on set. They've got crew, cameras, and everything around them. He and Madeline did a great job. Megan, when she was on board, did a great job of making those children feel as comfortable as possible and making it feel like a fun environment.

We can play around, they try things, and if we step up, we go again. It's vital to create that environment because making a film this size and moving so quickly can be stressful. Making sure all the actors don't feel that stress and feel like they can play with things a little bit more. It is vital for creating the performances we see.

Subservience, which also stars Andrew Whipp, comes to digital on September 13th.

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