Jack O’Connell on Becoming a Vampire in ‘Sinners’

Jack O’Connell had a secret weapon in his arsenal when he was cast as Remmick in Ryan Coogler’s latest film, Sinners: the ability to dance an Irish jig.

Playing the antagonist vampire, who has been alive for hundreds of years, would require O’Connell to sing and dance — neither of which he’d ever done in a project before. But, as a good Irish boy growing up in Derby, England, he had taken Irish dancing lessons from around age six, and even won several trophies. Like most people, Coogler wasn’t aware of this when he approached the actor for the role.

“I don’t think anyone knew,” O’Connell, 34, tells Rolling Stone, speaking over Zoom from London. “There’s probably three people in my adult life who know that about me. So for there to be this particular role, all singing, all dancing, in an area of Irish culture that I particularly love, was amazing. And for there to be a Hollywood director interested in making a film that features that? You can imagine my surprise.”

Written and directed by Coogler, Sinners follows twin brothers, Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan), as they return to their Southern hometown in the 1930s to open a juke joint. The first evening is boisterous and rowdy, thanks in part to the blues music played by the twins’ cousin Sammie Moore (Miles Caton). His guitar playing enlivens the crowd, but it also summons Remmick, who arrives with two newly-made vampires, Joan (Lola Kirke) and Bert (Peter Dreimanis). The trio perform their own folk-inspired music, eventually drawing partygoers into their clutches.

Coogler says he cast O’Connell after being impressed with him in the 2013 crime drama Starred Up, in which the actor plays a 19-year-old prisoner. “I always wanted to work with him after I saw that,” Coogler says. And for this film, which taps into ideas of cultural appropriation, he saw O’Connell’s personal history as a potential asset. “I knew he had a culturally Irish background and because this movie is so close to my own personal culture and my own backstory, I wanted other artists who could bring an element of themselves to each particular role.”

Coogler’s script imagined Remmick as complicated rather than purely evil, O’Connell explains. The actor is animated, even frenetic as he speaks, occasionally leaning so close to the camera that only his forehead or an eye is visible. “There was sincerity in a lot of [the character’s] speeches,” he says. “And that was a constant note from Ryan: sincerity. Ryan never really wanted to lean into the monstrousness of it all. Studying vampires in cinema was not important, really. It was more a case of portraying this imposter. Portraying this person who can deceive and who poses as totally human and trustworthy and sincere, rather than anything overtly typical.”

Still, O’Connell was subject to a grueling process of prosthetic makeup application to play Remmick. The vampire appears human when it suits him, but also transforms into a more terrifying version of the undead creature, complete with razor-sharp teeth and glowing eyes. The actor says there were “various stages of overall transformation” for him throughout the film.

“When everything’s practical and the teeth work and you’re not having to bend yourself around any of the elements, it helps the performance,” O’Connell explains. “This all just worked. Apart from trying to go to the bathroom with them [prosthetic] fingers on. But it offers you so much. And once it’s all on, you really do take on the form. It’s a brilliant offering to have as a creative.”

“He could withstand a lot,” Coogler says of the process. “He actually had some of the most intense makeup effects, and I put him in a lot of uncomfortable positions physically. But he was always game for it. He approached [the role] with an athletic mindset. I loved working with him and I loved how he took such care in his performance. It came from a place of love, which made the character so dynamic.”

Although O’Connell has never considered himself to be a singer, he did agree to sing for the film. He worked with composer Ludwig Göransson and producer Serena Göransson on the songs, and says “just a touch of whiskey” helped him in the studio. Although everything was recorded ahead of time, Coogler asked the actors to sing live during production in Louisiana as well. Several of the songs, including covers of an early-1900s blues track, “Pick Poor Robin Clean,” and the traditional Irish song “Rocky Road to Dublin” will appear on the film’s soundtrack.

“I like to belt it out sometimes in pubs, Irish music in particular,” O’Connell admits. “But I never regarded myself as having a voice. In fact, quite the opposite. If anything, I’ve been told it’s definitely the opposite. But I felt like, ‘Let’s see.’ Sometimes you’ve just got to have a bash at it.”

It’s a live-wire movie that required brash, energetic performances from its cast. O’Connell says he “put that down to Coogler.” “He inspires something really special in everyone,” the actor notes. “You want to run through brick walls for him. He’s always there. He’s directing from the front. And he’s feeling every step, you know. He really inspires something.”

The big musical scene, which shifts between the raucous interior of the juke joint and the euphoric vampire celebration outside, required O’Connell to recall his Irish dancing skills. While still in London ahead of shooting, he worked with a dance teacher to imagine Remmick’s jig.

“It had been nearly 20 years since I last did it, to any degree,” O’Connell says. “I mean, I used to do it loads in the pub for a laugh. But it was an amazing experience to roll the years back. I wanted to make sure that when I did finally arrive in Louisiana, I’d been doing it and I was familiar with it again. I wanted to have something that I could at least bring to the party.”

O’Connell says his built-in skills seemed to be a pleasant surprise for the film’s choreographer, Aakomon Hasani Jones. “He was spread across the board — there was so much for him to do — and I remember his face when I started going into this jig,” O’Connell recalls. “I think part of him was thinking, ‘Thank God I don’t have to figure that out.’”

Shooting that particular scene was one of the most “transcendent” nights of O’Connell’s life. Everyone felt the surge of momentum and raw vitality as they were shooting — a sensibility that leaps through the screen as the cast writhes and dances to the music.

“It was honestly kind of demented, but I guess it had to be,” O’Connell remembers. “By the end of it, the sun came up and we had to stop shooting, which meant everyone had to hurry home so we’d get some rest before we went again. We were delirious. I think we were all just zoned in. It was a collective energy that came out that night. And I don’t think it was by accident. It was deliberately curated by Ryan Coogler and all involved. What you’re seeing in the film is really fucking lived in. We were all experiencing it, too.”

He continues, “Obviously it’s not every night you’d experience that, or every day. This job is amazing and it does allow for that, but certain nights just blow your mind. That was one of them. Everyone’s job was coming to a crescendo: costume, makeup, camera, sound all coming to a head. And then something just goes and it’s fucking phenomenal. It’s a bit of a drug.”

Less enjoyable was the climactic sequence, where the surviving humans attempt to destroy the blood-thirsty vampires. Remmick finally gets his comeuppance in the nearby lake, which was created as a partial set build to accommodate the stunts and special effects. But O’Connell was less concerned about the layers of prosthetic makeup and more worried about the local wildlife.

“The real lake was teeming with alligators and they were too close for comfort, even in the fake lake,” he says, wide-eyed. “I was petrified. Where I’m from the scariest animal is probably a fox. So being met with an alligator is, obviously, not within my custom.”

Luckily, O’Connell enjoys being pushed out of his comfort zone. He confirms that “if every every job can offer you that it’s the dream” and says he always looks for roles and projects that challenge him in some way. He could see it in Remmick on the page, which he says is something he’s learned to intuit over the years. O’Connell tends to embrace unhinged characters. But why?

“The simple answer is then you’re not burdened with needing the audience to like you,” he says with a shrug. “The more complicated version is that all these characters are woven together in really complicated ways. They’re great characters because they’re good and they’re bad. They’re capable of both. What’s great about Remmick is that’s how he was written. In his mind, he’s good guy.”

O’Connell brought that same approach to last year’s Back to Black, a biopic about Amy Winehouse directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. The actor played Winehouse’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, a former drug addict who has been partially blamed for her tragic death. O’Connell says that the negative perception isn’t that would deter him from embodying a particular figure.

“There’s so much already out there on him and I personally don’t find them sources that have so heavily documented the two of them super reliable,” he says. “So when this script came through and there was an opportunity there to play him, that was a huge draw. The superficial take on somebody isn’t going to dissuade you from potentially playing them.”

O’Connell met with Fielder-Civil ahead of filming and calls the experience “a really lovely afternoon.” “It was cool, man,” he says. “I felt like we had quite a lot in common. Or at least, I feel like I understood what he was referring to when he was giving the accounts of back in the day and when this film was set. I think it was important to get that meeting in. And I’ve heard from him since as well. He’s seen the film. I heard his feedback on it and I was more than happy to hear it.”

That response was relatively positive. “I wouldn’t want to divulge the entirety of the message, but it was good,” O’Connell affirms. “It was good feedback. There was a sense of relief that something was out there that didn’t solely set out to vilify him.”

Shortly after wrapping Sinners, O’Connell returned to the U.K. to shoot zombie flicks Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later and Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The films were made back to back, with the first arriving on June 20 and the second following in January. O’Connell’s character is the focus on the latter film, although he’s reluctant to say anything about it. “I popped into Danny’s set a little bit and set the standard for the character,” he acknowledges. “I don’t want to share too much about it.”

Next, O’Connell will fly to Australia to shoot the next Godzilla x Kong film, out in 2027. In the yet-untitled film, he plays the brother to Kaitlyn Dever’s character. “Funnily enough, I have a sister about the same age as what’s written in the script,” he says, grinning, “So I have them lived in experiences. There are definitely human elements to the role.”

Despite higher profile projects, it sometimes seems like O’Connell has yet to truly break out. He earned accolades for his starring role as Olympic runner and World War II POW Louis Zamperini in Angelina Jolie’s 2014 biopic Unbroken, and followed that with a string of compelling roles, including in Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Ferrari. But the actor says he still mostly gets recognized for U.K. teen drama series Skins, which ended in 2013. He says it’s a “fair observation” that he’s getting bigger opportunities lately, but doesn’t want to get too wrapped up in ideas of success.

“Pretty early on, you learn to disregard ideas of fame,” he says. “If the work is making sense and if it’s reaching people and people are celebrating it, big or small, that’s fulfilling. It’s a mad old industry and trying to make sense of it is hard. I don’t know if aiming to have a big career has ever been my goal. I feel so fortunate to get to do what I do — not many people get to do it where I’m from. The work itself is what gets me out of bed.”