EJ Moreno chats with Shazam! Fury of the Gods star Grace Caroline Currey…
I’m a big fan of Fall, so you know, there is a bit of a stanning moment here.
Grace Caroline Currey: Aww, that makes me happy to hear.
I’m really excited to speak with you and really excited to get into Fury of the Gods. But before we even get into the new film, let’s look back at your first outing. Do you have any memories from shooting that original Shazam? And did you stay in touch with any of your co-stars leading up to the sequel?
Oh gosh. So, so memories from the first one. Well, I was only my human form in the first one, and to be honest, I felt like I hardly worked on-set and spent most of my time in Toronto in the winter adventuring and exploring the city with the cast. I remember having a moment where I was like, ‘I’ve been filming a movie, and I’m having a great time.’
Because of that, we all bonded so much on that first one, and since the first one to now, we’ve got a family group chat. We’ve gone to each other’s birthdays. We’ve supported each other at conventions. Whoever’s concert is going on, if there’s a premiere we can go to, we will go. We’re such a family, which is not always something you get.
I love to hear that there’s an actual Shazam family in real life; that makes that like even better.
And there are so many of us; we have to have two group chats!
This is such an expansive cast. There’s so much going on. But this new film especially has two acting icons with Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu, joining. Were you able to spend any time with either of them, and did they give you any advice?
They’re icons; yes, they are. I got to work with both of them, and it was particularly special. When I was working with Helen, Fall was about to come out, and I got to tell her about it. She was really curious. I was showing her pictures from my camera roll with this insane stunt I did. She really was just affirming me what a special thing it was. [Fall] was my first leading role to carry a movie, along with Virginia Gardner. I think that it was a really meaningful moment to have someone like her acknowledging a special point in my career.
We just talked film, and it was really wonderful.
It’s just amazing to hear the statement, “I was showing Helen Mirren things in my camera roll.’ That’s not something many people get to say in life.
I know! And you know, it was funny because I was like, oh gosh, wait, what photos are in here?
Ha, the countless selfies we have to take. I love to hear that, and I love to hear about your passion for this. Cause I’m a big fan of DC comics. Were you a comics fan growing up, or did the movies spark any recent love?
I grew up watching the Batman Animated series and the Justice League Animated series. My brother had a shelf full of comics; He’s got such a wide range of comics of knowledge, and he and I are the closest in age in my family. I always grew up around and had knowledge of superheroes. We went back to him telling me about different stories. He actually was the one who told me about Mary and how I should play her because David Sandberg was attached. Like, how perfect would that be?
But yeah, I mean, I love Batman. I love Batman a lot.
I like how you mentioned working with David Sandberg. I’m a big fan of his directing style and what he offers. What was that like returning with him and even playing a more expansive role?
Well, we’ve been working together since I was 18. This is our third movie together. I love it. It’s so special. So if anything, it was really awesome for me on the first one to go onto a set with the director I’d already worked with, a producer I’d already worked with, and a studio I’d already worked with. I could have been so much more intimidated on the first, but I really wasn’t because I knew exactly who I was working with and how we worked together.
On Annabelle: Creation, I was able to really learn how David works and how best to bring myself to the table. He’s quite collaborative. We have some fun. We came up with this gag in Annabelle that I really was wanting to do, pitched it to him, and he got to set dec and said, ‘you know, can this handle come out of this ax today?’ And they went, ‘is that supposed to happen?’ He went, ‘no, but can it?’ And they were like, ‘yeah.’ So uh yeah, I love working with David.
You mentioned Annabelle: Creation and your work with Fall. Is there another horror film in your future anytime soon? And are you a fan of the genre? Because you would be a great leading horror icon.
Ha, well, thank you. Gosh, I’ve recently not wanted to do more horror because so much of it you’re crying the whole time. I don’t have to be happy for an entire project, but you know, specifically with Fall. I was crying in every scene.
There’s a lot of emotion in that movie.
There is A LOT of emotion and a lot of not-positive emotion. And I don’t know that I’m a diehard fan of the horror genre. That being said, I do like miserable characters. I mean, Christian Bale is like my favorite actor, and he’s always playing some sort of tortured soul.
Well, that also Jamie Lee Curtis, who’s a big horror icon but doesn’t like the genre either. It’s usually you guys are always the best ones at it.
I think I just really love just playing ‘being miserable.’ I feel like in life, I’m a very positive person, so on thrillers or horror sets, you have the opportunity to exercise some emotions that maybe you haven’t allowed yourself to go to. So, it’s very cathartic.
Thankfully, Mary in Shazam! Fury of the Gods won’t be a miserable character. And I have one final question about that. What was it like playing the non-hero and the superhero version? Did you try to do anything to differentiate those performances? To add a little extra, so you knew who was who exactly.
Well, visibly, It’s pretty obvious, so that did a lot work for me mostly. I would say the change in the environment of just working with a completely different cast.
Depending on if I was with the kids or the adults, that influenced a lot of my choices. But at the same time, I was grateful to have the knowledge of working with the kids because I had them in my mind when interacting with the adults if that makes sense.
Yeah, like a connective tissue in between the versions.
Yes. The connective tissue. Exactly. So for me personally, I had a wonderful time in participating in the fullness of it all, right? Getting to see the big circle of all of ’em.
I understand that. You are like, ‘I could add more people to my group chats; let me work with everybody in the movie’.
That’s the joke, right? I got to do the most playing on-set. I got to be there just through and through all the time.
Many thanks to Grace Caroline Currey for taking the time to chat with us.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in theaters on March 17th, 2023.
EJ Moreno
