Affection star and scream queen Jessica Rothe spoke with ComingSoon editor-in-chief Tyler Treese about her latest horror movie. The actress discussed the film’s use of practical effects, her co-star Joseph Cross, and gave an update on Happy Death Day 3. The film is out in select theaters on May 8, 2026.

“Afflicted by a mysterious condition that resets her memory, Ellie becomes trapped in a cyclical nightmare with a man who claims to be her husband. She soon must uncover the horrifying truth of her existence—before she forgets it all again,” says the official synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Congrats on Affection. I really enjoyed your performance in the film. It all builds off this start of your character being told she has false memories. She doesn’t really know who she is or if this life is really what she has had. It’s not all adding up. How was it portraying that confusion and that initial distrust towards everything, because it kind of gets the viewer on edge, and that’s all thanks to your performance.

Jessica Rothe: Oh, thank you. It was a delicate line to walk, I think, because we didn’t want to show our cards too soon, and we wanted people to be on Ellie’s side. But there is the element that’s needed in a film like this, where I love an unreliable narrator and constantly wondering who is unreliable in this film, I think, is one of the things that keeps it compulsive and makes people want to continue to watch. Because if you feel like you have it figured out at the beginning, it’s not as exciting. But I think that I was so lucky in this that BT, our incredible director, really knew what he wanted, which is unique, especially for a first-time feature director. And so he provided a very clear roadmap.

Then Joe Cross, my incredible costar, we just had so much fun working together, and we have a very similar process and similar kind of language that we use to talk about the work. That definitely helped because we would rehearse the scene and then have conversations, and then we’d go and do it, and then we’d have more conversations and be like, well, this moment, maybe if I did this and you responded in this way, could make it a little weirder. And what if we X, Y, and Z? And then I have to shout out our incredible crew because the way it was shot, the way it was lit, all of those elements really added in and helped with the suspense of those moments.

Tyler Treese: I did want to ask you about working with Joe because this film makes your two characters have such wildly different interactions throughout it. There are these tender scenes, there are these intense scenes, you really run the gamut of emotions. So how was it getting to not just yourself, show all of your range, but also to see Joe’s range and work with one actor in that many different ways despite doing the same film?

It was amazing. It felt like summer camp, and I think for both of us, it also felt like drama school , which was, is so fun because it’s like, how far can we push this? Let’s find out. And it’s always just such a joy when you get to walk on a set and play. Like it’s like with any sport, if you play with someone who’s better than you, you level up. And so I think both of us were continuing sending volleys and really hitting hard balls because we knew that the other person could serve it back. I think I grew as a performer, as an artist, because of his incredible work ethic and his range. I think he feels the same about me, but we had a very, very fun time.

Yeah, I just talked to him. He was all compliments about you, so he definitely feels the same way.

Fantastic.

Tyler Treese: What I thought was interesting about this film was that the big twist isn’t in the last act; it comes about 40 minutes into the film. What did you like about getting to live with the aftermath and the fallout of the twist rather than it just coming super late?

Jessica Rothe: I really loved that the twist came a bit earlier. I think that so often now in films and TV, people love the hat trick of like, there’s a twist and then there’s another twist, and then there’s an even weirder twist, and then the movie ends, which is really fun. But this whole film is about the fallout of a lie and of betrayal and of a character’s inability to let go of something and let life progress in the way that it naturally should. And so I think that it made the film stronger, and it also made the things that we were able to explore even more evocative with the structure that we were given. And you know, for me it was fun because the point of view of the film really shifts, and as a result, Ellie’s understanding of what’s going on, but also her ability to be incredibly not only present, but also active in the world, changes

Your character has these spasms and like seizures throughout. Yeah. How was approaching that? How did you know, like, oh, I’m just really talented at spasming. Like, like how do you figure that out?

I did not, but now every time I go on a movie, I’m like, you want me a seizure? I can do it . I’m figuring it out. It was so intense, but it was really fun. I work with a couple different coaches on different projects and I worked with this amazing coach, Ellie Hayman, who is in New York, and we actually went to BU together, but she’s an incredible physical coach and she uses a process called Michael Checkoff, where it’s all about finding physical gestures that inform your emotional, like the emotion under the scene or the emotion in your body. And with the seizures, we use that plus like fits or it’s more, I’m forgetting the name of it, but like this voice work that involves tremoring. It was exhausting, but there’s also something really fun about just giving your body radical permission to like do some really weird. So I don’t know, maybe I exercise some of my own demons in that way. I definitely, at the end of each one felt like I had run a marathon and needed to go have a cry and a laugh and drink some tea and take a bath. Like all of the things, I probably lived like 40 years within the span of shooting this movie.

We see this in the trailer, but you’re in a cocoon for parts of this

My goo-coon.

How is it having that stuff all over your body? It looks gross to watch. So how is it to actually live that out?

Jessica Rothe: It was really gross, but really fun. I like when stuff gets messy, clearly from the different kinds of work that I do and that I enjoy doing, our incredible special effects guru, Dan Rebert, is a master, and he did such amazing work. He not only did the facial prosthetics, but also the pods, the goo, and the orange thing. The biggest thing is he told me everything that was put on me was food safe. So he’s very about safety in that way. And then there was like a metal grate underneath me so that I could breathe because the silicone on top of me was airtight.

It was kind of fun, but the thing is, the moment I got out of there, I was freezing because I was just covered in, I think he even told me the stuff that he used to make the orange goo is the same stuff that used to thicken milkshakes at like McDonald’s. So it was really gross. I was finding orange on me for weeks after that. But it was also, I knew there’s something about if something looks cool that it feels worth it, which maybe says something more about me than anything else, but I don’t know. I dug it. I thought it was really fun, and it was definitely a very unique experience.

I mean this with all due respect, but you look pretty beat up and nasty as the film progresses. What was the makeup process like for that back half of the film?

It was so intense. It was also done by Dan, who is such a master. It was my first time getting a lifecast of my face, which is a wild experience. Like for anyone who’s seen MaXXXine, they’ll know that it’s a very can be a very claustrophobic experience. But it took about an hour and a half, two hours to put those pieces on. There was a there was like a mouthpiece involved as well that made it really difficult for me to talk. So I was just drooling all over myself.

But the thing that was lovely is I got to just lie there while Dan was doing his magic, and we bonded over our love of D&D. He introduced me to dwarf rock, which was something I didn’t even know existed, but now I do, and I’m so grateful for it. I just love watching people who are incredible at what they do perform their artistry. That was such an experience that I had with Dan. Granted, it was at like three o’clock in the morning, usually when we would begin applying that prosthetic, which always felt super intense, but it was always worth it. It just added such a layer to what my experience was, and therefore, the performance that I was able to give.

Tyler Treese: I have to ask, since we’re talking about horror movies here, do you have any Happy Death Day 3 update? You know, the fans are dying for it.

Jessica Rothe: I know they are. Well, I actually just had dinner with Chris Landon last week, and we have a sneaky plan, and it’s not even that sneaky of a plan; it’s just that we feel incredibly passionately about making the third film happen. So, we are dedicated to do the legwork on our end in terms of developing it and getting it to where it needs to be so that it becomes a no-brainer for the studio. Because we Chris feels really strongly, and I agree, he’s come up with an incredible, incredible end of the trilogy and a way to kind of perfectly cap the movies. And I just love Tree, and I want to give her her final day, although, because she’s a final girl, I’m sure there is no final day. Like it could just keep going and going and going. But yeah, we both feel very passionately about it. And so I want to tell the fans, thank you for your patience, and we are working on it, but I don’t think that they’ll be disappointed.

Thanks to Jessica Rothe for taking the time to talk about Affection.