Up-and-coming American actors Ella Rubin and Michael Cimino are once again showing just how committed they are to their craft. Both are steadily building impressive careers: Ella starred alongside Anne Hathaway in Amazon Prime’s The Idea of You, appeared in Apple TV’s Masters of the Air, has graced the Broadway stage, and will soon appear in Netflix’s Fear Street: Prom Queen. Michael, who’s also a musician, broke out in the titular role of Hulu’s Love, Victor and dropped his debut EP I’m Somewhere Out There in 2022.

Now, the two team up as Clover and Max in David F. Sandberg’s film adaptation of the critically acclaimed and fan-favorite PlayStation game Until Dawn.

Much like the game, the film follows a group of young adults whose choices carry deadly weight—one wrong move and it could be the end. But this isn’t just a straight adaptation. Set within the Until Dawn universe, the movie tells its own story: Clover and her friends are searching for her missing sister Melanie, only to find themselves trapped in a terrifying time loop, reliving the same night again and again—with a limited number of lives.

For Ella and Michael, it’s a full-on horror experience. From physically demanding scenes to being drenched in blood, running from danger, and even being ‘killed’ multiple times, they’ve thrown themselves headfirst into the chaos—all in the name of making a truly thrilling horror film.

To celebrate the release, Ella Rubin and Michael Cimino sat down with 1883 to talk about bringing Until Dawn to life.

Ella and Michael thanks for speaking with 1883 Magazine. Michael, you’ve taken on the horror genre before with Annabelle Comes Home. Ella, I believe this might be your first horror project, ahead of the Fear Street film. So what was it like for both of you to be part of Until Dawn, especially knowing it would attract both horror fans and gamers?

Michael Cimino: I think for me, it was definitely trying to honour the original game and source material but make it our own as well, and to make it a fun, faithful adaptation that people will enjoy. I think the characters in our film are all super relatable, and I wanted to make sure it represented the characters we are playing and that people relate to our characters accurately too.

Ella Rubin: I feel really lucky to be part of something that was already so beloved and there is that pressure of wanting the fans to be happy and wanting to honour this artful, cinematic, incredible game. So I felt really honoured to have the torch-semi passed and bring it to life.

I shot Fear Street before I shot Until Dawn but that is a totally different kind of film and this really felt like my first horror film. The history of horror is so imperative to cinema and it’s an honour, especially right now, when going to the theatre is so important and so much fun, I really feel lucky to be part of an exciting movie you want to watch on a big screen and throw your popcorn. That’s the dream for an actor.

MC: Yeah! This is definitely a film you need to see in the theatre, it will resonate so much more. When we saw the screening, everyone was screaming and yelling. It’s amazing.

ER: Horror is so much fun, it is really lucky as an actor to get to push yourself as far as you can go rather than pullback.

This movie is set in the Until Dawn universe, expanding on it with its own story while referring to elements from the game—like the masked killer’s costume, and characters making different choices after dying. But it also keeps it fresh with a time loop. How did those elements influence how scenes were shot or how you approached your roles on set?

MC: I think the time loop aspect was kind of hard, we didn’t film everything in order. There was a lot of stuff where we had to make sure, ‘okay, we’re on this night, okay, we are doing this’. It was making sure we had a very solidified roadmap as far as where we are in the story and where are character arc throughout the story. I think that was a really fun challenge as an actor. Usually, most films now don’t film things in order but especially with this, it is so imperative to make every night feels different. That was a big challenge for me.

ER: I felt when I was starting the film, I had to get organised and together in a way I had never had before. There is a mysterious amount of nights, and throughout each night, we are dying again and again. So we are getting weaker and drained of our life force. As you might be able to see in the trailer, we look deader and deader. But in terms of my character’s specific journey, she is finding herself more, more, and more.

So it was an interesting balance of how our life is being drained, and we are dying every night, and that you really have to stay organised about the fact that you are more dead every day except also my character, Clover, had to also stand a little bit taller as the nights went on. Despite being weaker and closer to death, I think emotionally and mentally, she was a lot stronger. So that was an interesting thing to play with, wanting my character to feel there is a strong forward arc, but physically we are declining, massively. So it was a big challenge.

I think something that was huge for me, Athena, my makeup artist, was incredible and when I forgot what night it was, I would look in the mirror and be like ‘I look so bad’, it’s the end. It was a fun challenge.

Finally, for someone who’s never been in a horror film, I’m curious—when shooting a death scene or a terrifying moment, what do you both draw on to portray that intense sense of fear on screen?

ER: My own anxieties in real life [laughs], Mike knows a little bit of that. What do I draw? Truthfully, as an anxious person, I love doing horror films because I get to…

MC: Release that [laughs].

ER: Yeah! I am again a little bit anxious, and I want to scream and run normally, so on set it is like ‘yeah, you’re an animal being hunted and you’re sitting in your bed’, using that and releasing it, and kind of excavating it, not to be cheesy, but it was really cathartic. I was really inspired by a lot of other horror films and films depicting grief throughout the whole process because I was shooting every day. Every morning I would watch a little bit of a horror film, which is kind of an insane thing to do on a horror movie.

I worked myself up as much as I possibly could and listened to a lot of music, I did a lot of sitting by myself, and really putting myself there.

MC: Fear is a universal feeling; everyone has felt scared or at least most people have at some point in their lives. To make sure that it is represented accurately on screen is really important, and I feel the duality of fear and death, and then bravery and trying to overcome death and this crazy circumstance. I feel that was a really fun thing to play into. I drew a lot from the death, fear, and the confidence and bravery of all the characters.

Amazing, this was a short and sweet chat as I know you’ve got a lot more interviews planned, I hope you guys have a good day!

MC: Thanks man, take it easy.

ER: Thank you!

Until Dawn is in cinemas on Friday.

Interview Cameron Poole