Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn reveal kindness fuels A Quiet Place: Day One

Prequel's stars speak to The National about playing two strangers who rely on each other to survive

The big city can be a scary place, even without an alien invasion. Without loved ones around, feelings of loneliness, anxiety or desperation can frequently creep in. How does one get through? To echo the words of playwright Tennessee Williams’s most famous heroine Blanche DuBois: “I always rely on the kindness of strangers.”

That’s what makes A Quiet Place: Day One, directed by Michael Sarnoski, feel so different from its hit predecessors. The first two films in the sci-fi saga followed a married couple and their children as they traversed a barren wilderness, fighting to survive. This prequel, set in New York City on the day the murderous creatures first land on Earth, follows a cancer patient and a law student, both alone, who become each other’s family, if only for a moment.

Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o, who stars as Sam, tells The National: “I think it’s a reminder of how much we as people need each other. Not just our tribal members – we need more. When in the first two films we’re following a family, we understand that relationship – the strong bond between family members. When it’s total strangers, it’s not a given. Here, you’re witnessing two people navigate this world, sometimes reluctantly, but always together.”

Lupita Nyong'o, led by director Michael Sarnoski, relied on physicality for the mostly silent performance. AP

In the opening, Nyong’o's character Sam is in a hospice with only her service cat Frodo to console her. She’s seemingly given up on life, but when aliens descend, she finds herself fighting to survive. At one point early on, she and her cat are separated, and the film follows only the cat. Frodo happens upon a man in dire need of help, a British law student named Eric, played by Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who he guides to Sam.

“There's a peculiar love between these characters,” Quinn says. “It’s not the conventional kind usually presented in blockbusters.”

Quinn credits Sarnoski, who also wrote the script, with bringing a unique kindness to the film, in which the only villains are the creatures that hunt anything that makes a sound, and trusting others is the only way to survive. Sarnoski’s directorial debut, 2021’s Pig starring Nicolas Cage, was a surprise hit, following a truffle farmer as he attempts to get back the beloved animal stolen from him. In that film, a John Wick-esque set-up slowly becomes something much less bloody and much more compassionate than expected.

“I think [the kindness] is something Michael really brought to this. There’s a depth to his humanity, which is very palpable in his writing,” Quinn continues. “There’s grief, and the opposite of grief is love. And that was our task in some way – to try and figure that out together.”

The bond between the characters mirrors the bond that developed between the two actors, as they navigated a demanding shoot that required them to channel constant panic by leaning on one another.

The bond between Joseph Quinn and Lupita Nyong'o was heightened because the film forced them to communicate mostly with facial expressions. Photo: Paramount Pictures

Nyong’o says: “We were really taking care of each other in each scene. We didn’t have premeditated ideas of what needed to happen, we experimented with every take."

Part of that was necessary because of the basic set-up of the A Quiet Place films – because the monsters will kill anyone who makes a sound, people need to stay as silent as possible to survive. “We didn’t have dialogue. It wasn’t about remembering your lines," Nyong’o adds. "It was all about understanding – facial expression, bodily expression – and working within those nuances. We had to be listening to each other – watching each other – in every take.

"Joe impressed me because he was constantly surprising. His energy would shift the room from the first take. Then, he’d be equally as surprising on the second take. He would just try things, and I would too, and if it didn’t work, he’d try something else. He wasn’t self-conscious, and it was a beautiful thing to witness and play off of.”

Nyong’o was inspired by Quinn as an actor, and Quinn was inspired by Nyong’o as a person, who operated as a true leader on set.

“Lupita was a marvel to watch,” says Quinn, who is also set to become a Marvel hero in the coming Fantastic Four film. “The ways she conducted herself were honestly remarkable. She put so much effort into making sure that the aesthetic of the character felt right to her personally, which was no small task.

“It was a herculean effort to maintain presence through this. She was always there for everyone in every department, while remaining present and brave on screen. It was incredibly impressive."

A Quiet Place: Day One is in cinemas now across the Middle East