Austin Abrams on Whalefall, Resident Evil and Finding His Rhythm on Set

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Austin Abrams is entering a run of roles built around physical pressure: a medical courier navigating a zombie outbreak in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot, and a grieving son fighting to escape a sperm whale in Whalefall, with just 60 minutes of oxygen. For Abrams, the appeal isn’t simply the spectacle. These productions have pushed him to consider what demanding work asks of a body, how a cast sustains energy through a difficult shoot, and why the right director can make room for discovery.

Those questions surfaced in a conversation with Amy Madigan, his costar in Weapons. Madigan, newly an Oscar winner for her performance as Gladys, has her own perspective on the exhilaration and uncertainty of an acting career. The two talked about the physicality of Abrams’s roles, Cregger’s mix of comedy and tension, and the rhythm of working hard, then making space to recover.

The exchange began with Abrams congratulating Madigan on her Oscar. He recalled watching her work from behind the monitor during Weapons and recognizing the performance as something special. Madigan was still adjusting to the win, she said, though she was glad the film they made had connected with people. Her statuette now sits on her dresser, where laundry sometimes gets piled on it.

Finding comedy in the pressure

Madigan wanted to know what Cregger sees in Abrams, having brought him into Weapons and then cast him in Resident Evil. Abrams described the director as a writer with a strong visual sense and an instinct for comedy. That comic quality can arrive without a scene announcing that it’s meant to be funny. Madigan agreed: Weapons has laughs, even when its characters are caught in situations that are far from light.

She singled out a moment when Abrams’s character searches a row of cars for money, testing their handles in the hope that one is unlocked. His movement through the scene reminded her of a dancer. That physical ease also stood out in Whalefall, where the central challenge is being trapped in an extraordinarily confined space.

Abrams didn’t come to acting through organized team sports. He grew up in Florida, where outdoor activity was part of daily life, and remembers school days that paired physical education with recess. He describes a childhood spent moving around, rather than training toward a particular sport. That background seems to have given him a comfort with physical performance, though the demands of a film set can make movement more complicated than simply throwing yourself into a scene.

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Inside the whale

In Whalefall, Abrams plays a man who ends up inside a whale while grieving his father and reckoning with their difficult relationship. Madigan found the performance strikingly physical, even though the setting leaves little room to move. The film made her feel confined as a viewer; Abrams says the actual filming brought moments of being genuinely squeezed, though he wasn’t claustrophobic for most of the shoot.

The wetsuit added another layer of restriction. Madigan asked whether it had a zipper for bathroom breaks. It didn’t. Abrams joked that, given how often he needs to pee, there were moments when he was stuck waiting. The exchange gets a laugh, but it also points to the practical realities behind a scene designed to feel like a fight for space and air.

Abrams said the production built the whale’s stomach, throat and mouth, creating physical environments for him to work inside. For him, that commitment made the project unusual: the filmmakers built out the central premise and gave him a tangible world to respond to. The tight setting could also sharpen the character’s objective. Madigan saw a kind of release in Abrams’s performance precisely because he was so committed to getting out.

When Madigan asked whether he draws on personal memories to reach a character’s emotions, Abrams said he finds it more useful to let the story affect him than to force a particular memory into the moment. He knows actors use different methods, but trying to summon a feeling on command hasn’t been especially effective for him. Preparation can help, he suggested, while emotional truth often comes from staying receptive to what’s happening in the scene.

What physical roles take

Both Whalefall and Resident Evil demanded intensity, and Abrams found the work rewarding as well as challenging. He came away with a greater awareness that physical effort can have effects beyond the hours spent filming. At times, he has finished a project and realized that a part of his body no longer felt the same. He described doing stunts as something he feels drawn to on set, even when there have been difficult or risky moments.

Resident Evil was an exception: Abrams doesn’t think he performed stunts on that production. The shoot had another formidable demand. It took place at night, in snowy conditions, for about three months. The hours can seem manageable at first, he said, but fatigue becomes more apparent as one week gives way to the next. Working overnight changes the difficulty of the job, even when the cast and crew are trying to keep their spirits up.

Madigan said she had heard from people on the production that Abrams helped keep the group steady. She described him as someone the crew was ready to follow through a hard stretch. Abrams credited the atmosphere people create together: when conditions are tough, each person’s energy affects the others, and he tries to contribute the kind that helps everyone keep going.

That thoughtfulness applies to preparation, too. Abrams likes rehearsal when it opens up possibilities, but thinks it can drain a scene if the cast repeats an idea until it stops feeling spontaneous. Madigan agreed that there’s a balance to strike. She likes to know when a camera move or another practical limit affects a scene, while still leaving room for the director and actors to respond to one another.

With Cregger, Abrams feels able to offer ideas and trust the director to recognize which ones serve the work. Madigan found a similar openness while playing Gladys in Weapons. She felt she understood the character after reading the script, and Cregger gave her space to bring that understanding forward. Both actors value a director who can shape a performance without closing down the process.

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Choosing the work, and living with its aftermath

Asked how she chooses roles, Madigan said she starts with the script and the idea behind it. The Oscar has brought more attention her way, a change she appreciates without taking for granted. At this point in her life, she’s interested in what she wants to spend her time doing and in working with people who bring serious commitment to a project. She doesn’t believe a performer has to chase a role simply because it feels intimidating; the underlying idea matters.

Abrams recognized himself in that approach. He isn’t waiting for one particular kind of part. He enjoys being surprised by a project and by the atmosphere a director creates. He admires films where the director’s sensibility can be felt throughout, naming Paul Thomas Anderson as one filmmaker who leaves that impression. For Abrams, a movie’s creative process can feel curious and difficult to predict, which is part of what keeps him interested.

Madigan spoke candidly about the irregular pace of acting work. After a recent high point, she knows how quickly the work can go quiet. She has experienced long stretches when opportunities were scarce and wondered if her career had ended without anyone telling her. Even so, she continues to believe she can do strong work, and that belief sits alongside the frustration of waiting for the next chance.

She told Abrams that a person has to want this work deeply and keep pursuing it through uncertainty. That drive doesn’t require being difficult to work with, she clarified, but it does require persistence. She recalled reaching her mid-fifties and wondering whether she might have to pay someone to hire her. The joke carries the same hard-earned honesty as her point about an unpredictable career: talent doesn’t make the waiting disappear.

For Madigan, work remains a source of pleasure and release amid the demands of life. Her outlook has changed over time, but she’s still drawn to compelling material and people who take it seriously. Abrams, too, sees the process as something that asks for energy and leaves a mark. After an intense production, he said, there can be a recovery period before he feels ready to give himself to something else.

They compared that sense of depletion to the feeling after a play closes: the work has occupied so much of you that its sudden absence can be disorienting. Madigan said taking a break matters, even though some performers seem to keep working without pause. Abrams mentioned Tom Cruise as an example of someone whose energy seems almost beyond explanation, while Madigan wondered whether even Cruise could account for it himself.

On the more personal question of who offers support during a concentrated shoot and in the quieter time afterward, Abrams said that working relationships can sometimes become a source of closeness. He and Cregger developed a strong understanding through their work together. Abrams feels grateful that the director wanted to keep working with him, and Madigan said that kind of connection doesn’t happen on every project.

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The conversation returns to what keeps both actors invested: good work, demanding collaborators and a process that still has room to surprise them. Madigan told Abrams she believes in him as a performer and as a person, praising his intensity and the rhythm he brings to the work. His next roles put that physical commitment on display, but his account of the shoots leaves a more lasting impression: the challenge is not only to go all in, but to notice what the work takes and make space to come back ready.

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Groomer: Jamie Taylor using California Born at A-Frame Agency.

Set Design: James Rene at Jones Management.

Photo Assistant: Michael Massas.

Styling Assistants: Sophie Stedman and Scotti Storti.

Production Director: Alexandra Weiss.

Photo Producer: Georgia Ford.

On-set Producer: Richard Knickerbocker.

Production Assistant: CJ Sebastian.

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