Doctor Sleep star Rebecca Ferguson has revealed she broke down in tears filming a scene where her character in the horror movie goes “beyond evil”.
The English-Swedish actress is starring opposite Ewan McGregor in the adaption of Stephen King’s 2013 novel, which is a sequel to his 1977 classic The Shining.
Doctor Sleep is set decades after the first book and features a grown-up Dan Torrance – played by McGregor – who is now an alcoholic struggling to deal with his childhood trauma.
Ferguson stars as Rose the Hat, a leader of a cult that feeds on children with psychic powers.
The 36-year-old said one particular scene left her so distressed that members of the crew were looking away in horror.
Speaking at the film’s premiere in Los Angeles, she told the PA news agency: “There are moments in the film that my character goes beyond evil and I wasn’t prepared for the emotional shock that I actually went through.
“And I think the guy who I acted with was so good that when – I don’t want to give anything away – but at the moment when it was ‘action’ and there was some screaming coming from this actor, tears were pouring down my face.
“And I realised there was a moment I would mess up his shot because it was a two-shot, and literally I had to wipe my face and I was looking around the set seeing that the script supervisor wasn’t even looking at the camera, everyone had turned away from this moment.”
King, one of the most influential writers of horror, famously has a strong dislike for Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaption of The Shining.
While the film – best remembered for Jack Nicholson’s shouting “Here’s Johnny!” while using an axe to break down a door – is now widely considered a classic, King disliked many aspects of it and once described it as “too cold”.
For Doctor Sleep, the famed author has already given director Mike Flanagan his blessing.
Ferguson said she was not surprised, describing the script as “impeccable”.
“When I read the script, I usually have some form of comment,” she said.
“And I think for this one I really felt I had no comment whatsoever, it was impeccable from the beginning to the end.”
Doctor Sleep is released in UK cinemas on October 31.