‘The Monkey’ Actor Nicco Del Rio Talks Playing The Film’s Hilarious Priest
For all of the violent delights of director Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, which tells the story of twin brothers, Hal and Bill (Christian Convery as young versions of the brothers while Theo James plays the brothers grown up) whose wind up toy monkey causes the people around them to die in horrific ways, the film’s scariest (and humorous moment) involves no blood or guts whatsoever.
After their babysitter, Annie (Danica Dreyer), is unceremoniously decapitated at a hibachi grill (the kills only escalate in absurdity from there), Hal, Bill and their mother (Tatiana Maslany) attend her funeral service where rookie priest (Nicco Del Rio) gives the sermon.
He only appears in a couple of scenes, but Del Rio is a revelation as the nascent clergy member who fails spectacularly at comforting his weary congregation. Delivered with the cadence of someone on an acid trip, the priest’s sermon is a doomsday benediction for our times, filled with all the “right” platitudes and words but empty of genuine reprieve. “Is there a divine plan? Sure,” he stutters, “Call it a coin toss. Heads or tails … but not Annie’s head …” he continues. There’s something relatable, terrifying and clarifying as we see the priest struggle to find the right words, realizing that sometimes the tragedies we face are so insurmountable that they defy such easy comforts.
For Del Rio, who was only on set for one day and delivered the sermon at a real church packed with actors and extras, he used the onset nervousness (and the reality of the film’s tongue and cheek irreverence towards religion) as an access point for his character. “The irreverence fueled the comedy … we have to laugh at the absurdity,” he shared. It results in a scene-stealing moment in the film and a hopeful calling card for Del Rio to put his mix of winsome snark and intrinsic relatability to many more projects to come.
He spoke with Dread Central about how growing up in the church informed his approach to the character, Perkins’ guidance, and using on-set nervousness as a way to access the interiority of his character.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Dread Central: Have you been able to see the film in its entirety? If so, I’d be curious to know if you’ve been able to see the reactions from the audience for your scene?
Nicco Del Rio: I’ve been telling all my friends, “Holy shit so many people are perceiving me with this movie … it’s terrifying.” There was a cast and crew screening about a month and a half ago so I saw that film then. That was a fun experience because everyone who made it was there. A car would drive by in the frame and you would hear someone from the crowd say “Yeah, that was me. I drove that.” It was gratifying seeing it in a theater and hearing people chuckle. Even talking with the editor and other crew during ADR, they said that my scene was one of the funniest in the movie.
DC: At all the screenings I’ve attended, your scene gets the loudest response and reaction which I think says something about our current time. How did you get signed on to this film?
NDR: I’m signed with Premiere Talent Management so they sent me an audition. So I auditioned for a couple other roles in the movie before I did the priest one. I auditioned for Zia Newton’s character who plays Theo James’ boss, Danica Dreyer’s babysitter character, and Rohan Campbell’s Ricky.
I was raised Catholic and went to St. Thomas More which is a Catholic school, and that’s where I started acting; 10 years later I’m playing a priest in The Monkey. When it came time to audition, I already knew a lot of the mannerisms and sayings so from the start of the audition I just began improvising. A lot of that was based on stuff I heard priests say grow up like “The Lord be unto you … It is what it is” or doing the sign of the cross.
DC: The Lord works in mysterious ways. It all led to that moment. I spoke with Osgood Perkins recently and he shared that the sermon you shot was originally much longer. What was filming that sequence like and can you divulge any details about what may have been cut?
NDR: It’s funny because The Monkey is a solid career moment for me, but I was just on set for one day a year ago and now it’s all building up. I did this speech in front of all the extras in live time. I forget if this was Osgood, but somebody on the team asked if I was chill about that and I said, “Oh I’ve done theater so I have no shame. I’ve lost it all already.”
It was really strange trying to be funny while everyone else in that scene was acting as you normally would at a funeral. All the actors and extras are instructed to not laugh and are supposed to be disgusted by how badly my character is presiding over this service. So I am riffing and making puns, hoping that I’m being funny while the very people I’m delivering this to aren’t giving me anything to work with. I think Oz picked on that bit and knew that dynamic so off-camera he made sure to give me a couple laughs during my sermon.
DC: He’s the director … he’s allowed to make the noise. They can just edit his sound bytes out.
NDR: Exactly. I knew I wasn’t drowning and flailing in what was expected of me so that was encouraging. Then by the time the first take of the speech ended and he called cut, all the extras were able to get their reactions out and respond which also reassuring that I wasn’t fucking it up.
There was a bunch more I said but I loved how they cut it; it ended up perfectly. An example of a note though that helped inform my performance was the very first line. It wasn’t in the script, but just before one of the takes, Osgood said “For this next one, pretend like you’re on mushrooms and you’re not ready for this. Walk in and give us an ‘Oh fuck’ or however you want” and I was like “Okay, sounds good.” It was fun to go in with that addition because it helped dictate how the rest of the scene could feel.
DC: Vaping cardinal from Conclave versus priest on shrooms in The Monkey … choose your fighter. That’s a challenge, though, to not have the audience reaction to work off of, especially when in religious spaces, there probably is more of a call and response dynamic.
NDR: As an actor you just have to pretend you’re doing good. Otherwise you’re just going to die.
DC: Commit to the bit, truly. Perkins was telling me that in the lore of this world, there was an older more veteran priest who was supposed to deliver the message but wasn’t able to so that’s why your character gets assigned that. Were you thinking of these details as you were approaching your scene or did you build any conscious backstory?
NDR: As actors, we call it “the moment before” where we sort of ground ourselves before doing the scene and Osgood really set it up well for me. He told me “Hey you’re not the number one choice here.” To clarify, not for me as a person for this role but in-universe for my character.
DC: I was going to say … that’d be rough to hear.
NDR: Yeah he meant like my character was not the first or second choice replacement to give this message. He’s more the fifth choice, he’s not ready to deliver this sermon, and on top of all that, he’s done some drugs. It was fun to play with that feeling in my delivery, too. Being up there and using the nervousness of being on set was helpful in terms of dictating my response.
Backstory wise, in my mind, I came to this conclusion that this guy doesn’t know what real consequences are. He’s so unaware of life’s difficulties and by the end of the sermon, he thinks he did a really solid job.
DC: He’s like “Yeah, I got in ALL the Christian platitudes in there.”
NDR: Exactly … he thinks he nailed it. He even was able to make a decapitation joke. That joke wasn’t in the original script or at least in my audition script.
DC: All encomium due to the script but I also do think that your delivery is what really unlocks the sardonic humor that’s characterizes the whole movie. Your scene really does feel like a distillation of what The Monkey is trying to do.
NDR: That’s kind and also a little too much. [Laughs] It’s funny because watching it with my friends, I’ll tell them “Yup, I didn’t really stretch myself as an actor.” The priest’s vibe is kind of who I am anyways.
DC: To your point about growing up in a faith community, Blair Underwood shared that when filming Longlegs he stayed “prayed up” especially since they were dealing with spiritual evil in all forms. Do you have trepidation at all when filming a project like this that deals with the spiritual and/or forces that tap into things beyond our world? I know you’ve also worked on shows like See and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina …
NDR: Maybe I’m being a bit of shithead, but it’s fun to see people get mad at the irreverence. I posted a reel where I was dressed up as the priest and I got some comments from people saying “Don’t be blasphemous! You can’t forgive your own sins.” I was just making some jokes here!
But on set, there definitely is an extra layer that comes with working with these grander concepts. Like with something like Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the guy who played Lucifer was #666 on the call sheet which is cool but also eerie. With The Monkey, we’re straight up filming in a church and the last time I was in the church was when I was actually going to church. Yet now I’m on the podium and the first line is “fuck.”
Honestly, the irreverence fuels the comedy of it, too. It didn’t even cross my mind at the time, but when people were seeing the trailer, which ends with my f-bomb, people were like “Woah the priest is swearing.” I guess that is weird. It adds some extra interest to it.
DC: The irreverence is endearing, cathartic, and relatable, too. I’m sure clergy, if they were being honest, have felt what your character articulates. When there’s tragedy on such a senseless and massive scale, what else can you do but swear, throw your hands up, and laugh?
NDR: If we take it that seriously … is that even good? We kind of have to laugh about it.
DC: Between Fleabag’s hot priest, Conclave’s cardinals, and now your role here, you’re helping lead the charge of clergy representation on-screen so thank you for your service.
NDR: Glad to be a part of it. I need to go update my headshot now.
DC: You should do it all in the priest garb. Say you can even do weddings.
NDR: That’d be funny. What if I get myself ordained and become a real pastor as a result of all this?
The Monkey is out now in theaters.
Categorized:Interviews
