Austin Abrams and Amy Madigan Are Enjoying the High While It Lasts

Austin Abrams has made a career out of looking like he’s one bad moment away from falling apart. He was Ethan on Euphoria and the guy who somehow held his own between Brad Pitt and George Clooney in Wolfs. Then came Weapons, Zach Cregger’s horror hit that let Abrams do what he does best: barely hold it together under the most extreme circumstances. Now Cregger has cast him as the lead in his Resident Evil reboot, playing a medical courier fighting his way through a zombie outbreak, while Whalefall puts him in an even tighter spot: a grieving son trapped inside a sperm whale with 60 minutes of oxygen. It’s a strange, high-profile stretch for a rising actor, one that his Weapons costar and newly minted Oscar winner Amy Madigan wanted to know all about.

TUESDAY 3:30 PM SEP. 1, 2026 LA

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AMY MADIGAN: How are you, dude? You’re about to have two unbelievable kick-ass movies come out. How are you feeling?

AUSTIN ABRAMS: I’m grateful for you talking with me, big time. I was so happy for you when you won an Oscar.

MADIGAN: Can you believe that?

ABRAMS: Well yes, because I remember sitting behind the monitor and thinking, “I’m watching an iconic performance right now.”

MADIGAN: That’s too kind.

ABRAMS: I’m not trying to be kind. It’s so cool to know everyone else felt that way too.

MADIGAN: It’s still like, “What happened?” But the best thing about it is we made a really good film, and now I have a little naked gold man.

ABRAMS: You sleep with it every night, I’m assuming.

MADIGAN: It’s on my dresser. I’ve got laundry piled on it.

ABRAMS: It makes a good hanger. Both you and Gladys deserved that. She was a great character.

MADIGAN: She really was. I miss her! What is it about Zach Cregger? What does he see? What’s your vibe with him? He obviously connects with you.

ABRAMS: He’s just such a good director, such a good writer, and has such vision, but then he’s also so great at comedy. It’s rare to get that.

MADIGAN: He’s really got those chops down, doesn’t he? Without being super obvious about it in terms of genre.

ABRAMS: He’s not necessarily trying to be funny, he’s just writing, and then it—

MADIGAN: It just is.

ABRAMS: I don’t think he thought Weapons was funny.

MADIGAN: Weapons has some laughs in it, man.

ABRAMS: I think it’s hilarious.

MADIGAN: I love the scene where you’re looking for money so you can score, and you’re trying the handles on a whole string of cars to see if one is open. You move like [Mikhail] Baryshnikov or something. You have such a beautiful flow and you’re very secure in your body, which I also saw in Whalefall. You’re just a physical guy, and I’m curious if you’ve played sports? Did you get into theater or something and then realize, “I can use my body in this way?”

ABRAMS: I’ve always been doing sporty things, but never something where I was on a team.

MADIGAN: You weren’t a jock.

ABRAMS: No, but the school I went to had PE and recess one after another, so it would be hours of just playing around. I also come from Florida, so there was always a lot of physical stuff and being outside.

MADIGAN: I’m not giving away too much in Whalefall when I say you play a man who suddenly ends up inside a whale, but even in that confined space, you were very physical. Were you claustrophobic when you were filming it? I got claustrophobic watching it.

ABRAMS: There were times where I was really, really squished in there, but generally not too much. And the wetsuit I wore was as tight as could possibly be.

MADIGAN: Can I ask if it had a zipper on it?

ABRAMS: On the wetsuit?

MADIGAN: Yes, in case you had to pee.

ABRAMS: No, no, no.

MADIGAN: So once you were in there, you were in there?

ABRAMS: Yeah, and I feel like I pee a lot, so there were times when I was screwed.

MADIGAN: When you get to be my age, you really pee a lot.

ABRAMS: Oh, no. It’s going to be bad.

MADIGAN: It’s a beautiful film that’s ultimately about a father and son in a contentious relationship. When you’re in a situation like that, do you use your own memories? Do you like to draw from your own reality or life situations, or do you go a different way?

ABRAMS: It’s interesting because everyone has different methods. There’s stories of certain actors like, I don’t know, Margot Robbie, where she’s like, “You want me to cry from this eye or that eye?”

MADIGAN: Exactly.

ABRAMS: To me, the loveliest part is when the story affects you on an emotional level, and hopefully you’ve done whatever work you can to inform that. I’ve found trying to strong-arm a memory isn’t super effective.

MADIGAN: It was nice seeing you in Whalefall because I saw you embodying this character in ways I hadn’t seen in your other work. Do you feel like you’re going through some type of metamorphosis?

ABRAMS: I’m curious what you mean by that, because there’s a lot of different ways I can interpret it.

MADIGAN: Have you found either of these pieces have changed your perspective? How you looked at yourself or the way you work? I’m always curious how the work informs what we do and vice versa.

ABRAMS: I do know they were both fairly intense processes, which is really rewarding and also really challenging.

MADIGAN: Yeah, that’s a good feeling.

ABRAMS: Especially doing things that make you appreciate the body.

MADIGAN: Yes.

ABRAMS: So often with these physical things, you just throw yourself into it and think, “Whatever needs to be done,” but coming out of them, it’s like, “No, these things have long-term effects.”

MADIGAN: Definitely. Have you ever felt you’ve gone too far or put yourself in jeopardy?

ABRAMS: Definitely. I’ve come out of things and realized, “Oh, this body part doesn’t feel the same anymore.”

MADIGAN: “My rotator cuff is not working. What happened?”

ABRAMS: Yeah, and it’s wild. For some reason with the work, I just assumed it would be fine because it’s for a relatively short amount of time. There have definitely been some hairy situations with stunts, and I’ve done a decent amount of them.

MADIGAN: You like doing that?

ABRAMS: Yeah. I feel a compulsion to do it when I’m there. Resident Evil is maybe the one where I don’t think I did.

MADIGAN: I heard via some folks who worked on it that it was a tough shoot.

ABRAMS: Yeah, definitely. Anytime you’re doing an all-night shoot—

MADIGAN: In the snow.

ABRAMS: Have you done all-nights?

MADIGAN: I haven’t in a while, but I have.

ABRAMS: It was about two or three months of nights, and you think you’re good, but you get to week one, week two, and everyone starts to feel it.

MADIGAN: A psychosis.

ABRAMS: Yeah, it just automatically makes everything a little bit harder. Do you like night shoots?

MADIGAN: I’m a nighttime person in general, my normal circadian rhythms are like that. That’s why doing my theater is such a nice thing for me, but Resident Evil was all these nights for two months, three months?

ABRAMS: Three months, yeah.

MADIGAN: Man, that must have been brutal. You can’t really prep for that, you’re just in it.

ABRAMS: You’re just doing it and trying to figure out the best way to feel good while you’re doing it.

MADIGAN: I have to give you a big clap on the back because I talked to some people who worked on that. They told me you were the hero, that you were the reason everybody was solid. Everybody was going to follow you into battle.

ABRAMS: Oh, that’s cute.

MADIGAN: Whatever it took, people were going to do it, and that’s not something you can manufacture. I think that comes from you.

ABRAMS: Oh, thanks. When you’re working, you’ve got to go for it. Everyone’s responding off each other’s energy, and you have to do the best you can to make the right kind of energy, especially when something is hard.

MADIGAN: Do you like doing rehearsal?

ABRAMS: It depends on how useful it is. It can either be great for discovery, or it can end up being limiting. Like you run the idea to the bone and then when you get there, it doesn’t feel fresh anymore.

MADIGAN: Exactly. It’s a delicate balance between over and under rehearsal. I like to rehearse, but not a lot. If something’s really, really important, like, “The camera is going to do this and it can only accommodate that,” I’d rather know that, but it depends on what’s going on, what the director likes, how the other people in the scene feel.

ABRAMS: I love working with Zach because I can throw out a ton of ideas and he’ll pick up what’s working and what isn’t. Did you have a similar experience with him playing Gladys, or were you like, “I know what I want to do. I’m coming in and doing it?”

MADIGAN: Zach has an amazing ability to leave things very open and allow them to breathe. It was very freeing, and after reading the script I felt like, “I know who this person is. I know who this woman is. I love her.” Zach just knew how to make Gladys come out.

ABRAMS: It’s so interesting how putting on some sort of costume really does allow a greater freedom.

MADIGAN: I was thinking about that when I watched you in Whalefall. You were squished, but in that tightness, there was this release in you because you were so committed to the idea of “I’m going to get out of here.”

ABRAMS: It was crazy because they really did build everything. They built every stomach, they built the throat, they built the mouth. It was crazy to be part of a project that was fully going for it. Just like, “We’re doing this full throttle.” It was a unique experience.

MADIGAN: I bet. You’re not going to have that one again, I’m sure.

ABRAMS: Do you find you’re drawn to specific parts at this point?

MADIGAN: I’m a very script-driven person. I would be remiss if I didn’t say I’m certainly on people’s radar more than I usually have been, which is a very nice feeling. I don’t take it for granted, because it’s all relative. At this point in my life, it’s like, “What do you want to do with your time?” I’m very open to taking a challenge. I’m not one of those people who are like, “I’m terrified and that means I have to do it.” I’m like, “What’s the idea? What are we saying here?” I’m motivated in that way.

ABRAMS: Is there something you feel you want to say at this point?

MADIGAN: I don’t have something specific. Sometimes I wish I did because maybe my life would be easier, but probably not. I really want to just continue doing what I do and work with really good people who commit as severely as I do. How about you? How do you make your next decision?

ABRAMS: I relate to what you’re saying, because I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I’m looking for one specific thing either. I want to enjoy the process of being surprised by something, which is why I love Zach so much. I love movies where you can feel the director in the atmosphere they’ve created.

MADIGAN: I feel like Paul Thomas Anderson is one of those people.

ABRAMS: Totally. The whole thing is such a curious, magical, ethereal process. How do you feel about the ups and downs of your experience in this work, because you’ve recently had a big up?

MADIGAN: Yes, but the way down is fast.

ABRAMS: Yeah, I know that.

MADIGAN: I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve had some very, very fallow times. I had conversations with myself some years ago, thinking, “Maybe I’ve retired and nobody told me yet.” Certainly, you can get older and still know you’re capable of doing really good work. That’s crazy-making in itself, but it’s the journey, you know what I mean? I feel like I’m still grinding. I’ve talked to younger people, and I always say, “If there’s something else you can do, you should go do it.” You have to be driven to do this, you have to really want to do this, and you cannot be deterred from doing it. That doesn’t mean you’re an asshole, but you have to have a clear path, and it’s very difficult. I hit 55 or something, and I was like, “Jesus, maybe I’ll just pay somebody to hire me.”

ABRAMS: Have you learned to find your rhythm in terms of working and not working?

MADIGAN: Certainly, the older you get, life just smashes you. It interferes with what you’re trying to say or do or be, and work is such a release for that, such a pleasure, so you have to balance those things out. I look at things differently now than I did 10 years ago, but the impetus of being involved with really exciting, good people and working on good stuff, that’s still there.

ABRAMS: Do you find that when you finish working on something with a lot of intensity, it feels like you’re barren?

MADIGAN: Absolutely.

ABRAMS: It can feel like there’s nothing left to give, and that’s a tricky feeling to deal with.

MADIGAN: It’s like when a play closes and you’re like, “What happened?”

ABRAMS: It’s a tricky time.

MADIGAN: Are you feeling like that now? Talking about things you’ve done that are in the can?

ABRAMS: I wouldn’t say as much now. It’s been some time since we finished, depending on what it is. There can be a recovery period.

MADIGAN: That’s important to do, honest to god.

ABRAMS: You want to have something to give.

MADIGAN: Some people don’t. I don’t know them, but you sometimes see people who are just working, working, working, and I always think, “You need to take a break.” How ridiculous of me to even have those conversations with someone I don’t know.

ABRAMS: Tom Cruise is the epitome of that. The energy levels on that man sound mythic.

MADIGAN: Or something.

ABRAMS: I don’t know how he’s doing what he’s doing.

MADIGAN: Maybe Mr. Cruise doesn’t know. I have no idea.

ABRAMS: Yeah. He’s living on a whole different plane of energy.

MADIGAN: Without me prying or anything, do you have people close to you who are there with you when you’re really concentrating and still there in the downtime?

ABRAMS: The people you end up working with maybe can end up providing that kind of relationship. I know Zach and I developed a close understanding of each other.

MADIGAN: That’s awfully nice, because that doesn’t happen all the time.

ABRAMS: No. I’m very grateful he wanted to work with me, really. I also feel really honored and moved that you would sit down and talk with me.

MADIGAN: I’m telling you, this was a no-brainer.

ABRAMS: Oh, thank you.

MADIGAN: Not that you need to hear, but I believe in you. As a performer, as an actor, but more importantly as a man. I like your intensity. I like that rhythm.

ABRAMS: Thanks. This has been really lovely.

MADIGAN: Thanks, my friend.

ABRAMS: Okay. Be well.

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

Set Design: James Rene at Jones Management.

Photo Assistant: Dominic Haydn Rawle.

Styling Assistant: Sophie Stedman.

Production Director: Alexandra Weiss.

Photo Producer: Georgia Ford.

On-set Producer: Richard Knickerbocker.

Production Assistant: CJ Sebastian.

The post Austin Abrams and Amy Madigan Are Enjoying the High While It Lasts appeared first on Interview Magazine.