Lou Llobell on new horror film Passenger: 'It wasn’t like I had to act scared – it was scary'

Lou Llobell’s new horror film, Passenger, might really have been haunted. She stars opposite Jacob Scipio in a story about a couple who quit their jobs to go on a road trip, but encounter “a highway demon”. It was filmed in Washington state — Twin Peaks country — and weird stuff went down.

“We shot in the area where the Green River killer dumped all his bodies,” she says. “We filmed everything at night and spooky things would happen. The van we were shooting in would start moving or shaking and the SOS button would randomly go off. Jacob requested a priest to bless the set.” Seriously? “Yeah — and they found this priest because there was a priest convention nearby,” she says. “He came and sprayed us and the van with holy water.” Did it work? “I don’t think so.”

All this made finding the truth in her character straightforward, because Llobell truly was scared. “There is this one scene where my character walks across a parking lot and sees these creepy dudes,” she says. “It’s such an honest, real experience as a woman walking in a dark parking lot by yourself. It wasn’t like I had to act scared, because it is a scary situation.

“What’s special about being in a horror film is experiencing raw feelings that feel real. I would have panic attacks after some of my scenes because my body couldn’t tell the difference between acting and reality. When this demon shows up and my character sees him for the first time, we filmed it in one long take. So I would be really experiencing the fear, and my body couldn’t catch up.”

Llobell, 31, is half Zimbabwean and half Spanish. Born in Zimbabwe, she lived in Spain and then South Africa before coming to England to study drama at Birmingham University. Drama Centre London followed, after which she landed her first job: playing Gaal Dornick in Foundation, a sci-fi series on Apple+ created by David S Goyer, who wrote Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. She is currently filming its fourth season in Prague and says: “Four seasons for a TV show is unheard of now, so I’m very happy.”

Passenger represents her first major foray into film — and it’s a big moment for her. “If you told my 16-year-old self that you’d be able to go to the cinema and buy a ticket and see a movie I’m in… It’s a pinch-me moment,” she says. “I’m freaking out.” And despite — or because of — the spookiness, she has been bitten by the horror bug: “I would love to keep doing horrors,” she says. “There’s an excitement. The stakes are so high all the time. As an actor, I nerd out on it. As human beings we’re trying to make our lives feel worthwhile, to mean something. But when you’ve got an imminent threat, it becomes clear — it’s life or death. That’s exciting.”

Passenger is in cinemas on May 22