Evangeline Lilly stars as a terminally ill wife-to-be in the new indie thriller South of Heaven alongside Jason Sudeikis, who plays her just-released from jail beau who is trying to walk the straight and narrow, when of course everything goes very, very south.
While Lilly notes Sudeikis is known for playing “the most likable, jovial, sweet and charming” characters, like his current Emmy-winning title role in the Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso, Lilly told ABC Audio that audiences can expect to see a different side of him.
“He takes a real turn in this movie he plays a very serious character who’s grappling with his demons,” she explained.
South of Heaven wrapped production in 2020 — just hours before the pandemic changed life changed for everyone.
Recalling how everything went down, Lily shared, “I was being told ‘You can’t get on a plane. Nobody can fly. There is this crazy thing going around’ and I was like ‘what are you talking about?'”
“I flew home to Canada. The next day, the world shut down,” she said.
Included in that shutdown were movie theaters. Now that things have reopened, Lilly is all for people heading to see the film on the big screen to simply “celebrate that we can” and “reinforce that we want to go out.”
“Also to support independent filmmaking,” she added. “That’s one of the only places where original stories are being told. And I think these little independent stories are important and they are the kind of films that I love and if we don’t go and support them in the theater they will just disappear altogether.” (ABC 1-ON-1 AUDIO)
In addition to theaters, South of Heaven is available on VOD and digitally.