Filmmaker Interview with Megan Tremethick

Interview by Chris Olson

Thanks for speaking with us at UK Film Review. Where in the world are you right now?

Thanks for having me! I’m currently at home in Scotland.

For those who don’t know you, how would you describe your career?

I started out as an actor working in independent film, and around five years ago I began collaborating with British Horror Studio, previously known as Hex Studios. 

Over the last few years, I’ve also started working behind the camera as well as in front of it, and I tend to wear many hats across British Horror Studio productions. Most recently, I made my feature directorial debut with Spoiling You, an ASMR horror film which premiered at Romford Horror Film Festival in February 2026.

Megan Tremethick in Spoiling You

I’ve definitely caught the directing bug now, and I love making films with British Horror Studio, so I very much intend to keep doing that for the foreseeable future. At least, as long as they’ll have me!

You have increasingly expanded from acting into writing, directing, editing and other areas of filmmaking. Do you now think of yourself primarily as an actor who also directs, or simply as a filmmaker?

I think of myself as both. Acting is still my first love and, probably by a little bit, still my biggest love. At least for now, I feel like acting will always need to be part of the films I’m directing, although we’ll see how that develops in the future.

I just feel incredibly lucky and privileged that I’m able to make my own films with my friends and collaborators, and that I’m also able to act in them. At the same time, I get to help bring my collaborators’ films to life too, whether I’m working in front of the camera or behind it.

I may love acting just a little bit more, but at this stage I couldn’t give up filmmaking or directing either, because I love those just as deeply in a different way.

Spoiling You is your first feature as a director. What did making a feature allow you to explore that you had not been able to explore in your short films?

Making a feature really threw me into the thick of it. Each of the short films I directed felt like a big challenge at the time, but directing a feature, while also acting and working behind the camera in collaboration with the team, felt completely different. It was a bit of a trial by fire, although a very enjoyable and satisfying one.

https://youtu.be/tJMdtxyt_EY?si=h_VG3Y0zyEaZgXKY

Spoiling You Official Teaser Trailer

I was able to spend much more time on set as a director, and the feature format gave me so much more scope for the story I wanted to tell. That extra screen time allowed me to add more nuance, explore the characters and themes in greater depth, experiment more with surrealism, and ultimately begin to find my own voice as a filmmaker.

I’m proud of my short films, but I think each one perhaps reflected particular inspirations I had at the time. Spoiling You absolutely has major influences too, particularly Takashi Miike’s Audition, as well as Perfect Blue and J-horror more broadly, but with a feature I felt an even greater responsibility to put my own interpretation fully onto those influences. Otherwise, what would be the point of making it?

That longer running time also means you can play with the audience more, in the best and most enjoyable sense. You can build atmosphere gradually, and allow ideas to evolve in ways that simply aren’t possible within a short film. I’m incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to do that.

You wear several creative hats on Spoiling You, including co-writer, director, editor and performer. How do those different roles communicate with one another during the filmmaking process?

With Spoiling You, I feel incredibly lucky that I was given a good amount of creative control. Lawrie Brewster was my co-writer and a producer on the film, alongside Sarah Daly as a producer, and I’m very grateful that they trusted me with so much of the creative direction.

Because of that, the different roles I had on the film often fed into one another quite naturally. I’m a very visual person, so before I had even written some of the first drafts of the script, I was already sketching out certain images I wanted in the film. They were very rough sketches, because drawing is not one of my strengths, but they helped me work out the visual ideas in my head. I also did costume mock-ups and thought about specific imagery before some of the scenes were fully written, and often the writing would then grow out of those visual ideas.

Of course, none of that would have been possible without the team actually bringing those ideas to life. I could imagine how I wanted Miss Mutter’s lair, the labyrinth she inhabits, to look, but it took the British Horror Studio team to physically build that world and make it real.

That support was equally important on set. Tom Staunton, our production manager, and Calum 'Caz' Paul, our first AD, were particularly fantastic. They helped make sure the shoot ran smoothly enough that, when I was performing as Miss Mutter, I had time afterwards to watch my takes back and make sure I was happy with the performance. I didn’t have to rely on somebody else telling me whether a take was working. I could actually always review it myself.

Because the team gave me that space, I felt an even greater responsibility to know as closely as possible what I wanted before we got to set. I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. If I knew we had the shot, I wanted us to move on rather than doing extra takes unnecessarily.

Megan Tremethick with DOP Michael Brewster

I also loved collaborating with Michael Brewster, our director of photography. I like to be very involved in developing the shots, and Michael was incredibly open and collaborative with that. If I had an idea that wasn’t technically going to work, or if I wasn’t sure how to achieve a particular image, he would find a solution or suggest something better than I could have imagined. That balance between having a strong idea of what you want and being open to the expertise of the people around you was incredibly important.

The editing process also affected the way I directed. I would describe myself as a co-editor on the film with Lawrie, and during the shoot I was very conscious of the edit I already had in my head. In most cases, I was effectively shooting for that edit, which made things much smoother because I knew what material I needed.

Performance was another major part of it. One of the reasons I wrote Spoiling You was because I wanted to give myself an acting challenge in a role that I might not otherwise have been offered. I never wanted the demands of directing to mean that I neglected the performance. 

The only way I could manage that was through a lot of preparation. Alongside preparing the film with the team, I made sure I still gave myself enough time to learn the lines and really find Miss Mutter physically, emotionally and vocally. I’m very glad I did, because once we were on set I needed to be able to step into the character fully, perform the scene, and then immediately step back out again and become the director. It also was an enormous help that the exceptionally talented Stephen Kerr who played Drew, and the phenomenal Laurence R. Harvey who played Miss Kitty Mutter both instantly brought their A-game every single day of filming, and they felt effortless to work with!

Megan Tremethick as Miss Mutter

Independent filmmaking often requires directors to work within practical limitations. Were there any restrictions or limitations on Spoiling You that ultimately led to creative choices you are particularly proud of?

Honestly, though, I ended up seeing that as a blessing rather than a restriction. It gave me more time between each section of the film to focus very specifically on what was coming next. We could prepare the production in more detail, and make sure each block had the attention it needed.

You are involved with For We Are Many 2 both in front of and behind the camera. What is it like contributing to an anthology where different filmmakers are working within the same broader horror universe?

Honestly, it was so much fun. The other directors, actors and creatives involved in For We Are Many 2 are also good friends of mine, so there was a real sense of community around the whole thing.

Megan Tremethick Gothic Horror Promotional by Michael Brewster

I directed my first ever short films as part of For We Are Many 2, and some of my friends also directed their first shorts for the anthology, so that made the experience feel particularly special. It was really lovely to see people getting the opportunity to try something new and develop their own voices as filmmakers within the same project.

One of the things I love most about For We Are Many 2 is how different so many of the shorts are from one another. I really hope that variety means there will be something in the anthology for everyone, and that every viewer will find at least one short that particularly resonates with them.

Personally, that is what I enjoy in an anthology as an audience member too. I don’t want every segment to feel too similar. I want them to have completely different identities, tones and approaches, and I think For We Are Many 2: Lovecraft really has that.

Has becoming more involved in writing and directing changed your relationship with the acting industry or the kinds of acting roles you now want to pursue?

I suppose it probably has, actually, now that I think about it. I feel lucky to be in a position where, if I were offered a role now, I could ask myself whether there is something I’m writing or developing that might feel more aligned with what I want to be doing at that moment.

Everyone only has so much time in a year, and I’ve been thinking more and more about the fact that every time you say yes to one opportunity, you are, perhaps unintentionally, saying no to another one further down the line. Writing, pre-production and making a film can all take an enormous amount of time, so if a role came along that I wasn’t particularly passionate about, and taking it would mean stepping away from something I was writing that genuinely excited me, I would now think much more carefully about that.

I also think there is something to be said for not taking a role simply because it is there. If I’m not especially passionate about a part, I would rather it go to someone who absolutely loves it and would be thrilled to play it. 

So I try to say yes to roles that I genuinely love, feel a connection to, and believe I can do justice to. 

Do you find there is a tension between the very public side of promoting yourself online and the much more private, inward-looking process of actually creating a film?

Jigme 22, copyright Hex Studios

I’m not sure I would describe it as tension exactly, but I do find it difficult to find the right balance.

Sometimes I become far too focused on the public-facing side of things and promotion, to the point where I almost lose the time I need to properly work on my own projects and get into that deeper level of concentration where real progress happens.

Then I can swing completely the other way and disappear into a bit of a black hole because I’m so absorbed in whatever I’m making. 

When that happens, I can then find the promotional side quite draining, because in a way both things can feel a bit like full-time jobs. I imagine a lot of other creatives probably experience something similar.

So I think the main thing is that I’m still figuring out how to balance the two properly, without completely neglecting one or the other. Hopefully I’ll get a little better at that with time.

What’s next for you?

I’m excited to say that on September 5th and 6th, several members of British Horror Studio, Lawrie Brewster, Paul William Kelly, Stephen Kerr, and I will be attending Glowflare Horror Film Festival in Beverley, Yorkshire.

Spoiling You will be screening there alongside another British Horror Studio film, Mr. Whispers, so I’m really looking forward to it. It will be my first time attending Glowflare, and I can’t wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XRKQw2m0Po

Mr Whispers Film Trailer

In terms of upcoming projects, it is a little difficult to say too much at the moment because I’m not entirely sure what has officially been announced yet. As I hinted at earlier, there is a project I’m currently writing which I hope to direct, and hopefully we will be filming that before too long. 

There is also another British Horror Studio film that I’m due to act in. It is an incredibly psychological and suspenseful horror, and from everything I know about it so far, I think it is going to be eerie and frightening. I’m particularly excited because it also involves a great deal of psychological and dramatic performance work, which is exactly the kind of thing I love.

Now that you have completed your first feature as a director, is there anything about your filmmaking process that you already know you would approach differently on the next one?

Yes, definitely. One of the biggest things I’m trying to change actually begins with the writing process. I have a terrible habit of mulling ideas over in my head for far too long because I feel as though I need to be completely certain about them before I put anything on the page. I do the same thing with dialogue and scenes. I want everything to be the best version I can possibly make it before I even write it down.

Megan Tremethick as Nell, with cinematographer Michael Brewster photo by Sarah Daly

The problem is that it simply isn’t practical, because things often change anyway once you start writing and discover what actually works. So I’m trying to become much quicker at striking while the iron is hot and getting ideas onto the page while the inspiration is there, rather than overthinking them for too long.

In terms of directing, one thing I would probably do differently is even more preparation - although that is partly because of the project I’m hoping to write and direct next. I wish I could say more about it properly, because I keep teasing it, but it is going to be extremely performance-heavy, in a way that is unlike anything I’ve attempted before. If it all goes to plan, I know I’m going to need an enormous amount of preparation to have any chance of pulling it off in the way I want to.

I would also like to stress less. I tend to overthink things and put a lot of pressure on myself because I want everything to be as good as I can possibly make it. I never want to lose that drive, but I do think there is room for me to relax a little more and trust the process.

Who would you love to work with and why?

Oh gosh, there are so many people I would love to work with. Amanda Donohoe would absolutely be one of them. I adore her in The Lair of the White Worm. She’s immensely talented and has such incredible charisma.

I would also love to work with Britt Ekland. That would be phenomenal. Charlotte Rampling, one hundred per cent. I absolutely adore her. Barbara Crampton would be wonderful too. She’s such a brilliantly talented actor, and Alan Cumming would be phenomenal because he has so much charisma and presence. I’d love to work with the incredible Xander Berkeley, he's immensely talented! I’d also love to work with Jeremy Irons. He’s such an extraordinary actor. Honestly, I could go on and on because there are so many talented creatives I would love to work with on a film.

What’s your favourite film set on a plane?

Does it all have to be set on a plane? Because if not, then my pick is absolutely Planes, Trains and Automobiles. ;)

For We Are Many 2: Lovecraft Campaign: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lawriebrewster/for-we-are-many-2-feature-film-lovecraft-horror-anthology