Exclusive: Jeremy Irvine on The Woman in Black 2 Angel of Death

On January 2nd, evil comes home again in The Woman in Black 2 Angel of Death. The sequel, which stars Phoebe Fox, Jeremy Irvine and Helen McCrory, revisits the dreaded Eel Marsh House during WWII when a group of children are unfortunately evacuated there after London is devastated by a bombing attack. Thinking they’re finally safe, the new inhabitants of the haunted dwelling soon realize that sinister forces are at work after a string of unexplained deaths occur.

Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to speak with Irvine, one of The Woman in Black 2’s co-stars, about his experiences working on the film, the legacy of The Woman in Black and more.

Great to speak with you today, Jeremy- I thought the movie was very good and enjoyed your character as well. I also thought it was very clever to set this story against the horrors of World War II as it made the tension that much more palpable throughout the film.

Jeremy Irvine: I completely agree and I thought it was very smart of them to use World War II as a backdrop for this story because it’s such a surreal and scary period in our history and I believe that often times, the best stories we can tell are the ones that have an interesting way of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. The production design and costumes for the film were both top-notch too so it was very easy to immerse ourselves in this world and in this period of time.

How familiar were you with the story of The Woman in Black before coming on board this project?

Jeremy Irvine: I was very aware of The Woman in Black because it’s so engrained as part of our culture here; from the original story to the stage productions to the first movie- it was a story I knew very well coming into this project because we all studied it at some point. The first film was such a huge success here so I felt like we were all going to have some very big shoes to fill.

I noticed that this was your first foray into the horror genre; was there something in particular about this film then that made it stand out to you when you were considering coming on board?

Jeremy Irvine: I’m not what I would call a big horror fan but two recent movies that I really enjoyed were The Sixth Sense and The Others and The Woman in Black 2 felt very akin to those films. And I think the thing I really appreciated about this story after I read the script was that if you took out all the horror aspects, it was still a very compelling drama with complex and engaging characters. That’s what I appreciated most about it.

I know we’re about out of time but I was wondering if you could discuss your experiences collaborating with Tom (Harper, director) and Phoebe on The Woman in Black 2?

Jeremy Irvine: Working with Tom was very nice because it was a wholly collaborative experience. He had us created these very elaborate backstories to our characters so that they could then incorporate that into the script. It also made us better prepared for when we began filming and that was a huge help since we didn’t always have a lot of time to rehearse.

I had so much fun working with Phoebe; we clicked immediately. She has a great energy and she’s also a big scaredy cat so the kids and I would all sort of gang up and scare her between takes- hiding in cabinets and jumping out at her from time to time (laughs). She was a good sport about it and I think we all came together rather nicely while we were filming. It was an incredible experience all-around for me and I hope the fans enjoy this sequel.

---------