Summary

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with Drop star Meghann Fahy.

During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Fahy looked back on how The Bold Type teed her up for success, and the reality of “breaking out” with a show like The White Lotus.

She also discusses her experience tackling her very first headlining role in a feature film, Christopher Landon’s Drop.

Meghann Fahy’s been thriving on screen for quite some time now. She was in over 80 episodes of One Life to Live as Hannah O’Connor and starred in the hit Freeform series The Bold Type which ran for five seasons. But, there’s no denying that The White Lotus was a different kind of game-changer. Not only did Mike White’s HBO series continue to be a pop culture sensation in its second season, but the quality of the new episodes earned nine members of the ensemble Emmy nominations, including Fahy.
Since that Emmy nomination? Fahy’s downright soaring. She had a role in the 2024 genre mash-up gem Your Monster starring a Collider Ladies Night favorite, Melissa Barrera. She was in The Perfect Couple with Nicole Kidman, she was in Rebuilding with Josh O’Connor which earned high praise at Sundance, and is also in Molly Smith Metzler’s highly anticipated Netflix series Sirens with Julianne Moore and Milly Alcock. All very exciting achievements, but there’s something extra special about the movie Fahy has hitting theaters on April 11. Christopher Landon’s Drop marks the very first time Fahy is #1 on the call sheet for a feature film.
She headlines as Violent, a widowed mother reluctantly going on her first date in years. While dining in an upscale restaurant with her dating app match, Brandon Sklenar’s Henry, Violet starts getting a string of unusual and alarming anonymous drops to her phone. Is it her date? Is it another diner? Or perhaps it’s an employee at the restaurant. Violet doesn’t know and she’ll have to figure it out on her own because the assailant is watching and they insist she tell no one – or else.
Drop rocks a sharp script and the much-needed skilled mind and eye to execute it in Landon, but the success of the film heavily depends on Fahy’s ability to deftly navigate the production challenges that come with such a concept while also ensuring the viewer can feel the threat Violet’s under, and she excels tackling both – big time. While celebrating Drop’s World Premiere screening at SXSW, Fahy visited the Collider Media Studio at the Cinema Center for a Collider Ladies Night interview to go back to the beginning and recap her journey to landing at the top of the call sheet.
‘The Bold Type’ Marked a Key Turning Point for Fahy

“That was the first time I really had the opportunity to settle into myself.”

Prior to kicking off a steady stream of screen credits, Fahy was actually a stage actor. After high school, she moved to New York City and made her Broadway debut in the rock musical Next to Normal.

“At first, I was the understudy, and then I took over later on. After that, I just started auditioning. But I will say, I think the turning point for me really was when I started The Bold Type. It was the first pilot I’d ever shot, and then we got picked up, and we were so lucky we got to do five seasons of that show. That was the first time I really had the opportunity to settle into myself and have the space and the freedom, because our creatives were so generous with us, to find out what I liked. I fell in love with comedy, and I realized that I have an opinion sometimes and ideas. Before that, I hadn’t really been able to step confidently into that space, and I think The Bold Type was really the turning point for me.”

Not only did The Bold Type help Fahy find her voice and zero in on her creative priorities, but the series also gave her the opportunity to experience something that too few TV actors get to do – she got to see a series through to its natural conclusion.

“I started the show when I was in my mid-20s and made two of my very best friends on it, so it was super emotional to say goodbye to that because we did so much growing up and learning together there. But, at the same time, I think it did kind of end in perfect time, and I think that that is really special, too. It would have been really sad if we’d done only one season and then we didn’t get picked up or something, but it really felt like we got the chance to tell those stories, and especially, we had the luxury of knowing that it was the final season when we came back, and that always makes you extra grateful and puts you in a position where you can really take in what’s happening around you and appreciate it. It happens all the time. You’re on set, and it’s long days and it’s a number of months. We would shoot 22 episodes in a row sometimes, and that’s nine months out of the year, so you get tired, and you get frustrated sometimes. So, having that at the end was such a nice thing to know going into it, because we really were able to soak it up that much more.”

The Reality of “Breaking Out” with ‘The White Lotus’

“I’m learning that you’re in constant shift, and each new shift just brings new feelings of growth.”

Image via Max

Soon after The Bold Type wrapped its run, Fahy would earn what’s become one of the most coveted roles in television – a spot on the roster of a season of Mike White’s The White Lotus.

“There’s really no denying that being on The White Lotus changed my life and career and has, as a result, afforded me so many incredible opportunities since then. So I’m eternally grateful to have had that opportunity, and it was such an incredible creative experience. That’s gonna probably go down in history as being one of the more charmed experiences of my life. I do think that was kind of the shift for me. But now I’m learning that you’re in constant shift, and each new shift just brings new feelings of growth and sometimes discomfort, but good because of growth.”

One particular type of growth Fahy experienced with The White Lotus? Finding out what it’s like to make a heavily covered hit TV show.

“I will say, the press cycle for that show was so unbelievable. Again, so lucky to be in a position where so many people do want to talk to you about what you’re doing, but I remember finishing that press cycle and being like, ‘Whoo, never have to do that again. That’s done.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, wait, every time I do a project …’ I mean, it’s not always to that scale, but I don’t know why in my brain I was like, ‘Oh, I did that, and now that’s done. Now onto the next thing.’ I wasn’t really expecting that for some reason, which is so silly. It’s, like, duh! [Laughs]”

The surprises didn’t stop there in terms of what comes after making a TV show. Fahy experienced a one-two punch with The White Lotus press cycle. Not only did she have to hit the promotional circuit to promote the show’s release, but then she jumped back into that whirlwind for awards season.

“Oh my god, I was actually just talking to somebody about this the other day because I had never gone through that circuit before, and, obviously, as somebody who loves film and TV, I’ve grown up watching all of the awards, so even as someone who feels like an outsider, you know the term, you’ve heard, ‘It’s awards season,’ but to me, before that, it was just on the couch with my friends, eating snacks, talking about people’s outfits. It is crazy. That whole thing is nuts. And that’s another thing where I’m like, ‘Every year?’ Some people do that every year! It’s like, ‘Here we go!’ And it’s this brunch, and it’s this lunch, and it’s this thing. I mean, it’s really nonstop. I have so much respect for the actors who have been doing it for years and years and years and still show up and make it feel really lovely and fresh and exciting, because it is, of course, but yeah, it kind of blew my mind when I saw the inner workings of the whole thing.”

How Brandon Sklenar Helped ‘Drop’ Click for Meghann Fahy

“It helps sometimes to be like, ‘Oh, now that I see that that’s what you’re doing, it helps me click into place.”

Given Fahy’s wealth of accomplishments, including that Emmy nomination, it came as a bit of a shock to revisit her filmography for this interview and realize that her latest feature, Drop, is the very first time Fahy has played a lead role on the big screen. It’s a huge achievement, and something that Fahy well earned, but she was quick to spread the love and emphasize the importance of the experience being a team effort with Landon and Sklenar.

“I think it’s funny that we have numbers. I understand why they’re used, though, and I will say that, obviously, it felt like a really big responsibility for me. I prefer to be a little lower down because I feel like it’s not as much pressure. [Laughs] But that being said, it really was an honor, but it didn’t really feel like I was the lead of this film because it was such a collaborative experience. Brandon [Sklenar] was there with me every day across the table. He was such an incredible support system and such an amazing actor, and Chris. The three of us were very much in communication about what we were doing and why and if we needed to change anything. It really just felt like we were all a team together making this, shooting this play, basically.”

Image via Universal Pictures

Related

‘Drop’ Review: Meghann Fahy Gets Her Movie Star Moment in a Hitchcockian Blumhouse Thriller

‘Happy Death Day’ filmmaker Christopher Landon directs this Hitchcock-inspired thriller.

Drop features a great core concept that Landon makes quite easy to get swept up in, but a good deal of the film’s weight and emotional impact comes straight from Fahy. Violet isn’t just a solid vehicle to take the audience through the thrills. She’s a character with layers, a palpable drive, and a compelling evolution as she finds her strength.

“I fell in love with that character the first time I read the script. I thought it was so beautiful, her journey, her trajectory, and everything that she goes through. Of course, in the beginning, she’s a survivor of domestic violence, and she’s now become a therapist to help other women, so to see her drop into herself throughout the course of the film and come out of her shell – because when we meet her, she’s a little shy and a little insecure, and I think when it probably really clicked for me on set was pretty early, actually. I think, also, really, when Brandon came in and we started shooting the restaurant stuff, his energy is so incredible that it sort of helped me to be like, ‘Oh, and this is what Violet is doing now.’ When you have another actor like that, it helps sometimes to be like, ‘Oh, now that I see that that’s what you’re doing, it helps me click into place, too.’”

Not only did Drop mark Fahy’s first time starring in a feature film, but it’s also her very first thriller. “The whole thing was just a completely new experience for me, and it was an incredible experience, so I’ll always be really proud of it.” She added, “And also, yes, it’ll always be my first thriller, so it’s always gonna have such a special place in my heart.” Hopes are high this will be the first of many.
Looking for even more from Fahy on her journey in film and television thus far, and the making of Drop? Be sure to check out our full Collider Ladies Night chat in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:

Drop

Release Date

April 11, 2025

Runtime

85 Minutes

Director

Christopher Landon

Writers

Jillian Jacobs, Christopher Roach

Drop is now playing in theaters nationwide.
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