Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan are the subjects of suspense in Presence. The veteran actors portray Rebekah and Chris, respectively, a married couple that moves into a new suburban house with their two children, Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang). Within days of living in their new home, Chloe begins to sense that the family is not alone, as she suspects that there is a presence lurking within.

This Steven Soderbergh-directed picture continues what has been a busy couple of years for Liu, as she has factored into high-profile feature films like Kung Fu Panda, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and Red One. Sullivan is also no stranger to blockbusters, having had a supporting role in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, but he is most known for his Emmy-nominated work on This Is Us and his theatrical tenure as part of the original cast of Hadestown.

Ahead of Presence‘s theatrical release on January 24, ScreenRant spoke with Liu and Sullivan to discuss the impact of the cuts to black following extended POV sH๏τs, why Sullivan’s Chris chooses to privatize some of his emotions away from his family, and what their own spoiler-free interpretations of the тιтular presence are.

Lucy Liu & Chris Sullivan SH๏τ Presence In 11 Days

Director Steven Soderbergh Finished The Film Three Days Ahead Of Schedule

I think the cuts to black tell a really cool story, especially with how long we’ll linger on some sH๏τs before we get that cut to black and how long we’ll stay in that cut to black in order for us to process the scene. Can each of you speak to what it was like to continue acting after cut is called?

Lucy Liu: I mean, I think you trust that Steven knows what he wants. He really understood what he needed and he would edit in the car on the way home. And then that night, and I think he had a vision for this, and he was the one who said, ‘This is my idea, David.’ And then [our writer] David Koepp was like, ‘Oh, I got it,’ and then he wrote the script. And I think for us, we were just along for the ride. If I could speak for both of us, I don’t know, but Chris has worked with him before. We got on and held on. I think that there was an idea that he wanted and he went with it.

Chris Sullivan: Yeah, I mean we sH๏τ the film in 11 days. We were scheduled to shoot it in 14 days, and we sH๏τ it in 11. And the day we wrapped, I said to Steven, ‘I can’t wait to see what you put together.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, it’s done. I finished it.’ But all of those things you’re talking about, the structure, the breaks, the lingering sense, it is all intentional. Steven is oftentimes the most interesting thing about his movies, because he makes such wild and bold choices and this film’s no different.

Sullivan’s Chris Privatizes His Emotional Vulnerability

“I think it says a lot about the state of the family…”

There’s a great moment where you’re outside on the back deck and you begin to open up a bit on the phone, and after the phone call ends, that’s when you break down and fully show that emotion. It’s a very masculine thing to hide your emotions, and I think it says a lot about your character that he wants to be really present as a father in the household, and he takes his emotions outside. I’d love for you to just speak to what that moment says about Chris as a character.

Chris Sullivan: Yeah. I think that used to be the thing to be masculine meant to not have nor share emotion. And I can certainly hope that we’re navigating away from that culturally because I think that this guy, this guy is experiencing, all these characters are experiencing grief in one way or another, and he’s experiencing grief in several directions. The distress that his marriage seems to be in at the distress his daughter seems to be feeling at his son’s lack of tact, for lack of a better word. And so to see a man for it to all just be too much for a moment, I think is a really interesting moment to have. And it is very quiet and it is very private. And yeah, I think it says a lot about the state of the family.

Is The тιтular Presence Up For Interpretation?

“It’s not necessary who the presence is, but how…”

Lucy, you can answer this yes or no, I want to be as spoiler-free as possible. Do you have your own interpretation of who the presence is?

Lucy Liu: Yes. We all do. I think we all do. And when you read the script, you have to kind of go back right away and start reading it again because it’s not so clear. That’s what’s wonderful about David’s writing and also Steven’s direction and his willingness to keep it unclear. It’s something that I think the mystery of what’s happening is not just the dysfunction of the family, because it’s really a telling of a story of a family, but the ability to change the topic of what we’ve been focusing on to something completely different that is intangible.

Chris Sullivan: Yeah. I think for me, the thing that blew my mind about the twist in this film, it’s not necessarily who the presence is, but how the presence is. That’s the thing that made me go back and try to read it again and figure it out.

Lucy Liu: That’s a very Shakespeare view.

Chris Sullivan: Well, how is the thing, and the way that we will know the who, but it’s different. It’s different than most movies would’ve handled it.

Lucy Liu: It’s not clean and I like that. You’ll have a very different perspective, because more people have been coming in and saying they’ve seen it two or three times and they see something different every time.

About Presence (2025)

It’s there before the family even moves in. It witnesses the family’s most intimate, uncomfortable moments. It navigates the family’s new house at supernatural speed. It pays unusual attention to Chloe, the teenage girl who’s neither her mother’s nor her brother’s favorite. It wants — no, it needs — something. And as time goes on, the presence pieces together how it might accomplish its goal. An unusual, unnerving, and emotional thriller from writer David Koepp and director Steven Soderbergh.

Source: ScreenRant Plus