The Blackening’s Grace Byers Discusses Taking on the Horror Genre’s Silliest Tropes

During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Blackening star Grace Byers discussed taking on the horror genre’s silliest tropes. The Blackening is a Tim Story-directed horror comedy that follows a group of former college friends reuniting for a weekend at a remote cabin. In the film, Byers plays Allison, a character who suggests that the friends split up after a masker murder and their deadly board game sets their sights on the group. The others quickly condemn Allison’s suggestion and attribute her idea to the white side of her biracial character.

While discussing how her character is treated because she is biracial, Byers told THR, “I love Allison’s response in that moment where she says, ‘This isn’t my white side talking. This is me talking as a whole Black person, who just so happens to be biracial. So I think that that’s reflective of the entire spectrum of the Black diaspora. There are many different types of Black, and trying to define that or quantify that will always leave someone in a futile position.”

The star then discussed taking on the cliché that Black characters die first in horror movies and revealed the impact that it had on her feelings about the genre. Byers said, “I am an empath, and so that was the barrier between me and the genre. I have a hesitation for watching some horror films because I just take on everything in the genre. But I will say that if there had been more Black people in the genre, I might have braved it a little bit more.”

RELATED: Exclusive: The Blackening Writers and Director on the Origins of the Horror Comedy

Grace Byers Noted That Many of the Shows and Movies She “Loved” Watching as a Child Lacked “Black Representation”

The actor also revealed when she first noticed the difference in how Black characters are treated in entertainment. She said, “As a child, there were lots of television shows and films that I loved, but they did not have a lot of, or any, Black representation. And I remember thinking, “That’s not the world that I live in and that doesn’t look like the totality of the people that I see. Why don’t I see more people of color in general?” And so I definitely saw that from a very young age.”

The Harlem star then spoke about her character’s fight scene in the woods, saying, “It was a lot of fun, and we all had stunt doubles to aid us in those processes. So I was really excited about being able to work with my stunt double, but I was like, “Can I please do the stunt choreography?” And so they let me do it. Now, my stunt double looked a lot like me, so I don’t know which parts were me and which parts were her, but listen, I feel very well represented by her. We did a heck of a job out there, and we had a lot of fun doing it.”

Additionally, during a recent exclusive chat with MovieWeb, Byers (along with the rest of the cast) got together to talk about The Blackening and its impact on pop culture. While speaking about one of her scenes involving the board game, Byers said, “I surely would have died maybe three-quarters into the game. One of the things that I am notorious for in real life is not really knowing the lyrics to a lot of songs. I’ll get the tune, I’ll hum it, but the lyrics? No, I’m not very good at remembering song lyrics, so I probably would have sunk on that one, unlike my character.”

She added, “Now, thanks to that scene, we all know the lyrics.”

Sinqua Walls, who plays Nnamdi in the film, revealed that the whole cast was relieved after Byers’ character saved the group with her answer. He said, “We were all looking going down, no idea what the answer was, and when Grace comes out singing, it’s a natural reaction that the audience feels, but we felt it too, which filming.”

Walls went on to praise Byers singing abilities saying, “I can tell you, too, that Grace ripped that song in the first take.”