Nicolas Pesce’s stunningly beautiful, boldly horrifying The Eyes of My Mother is set in a small farmhouse inhabited by Francisca (Kika Magalhaes) a lonely young woman who dreams of having a friend, even if it must be against their will. The horror film gently pulls you into its spell, in part thanks to Magalhaes mesmerizing performance. I spoke to her about why she wanted to play this character, how her culture influenced the film, and who are some of her favorite horror heroines.

This is your first leading role, did you feel any pressure when you realized the film would mostly feature you in every scene?

I was thrilled! I’d done other independent movies as the lead, but they never went anywhere really. I’d paid my dues by now. I didn’t feel pressure because Nick was awesome, everyone on set was so friendly, I was so happy to be there.

I know it’s a cliché when people ask if you share any traits with your character, but I was fascinated by the fact you and Francisca share the same name.

Everyone knows me as Kika, but yes, my real name is Francisca. When I first read the script the character was named Francisca, Nick didn’t know that was my name, so I took it as a great sign.

The character is of Portuguese descent which was great! Did you have any input in the character’s dialogue?

I met Nick when we did a music video, he liked working with me, so I became involved in the film before anything. He wrote the script for me, and he knew I was Portuguese so he had that in mind. When he said he wanted to make the character Portuguese I thought it was amazing, so I brought elements of our culture to the film, like the music, food, Francisca’s religion. I was thrilled to bring my culture to the movie, the fado music too.

Fado songs are sung by wives to their sailor husbands who left. I felt the film itself felt like a fado, as Francisca mourns the people who leave her.

That’s true, this fado thing came before we shot it. I was in Portugal on vacations and talking to my parents about the movie, I think my mother was listening to some fado and I thought it would be perfect. When we did the dance scene in the film everyone was in tears, because fado is about mourning, about how much people miss their lovers, it’s such sad music.

It’s not common in a horror film to feel empathy for the killer, but I felt that for Francisca. As an actor how do you enter the skin of someone like her?

I was involved in this for so long that Nick and I became friends, we would talk for hours about the movie. I really understood her, even though she was a killer, I never saw her as a killer. The bad things she does are things she does because she doesn’t know how to express love. I never thought people would sympathize with her.

I admired Olivia Bond, the young actress who played Francisca, did you have a chance to bond with her?

Nick wanted us to interact so we spent time together. Our personalities were so similar, outside the set she was so happy to be there, we were both playing around, running with the cows. They shot Olivia’s scenes before mine so I was there and saw her act, Nick showed me her footage so I tried to match her behavior. I also helped her with her Portuguese lines, she was a great person to work with.

Half of the movie I wanted to cover my eyes, but I was so surprised because the movie is so gorgeous! Did you know how beautiful it would look? Was Nick very specific with the blocking and all that?

Zach Kuperstein, the DP, shot the music video I did with Nick, so I knew it would be beautiful. For this one I knew it would be black and white but I didn’t know how it would look, the blocking was very specific. One time Nick said “cut”, I looked around to see where the camera was and it was on top of me. There’s one scene where I’m carrying the camera for instance. I guess I was more concerned about my performance, but it was great to see how the film came out.

The movie is about the way we are unable to learn from history, Francisca learns intolerance from her father. Horror movies are sometimes dismissed as escapism, but more often than not they capture the best what happens in the world. Was that on your mind at all?

The film has a great message about that, we often judge people and we don’t know them. Francisca is a great portrait of someone who is a victim, imagine if you had to live her life, she goes through so many tragedies, and never had a friend. People are very misunderstood these days, we just look at what people do wrong, I don’t think people are aware of that. Some will watch the film and not think about that, but I like the message of empathy.

Are you excited to see Francisca enter the great canon of female characters in horror movies. Who are your favorites?

Nick told me to watch Audition and that was great! The character in Under the Skin was brilliant too! Antichrist, and of course my favorite horror character is Heath Ledger in The Joker.

The Eyes of My Mother is now in theaters.