LOS ANGELES — One of the few moments of levity in “Longlegs” — the Neon horror film in theaters now about a Satanist serial killer — happens when Maika Monroe’s character, Lee Harker, meets her co-worker’s young daughter.
It’s obvious the analytical FBI agent doesn’t spend a lot of time around kids. Her stoic, awkward personality is comically heightened by this interaction with the child, who asks Harker to do things she obviously has no interest in, like seeing the girl’s bedroom or coming to her birthday party.
Critics have praised the 31-year-old’s “Longlegs” performance — which says something when you share the screen with Nicolas Cage. But her calculated, offbeat character is even more impressive given Monroe’s affable, almost whimsical personality.
“There’s a kind of childlike quality to her that is extremely compelling and graceful and charming,” said Cage of his co-star.
Her endearing approachability is perhaps at least somewhat attributable to the fact that she has always kept Hollywood at arm’s length. “I don’t necessarily like being fully consumed in this world,” Monroe said in a recent interview.
Neither of her parents work in the entertainment industry and only reluctantly agreed to start driving her to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara for auditions as a kid while she balanced school and her kiteboarding hobby. And instead of obsessing about getting her big break after years of trying, Monroe took some time away to be a professional kiteboarder in the Dominican Republic when she was 17.
“I was pretty much like, ‘Acting just isn’t for me.’ I go to classes, I work on my lines, I work so hard for these auditions, and I feel like I’m doing all the things and it just isn’t clicking,” Monroe recalled. “It was so frustrating. And it was getting to a place where it just wasn’t feeling good anymore.”
But she wasn’t ready to give up entirely. Although she got rid of her agent, Monroe kept her manager, who would occasionally encourage her to send in audition tapes.
In almost a year, she only sent in four or five. She didn’t hear anything back — until she did.
Monroe enjoyed being a professional athlete and said it gave her a healthy perspective on her career, but as soon as she was cast in “At Any Price” alongside Zac Efron and Dennis Quaid, she rushed home. Soon after, her big break did come with David Robert Mitchell’s 2014 cult indie horror film, “It Follows.”
“There’s been so many ups and downs and so many times where I question, like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ And it’s such a tough industry, just mentally,” she admitted. “There’s been probably two other times throughout my career where I’m like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ And yet I just keep getting pulled back. And at the end of the day, I feel like this is what I’m meant to be doing and this is what I’m good at.”
Rather than look back on her time as a kiteboarder as a detour, Monroe said it was formative, especially since she competed at a time in the sport when women were considerably outnumbered. “I’m so grateful for the strength that I felt. I felt powerful and strong. And it was just like a very important experience for me,” she said.
Superstition makes her reluctant to admit it, but she said this feels like a turning point in her career. She is set to reprise her role as Jay Height for Mitchell’s “They Follow,” which is scheduled to begin production early next year.
But Monroe said she initially worried a sequel 10 years later might just be a cash grab or ruin the original.
“I was like, ‘Oh no’ … because it was just so iconic at that time when it came out and the way that it ended,” she said. “But I always had faith in David. He’s so particular about what he does. Clearly, he does barely anything because he’s so picky. It has to be on his terms, his scripts. And yeah, I read it, and I was like, ‘Oh, OK. This is how you do it.’ So, I have high hopes.”
Although “It Follows” and “Longlegs” have been Monroe’s most high-profile horror films to date, her list of acting credits within the genre is an extensive one.
“I want a goddamn rom-com. Come on. Good God. What am I doing?” she joked about her reputation as a scream queen.
“The most interesting roles, the most interesting stories and scripts that I’ve been sent usually fall under this genre and usually end up being the films that I’m most proud of, not only as a whole, but my performance. And I feel like the most growth as an actor happens through these.”
