“Drop” star Meghann Fahy’s secret to success: “I’ve been in therapy for a decade”

“Before I got into this,” Meghann Fahy told me, “I thought maybe I would study psychology and become a therapist.” Now, in her star-making role in director Christopher Landon’s (“Happy Death Day”) twisty new thriller, “Drop,” she’s finally getting to try it on. 

As Violet, a widowed therapist whose night out goes south when she starts receiving threatening demands for her to kill her date, Fahy is on-screen almost the entire film, running a gamut of flirty jitters, terrorized trauma and steely reserve. The New York Times recently called her standout performance “wickedly entertaining.”

The New England native has spent a lifetime preparing for it. Growing up as a shy, anxious kid, she got into music and performing. “It’s sort of the cure to that in a way,” she said during her recent “Salon Talks” visit.

At 19, she was a Broadway leading lady in “Next to Normal.” She went on to earn critical acclaim as Sutton on “The Bold Type” and received an Emmy nomination for her role as the very accommodating wife Daphne on “The White Lotus.” But now, with “Drop,” Fahy gets to tap into the other side of what years of therapy taught her. “In the scene where I’m talking to one of my patients in the film, I was thinking, ‘How would my therapist say this to me?’,” she said.

The actress also spoke about handling the film’s sensitive domestic violence storyline, how being a nanny prepared her for playing a mom, her “incredible” experience on “The White Lotus” and how she handles the butterflies that still arise when she goes on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Let’s talk about your character, Violet. What drew you to this weird, fun, dark, surprising story? 

So many things. First, I loved the script because I felt like it moved really quickly, and I never guessed who the perpetrator was. That’s two good signs. I was a fan of Chris Landon, the director. This is my first foray into the genre, and I couldn’t think of a better director to embark on that journey with. And then I loved the character of Violet, I loved the journey that she goes on. When you meet her, she’s kind of a little bit shy, inside of herself a bit, unsure of herself a lot, and then over the course of the film, you watch her become her own hero and save her family. I just loved all of those things.

You’ve done a lot of ensemble work. How do you prepare to do something where the camera is on you all the time? 

To be honest with you, I didn’t do anything particular in preparation for it. My style is a little bit more go-with-the-flow. It suits me better to take things as they come, and I didn’t have any expectation around that because it was all so new to me, and I think that served me in the end.

Chris Landon was such an incredible leader to me. He was so communicative. He knew exactly what he wanted and why and how to tell me, which sounds trite because, you’re a director, so that’s what a director does. But he did it so well, he painted a picture for me. When you watch the film, Violet is on her phone a lot. When I was filming, I didn’t have any of the graphics that the audience sees. I didn’t have the security cam footage or any of that. I was using my imagination a lot, but he was great at keeping me at the right level. 

It is such a fun movie, but it’s also about a very serious topic. We find out right at the beginning that your character is a survivor of domestic violence. How do you go about playing someone that a lot of people are going to be seeing themselves in?

First and foremost, the way that it was handled in the script felt right to me. Secondly, Chris and I spoke a lot about it before filming. We wanted to be intentional with it. We had a lot of conversations, and there were people in that circle who were also survivors, who were hugely important in those conversations. We kept our ears and our hearts open, that was how we approached it at the beginning, but it’s a pretty brutal opening sequence for sure.

You’ve been acting for a long time. You started singing when you were eight, and you were a really shy kid, I’ve heard. How did becoming a performer and getting up on stage help you with that anxiety? 

It’s tricky. I think a lot of people who do things in the industry struggle with that, and I still do. It’s a combination of a bunch of things. It’s some of what you said, and also just personal growth. I’m a lot better now at rationalizing facts and reminding myself of what those things are, and that helps me not get ahead of myself and have a super emotional reaction to a thing. But I still get nervous all the time. I did [“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”] a couple of nights ago, and I have been on the show before, and he’s wonderful, but I always get so anxious before something like that. 

So it hasn’t gone away completely, but I have better tools now to deal with it. In terms of performing, it’s sort of the cure to that in a way. If I’m in a situation where I’m on set or something, it’s a lot less scary than if I’m on stage. That’s innately a lot more challenging. I’ve just worked on developing better skills to keep myself from talking myself into a place of neurosis. 

Well, if you haven’t had therapy, you sound like you’ve had it. 

Oh girl, I’ve been in therapy for a decade. Anybody who’s referencing a toolbox has been to therapy. I’m really fascinated by it. Before I got into this, I thought maybe I would go to school and study psychology and become a therapist. It’s fascinating to me, on top of it being something that I use as a tool — there’s that word again — in my own life. It’s something that I’m really interested in learning about, too. 

And now you get to play a therapist in this movie. 

That was cool. Honestly, in the scene where I’m talking to one of my patients in the film, I was thinking, “How would my therapist say this to me?”

You got on Broadway pretty young, but it wasn’t an overnight success. You had to go back to waiting tables, and you were a nanny. I’ve heard you say that that’s the best job in the world. What did you love about it?

I grew up with kids. My grandmother ran a daycare out of her house, and then my mom did too before she went back to college, so that she could stay home with my brother and me when we were little. I was feeding babies bottles and changing diapers when I was a toddler myself. I’ve always had this maternal side of me. It’s a spot that I have just always been comfortable in, and I think kids are just amazing. What an incredible way to spend your time, because I’ve had other jobs that have felt like going through the motions or whatever. 

All the kids that I ever nannied were so fascinating, and I felt like I was learning from them and they were learning from me. Plus, you’re going on adventures. If you’re doing it in New York, you’re picking them up and taking them on the train to go downtown to some cool lesson or to a birthday party where you’re seeing them play with other kids. I just felt like when I wasn’t on a set or a stage or whatever, it was so fulfilling to me to be a nanny. 

Did you then transfer that skill set to acting with a five-year-old in this movie? You two seem to have this loving relationship. 

Jacob [Robinson, who plays her son Toby] is so sweet. This was his first movie ever, and he was so brave and so good. There are so many scary things that his sweet little character has to go through over the course of the film. I’ve worked with kids a lot in my career, and I do think that a lot of those things have been heavily informed by all of the years that I spent being around kids and loving them. 

You played the younger version of Betty White in an early movie, you’ve worked with Nicole Kidman, and you are working now with Julianne Moore on “Sirens.” When you’re working with actresses who have gravitas and long careers, what’s the wisdom that you’ve gleaned from them about how to survive in a tough industry? 

It’s all about just being an observer of the way that they carry themselves. You mentioned Julianne, and I just recently worked with her, so she really sticks out in my mind. I was so impressed with her ability to move through her day and the way that she interacted with the crew and the other cast with such grace and such obvious talent. That’s the most impressive thing that someone can do in their career. I care so deeply about the way that people are treated on set. Any time I see an older woman who is doing that and is not afraid to say what they want and what doesn’t work for them, but is always respectful about that, to me, that’s, chef’s kiss. Everybody’s had experiences where they’ve witnessed somebody, whether it’s in the industry or not, who doesn’t exhibit that kind of leadership. I’m just trying to sponge all that up. 

You get to be a wise elder for the people who are just coming out of Season 3 of “The White Lotus.” Everyone’s still looking at them. What would be your advice for those actors? 

I don’t even think I could give them any advice. I ran into Patrick Schwarzenegger earlier today. He was telling me that he just got back from Australia, and they were in Thailand; they’ve had all these different premieres. We just had one, we didn’t even go to Italy. Each season seems to be its own next level up. I really can’t think of a downside, there really wasn’t one for me. It was just a through-and-through incredible experience. I’m in awe of the evolution of the show itself. It’s really cool as a fan to see that happening, and I just think everybody who is on Season 3 was incredible. 

And now it’s monoculture. It’s one of those rare lightning in a bottle things.

I feel like everybody on it gets that and understands that. There’s this incredible appreciation that permeates the set. It fosters really beautiful relationships between the actors who have shared that experience together because it is so singular and so rare. It’s hard not to think about that while you’re doing it.  

You did a movie recently that we’re still waiting to see in wide release with Josh O’Connor called “Rebuilding.” I want to ask you a little bit about that and about what that story looks like to you in the aftermath of the LA fires. 

It definitely hit a lot different. When we premiered at Sundance, it was right in the thick of all of it, and it definitely packed a super, super emotional punch. When you’re filming something like that, you think you know the feeling of it, and you do think about people who have been affected in that way. But I certainly personally had never been so closely affected, and my loved ones have never been so closely affected by something as tragic as what happened in LA. So you could feel it in the room as the movie was playing out, this sort of weight. 

But I think it’s perfect timing in a sense, because the film is so hopeful and the film is so much about community and how the community that we build in the places that we live is what makes anywhere a home. I definitely hope that everyone in LA is feeling that too. I feel like they are. That was something that really came out of that; this really intense sense of community was the vibe that I kind of got, and I love that idea. 

It’s really lovely. Max Walker-Silverman, who wrote it and directed it is a really special creator. He might be the most genuine person I’ve come into contact with. He’s so sincere and loving and gentle and smart, and he doesn’t put anything on screen that’s not entirely the truth. I respect him so much for it. It was something I loved. And of course, Josh is incredible and such a lovely human, so it was great. 

I want to ask you one more thing, I read an interview where you said that your “Drop” director, Christopher Landon, didn’t think that you were doing a good enough job with stabbing at first. What is the secret to doing a credible-looking stabbing? 

The thing that I learned is that it’s not a singular motion with the hand; it’s full-body. That’s how I had to learn how to sell it. At first, I was just kind of going in and doing it, and that’s just not how it would be. It’s a full-body movement, and your shoulders and your other arm have to support the movement that you’re making with that. It was incredible to learn all of those things that never occurred to me. Obviously, we’ve all seen stuff like that on TV and in films and stuff, and they make it look so easy that you think it is.