Since 2010, the Skyline franchise has quietly become a fan-favorite. The original film impressed audiences with its stunning visual effects and intimidating alien menace, while 2017's Beyond Skyline expanded the world and crossed genres into martial arts action. Now, Skylines kicks things into overdrive with a full-tilt action adventure story set on an alien world.
Lindsey Morgan stars as Rose, a super soldier with alien powers who single-handedly turned the tide of the invasion. Morgan appeared in Beyond Skyline, but her role, shot in a single day, was little more than a sequel-teasing cameo. Now, she gets to lead a strong ensemble that includes Rhona Mitra, Daniel Bernhardt, and Game of Thrones veterans James Cosmo and Alexander Siddig.
While promoting the release of Skylines, Lindsey Morgan spoke to Screen Rant about her work on the film and her burgeoning career in Hollywood. She talks about coming up in the daytime soap opera, General Hospital, and teases her role in the upcoming CW action series, Walker, based on the classic Chuck Norris show. As for Skylines, she talks about working with writer/director Liam O'Donnell to create a film that is as pulse-pounding and exciting as it is charming and crowd-pleasing. Skylines possesses a rare energy in today's cinematic landscape, offering the kind of movie magic that all but died out with the video rental stores of the past.
Skylines is out now in theaters, on Digital, and VOD.
You are a delight in this movie.
Thank you! Aww.
First thing, tell me, did you know you were going to be the lead in this movie when you were cast for basically a cameo in Beyond Skyline?
I had no idea. I was literally offered the role, to shoot for one day, after the movie was made. Principal Photography for Beyond Skyline was done! Then they called me in. It was me and, like, five crew members. We shot for maybe eight hours, and then I went home! It was pretty great, then, when Liam e-mailed me eight months later and was, like, "I wrote a script, do you wanna get some coffee?" It was pretty crazy.
You've been the lead before, but was this a different experience compared to your other work?
I thought so. Just because this has a really small cast. Other times I'd been a lead, we either had a larger cast or the project was easier. Like, I did a romantic comedy, and it was more simple. This was an epic feature film. It's almost like three movies in one, so I had to have real endurance. We shot for two-and-a-half months, and by the last month, we were doing six day weeks, and I was in every scene. I had never experienced that before!
Did you have any training for the role? Had you ever done action and stunts at this level?
I'd never done anything on this level. Coming from The 100, it's very adventurous and post-apocalyptic, and very active, but you also know, spoiler, that my character becomes paralyzed quite early, in the first episode of the second season. So I didn't really get to partake in any of those action sequences. So I was really bummed and jealous. I took it upon myself to learn Thai kickboxing, Muay Thai. It started out as something I thought would be fun to learn and a new workout, but then I really started to get into it and I was like, this is really awesome. I really enjoyed the martial artistry of it. It really teaches you how to move like a fighter, and also how to hold yourself with power, energy, and confidence. I think the roles I like to play have that. I feel, as a person, I think it's important for every woman, girl, to know how to throw a punch, to know how to defend themselves, and to know they're not defenseless in a scary situation. I had that in my back pocket, and the movie happened, and I got to work with this great stunt team.
So you were prepared.
I had a great stunt girl. We didn't have a ton of time. We had, probably two weeks of rehearsals, and then we hit the ground running. But we were still able to really put together something great with what little time we had. It makes me wonder what we could do if we had more time, you know? Like, John Wick had a year! Could you imagine if we had a whole year? That would just be amazing.
Hey, part four.
Yeah, right? Let's do it! I'll start training now.
Are you in? If Liam calls you today, are you like, "LET'S GOOOO!"
I'm 100% in. Skylines was crazy. We worked so hard, but it was so fun. We had such a good group of people, and a good crew from all over the world, and everyone was just awesome. I would be thrilled to do it again.
I have a question about being on a soap.
Okay.
Is that the most grueling, exhausting work schedule imaginable?
(Laughs) I'm so glad you said that! I don't think people realize how hard it is, how hard soaps are! They're so easy to make fun of and bash, but are you kidding me? These are, like you said, grueling! General Hospital was my first job, as an actor, my first real job. So I was just beyond green. I didn't know half of what I was doing, most of the time. On soaps, we move so fast. We do one take. I feel bad for America, because they had to watch me learn how to act while I got paid, because I didn't know what I was doing! (Laughs) But we all have to start somewhere. Soaps were definitely like a boot camp. It's interesting because you can learn some bad habits, of how to just get through it, but also some really good habits, about stamina and pacing yourself. You have to prepare every day. You have to be on it. You can't have an off-day. We're all human, so that's tough! But sometimes I look at acting like being a professional athlete, or even professional singers or dancers. Any kind of professional artists. They really have to bring it. I think that's something you have to teach yourself, and that's something I'm working on, trying to bring it every day, even when I'm not feeling it.
Absolutely. I always like to joke that my job is picking up boxes on the dock. That's a thing I could do, and I imagine that soap acting, where you're there, making an hour of television every day, working nine to five... That's real work!
I mean, there's an aspect, right? I kind of call it, "grit." Every job has its grit. The sucky part. Whether you're Madonna or whether you're a dentist, there's gonna be a sucky part to it, and there's gonna be a nice awesome part to it, if you can handle "the suck." (Laughs) And work through it!
I can see Madonna on tour on an off day going, "Ugh, do I have to learn this choreo right now?!"
She's like, "I'm exhausted you guys, can't I take a nap?" No, you can't!
Maybe that's why you're the actor and I'm the guy who's basically sitting in bed right now with a princess phone, if that's not too dated of a reference. Anyway, do you get starstruck on set? When you're hanging out with Alexander Siddig, or Rhona Mitra, or James Cosmo, do you get that excitement of a fan, or are you over it, are you all just folks working on a job?
It's ironic now, I didn't used to get it, but it's funny to me now... I didn't grow up with television. My mother boycotted it. But now I'm a television actor! So I really missed out on seeing Alexander Siddig on TV, you know? Or watching Rhona Mitra and James Cosmo, you know? I didn't really get that. I read books! (Laughs) I get starstruck by great artists. When I met Alexander, I didn't know what he'd done, I didn't know anything about him. The same with Rhona and James. Even with Daniel Bernhardt, I didn't know what they had done. But I got to watch them work, and was like, "Holy s***, these people are awesome," and that made me want to absorb everything about them. I went up to Alex at one point and was, like, "Hey Alex... How do you do that?" And he was, like, "Do what?" And I'm like, "Be you?" He will sparkle on screen.
Literally!
And I'm like, "How do you sparkle?" You know? And Rhona, geez... Talk about a badass! I'm just, like, major crush on her. Like, hello! She's so cool and so beautiful, and has such a presence. And she's mini. (Laughs) She's, like, five foot two. Or maybe five foot three. But she's a petite, beautiful woman who has so much strength to her, and I'm like, she's pretty awesome.
I just assumed that she was supermodel amazon tall. That's the presence she has!
I'm taller than her, I'm five-five.
I wanna shift gears for a second... You probably didn't grow up watching Walker, Texas Ranger like I did, but can you tell me a little bit about the new show? What can you tease for the Screen Rant reader who is foaming at the mouth for any info on the show?
They should be! It's going to be great. They assembled an amazing cast. Everyone they bring on to the show is so well cast. They are such great actors. It's been really fun getting to work with all these different artists and people, learning from them and watching them. But from what to expect? It's nothing like the original. It's a completely new reimagining of Walker. I'd say it has equal parts heart and kick-ass-ness. We have a lot of fun. It's funny, but it also is emotional and family-centered and family-oriented, and really badass at the same time!
Maybe this is a more personal question, but... Do you speak Spanish?
Un poquito. Just a little bit.
Me too. We have a similar makeup. My mom is Honduran, and my dad was Polish/Irish. My mom is ashamed of me because I barely speak any Spanish at all.
I am also a disgrace.
Do you get shade from your... Uh, whichever parent of yours is Latino?
You know what's interesting in my family? My grandfather on my Hispanic side, he was Spanish and came from Spain. My grandmother was Mexican and came from Mexico, but they lived in El Paso, which is a border town in Texas. It's right on the border between Mexico and Texas in the United States. It had so much racism and prejudice, being a border town. My grandfather faced a lot of that and swore to his family, "I don't want any of my children to have to go through what I did." So he purposefully didn't teach them Spanish. He was, like, "I don't want you to have an accent. I don't want anyone to think you're Mexican and Spanish. I want them to think you're American." He did whatever he could so that all four of his children went to college and graduated and had American lives. With that said, my mom took it upon herself to teach herself and learn. So, I feel like... My mom did it, and I should do it. I want to do it. I consider myself more of the disgrace than anyone in my family! (Laughs) I'm trying to learn right now, and it's hard! It's much harder when you're older. Kids, learn when you're young!
Excellent advice.
Duo Lingo! That app is pretty fun.
Is that what you're using?
Yeah. I got a tutor, but when I'm not doing that, I use the app. It's actually pretty fun! Our next interview could be in Spanish!
Totally. Would you take a role in something that was only in Spanish, or where you had to speak Spanish? Would be the kick in the pants you need?
I would love that. Honestly, I would love that. I would love to live in a country that only spoke Spanish so I could be immersed in it and really learn and have that experience.
I hope it happens! Okay, let's bring it back to Skylines. It's such a jolly movie. So much fun. I can't wait to show it with all my friends. Tell me about the energy Liam brings to the set where he can facilitate an environment where the audience knows you guys had fun making it.
That is the Liam O'Donnell magic, right there. He is a machine. He never sits down. He's always in it with us. He's always inspired. He likes to work off what inspires him. We'll be doing a scene, and if something inspires him or interests him, he's like, "Okay, cool, let's build on that." And suddenly we have a new scene, or new lines, or we're not doing that old scene anymore. He is very spontaneous. He loves to play and see what he can find, and change things up. I really admire that about him, because I'm someone who doesn't want to go on the fly, but he works that way, and it really inspired me to be a lot more flexible and not worry and just get back to the basics and create, play.
There's a different kind of energy to a spontaneous performance, as opposed to when you've got your lines and you've got your marks that you've run through a hundred times in rehearsal, right?
Yeah. It came from a big run on episodic TV. A lot of TV is a machine, because it has to be. You're still going at soap opera pace, you just have more setups, you get more takes. But you're still going at the same speed. I was used to being like, "I know what I'm doing, I'm on my mark. Let's hit it, let's get the day done." But Liam was like, "No, let's mess around with it, let's play and really discover what we're building here." That was a really great experience for me, and I really enjoyed working that way, by the end of it.
Skylines is out now in theaters, on Digital, and VOD.