The It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia vet leads the cast as Jimmy Pierce, a dog walker with a history of manic depression and attempted suicide who wakes up one night in his bath tub with his wrists slit and everyone around him believing he made another attempt to take his life. However, Jimmy insists he did not try to kill himself and that someone actually tried to cover up his attempted murder by making it look like self-harm, leading him down a dark and dangerous road of investigation.
Alongside Day, the ensemble cast includes M3GAN's Allison Williams as Margot, the 911 operator Jimmy called on the fateful night who ultimately begins helping him in his investigation, The Boys alum Aya Cash as Alice, Jimmy's sister with whom he has a complicated history, and Giancarlo Esposito as Dr. Singer, Jimmy's therapist. Having made its world premiere on March 12, Kill Me has garnered rave reviews from critics, currently holding a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In honor of its festival premiere, ScreenRant's Ash Crossan interviewed Charlie Day, Allison Williams, Giancarlo Esposito and Peter Warren in our SXSW media suite to discuss Kill Me. When asked about the murder mystery's origin, Warren explained that his goal was to "find my way" into the genre and create a "whodunit that I felt like I hadn't seen before." This ended up being perfect for the writer/director's desire to "tell a story that was a pretty holistic conversation around mental health and suicidality," with both ultimately fitting "weirdly" together for a "really fun, funny, scary movie."
For Day, he recalled being "so excited" at the prospect of playing an unreliable narrator in Kill Me, feeling it's "always such a great thing in a story," especially the psychological thriller genre. He went on to explain that these kinds of characters help give filmmakers an edge in their storytelling, making it "a dream role" and "one of my favorite things I've gotten to do" in his near-30-year career:
Charlie Day: I like a psychological thriller where you suddenly don't trust someone that you've been trusting for a lot of the movie. I always think that's one of the greatest magic tricks a movie can pull. And Peter really sort of crafted something that gave me all the toys to play with: the comedy, the drama, the thriller aspect of it.
Kill Me Perfectly Fit The Cast's Goal To FInd New Kinds Of Roles
ScreenRant: Allison, how did you get involved with this one here?
Allison Williams: I was lucky enough that, for some reason, you were crazy enough to want me to be part of this. I just looked at the email — it's not an interesting story, it was, for me, a very happy one. I just got this email with the script, and I read it and thought it was excellent. And I was like, "But wait, the tone is very difficult. Let me meet the director, and make sure he knows what he's doing." And he did, and here we are. It was a very quick, satisfying read. Somehow, I'm sure the script will end up in the world, and I highly recommend reading it. It is, like, a deeply funny script to read, stage-direction wise. I still remember the stage direction about the social worker being like she's talking as if she's petting a baby goat, or something?
Peter Warren: She talks to him like petting a goat. [Chuckles]
Allison Williams: Yeah, exactly. That's the stage direction for the social worker. I was like, "That's one of the best stage directions I've ever read." So yeah, it was an easy yes in that way. And it's interesting, because I now have a new appreciation for just solving the mystery of your own, anything, of your own mental health. I mean, we're all kind of alone, and it's so lonely. You can have allies, and you can have help, but in the end, you're the only person in your brain, and it's a very subjective experience. So, you've got to just figure it out. Dig in, and solve the mystery.
ScreenRant: Tell me about the character that you play, and what his dynamic is with the rest.
Giancarlo Esposito: I play Dr. Singer. I'm Charlie's doctor, who is really very concerned about him, and has been seeing him for a while. You can only get better if you're able to share who you really are, underneath, in a truthful way. I think Charlie tries to do that, and then gets reminded that he shared certain things that are a little bit off, and have Dr. Singer feeling like he really needs help. But it's interesting being a person who has been in and out of psychiatry and therapy, and has never really found the right one that I trust. And what's admirable about this, is that, out of this incident that Charlie goes through, he is the one trying to solve the mystery of his own demise, and really trying to figure it out. As he says in one scene with Dr. Singer, "Oh, I stopped taking [my medication] three months ago." Sounded very familiar to me, because you can't figure that out in a haze. You got to figure it out on the go, with your integrity. And something I love about this particular movie, because it's not only profound and intimate, it's also quite funny, in the most natural way, and quite tragic as well. But in the end, the impetus that you're given from this film is not only to laugh and to cry, but it is to feel what you hadn't thought before you walked into the movie. That's kind of a wonderful thing, because partly, it plays out in your own consciousness, right? I mean, we all know what that is if we see the movie. "Oh well, I've got that. I've got that. I've got that. I've never talked about it." And it also plays out in the consciousness of Charlie in the film. So, you're propelled with propulsion in a certain dynamic way in this movie, that you don't see in movies anymore. So I really loved being a part of it. I loved playing the part of the guy who's given me advice, who knows from all my clinical books and all that bulls—t, but great.
ScreenRant: There's something about you, Giancarlo, where if you just started giving me advice, I'd probably blindly listen to it.
Giancarlo Esposito: It just depends on how much you're hiding, you know what I mean? The less you hide, the more honest and truthful you can be, but you have to accept that you're not hiding anymore, and you could sort of share the skeletons in the closet. There's a moment in this movie where Charlie is at the door with his sister, and she reminds him, "You did this before," and he has to take a second. It's a great moment in this film, and you realize, "Well, yeah," and quickly processes, "That was then, I didn't do it this time." It's very clear, in so many ways. So, how often can you find that kind of clarity in your own life, to go, "Yeah, I've been this, but I'm not that anymore."
ScreenRant: Can you give me a piece of life advice?
Giancarlo Esposito: Oh my gosh. Follow your heart, and don't wait to be great.
ScreenRant: Charlie, you mentioned this is a dream role to play, and I'm sure a lot of people ask you about Charlie Kelly, ask you about Marnie, who, by the way, has come around and everyone loves her now, and I'm so happy for her.
Allison Williams: Justice. Thank you so much.
ScreenRant: Justice for her. But what do you look for in roles when you are so attached to a certain character? Is there a certain kind of thing that you are looking for?
Charlie Day: I look for the people I'm doing it with. In this case, it was just a great script, and Peter, it's his first movie he's directing, so that's a little bit of a leap of faith, but I'd known Peter for about a year, and I thought, "He's just a really smart guy. I think he's got this." So, it's just the writing. It's just the story. Do I like the story? Am I following the story? Do I think I can act it? And then, when these two come in, and they absolutely ground this movie with these great performances, and really, sort of, mature, sophisticated, acting styles that really allow me to kind of be manic, and crazier, and then keep pulling it back to reality, that was a good combination for an easy yes, for me.
Peter Warren: I think it's also like, there's just nothing more exciting, as an audience member, than seeing an incredible actor do something that feels unexpected, or exploring parts of their skillset that we don't let them do a lot. Charlie's dramatic work is, thunderous — incredible. Allison has played so many incredible characters that have a sense of poise and refinement. And then Margot comes along, and she's living kind of rough, and not doing well. It was just incredible to see Giancarlo's warmth, and you know, it's like —
Charlie Day: A genuine sweetness.
Allison Williams: I think we are often looking for contrast, whether it's like contrast with ourselves, or with the person we just played. We get to play dress up for a living. So we want it to be fun. It's why sets being miserable makes absolutely no sense to me. We are the luckiest people. We are troubadours, professionally — it's insane. And so the fact that I might have played someone — I just shot the M3GAN sequel, and so the ability to play someone so different from her was so fun. I feel like having the opportunity to play someone who is in a moment where she's not doing well, and watching her interact with someone who's also not doing well, and in that way, she does kind of get into a healthier place, was really fascinating, because you wouldn't think that this combination would be good for each other, but, they are.
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Kill Me made its world premiere at SXSW on March 13 and is awaiting a worldwide release date!
Release Date
March 12, 2026
Runtime
104 minutes
Director
Peter Warren
Writers
Peter Warren
Producers
Charlie Day, Keith Goldberg, Mike Richardson, Natalie Metzger, Peter Warren
English (US) ·