Courtesy of Republic Pictures
Published Feb 6, 2026, 6:00 PM EST
Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends.
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Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Twisted (2026)!Lauren LaVera is back in the horror genre and is getting to flex her creative muscles in a way she's not yet been able to.
Hailing from four-time Saw franchise director Darren Lynn Bousman, Twisted centers on con artists Paloma and Smith, a millennial couple who have been making large sums of money by renting out expensive houses and apartments they don't actually own. During their latest scheme, which involves brilliant neuroscientist Dr. Kezian — who finds his latest breakthrough stifled by scientific regulations — Paloma is attacked by a potential mark and left near dead, only for Kezian to save her in order to fulfill his own hidden agenda.
LaVera, who has been on a steady rise to fame thanks to her leading turn as Sienna in the Terrifier franchise, leads the ensemble Twisted cast as Paloma. She's joined by two-time Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou as Dr. Kezian, Motorheads' Mia Healey as Smith, Longlegs' Alicia Witt, Arrowverse alum Neal McDonough, Jeepers Creepers' Gina Philips and Victor Del Rio.
In honor of the movie's release, ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns interviewed Lauren LaVera to discuss Twisted. Reflecting on her journey with landing the leading role in the film, the star recalled how Bousman had "reached out to me a few years ago" and told her "he was a fan of my work" and shared his hope to work with her in the future. However, as she's come to learn from the industry, "people always say that to you" and that "you kind of take it with a grain of salt."
Which then made it a surprise when Bousman became "one of [the few] that followed through," as the director reached out to her through her direct messages on social media — or, "as he likes to very affectionately say, he slid into my DM's." There was a hitch, however, as LaVera doesn't generally check her DM's, citing social media as being a "weird place" for her in the wake of her rising stardom, requiring a third party to inform her:
Lauren LaVera: We had a mutual friend that reached out and said, "Lauren, Darren's been trying to reach out to you. He has a role that he's really excited about, and he wants to offer you the role." So I was like, "Oh crap, okay, lemme get back to him." So I did, and we discussed the role, and I was already a bit biased, because I love Darren's work. He is clearly a director with a very specific, niche artistic vision, which I wholeheartedly respect. So, I was like, "Well, I have a feeling I might want to do this."
Once she received the Twisted script, she found she immediately "fell in love with Paloma," describing the character as "so deliciously mischievous," but more importantly "so much different than the roles I'm known for." She further got excited at the prospect to "really flex that versatility" in her performance, particularly as Paloma's con schemes allowed her to "have fun with dialects" and "play all these different characters." When she ultimately found out that "the great Djimon Hounsou" would be her main co-star in the film, LaVera saw it as "the last nail in the coffin" that she needed to do it.
In expounding on getting to change from the troubled survivor mentality of Terrifier's Sienna to the free-moving Paloma, the star went on to acknowledge that it was "terrifying for me to play." Explaining that acting is "a very vulnerable state of being," she was presented with a real challenge of playing a character "who is free in her sexuality, she's free in her personality" and "she's uninhibited," something she doesn't really find herself being "on a day-to-day basis."
Courtesy of Republic PicturesLauren LaVera: It felt like I was able to step into the shoes of someone and have the excuse to see what it would be like to cosplay someone with that level of confidence. I think it did help boost my confidence. It's almost like you are who you say you are type of mentality. So, I do think that playing Paloma assisted me in being a more free person, which is so funny to consider or call her someone who's free, because she is chained up for most of the movie. [Chuckles] But she is very free in the type of person she is. And I worked very hard with two of my acting coaches with that just to allow myself to release, allow myself to submit to this role, and I am so happy I did. I think I've grown as a person because of it.
One element that left LaVera a bit more terrified was that she had just three weeks to prepare for Twisted ahead of filming, an "unheard of" window for the sheer range of character personas she'd have to play. The star turned to two different dialect coaches for help preparing for Paloma's shifts between the British-leaning Emma Woodhouse to her Irish and American-centric identities, in order to turn to one "when [the other] wasn't available," especially since both told her "we should have at least six months" to prep.
It was really cramming into three weeks trying to develop these people, these women, and also try to perfect as quickly and efficiently as I could, these dialects.
Reflecting on which of the con identities she had the most fun playing in the film, LaVera cited Emma Woodhouse as being her favorite, confessing she's "always wanted to be a natural redhead" after falling in love with Nicole Kidman in the cult classic Practical Magic. She even sought to take inspiration directly from the character's namesake in the Jane Austen classic, making the persona "very classy" and with "an air about her that is just a heightened sense of taste."
Talking with Bousman, LaVera even got to decide on the specific accent for her Emma persona, with the script specifying it to be an English character, while the start "gave her more of a posh English accent" to keep that tribute going for Austen's novel. Describing all of Paloma's personas, including her real one, as "amazing," LaVera concluded by saying she "had so much fun" getting to play Emma.
LaVera Worked With Director Darren Lynn Bousman To Leave Clues For Twisted's Surprise Ending
ScreenRant: So, you mentioned Djimon, and I did want to ask, I love that so much of this film is almost trying to play this mental chess game with him, and he's just not responding whatsoever as he moves forward with his experiments. What was it like developing that dynamic with him throughout filming?
Lauren LaVera: I was sh----ng myself when I found out that I was going to be working with Djimon. I have so much respect for him as an artist. My first day, I blamed it on being cold, but I was shaking, and I was just like, "This is a two-time Oscar-nominated actor. I've seen his work. He's always so grounded and present. I need to bring it for him. I need to make sure I am a scene partner that just arrives for him and is there to support him." One of my first scenes with him was when I was playing Paloma, playing Flair Forsyte in my blonde wig, and he was fixing the cut on my hand. He was just talking a lot throughout the scene, and I remember just getting lost in his voice. English is his fifth or seventh language, or something like that. He's a brilliant man, and he just arrives with this demanding presence that is also what's so interesting and contradictory about it. It's demanding, but so incredibly calm, and you feel very comfortable in his presence. When he speaks, his voice invites you to want to kind of lean in, and I found myself forgetting that I had to speak, because I just would've been so happy to be on the receiving end of his monologues. But it was a dialogue, so I found myself having to remind myself that I had lines in the scene, because I just got lost in listening to him speak. But he is such a generous scene partner. He listens so well, which helps make a scene so incredibly dynamic. He aims to make an impact on a scene partner, which is a gift when you're an actor, because we're both just trying to impact each other in the scene, and making it about each other. So, working with him was just working with the master. It was an honor.
Courtesy of Republic PicturesScreenRant: Now, my next couple of questions are spoilers, so we'll save them until after the film's released. First and foremost, the head shaving scene. That's always something I find so fascinating in a film, because obviously it can be faked, or it can be real. Either way, like we were talking about earlier, it's such a way to make an actor feel very vulnerable. What was it like for you going into the filming of that scene and how much of it was actually practical?
Lauren LaVera: Everything we did was practical. I think CGI we used as a tool. I think, and you are of course aware of this, but it is a common misconception that films are either practical or CGI, when usually, when it's done well, it's a healthy combination of both of them. Even in Terrifier, which is known for its practical effects, they use a good amount of CGI to assist in the practicals. I have a lot of very thick, thick hair, and every actor who had to wear the bald cap did not actually shave their head. They had the bald caps with hair on top, and I would come onto set looking like Dan Aykroyd from Coneheads. My hair's not only long, it is incredibly curly and thick, so it was really tough to get it under there. But the CGI did assist in kind of shrinking like nine inches. So instead of looking like I have a 10-finger forehead, it's more like a five-finger forehead. It was certainly vulnerable. Especially when you are a femme-presenting person, or anybody with long hair, hair can sometimes be a crutch for you. It shields you, it helps cover your face, and it might shield some of your inner secrets. So, not having that on my head was certainly a very vulnerable situation, and I think it did assist in helping me achieve some of the more vulnerable, dialogue-heavy scenes.
ScreenRant: Talking about the unpredictable nature of this film, I did not see Paloma's fate coming, in terms of being embedded into Alicia Witt's character at the end. I'd love to hear for you, what was your reaction when you read the script, and you saw that fate, and you then saw Alicia embody Paloma in that finale?
Lauren LaVera: That's such a great question. I got very close with Alicia during filming. We were so bummed that we didn't get to share any scenes together, but when we were both getting into our bald caps, a lot of our times overlapped, so we got to really get to know each other. She's just such an angel. She has the sweetest voice that you just want to listen to all the time, she's just a ball of light. It's truly remarkable how wonderful of a person she is. And she did talk to me about embodying Paloma, and I believe she asked Darren to look at some of my earlier scenes, and you could just feel the stance changing. Even her facial expressions changed. I was so blown away, and I've seen her play roles like that in the past, particularly her Walking Dead guest star kind of had a bit of a more mischievous air about her, so I knew she had it in her. I had no doubt in her from the very beginning, but it was so great to see that.
Courtesy of Republic PicturesAnd then also, as kind of an inspiration of her, I decided and spoke to Darren about this, that for Flair Forsyte wearing the wig, I wanted to embody Rebecca, her character, as much as possible. Maybe raise my voice a bit of an octave, speak a bit sweeter, just because I felt that it would make more sense that Djimon's character, Dr. Kezian, would want to maybe use this woman's body that maybe, subconsciously, reminds him of his own wife, Rebecca. I think she's much sweeter, maybe she's not as sexually forward as Emma Woodhouse or Molly Bloom, some of the other personas. She has an American accent and, again, just has this delicate nature about her and I gave her the slightest of LA accents. So, that was something that Alicia and I got to play with. We got to take inspiration from each other's characters and infuse them in a way into our own characters.
Twisted is now available on VOD and digital platforms!
Release Date February 6, 2026
Director Darren Lynn Bousman
Writers James Greer, Jonathan Bernstein
Cast
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Djimon Hounsou
Uncredited
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English (US) ·