Exclusive: Octavia Spencer talks Sci-fi film Encounter
Currently playing theaters and on Prime Video from Amazon Studios is the sci-fi thriller Encounter, directed by Michael Pearce and starring Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed, Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, Rory Cochrane, Lucian-River Chauhan and Aditya Geddada.
A decorated marine, Malik Khan (Ahmed) is trained to identify risk. But what if the risk appears totally ordinary? Malik sees bugs. Evil bugs. Alien bugs that seem to be seizing control of people, one after another. Malik can’t convince the world to sound the alarm, but he can at least protect his two young sons from global parasitic invasion — which might involve kidnapping them from the home of Malik’s estranged wife.
Produced by Dimitri Doganis, Piers Vellacott, and Derrin Schlesinger, the screenplay was written by Joe Barton, and Michael Pearce.
As one of two women of color to have received three Oscar nominations and the first black actress to receive two consecutive nominations, Octavia Spencer plays parole officer Hattie, who’s worried about Malik’s state of mind. An Oscar winner for her supporting role in The Help, Spencer recently completed the second season of Apple TV+ series Truth Be Told and was also seen in the superhero comedy film Thunder Force opposite Melissa McCarthy.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales caught up with Spencer as she spoke about working on this sci-fi film.