Laia Costa on fear, motherhood, and why The Mummy is unlike anything before; “I don’t watch horror”

At a time when horror films are pushing boundaries like never before, Laia Costa is stepping into completely unfamiliar territory with The Mummy and by her own admission, she’s the last person you’d expect to headline a film like this. “My reaction to the script was, ‘Whoa, why does this director want to talk to me?’” Costa recalls candidly. “Basically, because I’d never done a genre like this horror. I’ve been doing very different kinds of projects, and I’m also very easy to scare.”

 

Laia Costa on fear, motherhood, and why The Mummy is unlike anything before; “I don’t watch horror”

 

In fact, her relationship with horror is almost non-existent. “I don’t watch horror movies at all. I think I watched Poltergeist when I was 15 and ended up sleeping with my parents afterward. Since then, I haven’t watched any horror movies.” And yet, it was this very fear that drew her in. “But then it became a new challenge for me, just the idea of doing a movie like this. The first time I spoke to Lee Cronin, I wasn’t interested in the genre at all, but the conversation was so good that I wanted to know more about him and his way of making films.”

 

That leap of faith has resulted in what promises to be one of the most unconventional takes on the iconic monster story. Unlike previous iterations, this version of The Mummy doesn’t simply present the creature as something to fear it fundamentally redefines the relationship between human and monster. “What’s very interesting about this movie is the concept of the Mummy as evil or the monster,” Costa explains. “Usually, you run away from the monster, but in this movie, everyone wants to be closer to it. Everyone wants to connect with the Mummy. They are around her all the time and want that connection instead of running away.”

 

At the heart of this shift is an emotionally charged story about a fractured family and a mother’s relentless hope. Costa plays Larissa, a woman consumed by the disappearance of her daughter Katie, whose absence continues to shape every aspect of her life. “There’s something about being a parent… Children live completely in the present moment; they don’t think about the past or the future,” she says. “Larissa taps into that. She focuses entirely on taking care of Katie and making sure she comes back, not just physically, but emotionally. That focus means she isn’t really present with the rest of the family. She’s consumed by Katie.”

 

The film picks up after years of unresolved grief, exploring how loss can both fracture and bind people together. “My first big question was where are this couple and this family after eight years of Katie being missing,” Costa reveals. “We decided to approach it from a place where shared pain keeps them together. Also, the presence of their other two children becomes a driving force they still have to keep it going for them.”

 

 

What makes Larissa particularly compelling is her refusal to let go. “Loss and grief are very personal. Larissa and Charlie deal with those emotions in very different ways. For Larissa, she always believed Katie would come back. She kept that hope alive every single day. She believes the story is not finished and she can bring her back again.”

 

Behind the camera, Cronin’s distinctive approach played a crucial role in shaping this layered narrative. “He’s fun and an amazing film director,” Costa says. “I think he has his own world in his mind, and the way he works on set is very enjoyable for an actor because he makes sure you are part of the creative process.”

 

She adds, “You can almost see his editing while you’re shooting. But he’s also very open to creating from scratch even on the same day on set.”

 

That spontaneity, paired with a collaborative environment, helped balance the film’s darker themes. “There’s a cheekiness about him that I really like. When you’re doing dark scenes like we are, you need that lightness and a good joke at the right time. That helps a lot,” she shares. “He’s like a magician, balancing those worlds from dark to light.”

 

For Costa, the experience was as much about emotional endurance as it was about stepping into a new genre. “The crew on set were filmmaking lovers for sure… it feels like a family. That makes everything easier, because filmmaking can be exhausting, especially over four months abroad.”

 

With a deeply human story wrapped in supernatural horror, The Mummy (2026) appears to be aiming for something far more unsettling than spectacle something intimate, emotional, and, perhaps most importantly, unexpected.

 

And if Costa’s journey is anything to go by, this is one horror film that might just convert even the most reluctant viewers.

 

Also Read: Jason Blum breaks silence on The Mummy; says, “This one is truly frightening”

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