How Danny Boyle Was Persuaded to Cast the ‘Samson’ Actor 28 Years Later

When director Danny Boyle told the actor Chi Lewis-Parry “terrify me” during his audition for “28 Years Later,” he probably didn’t expect the 6-foot-8-inch former MMA fighter to sprint at him from across a large room.

But this unique approach helped Lewis-Parry land the role of Samson, a terrifying new type of the infected called an Alpha, in the horror sequel that hit cinemas in June.

Samson appears in several spine-tingling sequences in the film to showcase how the Rage Virus has evolved since the original outbreak depicted in 2002’s “28 Days Later.”

Lewis-Parry told Business Insider that when he auditioned for an “untitled Danny Boyle project,” he didn’t know it was for “28 Years Later.”

Recalling his thought-process after Boyle said to terrify him, Lewis-Parry said he walked to the opposite end of vast room lined with pillars to appear intimidating.

“I just stood there for a while with my back to him, I didn’t let him see me, just kind of stood there until I decided. I felt it was time to just take a little peek at what’s over my shoulder. Then, when the timing was right, I just sprinted at him as fast as I could. Just ran at him and stopped right there and just breathed him in,” he said.

“It was elements of everything that I’ve ever been inspired by from creatures in the horror genre. And I just stood over him, and every time he tried to move, I would nudge him into place. It was just ‘Stay there. You’re not going anywhere.’

“He just let out this massive smile. And that for me was indicative of: ‘I think you got this,'” Lewis-Parry added.

Lewis-Parry’s unique presence can be felt throughout the film, including the scene in a gloomy tunnel where Samson kills a NATO soldier by pulling his head off his body with the spine still attached.

“I like to honor the things that have inspired me. I was the Predator in that moment!” he said, referring to the creature in 1987 sci-fi movie. “So holding the head up and showing it with the spine dangling, but then also the muzzle flash reminded me of the train scene in ‘Predator 2‘ when Bill Paxton gets it.

“I gave everything I put into that energetically. I didn’t have anything else in the tank, that was all of me, that was my loudest scream, my fiercest intent.”

Lewis-Parry was hugely inspired by 1980s and ’90s horror movies, and he name-checked fan-favorite directors including John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Clive Barker.

But Lewis-Parry said he worked with Boyle to make the character about more than violence, particularly in a scene where a soldier shoots dead an infected pregnant woman. This angers Samson, and suggests he as the capacity for emotions.

“I suggested, what if he sees the infected body and he’s disgusted by it? He can’t believe it, ‘You did this to us.’ There’s a division. There’s human intelligence, or human barbarism, to infected intelligence, and it’s this moment of: ‘Why?'”

Asked about his role in the sequel, Lewis-Parry was careful not to spoil “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” but teased: “I can just say that people might fall in love with Samson.”

Judging by the way he went viral following the film’s release, audiences already have.