Arrowverse Star Katie Cassidy Trades In Her Canary Cry for an Exorcising Cross in 'Speed Demon'

Many DC Comics fans will know Katie Cassidy as the superhero Black Canary from the Arrowverse, an interconnected string of shows that ran for 12 years. For over a decade, Katie played a character who could kick bad guys to the curb with her sonic screech (aka Canary Cry). Now the actress has a new power: exorcising demons.

Speed Demon, which releases on demand on May 31, is directed by Jon Keeyes and follows Cassidy's Sister Lu, a faithless Nun struggling with alcoholism and a codependence on drugs. She must perform her first exorcism on a possessed passenger determined to crash the runaway train that she, William H. Macy (who was also in the SXSW film Brian), Father Novak, and dozens of innocent people are trapped on.

In an exclusive interview, The Direct sat down with Speed Demon star Katie Cassidy to discuss what makes her new horror exorcism movie different than the rest, how its setting inherently influences everything onscreen, and more.

How 'Speed Demon' Is Different Than Your Normal Exorcism Movie

"I Haven't Seen a Nun Perform an Exorcism Before, Have You?"

• The Direct: "Speed demon, as the title suggests, is a film about demonic forces and exorcisms. There are a lot of horror films out there focused on the idea of exorcisms. So, what do you think makes this movie and its approach to the concept kind of unique from others?"

Katie Cassidy: Well, you've got a nun who performs an exorcism, and if you know anything about Catholicism, it's always the priest... But also the nun, when we meet her, she's damaged and has her own demons internally that she's battling and self-medicating from her past trauma and the relationship with her father, so it was, there's a lot there, and it was definitely like very loaded... I haven't seen a nun perform an exorcism before, have you?... It's cool to also just have these strong female characters, and to have her, you know, face her own demons, put the bottle down, and step into her power was really, really cool, fulfilling, and empowering.

• The Direct: "The idea of a demon in this film is both literal and metaphorical. One being the actual demon, and the other being kind of Sister Lu's problems with alcohol and drugs. Can you talk about how those two things actively kind of mirror each other in the film, and also how Sister Lou deals with them, and how those problems kind of help her deal with the other, and how they worked in tandem?"

Cassidy: Yeah, good versus evil, and not only in the external world for her in physically happening in front of her on this train, but internally she's going through this journey and this ride on the train, as well as in her self discovery and self healing, and facing her past and her trauma and her father, the relationship with her father, and having that moment where she takes off the veil, and like that's when she's she's been given a gift, and that's when she steps into it, like you know, really steps into her power and embraces what she's been given.

• The Direct: "The film takes place almost entirely on a train. How did that setting, and how confining it is, influence the characters, the story, and your own performance?"

Cassidy: Well, I think it being on a train, it being isolated, it felt certainly claustrophobic, which I am personally claustrophobic, but it just added to the suspense and the tension and the ticking time bomb with that deadly curve, so it just, it lent to the story and blended to the genre, which only helped us.

• The Direct: "What is something that you just didn't see coming that you, you were like, 'Oh, wait, I didn't even think about this, didn't think this was going to be a problem.'"

Cassidy: Well, I didn't know we were shooting six-day weeks, which means six of the seven days of the week, so one day off in between. I didn't know, and I'm a producer on this. You'd think I would know that, but I'm more the creative producer, if you will. So that was interesting, and you know it's impossible—It's so hard to make movies, and I know people say this all the time, because it's true. It's so hard, and so when you do, and then you actually have a finished film, and it's good, it's just beyond fulfilling. And so this has been a really cool, exciting process for me as an actor, but also, you know, being a producer on this as well.