Angus Cloud's Abigail Directors Praise Late Actor's 'Natural and Charismatic' Performance in One of His Final Movies

The filmmakers who worked with the late Angus Cloud are sharing their memories of working with him on one of his final movies.

Cloud, an actor best known for the HBO series Euphoria, died at age 25 after an accidental overdose at his family's home in Oakland, Calif., on July 31, 2023. As Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directors behind Abigail, told Variety recently, "It was just so evident how much fun he was having,” while making the new horror adventure that stars Cloud in a supporting role.

“I don’t think we’ve ever worked with somebody that forces the other actors in the scene to pay attention. There’s not a false moment in anything that he does," Gillet told the outlet of Cloud's presence on the film's set. "He kind of gave everyone permission to be a little weird and take some swings that maybe they wouldn’t have otherwise, just because of how natural and charismatic he is in a scene.”

Abigail follows a team of criminals — played by Melissa Barrera, Cloud, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett and Kevin Durand — who take a job to kidnap a wealthy man's daughter in exchange for a significant ransom. The film takes a turn when they are locked in the girl's home with her overnight, and she turns out to be a monstrous vampire.

As Variety noted, Cloud died just weeks after the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike began, forcing movies like Abigail to shut down production. Cloud had already finished filming his role in the movie by that time, and when filming resumed after the fall, “everybody involved really wanted to make sure that we finished the movie strong and did Angus justice," Bettinelli-Olpin told the outlet.

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The filmmaker added that Cloud assisted with placing The Jacka's 2009 song "Glamorous Lifestyle" in the film in an early scene, which made the movie's final cut. “To everybody’s credit involved, it was just never on the table to cut it," he said. "It was like, ‘No, that meant a lot to Angus. Let’s let that be a part of the movie.' ”

“Every single thing of Angus is Angus in the movie,” Bettinelli-Olpin added of Cloud's performance. “There’s not even an ADR line off-camera that we needed for story. It’s all Angus.”

In March, Cloud's costar Stevens, 41, told Entertainment Tonight that Cloud was "such a sweetheart" while they worked together. "I've never met anyone like him and, you know, he was like all of our little brother on set," he said at the time. "It was obviously heartbreaking to lose him. I really hope that people enjoy his performance."

Abigail is in theaters April 19.