Alana Haim: ‘The Drama’ forced me to unleash rage I’d been hiding

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• 🔥 Quick Facts
• Finding Rage Within a People Pleaser
• Method Acting Gone Messy: Breaking Wine Glasses by Design
• Collaboration and Chemistry Build the Dark Comedy
• Apologizing to Zendaya,Repeatedly
• What’s Next for a Rising Talent?
  • Watch: The Drama Premiere Interview
  • Sources

Alana Haim unleashed hidden rage to bring her fiercest role to life in A24’s ‘The Drama’. During intense press interviews, the actress and musician revealed she channeled deep, subconscious anger into playing Rachel, a brutally honest maid of honor. She broke 15 wine glasses while filming drunk scenes, barely containing her character’s volcanic fury.

Finding Rage Within a People Pleaser

Alana Haim is known in real life as the ultimate people pleaser, someone who goes to therapy to work through that very trait. But on set with director Kristoffer Borgli, she tapped into something dark and cathartic. The character of Rachel is her exact inverse, telling Zendaya’s Emma during an emotional moment that she “looks ugly when she cries.”

In her Vogue interview, Haim explained the genesis of this volcanic character: “I guess I had rage in my soul that I need to unpack in therapy.” She described the role as incredibly liberating, calling it the most freeing experience of her acting career. Haim had worked with Paul Thomas Anderson on her breakthrough film Licorice Pizza in 2021 and Kelly Reichardt on The Mastermind, but playing Rachel pushed her into completely new emotional territory.

Method Acting Gone Messy: Breaking Wine Glasses by Design

When filming the climactic wedding reception scene where Rachel delivers an angry, drunken speech, Haim became so immersed in character that she repeatedly slammed her wine glass on the table. The prop team quickly discovered a problem: the actress broke approximately 15 wine glasses during takes because the intensity of her rage was genuine and uncontrollable.

“The prop person was like, ‘We’re running out of wine glasses. Can you just lightly put it on the table?'” Haim recalled with a laugh. Despite being described as a “lovey drunk” in her personal life, she delivered something far darker for the camera, channeling all her subconscious anger into every gesture. Haim even apologized repeatedly to her co-stars between takes, unable to separate her own empathy from Rachel’s cruelty.

Collaboration and Chemistry Build the Dark Comedy

Working with Mamoudou Athie, who plays Mike, Rachel’s husband, proved essential to the film’s success. The chemistry between Haim and Athie had to feel authentic and long-established, as if they’d been together for years. The night before filming began, they met up to rehearse the brutal dinner table scene that sets the entire film in motion.

Project Detail	Information
Director	Kristoffer Borgli
Studio	A24
Premiere Date	April 2, 2026 (New York)
Cast	Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie

The 23-minute dinner scene became legendary on set. Borgli announced they would shoot it “all the way through” like a stage play, which shocked Haim and Athie into silence. Haim literally dug her nails into her co-star’s thigh under the table, whispering “This isn’t the plan.” By the end, what started as anxiety transformed into pure creative gold. “In hindsight, now I can’t imagine shooting it any other way,” she reflected.

“I guess I had rage in my soul that I need to unpack in therapy. She kind of just came out of me. It’s so fun, going on this journey with acting, because you play people who are so out of your comfort zone.”

— Alana Haim, in conversation with Vogue

Apologizing to Zendaya,Repeatedly

Haim screamed at her co-stars throughout filming. She especially targeted Zendaya, who plays the film’s emotional core, Emma. Between takes, the people-pleaser in Haim emerged, and she apologized to Zendaya approximately 30,000 times, she joked in interviews. Mamoudou Athie received plenty of her character’s ire as well, bearing the brunt of Rachel’s wrath as her bewildered husband.

What made this bearable was the genuine support of the ensemble. “We all came together, we all wanted each other to succeed,” Haim emphasized. Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Haim, and Athie bonded over the emotional intensity, understanding they were creating something provocative and necessary together. Haim expressed genuine love for Athie, calling him “the sweetest man” and crediting his willingness to listen and collaborate.

What’s Next for a Rising Talent?

With ‘The Drama’ marking another major milestone after her breakout roles in Licorice Pizza and The Mastermind, questions linger about whether Alana Haim will continue her film career or return fully to music with her sisters Este and Danielle in the band Haim. In interviews, she remained mysteriously optimistic, hinting that music remains her first love but that she’s “dipping our toes back into the next chapter” musically while simultaneously exploring darker, deeper acting opportunities. Will she find even more rage to channel into future roles?

Sources

• Vogue – Exclusive Alana Haim interview about how she channeled subconscious rage into her role as Rachel
• IndieWire – In-depth interview with Alana Haim and Mamoudou Athie discussing the challenging dinner scene and chemistry
• AwardsWatch – Feature on how Haim and Athie supported each other through the emotional filming process