M Night Shyamalan on balancing father duties when working with his daughter

By Naomi Clarke, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter

M Night Shyamalan has said there was a “beautiful mutuality” of respect when working with his daughter Saleka Shyamalan on his new film Trap.

The upcoming psychological thriller from the US director sees a father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realise they are at the centre of a dark and sinister event.

R&B singer Saleka, 27, stars as the fictional pop star Lady Raven in the film and wrote fourteen songs for the project.

On the red carpet at a special screening of the film in London, M Night told the PA news agency: “Working with Saleka is just working with a world class artist.

“It isn’t really like a father-daughter relationship on the movie. Outside the movie, yeah…

“She had an apartment near us, where we were shooting and (I was like) ‘Make sure you eat honey and make sure you’re sleeping.’ And I would do the dad thing.

“But when we were making the movie, it was literally like working with just a world class musician, and she respects what I do, so a lot of beautiful mutuality in there.”

Saleka agreed with her father’s praise, saying it had always been “a dream” for the both of them to create something together.

For the project, the singer created an album of original music which the characters watch in real time.

“Music in movies is usually in the background, its over a montage, you don’t remember it when you leave, it’s not as connected”, she said.

“But this one, because its part of the plot, it drives the story and so it was always a dream to do that and I can’t believe it’s really happened.”

Written and directed by M Night, who has been behind many successful films including 1999 thriller The Sixth Sense, the film also stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill.

Speaking about his character of the father, Oppenheimer actor Hartnett said: “A character like this that is so bold, its rare to come along.

“It’s not something that you get sent every year.

“So I wanted to take on something that was going to be a challenge, but I also want to take on something I knew would have a chance at success.

“And it really comes down to the director you’re working with, and I know that Night’s going to make a good film.

“So I felt free to open up and explore this character in a more exciting way, because I knew that I had a good person behind the camera, at the helm, guiding the whole ship.”

Trap will be released in cinemas across Ireland and the UK on August 9th.