Heart Eyes may be a horror movie, but there was one scene that leading lady Olivia Holt said left the whole cast and crew dying with laughter.
“On the first day of shooting, it was my first day working with Mason [Gooding], it was my first day working with [director] Josh [Ruben], it was my first day on set with the entire crew — and of course, it had to be the scene with the vibrator,” Holt, 27, exclusively told Us Weekly while chatting about the film, which hit theaters on Friday, February 7. “I had no relationship with anybody yet, and it was so uncomfortable and so awkward, but I actually just leaned into it because the scene is a little bit uncomfortable and awkward.”
In the clip above, Holt’s character Ally opens up to Gooding’s Jay about why she dropped out of medical school before noticing her hot pink vibrator sitting on her nightstand. She opens her closet door to sneakily hide the NSFW item only to discover the film’s titular killer standing inside. In self-defense, she throws the sex toy at the murderer’s face.
Unlike her character, Holt felt bad for continuously hitting the man behind the mask with the heavy prop on set. “I don’t think I chucked it at him too many times because I think the first throw was pretty gnarly and hit our stunt performer under the mask, in the face, so aggressively hard,” she explained to Us. “He tried very hard not to say ‘Ow’ when I first did it, so I think we only did a couple takes of me throwing it.”
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According to Holt, everybody on set shared “many laughs” while filming the scene. “I think it was actually hard to keep it together for everyone and not just me, but the entire crew,” she shared. “I think the second Josh would yell cut, we would all just start cracking up.”
Heart Eyes centers around a dangerous serial killer who targets loving couples on Valentine’s Day. After Ally and Jay are mistaken for a couple by the murderer, they must work together to unmask him and put an end to his villainous deeds.
While the vibrator may be a quick gag on screen, it was just one of many items Holt got to hand pick for her character. “I’ll never forget when I had to go into my meeting with props to pick out Ally’s phone case, her coffee order and which metal straw she would use,” she revealed to Us. “And then, of course, what the vibrator would look like, and they didn’t give me very many options.”
Noting that “they all kind of looked like they were in the same world, all pink,” Holt said she “just closed my eyes and said, ‘That one.’”
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Holt is no stranger to the horror genre, having starred on season 1 of the Freeform thriller series Cruel Summer and in the 2023 slasher comedy Totally Killer. Horror fans will also recognize Gooding, 28, as Chad Meeks-Martin in the Scream franchise.
Holt celebrated the film’s release by sharing several behind-the-scenes photos from shooting via Instagram. “Happy heart eyes day !!!!!!!! our movie is officially yours,” she captioned the Friday post. “We hope you love it just as much as we loved making it. and man, did we really love making this one. more emo words to come (naturally) but for now, RUN FOR LIVES TO THE MOVIES AND SEE.”
Heart Eyes is in theaters now.
With reporting by Andrea Simpson
