The Housemaid Director Paul Feig On Sydney Sweeney's Big Sandwich Moment [Exclusive]

Put down that sandwich and don't you dare add mustard if you haven't seen "The Housemaid" yet; spoilers ahead!

In the trailer for "The Housemaid" — the latest delightful psychodrama from director Paul Feig — Sydney Sweeney has a truly great moment where she makes a blunt declaration: "I need a f***ing sandwich." Out of context, this is merely amusing, but when you actually sit down and see the movie, it takes on a much bigger importance. /Film's own Ethan Anderton spoke to Feig himself about this and asked about this particular moment, and you might be amused to hear that Feig and Sweeney, with the latter playing the film's protagonist Millie, had quite a lot of fun with it.

"That feels like a moment that encapsulates so much about how we're feeling right now," Anderton noted of Millie's profanity-laden wish for a snack. "How did that moment come about? Is that in the book? Was it in the original script? I want to know everything about that." Feig explained the hilarious moment:

"Yeah, it was in the script. I can't remember if it was in the book, to be quite honest. I'd have to look it up. But yeah, that's a perfect example of, that's where you need to release tension. That's where you can have a laugh after what she just went through. It's just like, 'F***, I need a sandwich.' But yeah, that's a perfect kind of illustration of when you go, 'Let's let some of the air out of the balloon.'" 

This is genuinely a great way to "let some of the air out of the balloon," as Feig put it. Why? The context surrounding this particular moment is so stressful.

This article contains discussions of domestic abuse.

Based on the bestselling thriller by Freida McFadden, "The Housemaid" opens as Sydney Sweeney's Millie, a young woman out of prison on parole and sleeping in her car, gets a job that seems far too good to be true working as the titular housemaid for a wealthy couple, Nina and Andrew Winchester (Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar). Even though Nina seems like a dream boss at first, that dream quickly unravels into a nightmare when Nina starts freaking out at Millie over mistakes she didn't even make, leaving it to Andrew to reassure Millie that Nina is mentally unstable (meaning these issues aren't Millie's fault). 

I'm sure where you can see where this is going: As Nina becomes more and more erratic and unhinged, Andrew and Millie find themselves drawn together, and after they begin an affair, Andrew kicks Nina out of the house and tells Millie that she's now lady of the Winchester manor.

Twist! As we learn in the movie's second hour, Nina was never the problem at all. Andrew, under the tutelage of his own abusive figure — his mother Evelyn (Elizabeth Perkins) — is a sick and twisted abuser who targets women who he believes need to be "saved" and then brutally punishes them over minor infractions, like not getting their hair colored in a timely fashion. (That's not a hypothetical either. When Nina has visible roots, Andrew locks her in the attic and instructs her to pull out 100 strands of hair with roots as punishment.) As it turns out, Nina knew about Millie's criminal past and hired her specifically to seduce Andrew and even potentially kill him, thus freeing Nina from the marriage. 

Let's circle back to what Paul Feig said about the whole sandwich thing for a second. Though we don't watch Sydney Sweeney's character Millie physically make the sandwich after she emerges, starving, from Andrew's torture attic with a ton of wounds on her torso that she was forced to inflict upon herself at his command, Feig thought it was particularly funny that Sweeney, who improvised the sandwich's ingredients, went with a really hilarious inclusion: huge pickles. "And what I love about that, she put giant pickles in the sandwich," Feig said. "And there's such tension when she's eating that, because there's a giant pickle that's almost about to fall out. That's the most tense moment in the movie for me."

Feig is definitely kidding about that being the "most tense moment in the movie," but when you see "The Housemaid," you'll realize that the director expertly diffuses tension a whole bunch of times. Despite the fact that she's suffering horrendous abuse at the hands of her husband, Amanda Seyfried is often flat-out hilarious as Nina, especially when the wealthy woman is acting erratic on purpose. 

Late in the movie, after everything has been revealed, Brandon Sklenar's Andrew tries to calmly reason with his wife, even as he's covered in blood and missing a tooth. Between this and "A Simple Favor," Feig is a master at combining comedy and heightened tension, and Millie's need for a sandwich perfectly illustrates that talent.

"The Housemaid" is in theaters now.

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.