NEED TO KNOW
Weapons, the terrifying new horror film from Barbarian director Zach Cregger, revolves around a mystery: Why did kids from the same third-grade class leave their homes on a Tuesday night at exactly 2:17 a.m. — and why did one boy stay behind?
That child, named Alex Lilly, is played by 10-year-old child actor Cary Christopher, who gives a startling performance that comes into focus as the movie unfolds and the central mystery is solved.
Christopher is not yet a teenager but he’s already starred in a number of TV shows, including 9-1-1, NCIS and the appropriately creepy American Horror Stories. He’s also a Daytime Emmy nominee for his work across 37 episodes of the soap Days of Our Lives.
Weapons marks the highest profile project to date for the young actor, who next stars in Prime Video’s upcoming Spider-Noir series alongside Nicolas Cage, and Jonah Hill’s comedy film Outcome, co-starring Keanu Reeves, for Apple.
Below, Christopher tells PEOPLE about his ambitious career goals, talks about his love for action movies, and much more.
Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
He wasn’t scared on set
Despite the creepy subject matter, Christopher says the vibe on the Weapons set was “just fun.” “Everybody had an awesome time,” he says. “Everybody on that film just made it so fun to work on. It was just amazing.”
He likes the horror genre, but he’s more a fan of action
Christopher says he “attempted to watch horror movies” before making Weapons but he “never really got into them.” “I was always a more action movie and thriller type of fan,” he explains. “End-of-the-world action movie stuff, anything with Tom Cruise.”
He did, however, recently see A Quiet Place: Day One, which he calls “plain old scary.”
He wasn’t intimidated by Weapons’ starry cast
In Weapons, Christopher shares the screen with Emmy winner Julia Garner and Oscar nominee Josh Brolin. While he says that he loved working with them, he insists he wasn’t fazed by their star power. “I haven’t really gotten starstruck yet,” he says. “I just consider them my acting peers.”
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty
He’s especially fond of the Mission: Impossible franchise
“They’re just so fun to watch,” he says of the Tom Cruise series. “It’s just an awesome franchise. I’ve probably seen too many of them, to be honest. I love all of them. As long as they have an awesome storyline and just a ton of action, two thumbs up!”
Auditions don’t make him nervous — Little League Baseball does!
Christopher loves acting so much that he says he “never gets nervous” when auditioning for roles. But that doesn’t mean he’s never a ball of nerves. “The one thing I’m the most nervous about is I play Little League Baseball, so I actually get the most nervous [during a game],” he says. “I’m shaking! They do throw pretty hard.”
He’s very into sports
On top of baseball, Christopher also plays soccer and practices karate (he’s a gold bet and is trying out for an orange). “The main thing is I just don’t let acting take up my whole life,” he says.
He loves awards shows
In 2023, Christopher attended the Daytime Emmy Awards as a nominee for Days of Our Lives. Asked about the experience, Christopher says the highlight was drinking Shirley Temples and club sodas all night long. “It was super cool having that experience,” he says.
He wants the biggest award of all
After getting a taste of the Emmys, Christopher now has his sight set on his industry’s biggest accolade: an Oscar. “That’s actually one of the things that I really want,” he says.
Weapons is in theaters now.
