ComingSoon’s Tyler Treese spoke with Him star Tyriq Withers about the new horror movie’s ending, its religious themes, and its deleted scenes. The Jordan Peele-produced film is now available to buy and rent on Digital, and will be out on 4K and Blu-ray on November 11, 2025.

“The film follows Cameron Cade, a rising-star quarterback who has devoted his life, and identity, to football. On the eve of professional football’s annual scouting Combine, Cam is attacked by an unhinged fan and suffers a potentially career-ending brain trauma,” reads the official synopsis. “Just when all seems lost, Cam receives a lifeline when his hero, Isaiah White, a legendary eight-time Championship quarterback and cultural megastar, offers to train Cam at Isaiah’s isolated compound that he shares with his celebrity influencer wife, Elsie White. But as Cam’s training accelerates, Isaiah’s charisma begins to curdle into something darker, sending his protégé down a disorienting rabbit hole that may cost him more than he ever bargained for.”

Tyler Treese: It is nice talking after release, so we can talk about some spoilers. I have to ask you about the ending, man. It’s so visually striking. There’s a ridiculous amount of blood on you. My poor dude, Tim Heidecker, got what he deserved. How is it getting covered in blood and really just unleashing that character for that ending? How is it filming that?

Tyriq Withers: Yeah, I think physically it’s taxing ’cause you’re in the sun and you’re outside covered in blood that’s like sticky and certain things you have to film out of order, so you have to get more blood on you.

And then, oh, “we’re gonna come back in here and shoot this.” You gotta take more blood off, and then you have to break for lunch, and do you wanna sit in blood for lunch and reapply it? So I think the logistics of the blood was not really fun to play with. It’s hot, so you wanna sit down, but then the cloth of the chair, it’s so many different things. But I think the beauty of the blood and being in that headspace of the character, it created more of an animalistic tone to my performance, and got to really feel vulnerable.

I’ve learned to use it in a sense of the discomfort of being that exposed and covered in blood [with my] shirt off. I pour that into the performance. But yeah, it was cool to see and fun to play with all the gags. When it came to cutting the hand off or something like that, it was scary ’cause I didn’t want to hit them. It is a fake sword, obviously, but I didn’t wanna hurt anybody.

But in the end of the day, it still was fun and I’m glad the character got to persevere.

I also enjoyed watching the alternate ending and the deleted end scenes that were, or with the digital release and the home release. And they both show Cam playing football with the Saviors and finding success. We see Marlon’s character in real rough shape during the alternate ending. Do you wish that we saw some of Cam’s pro success in the film? Or are you kind of happy where the theatrical version ended things?

Yeah, I think one of the alternate endings he wasn’t playing for the Saviors or additional scenes. If you look closely, he wasn’t playing for the Saviors, but…

No, I think how they ended it was perfect for me because I want the audience to use their own personal opinions and feelings about who and where Cameron played for or played at, or even if he decided to pursue football. I think that open for interpretation is the beauty of art, where you get to really tap into the theories. And when you put a stamp or an answer to somebody’s question, it doesn’t always become more universal.

I think you just gotta keep the people thinking. So yeah, I think how it ended was exactly how it was supposed to be.

You mentioned engaging with the film. I’ve been engaging with this film since I saw it, and I grew up near Penn State, so this idea of football as a religion and a cult-like devotion, I’ve seen that. We all love sports, but that passion can be used and be twisted by people negatively. So what about that framework of sports as a religion did you find most interesting?

Tyriq Withers: I think the framework of sports as a religion… I think what this movie does most interestingly is just hold up a mirror. I think that the hardest thing to do is just hold a mirror and let people see themselves. I think the beauty of football is the community of it, but when you treat it like a religion, then people place their own thoughts and opinions and discernments or negative remarks on actual human beings.

And I think that’s the actual negative part about treating football like religion because you start treating people human beings like gods, and then when they disappoint you, then they, you destroy them like they’re a fallen angel, you know? And I think that’s the scary thing about sports, and it being that religious for the community.

But yeah, I think we can all find a healthy balance between loving the team and the player and still protecting the human that the player is. Because at the end of the day, they have those emotions, they have those fears, that anxiety of performance, and they want to perform. If they perform bad, a single play can change a player’s trajectory and career. But I think, just remembering that these athletes are still humans.

Thanks to Tyriq Withers for taking the time to talk about Him.