With an impressive resume of films that include Casino Royale, Dark Shadows, 300: Rise of an Empire and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, she is certainly no stranger to roles that lean on the dark and macabre, but in Lorcan Finnegan’s coming film, NOCEBO, Green takes on a new, perplexing character in a horror film with a social message.

In NOCEBO, Green plays Christine, a fashion designer who is tormented by a mysterious illness until a cure comes in the form of a Filipino nanny, played by Chai Fonacier, who uses traditional folk healing to uncover the terrifying cause.

“When I read the script, I thought it was a very, very daring subject,” Green told Newsweek. “Most of the time you’re like, ‘Oh, this is a horror movie, where is it going?’ I love the bond between the two women, and the twist at the end was, like, wow, I wasn’t expecting this. I love the social messaging as well … a lot of elements were very appealing.”

While the film is rooted in ambiguity and general creepiness with a big plot twist at the end, it also spreads a message regarding fast fashion and the “humans behind the clothes,” a theme for which Green has a passion. The fast fashion industry mass-produces trendy, affordable clothing while harming the environment in the process.

“It’s a very strong social film,” Green said. “It’s really in researching this film that I became aware of how damaging fast fashion was and how we are all responsible for driving this industry, and, you know, we have to think twice before we buy something.”

“I think it’s the third biggest cause of climate change, and people are not aware of it,” she added. “So hopefully it’s a very entertaining movie, but it has a strong message. And I hope people will kind of dig and think twice before they buy stuff basically, become less greedy.”

Indeed, in 2021, the World Economic Forum identified the fashion industry as the world’s third-largest polluter, estimating that the industry contributes 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.

The message becomes clear toward the end of the film, which we won’t spoil here, but the film, Green said, is “a very dark subject.” However, working with director Finnegan, who is responsible also for the extremely entertaining yet disturbing film Vivarium, made the job a much more pleasant experience.

“It was really lovely to have him on set, and he’s very, very funny, so the atmosphere was always very light and joyful, and that was very important. I think otherwise, it would have been too heavy for everybody,” Green said.

NOCEBO premieres Friday in select theaters.