A young woman becomes a maid for a wealthy couple who harbor sinister secrets in Director Paul Feig’s mystery thriller, The Housemaid.

Feig’s film spins the tale of Millie Calloway, a woman with a troubled past looking to get a fresh start by taking a job as a live-in housemaid for Nina and Andrew Winchester, a seemingly perfect, wealthy couple. But Millie soon discovers that their luxurious home hides dangerous secrets, leading to a twisted game of manipulation, obsession, and shocking twists where nothing is as it seems.

On December 21, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Feig discussed the making of The Housemaid during a Q&A moderated by DGA Past President Lesli Linka Glatter (The Proposition).

During the conversation, Feig spoke about directorial process.

“I don’t rehearse. I never rehearse. I don’t even do a table read of the script. I just get feedback from everybody because I want the discovery to happen on the set. I used to box myself into a corner in the beginning of my career with storyboards and shot lists and all this stuff. Then you’re not in the moment of what somebody is doing or bringing to it. So, I jettison all of that and go like, ‘I have a plan of what I want to do.’ But if somebody’s got something they want to do or something starts to come organically as we’re doing it going, ‘Oh wait, I have an idea!’ That’s what I want. That’s where the magic starts to happen and you’re doing it for the first time.”

Feig’s other directorial credits include the feature films Another Simple Favor, Jackpot!, The School for Good and Evil, Last Christmas, A Simple Favor, Ghostbusters, Spy, The Heat and Bridesmaids; and episodes of Welcome to Flatch, Nurse Jackie, Bored to Death, Parks and Recreation, Weeds and Arrested Development. Feig won the 2008 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series for his “Dinner Party” episode of The Office.

Feig has been a DGA member since 2000 and has served as a member of the Western Directors Council.