In Conversation: ‘Deadly Vows’ Co-stars Shiva Negar and Peter Facinelli

by Karen Reyes

Deadly Vows (2025) by Jared Cohn and Bella Bahar Danesh follows Darya and Sam in a psychological thriller inspired by true events. After escaping the Iran-Iraq war and starting a new life in Los Angeles, Darya (Shiva Negar) falls in love with and finds safety in Sam (Peter Facinelli), the man she eventually marries. As their relationship warps into something abusive and violent, Darya’s escape leads to more danger when Sam orders a hit on her life. With a story of survival, resilience, and wit, we sat down with co-stars Shiva Negar and Peter Facinelli to hear about the message of the film and how they prepared to tell such a harrowing story.

What was the casting process for you in this movie? How did you both get involved and what interested you about your respective roles? 

SHIVA NEGAR: For me, Daemon Hillen is one of the producers of the film and I knew him from before, so he reached out to me with the script and told me that it's inspired by a true story. As soon as I read the script, it blew my mind, so I definitely wanted to be a part of it. And then I met the rest of the crew—Bella and Luna, the other producers—and we dived right into the story and I became really passionate about telling it because it's a universal issue that we need to still shed light on, so that's how I got started. 

PETER FACINELLI: I also know the producer, and I knew the director, too. And the script came to me and, yeah, I have three daughters and three sisters, so I thought the message points on this film were important. It was an important story to tell. I was also very fascinated by the journey of how two people could be so in love, and then get to a point where there's such hate [ . . . ] that they would go and hire a hitman to erase that person off the face of the Earth when they have children together. And so how they got from point A to point B and became this tragic love story— I felt like I wanted to explore [that] along with the domestic abuse. Being able to get those messaging points out there for people that are in a relationship like that.

You both mentioned the issues of domestic violence and misogyny—they're really important issues to raise awareness about, which I think you both accomplished in this movie. How did you prepare to act in, and deal with, such a heavy topic? Because I imagine it's not easy mentally to get into those characters.

NEGAR: I mean, let me just say, after we wrapped, I took a month off. And I went out of the country just to decompress. I tried to live in Darya's world as much as possible, way before we [went] on camera. So I just kept studying her and I kept talking to Bella, who's the one who brought the story, and I kept talking to her to get as much detail as possible about [Darya]. Her background also resonates with me because she's Iranian; I'm also from Iran. Some of the things that she went through—having to escape a war torn country and migrate. All that resonates with me because we also migrated when I was a kid and [we wanted] to go and have a better life. [ . . . ] What I really had to dive deep into is having to deal with a partner that you fell in love with and got married and had kids [with], wanting to put a hit on you and have you killed. That was such a heavy thing for Darya to try to process and I really had to work on that. I just spent months, you know, living in her life and living in a world before we even started shooting.

FACINELLI: It's very easy when you're playing these characters to get into a caricature of that type of person. I really wanted to explore the why and the how, you know, and understand that hurt people, hurt people. So where was his pain? And where was his tragedy? And his tragedy is that he had this abuse of his own that he didn't deal with, and then he took alcohol to numb that pain, and then he recreated that cycle again for himself and was doing damage to other people. And not dealing with his hurt and pain and not dealing with his childhood trauma, there was a tragedy in that for him. And being able to explore that—not to justify his actions, but to honestly say, you know, how did he get to this place and where could he have stopped the abuse? Looking at this more as a tragedy, from that angle, is how I kind of explored him, and got into that place with him.

I'm always curious, when you're capturing such realistic portrayals of violence and anger and even fear—how does the director, for example, help guide you on set or set the tone for those scenes in a way that feels right? 

NEGAR: Oh, Jared was amazing in that sense because what I loved about him is he really let us do our thing, you know? He didn't try to limit or restrict us in any way or even like, to stick to the script or anything like that. He was taking care of the technical parts, but then in terms of a performance, he just let us make it our own. I think that actually really elevated the film and the scenes because we were surprising ourselves as we were performing. We were just so present and things were coming up that we weren’t expecting. So that really worked well with me for sure. 

FACINELLI: Yeah, I feel like having a safe environment breeds a freedom that is important. Jared having an environment that felt safe, you know, Shiva and I being able to talk things through and feel like we're both super comfortable—it was very important to me that Shiva felt safe, even in these environments so that we could explore and go where we wanted to go in this dance. So that safety bred a lot of comfort and freedom of being able to do things that would surprise each other and work in the present moment.

And in that, were there any challenges that you faced while filming? Whether it was embodying your characters or physical challenges.

NEGAR: Yeah, it was a breeze! No challenge. [Laughs] I mean, it is an independent film and I think we all worked really hard and poured our heart and soul into it. Obviously the time was limited, you know, we shot this whole thing in about a month. Of course, there's the mental part, but then physically as well— when you're so in the character, you don't realize. So I did hurt myself. I was bruised everywhere, but, you know, you don't realize that at that moment, so we did go from initially . . . putting makeup on me, like bruise makeup on me, for some of the scenes [where] Darya was being beat up or hurt. And then by the end of it, they were covering my own bruises. So, that goes to show you. 

FACINELLI: Wait a second. Hold on, did I bruise you? You’re making me feel bad here. I didn't even know! [Laughs] Didn't you fall down off camera somewhere? 

NEGAR: That, too! Oh, my god. Yes!

FACINELLI: I wasn't even there that day.

NEGAR: Yeah, no, this has nothing to do with Peter by the way, but I did hurt myself on set on another night actually, and I still have the scar on here.

FACINELLI: I remember that because I think you were like, “Be careful when you grab my arm because I have a bruise,” and I was like, from what? It was from a completely different scene I wasn't even in. 

NEGAR: I had a huge Band-Aid here because of an actual cut and we ended up using it in one of the scenes—the first scene. But it's an actual thing that I had, but it was working for the film so we kept it.

FACINELLI: Yeah, I think one of the hardest things for me—again, because I have three daughters and three sisters, I'm so protective of that. And having to portray these acts [was] not comfortable for me and so, you know, I would go there as an actor, and then I would always feel guilty or ashamed and carry that. After every take, I would be like, “Shiva, are you okay? Are you hurt?” And she would be like, “I'm fine. You can even go more.” And I'd be like, “Okay, great.” [Laughs] But I would carry that home and feel that guilt and shame. Just a kind of hangover of portraying things that were being not nice to people and being abusive—it’s not a good feeling to go home with. But it made me understand that character even more because, you know, there's guilt and there's shame in the things that he's doing. It's not like he's enjoying those things. It's this monster that comes out. He feels guilty, feels ashamed, then he turns to alcohol, then he numbs the pain, then he goes and does it again. It's this cycle that just keeps happening and he feels trapped and so I kind of just used those feelings. 

I know, Shiva, you mentioned that you took a month off after filming to kind of debrief. Peter, did you do anything like that afterwards to get away from that sort of head space?

FACINELLI: Any time I finish a movie, there's a mourning process of that character that you created. This one I kind of wanted to step away from as fast as possible, so I just kind of put my mind on other things. Other characters you play are like, oh, I kind of miss this person and you're thinking about it for two, three days. But I remember wrapping and people were going out for drinks that night we wrapped, and Shiva was like, “Bye guys!” I just wanted to get home and get away from it all because I just wanted to be like, we're going to leave that guy behind, you know?

NEGAR: Actually, I didn't go for drinks or anything until we wrapped. I couldn't do it while we were filming at all. But I have to take that back—right after we wrapped, actually, I did another short film, [where] I was a victim of sexual violence, believe it or not. And then I took a month off, so it was two back to back very similar and tragic stories of a character and I was like, okay, I'm done.

I also have to mention the rest of the cast, which is incredible. You worked alongside Billy Zane and Shohreh Aghdashloo, whose performance was especially moving to me. The scenes between Darya and Melody were so emotional. And you're both familiar with doing emotional and dramatic roles but also more action-heavy movies. How was working on this film different from your previous roles?

NEGAR: Well, the action is actually my favorite part. I love action films. I did a movie called American Assassin and the first two weeks that's all we were doing, like the choreo of fights and I love that. But obviously, this was a lot. [ . . . ] Emotionally, it was a lot heavier and I obviously had to, as I was mentioning earlier, I had to live in that character to be able to portray her as authentically as possible.

I really enjoyed working with the rest of the cast and one of my favorite scenes is actually with Billy Zane. I think it's one of the important scenes in the film because it's the first time she learns about what's happening with her ex-husband and it's such shocking news. And that scene was emotional and hard to go there because I had to sort of backtrack [from] Darya’s good moments and what she went through with her husband and how loving he was. And then having a divorce and then [going] from that to like, okay, a detective is now at my door telling me that my ex-partner, who I shared half of my life with and had kids with, is now out to kill me. So that was one of my favorite [scenes], and I really enjoyed working with Billy. Shohreh is amazing. She's a legend. This was my second time working with her on a film and I'm so glad she said yes and she played my mom. I can't say enough about her, you know, we fed off each other so well. She brought her generational experiences of domestic violence and the Persian culture nuances and all that. So, I think that all clicked right there. 

FACINELLI: Yeah, the supporting cast and all the other cast members—even the guy who played the hitman was interesting. Billy Zane, what an icon and Shohreh, what an icon. When you show up for work and you're playing opposite Shiva and such wonderful actors, it makes your job easier, you know, being able to live in a moment with all those characters and have them play these characters and bring depth to them. Billy Zane's role could have been very one note in someone else's hands. But he brought so much character to it and just being on the opposite end, playing off of that and seeing those choices . . . it's fun when you get to be that up and close, watching people that you enjoy and you get to work alongside them. 

There's a scene toward the end where Darya has a sort of spiritual release where she gets to let go of her trauma and starts to move forward. Why do you think it was important to show that part of her journey and what do you hope people get from this movie?

NEGAR: That was actually one of the scenes that we were debating while in preproduction, whether we want to keep it in the script or not. And Bella, our producer, really pushed because that was her healing process, basically, after such a tragic thing that happened to her. And I personally had not done this sort of therapy with ayahuasca and stuff like that. So I actually had to really do my research and I went on online and I talked to a few people that have done such things. And then I watched a lot of YouTube videos just to see how this impacts you and how it affects you and what happens to you. So I really had to dig in there to learn about it. And I think it's important because it does show that she's no longer a victim and she survived something really brutal, and she decided to take that lesson and do something about it to inspire and heal others. But I feel like she had to sort of go down that path and purge, as they say, and let all those emotions out and then find her purpose to heal others. And I think that's what it took for her to do that. 

FACINELLI: Yeah, I think it's such an important part of the story myself, too, because Darya did something that my character couldn't, which was really take the moment to heal the trauma. And it's not forgiving the other person and saying what you did was okay in that forgiveness. It's forgiving the other person going, I recognize your trauma. I'm no longer going to carry it for myself, and then I get to move on with the freedom of not carrying that stuff—that baggage— with me to my other relationships, to my children, other people in my life. So to go through that experience that Shiva’s character went through and then be able to recognize that there's damage that was done to her and trauma that was done to her that she had to heal now—it was an important part of the story.