Saleka Shyamalan and her father, M. Night Shyamalan, have been talking about collaborating on a movie for a long time. The second-gen Shyamalan, 27, is a singer-songwriter with a budding R&B career (she has opened for such acts as Giveon and Boyz II Men) who made an original single for her dad’s Old (2021) and an entire EP for his Apple TV+ series Servant. “Those gigs were sort of a test, and they went well,” she says with a laugh. For inspiration, the pair looked to Purple Rain and Bollywood for the ways that music can live at the heart of narrative storytelling.

This month, Shyamalan makes her acting debut in her father’s latest film, Trap, about a serial killer (Josh Hartnett) hunted by police while chaperoning his daughter at a concert. For the movie, out Aug. 2, she wrote 14 songs, which will also be featured on the soundtrack, released by Columbia Records.

Though she spent much of her childhood observing her father — and the artists in his employ — on film sets, Shyamalan aspired to a music career from a young age. “I studied classical piano very seriously and was prepping to be a concert pianist and study at a conservatory,” she says. “But then, when I was 16, I started feeling a desire to write and compose for myself and to use a different type of creativity, so I shifted my path.” In 2022, she released her debut album, Séance, under the mononym Saleka.

She Zoomed with THR from São Paulo, Brazil, on a break before a concert rehearsal, to talk about her thrilling family business.

You play pop star Lady Raven in Trap‘s concert scenes. Is the singer we see in the film based on yourself or more of an alter ego?

Something we talked about a lot is who is Lady Raven, who is Saleka, and what is the difference? Unlike me, she’s on a stadium tour — I was imagining what it would be like to be in the shoes of this pop star who has an audience of young girls that listen to her for strength and inspiration. I used a lot of sass and cheekiness to play her. The first time my dad saw me do a performance after filming, he was like, “You’re different.” The way I walked and talked was more confident after playing her.

The movie’s concert takes place in the midst of a huge world tour. What was filming that like?

During filming, we would perform as if it were a real concert. We did the same songs many times over because of the shots involved, but there was no way to stop and redo something in the middle of a song. There was a videographer shooting what was happening onstage and projecting it onto the stadium’s screens live, and there was a big audience who were screaming and singing along. You normally prep for a stadium tour for many months, and we only had weeks, so that was tough.

Does having the backing of your dad make you feel more protected going into this business?

Making this movie has helped me feel more secure in my career. I’ve never felt like, “Oh, I’ve made it,” but I’m going to stay committed to this until I literally cannot continue. Even if I need to do something else to support myself, I’ll still do music. I probably feel this way from watching my dad. He’s so successful, but with every movie, he has a period where he’s like, “I don’t know if this is going to work.” My sisters and I saw our dad struggle with the ups and downs of the industry and what it means to create original material and put it out there into the world to be judged. When I chose to go into this field, I was very aware of the instability and vulnerability involved.

Were you allowed to see your dad’s films as they came out?

We were very young when he was making his scary movies, so we weren’t allowed to see them. Then, once we were 10 or 11, he’d show one movie on each of our birthdays. I think he went in chronological order.

Be honest — does M. Night ever embarrass you, the way parents do, or does working together feel more like a true director-actor relationship?

There are normal dad moments where he’ll embarrass me and tell stories that I don’t want him to tell or ask my friends embarrassing questions. But there isn’t that energy on set. He is a very cool dad, he can get along with anybody, and he knows how to command a room. So I was the one coming in feeling like I didn’t belong, and having him running the set made me feel protected and safe. I don’t know if I could have done something like this any other way. It was just a blessing to have him there.

This story first appeared in the July 31 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.