Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jonathan Tropper about his work on ‘The Wrecking Crew’, developing the script with Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista, writing for them specifically, the buddy cop genre, balancing the comedy and action, director Ángel Manuel Soto’s contributions to the script, and how he feels about actors improvising on set.
Tropper also discussed his work on the upcoming ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’, what it’s like writing a ‘Star Wars’ movie, what fans can expect from the new film, and what will surprise them the most.
‘The Wrecking Crew’ screenwriter Jonathan Tropper.
Moviefone: To begin with, I understand that you developed the idea for the movie with Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista. Can you talk about that and what it’s like writing specifically for them?
Jonathan Tropper: We all worked together on a show called ‘See’ on Apple TV, and that’s where I really discovered them. ‘See’ was a pretty serious drama. I mean, it was an action show, but it was a lot of drama. Their roles were very heavy and very dramatic. But the minute the camera stopped rolling; they were just so funny. The banter between them, their appreciation for comedy, and their love for comedy. They both have this desire not to just be seen as monolithic action heroes, but to also do human characters and do comedy. So, we had talked a lot about that, and we had also all discovered our mutual love for the action movies of the late ‘80s and the early ‘90s, in particular Shane Black’s movies. So, we’d always talked about stuff like that. Then we went our separate ways after the show and staid loosely in touch but forgot about it. Then Dave put out that Tweet, which started the whole ball rolling again. I don’t remember who reached out to who first, but I remember in speaking to Jason, he already had a strong idea of wanting it to be estranged brothers, he wanted them to be dealing with daddy issues and he wanted it in Hawaii. He wanted to really show the underbelly of Hawaii and not to show the touristy version of Hawaii. So that was already in place. Dave had some ideas about his character as well. I took that whole thing and then began creating the story. I went out to Hawaii and Jason knows a lot of people out there. I was able to meet a lot of people, see the important places and learn some of the history so that I knew how to weave in what I needed to weave in. It just felt very organic, and it happened quickly. From the time Dave put out that Tweet, to the time we were out there pitching it and selling it and then writing it and making it. As far as movie development goes, it happened fast.
MF: The movie gives off major ‘Lethal Weapon’ and ‘Tango & Cash’ vibes. Can you talk about your love for the buddy cop genre and other films that influenced you?
JT: I think ‘Lethal Weapon’ was a big influence for us, for sure. I think that’s the one where we all kept saying “’Lethal Weapon’ in Hawaii, right?” We all talked about that and ‘48 Hrs.’ and even movies like ‘Running Scared’. I know Ángel our director has mentioned that movie once or twice. But it’s movies that retain the grit of an action drama while you’re doing comedy. There’s just a great dissonance to the comedy being put in this gritty setting, which is something I’ve loved about all those movies. It’s life or death stakes. It’s gritty, it’s dirty. The action is, incredibly visceral and at the same time, it’s funny. So, I think there’s a rich history. We certainly didn’t invent or even reinvent the genre, and we kind of leaned into the tropes of it. We just wanted to celebrate it.
MF: Can you also talk about the tone of the script and finding the right balance between action and comedy?
JT: For me, it always starts with character, and these are two brothers who have a share trauma that goes back to their childhood that instead of bringing them together has torn them apart. So, that’s the beating heart of the movie. I think Jason and Dave’s performances really do convey that. For me, that was always the most important part, the comedy, you could always dial that up or down in the dialogue and in the set pieces, but to me, the most important part was to make sure the beating heart of the movie was the relationship between these two brothers. So that’s where I put my primary focus and having just worked with those guys for a long time, I kind of know the rhythms of their speech. So, it was fun to write for them but that was the easy part. The important part was just tracking their emotional journey together.
MF: I was surprised by how funny Jason and Dave are in the movie? Did you realize how funny they were, and did you play into when writing the script?
JT: Yeah, that’s what I discovered on set when we were doing ‘See’, was like they were doing such heavy dramatic stuff, but the minute the camera stopped rolling, they’re funny guys. They love being funny. They don’t want to be seen it as monolithic action heroes. They want to be seen as actors. They love comedy and I know Dave’s also doing a lot of drama now. I think, like everyone else, they just want to be pushed creatively into areas that they don’t normally get to do. Jason’s been doing a bunch of companies lately, but I think together the distance between the two characters leads to a lot of comedy.
(L to R) Jonathan Tropper, Angel Manuel Soto, Jacob Batalon, Lynn Harris, Jeffrey Fierson, Morena Baccarin and Jason Momoa attend the Amazon MGM Studios ‘The Wrecking Crew’ New York red carpet screening event on Thursday, January 15, 2026 in New York.
MF: Actor Jacob Batalon has said that he improvised a lot on the set of this movie. As a screenwriter, how do you feel about actors improvising and not saying the words you wrote?
JT: I’ve been lucky that in most cases, they follow the basic rhythms of the script, but bring their own imprimatur to it. Jacob is a funny guy, and I’m always happy to take credit for good improvising. If it doesn’t work out, and sometimes it doesn’t, then it’s the editor’s job and the director’s job to figure out what works and what doesn’t. But the kind of improvising Jacob was doing, I never could have written for him because I didn’t know him. I didn’t know his voice. I don’t have his history. But he was doing something that was authentic to who he is and who that character was and so it only made it better, I think.
MF: Can you talk about working with director Ángel Manuel Soto and did he have ideas that you added to the script?
JT: Ángel is a very powerful creative force. He comes in with a lot of ideas, and he’s also willing to go the distance on ideas before he figures that out if they work or not. So, there was a lot of work with Ángel, and I even went out to New Zealand to do work with him. But there’s a lot of trying things and there’s a lot of exploring things. I know Ángel saw a lot of similarities between Puerto Rico and Hawaii in terms of their histories. It was important to him that we capture some of that in the script. So, I think the real work for me began then because writing the first draft was almost too easy. When he came on board and started pulling threads and trying to really find what he wanted. It led to a lot of great stuff, and it was a lot more work. I’ll also tell you that I had written that whole car chase with the helicopter and everything. But then he sits down and goes, “Well, let’s put these guys on a motorcycle,” and he came up with a whole addition to it. The whole middle section of that action set piece was all his idea. He has a good eye for action. I think this script was important to him for a lot of reasons.
(L to R) Ryan Gosling and Flynn Gray on the set of ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’. Photo: Shawn Levy/Instagram.
MF: You wrote the upcoming ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’, directed by Shawn Levy. What was it like for you writing a ‘Star Wars’ movie and getting to “play in that sandbox”?
JT: It is every bit as exciting as I hoped it would be, and it is also a lot more work than I thought it would be. It was really one of the probably toughest, most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had. It’s just so much bigger than anything I’ve done because of the history, because of the mythology, and because of the apparatus that comes with it. It was always exciting and had a million pinch me moments but at the same time, it was a lot of work.
MF: Finally, what should ‘Star Wars’ fans expect from the new film, and what do you think will surprise them the most?
JT: I would say that fans should expect something new and different, but in very much the spirit of the original ‘Star Wars’ movies. We really wanted adventure, excitement, wish fulfillment and the joy that we felt as little kids seeing those first versions of the movies. Anything that grows for generations develops a lot more mythology and weight in history. I think we just wanted to go back to the joy and excitement of how it felt when we were kids seeing these movies.
Two half-brothers, a loose cannon cop (Jason Momoa) and a disciplined Navy SEAL (Dave Bautista), must work together to unravel a conspiracy behind their father’s murder in Hawaii.
(L to R) Michelle Pfeiffer and Felicity Jones star in ‘Oh. What. Fun.’
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Michelle Pfeiffer and Felicity Jones about their work on ‘Oh. What. Fun.’, Pfeiffer’s first reaction to the screenplay, making a Christmas movie from the mother’s point of view, Jones’ approach to her character, and her relationship with her mother.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Pfeiffer, Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Dominic Sessa.
Michelle Pfeiffer in ‘Oh. What. Fun.’ Photo: Prime Video.
Moviefone: To begin with, Michelle, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and the idea of making a Christmas movie from the mother’s point of view?
Michelle Pfeiffer: First, I was so excited to work with Michael Showalter. I think I would’ve done anything that he asked me to do, honestly, because everything he does is so brilliant and it’s all different too. So, I feel like he can tackle any genre of movie making. It wasn’t really on my bucket list to do a Christmas movie and I haven’t seen a ton of them. But it’s one of those things where you don’t even know there’s a story that needs to be told until you read it and you go, “Oh, of course.” It’s like women have just assumed these roles and these responsibilities throughout the generations and done it joyously because they love their families, and they want to be with them. But then I thought, “Wow, that’s so true.” There aren’t any Christmas movies about mothers who are basically the glue to the whole thing. So, I got very excited to do it, and I loved the relationship, the mother-daughter relationship with Channing, and for Claire, the inability to let things evolve. I think that’s the stress and the pressure that Felicity’s character is feeling, the pressure to stay what she was. Anyway, I love the movie.
(L to R) Felicity Jones and Jason Schwartzman in ‘Oh. What. Fun.’ Photo: Prime Video.
MF: Finally, Felicity, can you talk about your character’s relationship with her mother, why she wants to be recognized by her, and creating that relationship on screen with Michelle?
Felicity Jones: Well, it’s just a relationship that’s so true to life, that there’s so much love and there’s so much admiration and affection. But it’s almost like the relationship got a little bit stuck. I think Channing is a bit stuck and she needs to go from being a child to being an adult, even though she’s in her late ’30s. Somehow through the course of the film, she becomes a grown up. When Claire is no longer there, then suddenly, she has all the responsibilities that Claire has, the weight that Claire must hold and suddenly it’s on her shoulders. So, in that happening, she discovers empathy and goes, “Actually, it’s not easy being my mom, and maybe I don’t need to be quite so hard on her.”
‘Oh. What. Fun.’ debuts on Prime Video December 3rd.
What is the plot of ‘Oh. What. Fun.’?
Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer) makes the Christmas magic happen every year for her family, but her children and grandchildren don’t realize the effort it takes, until she goes missing.
With ‘Red One,’ stars Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, along with director Jake Kasdan (‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’), hope to create a modern Christmas classic infused with the sensibility of a large-scale action film and the heart of a family comedy. Johnson plays Callum Drift, the head of security for Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons), whose annual mission to deliver gifts around the world is run with the precision of a military operation out of his massive, well-hidden complex at the North Pole.
But a security breach allows Santa to be kidnapped right out from under Drift’s nose, with the breach traced to Jack O’Malley (Evans), a dark web tracker and bounty hunter who is forcibly recruited to help Drift locate Santa and his kidnappers. The trail leads them to Gryla (Kiernan Shipka), a winter witch out of Icelandic folklore who plans to use Santa’s own magical powers to rid the world of naughty children forever – unless Drift and O’Malley can stop her and rescue the man who Drift simply knows as “Nick.”
With ‘Red One’ scheduled to open in theaters on November 15 as an early holiday present for moviegoers, members of the cast and crew – including Evans, Johnson, Shipka, Simmons, Lucy Liu (Zoe Harlow), Kristofer Hivju (Krampus), Bonnie Hunt (Mrs. Claus), Kasdan, producer Hiram Garcia, and others — participated in a virtual global press conference that Moviefone had the opportunity to attend (minus the egg nog and cookies).
Director Jake Kasdan revealed that the initial impetus for ‘Red One’ was to bring audiences a whole new vision of Santa Claus – as an action hero who trains hard to get in shape for Christmas, and who leads a vast, well-organized, and tightly-secured operation.
Jake Kasdan: That was absolutely one of the most exciting aspects of this movie, was sort of looking at a way that we could tell Santa’s story that we’ve never quite seen before. You’ve seen him a certain way your whole life, and we always thought that the great exciting idea for this was, what if you could sort of pull back the curtain and see what he’s really like? So all of those aspects of this came from that sort of seed idea.
Producer Hiram Garcia, who also came up with the original story for the movie, said he wanted to create the “definitive” Santa onscreen and make him cool again.
Hiram Garcia: I think when we did start working on this, one of the goals was, and actually when we were going around pitching it, we always ended the pitch with saying our hope was to tell a story that really inspired people, turn Christmas on its head in the mythology, but also to create the definitive Santa Claus. There’s been so many good Santa Clauses, but to find one that really took a connection with the audience to the next level and brought a coolness out in Santa that as a big Christmas fan, I always knew Santa’s got. I feel like we did that with J.K. and especially the way Jake envisioned him on screen. J.K.’s performance as Santa is everything we dreamed and more.
Chris Evans said that making an action movie based around Christmas was easier than it might seem because the folklore around the world is full of such fantastical legends and creations.
Chris Evans: We had a whole team of people who [were] trying to crack that code. I mean, I think it actually provides a lot of fun. There’s such great Christmas lore, folklore, not just the stories we all grew up with, but internationally…When you hear about some of these creatures and stories and mythology, it almost begs for some sort of action-adventure movie. So it’s not quite as hard as you think.
4) The Secret Ingredient To This Christmas Confection
(L to R) Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans in ‘Red One.’ Photo: Amazon MGM Studios.
Dwayne Johnson said that director Jake Kasdan brought something to ‘Red One’ that makes the movie special.
Dwayne Johnson: Something that Jake inherently does in his films — and I’ve had the privilege of working with him now three times, on the first two ‘Jumanji’ movies and now ‘Red One’ — is heart. There’s so much heart in this movie. That’s often an overstatement, I think, in storytelling in Hollywood, but it’s true. One of my favorite parts of the movie is where J.K. as Santa Claus reminds me that it’s our job to see the best in people and look beyond if they’re on the naughty list, and look at the kid in everybody.
5) Lucy Liu Didn’t Know At First She Had A Big Action Scene
Lucy Liu plays Zoe Harlow, the director of MORA (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), an agency charged with keeping track of the world’s mythological beings. Although initially it didn’t seem like she’d participate in any of the action, things took a different turn during filming.
Lucy Liu: Well, it was impromptu. I had spoken to Jake and I said, “Is there any training or do you need me to prep anything?” He said, “No, I think maybe she’s going to throw a kick and maybe a punch. Maybe that’s it. You’re just the boss lady and then that’s all it’s going to be.” I said, “Okay, great. No problem.” I show up to the set, we’re doing the costume fittings and everything, and then the stunt coordinator comes in and he says, “I just want to give you a little bit of a previs of what we’re going to do.” He shows me this entire action scene. And my face just turned white. But then I was like, “Okay, let’s do this.” As soon as I got the sticks in my hands, it was like muscle memory kicked in. It was like I was alive again…I hadn’t done it in a long time, but it just came back to me. I love watching action movies. I grew up watching them, and actually being on the screen doing action is so exciting. I think that it gets kids excited, it gets girls excited, it gets women excited. So it’s nice that you still got it.
6) Kiernan Shipka Got Her Villain On For The First Time
Kiernan Shipka (‘Longlegs’) appears as Gryla, the legendary winter witch who masterminds Santa’s kidnapping, and said she relished her first opportunity to play the main villain in a movie.
Kiernan Shipka: It was really fun. I loved it. I’ve never really played a proper villain before. I’ve definitely played people who were dark and twisted, but the film kind of hinges on this kidnapping. It was really cool to feel like I had a part in the movie that was sort of moving things in any sort of direction. That was really fun. I liked those stakes. I love that this movie’s so fun. I mean, there’s a lot of heart in it, there’s a lot of action in it, but at the end of the day, I think you sit down and it’s a really fun watch. So playing someone who is a villain, but also maintaining a sense of levity and fun with the whole thing was also really lovely. So it was great. I’ll play a villain anytime. It was fun.
7) Kristofer Hivju Went A Different Way Playing Krampus
The figure of Krampus, in European Alpine folklore, is said to accompany Santa/St. Nicholas on his rounds and punish the children who have been naughty. Although wearing a full, practical costume complete with horns, actor Kristofer Hivju (‘Game of Thrones’) decided to play him not as a horrific monster but as Santa’s estranged, self-absorbed brother, who indulges in wild parties and slapping contests with his obedient guests.
Kristofer Hivju: For me it was like the character is more or less the suit, right? So I tried to play against the suit, and actually play him as feminine, as narcissistic, and self-indulging as possible. Suddenly that mixture became a bit disturbing. But the funny thing about Krampus is that he has the same objective as Nick. They want the same thing. It’s just the method [that’s different] — punishing or rewarding. Sometimes you need a bit of slapping.
Dwayne Johnson said that having Krampus played by an actor in a suit on the set was a huge advantage over the character being created via CG.
Dwayne Johnson: For Chris and I, when we step on set and we had the privilege of obviously being on set for many, many days with Kristofer as Krampus, it is one of the most impressive things we had ever seen. He’s massive and he really does such a spectacular job as Krampus. In our story the mythology is that he’s the brother of Santa, and the prosthetics that he was wearing are from Joel Harlow, who’s an Academy Award winner, and you really see it. But the challenge is that there has to be so much life going on in his eyes because everything else is just these incredible prosthetics. Because he’s such a superior actor, you feel that in the movie.
Chris Evans added that working with practical effects and creatures like Krampus on set brought back memories of the movies he loved growing up.
Chris Evans: I grew up on movies like ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘NeverEnding Story’ where it was all practical and it was real. Those things stuck with you as a kid because it was things that you never saw in your normal life. I know now that every other movie is just loaded with CG. In a way there’s so much of it that when you do get a film that goes practical, it still sticks with you in that same way because it’s still rare like it was when I was a kid. That’s what makes it feel like a real character, a real performance. It’s not common anymore, which is nice.
Dwayne Johnson shared what was most important for him about the Christmas holidays.
Dwayne Johnson: Just getting family together would be our #1 greatest family tradition. I know it’s simplistic, but a lot of times when I was growing up, my dad was always on the road and he wasn’t always home for Christmas. In the business that we’re in, sometimes it requires us to work over the holidays. So for me, just to have the entire family together, that’s the most important thing.
Santa himself, J.K. Simmons, shared a story about his family during the holidays and how Christmas taught him and his sister a valuable lesson.
J.K. Simmons: I have an older sister, two years older. She was probably six and I was four, and my little brother was a baby. Of course on Christmas morning we’re up before the crack of dawn, bothering our parents and getting them out of bed and they’re dragging their butts out of bed. But I think that was the Christmas that my mom just said, “Go make some oatmeal.” My sister, she’s the oldest, so she’s the assistant mom. So from every Christmas from then on, my sister and I would get up, we would make the oatmeal, and after we ate the oatmeal, then we were allowed to open the stockings from Santa. Then we waited for mom and dad to wake up to open all the rest of the presents. So it taught us a real kind of self-sufficiency, and it gave my sister, especially, a sense of responsibility.
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What is the plot of ‘Red One’?
After a villain kidnaps Santa from the North Pole, an E.L.F (Extremely Large and Formidable) operative (Dwayne Johnson) must partner with the world’s most accomplished tracker (Chris Evans) to find Santa and save Christmas.
Macaulay Culkin in ‘Party Monster’. Photo: Strand Releasing.
Preview:
Macaulay Culkin is joining ‘Fallout’ Season 2.
Prime Video’s adaptation of the video game series saw success when it launched this year.
The post-apocalyptic story will continue.
Prime Video found itself with a winner on its hands –– at least critically, but according to parent company Amazon, also in terms of viewership –– this past April, via ‘Fallout,’ the quirky, post-apocalyptic thriller series drawn from Bethesda Game Studios’ wildly popular set of video games.
It debuted as one of Prime Video’s Top 3 most watched titles and earned 16 Emmy nominations for its first season, including Outstanding Drama Series.
According to Deadline, Season 2 will see ‘Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin joining them, his role mostly a mystery but apparently someone who is a crazy genius. Which seems fitting for the mad world in which ‘Fallout’ takes place.
‘Fallout’ is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have.
Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.
Season 2 promises to deliver more of the madness, mutants and mysteries audiences came to enjoy from the first.
Purnell plays Lucy, an optimistic Vault Dweller with an all-American, can-do spirit. Her peaceful and idealistic nature is tested when people harm her loved ones.
Aaron Moten stars as Maximus, A young soldier who hides his tragic past as he serves in a militaristic faction called Brotherhood of Steel. He believes in the nobility of the Brotherhood’s mission to bring law and order to the Wasteland — and will do anything to further their goals… until he learns some harsh truths.
Goggins steals scenes as The Ghoul. The Ghoul survives the Wasteland as a bounty hunter. He is pragmatic, ruthless, and hides a mysterious past.
MacLachlan is Hank, the Overseer of Vault 33 and Lucy’s father. He is eager to change the world for the better –– but has turned out to be not so positive…
When will Season 2 be on screens?
Given that it’s only now started shooting, we’re expecting to wait a while for this one. Hopefully it’ll be before the end of 2025.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
Returning for its second season with three episodes via Prime Video on August 29th, ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ continues to largely justify the huge amounts of cash Amazon splashed on the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “secondary material” for stories set long before the timelines of ‘The Hobbit’ or the main ‘Rings’ narrative.
And reassuringly, the second season actually shows a welcome jump in momentum.
Does ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2 have some magic?
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
The first season might be best described as scene-setting or like an orchestra tuning up before launching into the overture ahead of the main performance. There were myriad characters to introduce and storylines to set up, a difficult juggling act that meant a few were left somewhat wanting.
As Season 2 dawns, there is a lot more in place and storylines can continue (albeit with one or two confusing time jumps, especially when it comes to Charlie Vickers’ Sauron, whose plot appears to have been thrown in a blender in terms of where we are with him at any one point in the initial two episodes.
Script and Direction
(L to R) Gavi Singh Chera as Merimac, Megan Richards as Poppy, Markella Kavenagh as Nori, Tanya Moodie as Gundabel in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Ross Ferguson / Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
The balancing act is back for Season 2, but showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay lead their writing team down some solid paths, with the most urgent catch-ups (particularly with Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel and Vickers’ own story as Sauron schemes) fore fronted in the initial story.
It feels like the collected writer/producers have a better idea this year on how to let the various strands breathe, even as they introduce new characters and complications for our heroes.
A switch in filming locations from New Zealand to the U.K. has not diminished the epic scope and scale of the series, which, while it can’t always rival Peter Jackson’s cinematic visions, still makes the world vivid and large.
Season 2 directors Charlotte Brändström (who returns from working on the first), Sanaa Hamri and Louise Hooper keep the show looking great (with just the occasional hint of misty CG work).
Performances
Though not every performance can have the charm and power of the leads, the ensemble all work hard to bring their characters to life.
Morfydd Clark as Galadriel
Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Ross Ferguson / Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
The anchor of the show (alongside perhaps Vickers), Clark continues to impress as elf warrior (and future mystic) Galadriel. Though viewers might sometimes share her frustration that few of the elves around her share her concerns when it comes to the very real threat of Sauron, Clark is never less than compelling.
Charlie Vickers as Sauron
Charlie Vickers as Sauron in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Ben Rothstein / Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
Even more than Clark, Vickers gets a lot to chew on as the Dark Lord; seductive and sometimes serene, he’s once more given various different shades of Sauron to play and does well by them all.
Daniel Weyman as The Stranger in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Ben Rothstein / Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
No one is still saying the G-word yet (that would be “Gandalf” for anyone unaware), but there is plenty of talk about names in the initial couple of episodes. On his quest with Harfoots Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy (Megan Richards), he’s still something of a mystery, but is brought into contact with a new threat (more on that below).
(L to R) Owain Arthur as Prince Durin IV and Sophia Nomvete as Princess Disa in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Ben Rothstein / Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
Nomvete continues to be a highlight of the show; her interactions with husband Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and, indeed anyone she comes into contact with are a delight. She brings such energy and humor to the role, the perfect combination of performer and script.
Other notable characters
While we won’t discuss exactly who he’s playing, Ciaran Hinds makes a solid debut as a mystery new character who promises to cause trouble for The Stranger. Ditto Ben Daniels, who plays an elf (but again, we won’t specify who) to great effect.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) Robert Aramayo as Elrond; Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Ben Rothstein / Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
If Season One was figuring out what the show needed to be, Season 2 represents the creators really able to run with the idea, having worked out some of the kinks. A few remain –– not every character works, but the vast majority are entertaining, and the show remains very watchable even if you sometimes have to consult a web guide to remind yourself who everyone is and how they fit into the sprawling lore.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2 receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2?
In Season Two of ‘The Rings of Power’, Sauron (Charlie Vickers) has returned. Cast out by Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), without an army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-Earth to his sinister will. Building on Season One’s epic scope and ambition, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2?
(L to R) Charles Edwards and Charlie Vicker star in Prime Video’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards about their work on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2, laying the groundwork for Sauron in season one and exploring the character in season two, Celebrimbor’s motivations, if he will be corrupted by the power of the rings, and what it means to them personally to be part of the show.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Vickers, Edwards, Daniel Weyman, Markella Kavenaugh, Megan Richards, Benjamin Walker, and Ismael Cruz Cordova.
Charlie Vickers as Sauron in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Ben Rothstein / Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
Moviefone: To begin with, Charlie, can you talk about laying the groundwork for Sauron in season one and having the opportunity to explore the character in season two?
Charlie Vickers: I think the easiest way I can articulate it is in season one, the groundwork was all laid because we were kind of guessing where Sauron was. I was still playing ultimately the same character with all the same research, different on the outside, but in the perspective of the show, I was having Sauron moments when the camera was pointed at Galadriel. This season you shift perspective, and you get let into his private world. Obviously, there’s a whole bunch of internal character development things that have happened by being with this character for such a long time, but now the perspective has shifted. We kind of get let in. The door is ajar for us as the audience.
MF: Since Sauron disguises himself as other people, has it felt like you were playing more than one character and how do you approach that?
CV: Yeah, it has been. I mean, ultimately Halbrand and Annatar are both Sauron, but the second season we changed a lot, not only just with the makeup team and the costume team, but I worked a lot with Leith McPherson, our dialect coach, on a new accent and dialect and with a movement coach as well to try and work out the way he moves. So, it has been a development of a completely different character on the outside but maintains a lot of the same internal motivation.
(L to R) Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor, Amelia Kenworhty as Mirdania in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Ben Rothstein / Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
MF: Charles, can you talk about where we last saw Celebrimbor in season one and where we find him and what he’s dealing with in season two?
Charles Edwards: When we left him, he’s created something which he hopes is going to be amazing at the end of season one. But we have no confirmation of that going into season two so he’s still in that kind of inertia of waiting and not having any information about what’s happened to that. So, he’s built his fantastic new forge, which is an amazing place to work by the way. That set is extraordinary. But with no direction, he doesn’t know which step to take next. But then someone shows up who’s going to perhaps help him with that. We find him in kind of slightly adrift at the beginning of season two, but then he is seized by a new energy when he reconnects with Halbrand.
MF: Is he susceptible to the power of the rings and how will he avoid being corrupted?
CE: I think he certainly is. I think he’s susceptible to all kinds of things. Sauron/Annatar, is very good at seeking out the kind of chinks in his armor. Yes, he’s very susceptible to pride, to ambition, to flattery, and yes, to the rings.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ season 2. Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon MGM Studios.
MF: Finally, Charlie, what has it been like for you to be on a series as large in scope as this and really have an opportunity to explore the world J. R. R. Tolkien created?
CV: It’s been incredible. I think there’s two aspects. You have it as a human being, like as an actor. The first time I stepped onto the set it’s scary and it’s surprising how quickly you get used to that, and it sort of begins to feel like, certainly in the second season it felt, I was more comfortable with it. But it’s a joy as an actor to be able to have such a rich world to not only play in, but to research out playing canon characters. There is just so much stuff to inspire us, whether it’s Tolkien’s books or it’s all these amazing adaptations that range from movies to video games to cartoons.
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What is the plot of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2?
In Season Two of ‘The Rings of Power’, Sauron (Charlie Vickers) has returned. Cast out by Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), without an army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-Earth to his sinister will. Building on Season One’s epic scope and ambition, the new season plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2?
(L to R) John Cena and Awkwafina in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
On Prime Video on August 15th, ‘Jackpot!’ finds Paul Feig back in the sort of action-comedy territory that served him well for the likes of ‘Spy’ and ‘The Heat.’
Yet his latest, like a couple of his other recent efforts, has been sent direct to streaming, signaling just how tough it is for filmmakers’ work to find theaters outside of giant franchise or indie films that score a release. Still, it’s entertaining enough.
Does ‘Jackpot!’ succeed in the movie lottery?
(L to R) John Cena and Awkwafina in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
Though it doesn’t always exploit the satirical nature of its story, choosing instead to focus on frenzied action and gags, the movie certainly offers enough to keep you watching. There is sometimes the feeling that the improvisational style that Feig favors means a lot is thrown at the wall and not all of it works, but there is a solid level of jokes here.
(L to R) Director Paul Feig, John Cena, and Simu Liu in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
Writer Rob Yescombe’s backstory is in video game writing, and there are moments when ‘Jackpot!’ certainly has that feel –– it has very much a progression feel as Awkwafina and John Cena’s characters battle their way through different levels of enemies looking to take her down and win the money instead.
But it’s enough of a framework on which Feig and co. can hang plenty of jokes (and the original concept is sound and funny), and while a lot of the stunt work was likely devised once the script was already delivered, there’s lots of fun just in the basic ideas.
Feig has worked with action before –– in ‘Spy’ particularly, which remains one of his best movies –– and he knows how to respect both his stunt performers’ suggestions and abilities and his actors’ willingness to deliver the comedy.
Still, there are certainly moments where it feels like he’s just let Awkwafina in particular shout as chaos reigns around her, and one or two scenes could have benefitted from judicious editing.
‘Jackpot!’: Performances
(L to R) John Cena and Katie Awkwafina in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
Cena and Awkwafina are certainly the focus here, with some welcome, wacky support from Simu Liu as the corporate protection agent who has more of an agenda that he lets on.
Yet around them Feig –– whose resume includes work on shows such as ‘The Office’ –– builds a quality comedy ensemble with people he knows can deliver even in the smallest roles.
Awkwafina as Katie Kim
Awkwafina stars as ‘Katie’ in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
Awkwafina came up from YouTube and developed a career stealing scenes as a supporting performer in movies such as ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. Her particularly energy might not always be a natural fit for leading roles, but here you buy her as a frustrated actor and out-of-towner who can’t quite comprehend what is happening to her.
And she plays wonderfully off of Cena, their buddy comedy energy tempered with moments of vulnerability and their full commitment to the mania of the movie itself.
John Cena as Noel Cassidy
(L to R) John Cena and Katie Awkwafina in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
It looked for a long while like Cena would simply be following in the footsteps of wrestler-turned-actor types such as Dwayne Johnson, but in the last few years, Cena has really started to come into his own as a vanity free, committed combo of muscular action star and class clown.
Roles in projects such as ‘Peacemaker’ and, more recently ‘The Bear’ have shown his range, and while ‘Jackpot!’ doesn’t quite demand the same level of performance, it’s also a solid part for the actor.
His Noel is a welcome mixture of tough guy and bleeding heart, committed to saving lives for reasons that become clear later in the movie. And, as mentioned above, he works really well with Awkwafina, matching her comedy energy levels.
Simu Liu as Louis Lewis
(L to R) Agent Hoyt (Monique Ganderton) and Louis (Simu Liu) in ‘Jackpot!’ Photo: Amazon.
Some might see Liu and Awkwafina share the screen and start wondering where the ‘Shang-Chi’ sequel is, since they really do work well playing off each other. As Louis, Liu shows he hasn’t lost his comedy skills (since he got his start on Canadian sitcom ‘Kim’s Convenience’), playing the preening, corporate sleaze who makes money protecting lottery winners.
Ayden Mayeri as Shadi
(L to R) Shadi (Ayden Mayeri) and DJ (Donald Elise Watkins) in ‘Jackpot!’ Photo: Amazon.
Ayden Mayeri enjoys what could be a welcome breakout role as the vacuous, vengeful Shadi, a wannabe performer who runs possibly the worst Airbnb in Los Angeles. Together with bumbling boyfriend DJ (Donald Elise Watkins, who is also funny), she’s more than just a one-note comedy character, turning into a real villain as the story continues.
Supporting cast
(L to R) Murray Hill and Dolly De Leon in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
Feig’s eye for talent (both established and new) stands him in good stead for this movie. You have the likes of Seann William Scott and Dolly De Leon in the amusing opening scene featuring a previous lottery winner and the seemingly harmless grandma who takes him down. It could be seen as a parody of action movies or something that appears on ‘Saturday Night Live’, but it launches you into the film’s world successfully.
‘Jackpot!’: Final Thoughts
(L to R) Noel (John Cena) and Katie (Awkwafina) in ‘Jackpot!’ Photo: Amazon.
Would ‘Jackpot!’ truly have worked if it were released into theaters? Comedy has certainly struggled in the last few years, with much of it moving into the streaming world. And it was always a riskier prospect for studios despite the huge success of titles such as ‘The Hangover’ and even Feig’s own ‘Bridesmaids’.
Still, as it stands, it’s certainly worth checking out of an evening and will certainly make you chuckle.
‘Jackpot!’ receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Jackpot!”?
In the future, a ‘Grand Lottery’ has been newly established in California – the catch: kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion-dollar jackpot. When Katie Kim (Awkwafina) moves to Los Angeles, she mistakenly finds herself with the winning ticket. Desperate to survive the hordes of jackpot hunters, she reluctantly joins forces with amateur lottery protection agent Noel Cassidy (John Cena) who will do everything in his power to get her to sundown in exchange for a piece of her prize. However, Noel must face off with his slick rival Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), who also seeks to collect Katie’s commission at all costs.
Erin Moriarty in ‘Catching Dust’. Photo: Vertical.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with actress Erin Moriarty and filmmaker Stuart Gatt about their work on ‘Catching Dust’, developing the screenplay, Moriarty’s approach to playing her character, her relationship with her husband, symbolic vultures, and the movie’s ambiguous ending.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.
Director Stuart Gatt on the set of ‘Catching Dust’. Photo: Vertical.
Moviefone: To begin with, Stuart, can you talk about developing the screenplay and the themes that you wanted to explore as a director?
Stuart Gatt: I had this idea of setting something in the American west, something that felt very expansive but also very isolated in terms of the story. This was one of those films, I think where it is not always like that, but you write, and you let the characters guide you in a way. A lot of the themes presented themselves to me as I got to know the script more and the story more. I realized that many of the themes were dealing with stuff that I’d grown up with like a single mom and understanding her journey with my dad. I think there’s elements of my mom in Geena and my dad in Clyde that felt in some ways like this film was some kind of therapy for me without realizing it when I was writing it. But it is interesting. I think when I look at it now, I’ve really taken a very personal thing and just transposed it on a world that’s totally different. Maybe that makes it a little bit easier for me to take in and process. The universal themes, I think because we do live in a world now where everyone feels so connected, but we’re probably the most disconnected we’ve ever been as a race. That was interesting to me that you had this character with Geena who was trying to understand who she was, she’s trying to understand her place in the world, her value, but she’s totally disconnected from it and it’s almost like an inverse of what we feel now. People are very connected but feel so disillusioned and so disconnected. I think it was an interesting way to explore it. I think what you’re trying to do when you’re writing really is you’re asking yourself, “Who can you put around this character right now? What’s the worst thing that can happen to her? Or the best thing that can happen to her in terms of these people that you put around her?” I think with Geena really trying to figure out who she is and these dreams of what the big city offers, she meets these people that have come from that place, and she seemingly believes that they’re the answers to all their prayers. She has this intense development with them, and all her beliefs are challenged so that by the end of the story, she’s not the same Geena that we met in those opening moments
Erin Moriarty in ‘Catching Dust’. Photo: Vertical.
MF: Erin, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and what was your approach to playing this character?
Erin Moriarty: The screenplay and my approach to Geena, were very similar. I honestly was like, “Thank God,” because even the concept of this script having themes, which it does, of course it has motifs, it has all these components that any film does. I just love a film and a character that breaks all the boxes that you want to put it into. I felt like it did that. I just felt like any placement in this industry, however small, however large, that this can play, we just need to keep those projects going. Then with Geena, I just felt this feeling with her that I haven’t felt with many characters. It was a credit to Stuart. She’s written in a way where my heart is breaking for her but not in the typical way where she’s the ingenue and she’s the victim. It was for very complicated reasons that are almost ineffable. I knew that I needed to do a project and I’m going to get so much out of character when I feel like the stakes are high and I get nervous about making sure that I make every single moment of her emotional experience not drop. I needed everything to land even in an understated way, if not in an overt way, but she’s so complicated. For me I just love this new exploration of the paradoxical nature of being human, but also being a woman. I love that Stuart wrote a character that does, she surprises you and she’s paradoxical. That doesn’t mean she’s a bad person, it’s all in the gray, but it’s that paradoxical element to every character and the script itself and the psychological and emotional density that was present and dark. I liked that it was dark. I like a mess. I like playing messy characters. I remember talking to the boss (Eric Kripke) that I work with so often on ‘The Boys’ who created ‘The Boys’ and he taught me something, which is we think that by making a story broader and a character more generic, we’re going to have that character be more relatable. But the more specific the character and the storyline is, the more it will resonate with us. The fact that Stuart infused those specificities is what translates into a film that resonates. I think that’s why we think generic or general or reductive is the safer choice and it will apply to more people, but ironically it doesn’t.
(L to R) Erin Moriarty and Jai Courtney in ‘Catching Dust’. Photo: Vertical.
MF: Can you talk about Geena’s marriage to Clyde and how that relationship changes when Andy and Amaya come into their lives?
EM: It’s interesting because we’re conditioned to believe that we should not rely on extrinsically motivated opinions or just influences in general from others that we need to intrinsically define ourselves. Comparison is the thief of joy. I do believe that. Yet all these things are said, but there’s always something to contradict them. There must be a balance. I think we meet Geena, and I think it’s very powerful from the beginning that there’s something growing in her that is just an inherent curiosity. But the combination of that coexisting with her love for Clyde, which is painful because A, her curiosity means that she might need to ultimately depart the person she thought she would be with for the rest of her life, but also confront who he is. I think that’s one of the hardest things we can do. We tried to make very present in her that she comes from a suppressed background. When she falls madly in love, that’s enough. He does allow her to see so much. I will say that someone would otherwise label him as a suppressor, but he’s hurt. Hurt people, hurt people. I think he heals her in a way with how much he loves her, but to a certain point. I think that that dynamic and her relationship with Clyde is ultimately the thing that is so heartbreaking because she loves him so much and because she knows that she must confront the reality of who he is while she confronts the reality of who she is. To learn that the person you’ve loved and who has changed your life, and your life has been defined by this love, is not quite the person you thought they were, it doesn’t mean that it was all fake, and I don’t think it was at all. But it’s really complicated, and it brings up a lot of questions that I don’t think we often ask when it comes to love, because we usually start at the point at which the breakup is over, or the breakup is happening. But we were very intent on wanting to feel the love before it happened because that was just the mandatory precursor to feeling any of the emotional states. I’ll just quickly say that it’s so cool to me to explore a female character whose eyes are open via other characters, but it doesn’t negate the strength that she finds in the end or the power of her story just, it’s about how we metabolize these situations. She could have not done anything, but she did something and it was huge, and it took a lot more bravery than just being passive. I think it presents the fact that just because other people open your eyes it doesn’t mean that that’s what determines your strength or how you behave in reaction to those moments in your life. She behaves in a way that is, I think, so painful for her, but so necessary. She puts her oxygen mask on for the first time in her life.
Jai Courtney in ‘Catching Dust’. Photo: Vertical.
MF: Finally, Stuart, can you talk about the symbolism of the vultures that are seen in the movie, and the choice to make the ending ambiguous?
SG: With the birds, it’s more than just the birds, I wanted to play with this idea that nature understood there was this impending death and destruction and this cataclysmic event that’s developing there. It starts with Clyde, and he says he went hunting and everything had buried itself away. We see the vultures that are circling early on, the sense of death. By the end, when we’re close to the end, it’s huge amounts of vultures circling. But we also see it with the tortoise, we see it with the snake, everything is slowly gravitating towards or away from the one little nucleus in the middle of Big Bend Texas. Regarding the end, you will never have me explain certain things. The one thing I will say though is of course there’s an element of ambiguity to it because it’s not a very spoon-fed ending. But I think it’s one of those things that I would not be doing my job if I was trying to spoon-feed the audience what they take away from it. That’s all I’ll say.
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What is the plot of ‘Catching Dust’?
Geena (Erin Moriarty) and her outlaw spouse Clyde (Jai Courtney) have taken refuge in a solitary trailer on a deserted community in Texas’ Big Bend. Tired of his autocratic ways, Geena plans to escape, when a new trailer shows up with a pair from New York (Dina Shihabi and Ryan Corr). Geena persuades Clyde to let them stay, despite the dangers they will bring, a choice that leads to serious trouble for everyone.
Who is in the cast of ‘Catching Dust’?
Erin Moriarty as Geena
Jai Courtney as Clyde
Dina Shihabi as Amaya
Ryan Corr as Andy
‘Catching Dust’ opens in select theaters on August 23rd.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with acclaimed director Paul Feig about his work on ‘Jackpot!’, his first reaction to the screenplay, making a comedic version of ‘The Purge’, his casting process, working with Awkwafina and John Cena, and executing the action sequences.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
(L to R) Director Paul Feig, John Cena, and Simu Liu in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and the themes you wanted to explore with this movie?
Paul Feig: I mean, the very first time I was told about the screenplay and sent it, I looked at the title page, it said, ‘Grand Theft Lotto’. I thought, this is stupid, and I put it down and didn’t read it. Then it was my producing partner, Laura Fisher, who called me up and said, “I just read that script and it’s super funny. You should read it.” The minute, I got 40 pages in, it was just like, I must do this. Because I love physical comedy. Jackie Chan is a huge hero of mine. I’ve always wanted to make a Jackie Chan level physical action comedy. I like the message of it because even though on its surface it appears to be a very dystopian, sort of negative commentary on mankind, I find that it’s not. I find that by the time you get to the end of the movie, you find out there’s more people who would not participate in something as insane as this as there are. So, it’s really Nora’s world through this, she’s only surrounded by the people who’ve chosen to join this lotto and kill her. But then by the end you learn, oh no, this is not most of the world. So, I think it’s a very uplifting movie in the end.
(L to R) Murray Hill and Dolly De Leon in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
MF: ‘Jackpot!’ is kind of like a comedic version of ‘The Purge’. Do you agree with that and is that what you were going for?
PF: You know what, yes. I completely buy into that. I keep saying it’s ‘The Purge’ meets ‘It’s a Mad, Mad World’. But the thing about ‘The Purge’ is, getting back to the point about the lottery, nobody in ‘The Purge’ has a choice about being in the purge. Everyone must be in the purge. The lotto, the Grand Lottery, you choose to be in it. So that’s why I think we’re not… I love ‘The Purge’ movies, they are some of my favorite movies, but they’re dark.
(L to R) John Cena and Awkwafina in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
MF: One thing that do exceedingly well as a filmmaker is casting. Can you talk about your casting process and working with Awkwafina and John Cena on this project?
PF: Because casting is 90% of my job. If I get that right, then everything else just falls into place behind it, if you do it right. But I was lucky enough with this movie, when the script came to me, Nora (Awkwafina) and John were already attached. So, I was given this gift of these two thoroughbreds. But again, you just don’t know. They never worked together before. You’re always kind of like, I hope these people have chemistry. But they just had it, just bucket loads of it. I found that the best people that I work with in this business, especially comedians, have a chemistry with each other, because they are like tennis players. They rely on the other person they’re playing against. So, there’s no ego between them because they know each one is making the other one look good, and they’re making each other look good at the same time. But it was a joy to see that they had chemistry times ten.
(L to R) John Cena and Katie Awkwafina in ‘Jackpot!’. Credit: Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Copyright: @ Amazon Content Services LLC.
MF: Finally, what was it like shooting the action sequences and working with the fight choreographers?
PF: That’s a dream come true. I love that stuff so much. But I also have a great stunt coordinator who I work with on this for the first time, who comes from the Marvel world and does all that serious fighting. But he, like myself, is a giant Jackie Chan fan. So, we were both, when we met, it was just like, we get to do all the stuff we’ve always wanted to do. So, he’d go off and work with his stunt team, and they would kind of film on their iPhones, these sequences, and then they’d bring it to me and I’m like, “Oh, we’ll try this. Let’s try that.” We’d get in there and it would like kids in a candy store. I’m like, “What if he ties her onto his back?” He’s like, “Yeah, we can do that.” So, we just plussed and plussed and plussed it all up.
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What is the plot of ‘Jackpot!”?
In the future, a ‘Grand Lottery’ has been newly established in California – the catch: kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion-dollar jackpot. When Katie Kim (Awkwafina) moves to Los Angeles, she mistakenly finds herself with the winning ticket. Desperate to survive the hordes of jackpot hunters, she reluctantly joins forces with amateur lottery protection agent Noel Cassidy (John Cena) who will do everything in his power to get her to sundown in exchange for a piece of her prize. However, Noel must face off with his slick rival Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), who also seeks to collect Katie’s commission at all costs.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with iconic Hollywood actor Anthony Michael Hall about his work on ‘Trigger Warning’, his first reaction to the screenplay, playing the villain, his action sequences, and working with Jessica Alba and director Mouly Surya.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to see what Anthony Michael Hall had to say about Netflix’s ‘Trigger Warning’.
Anthony Michael Hall. Photo Credit: Mark Binks.
Moviefone: To begin with, what was your first reaction to the screenplay for ‘Trigger Warning’ and why did you want to be a part of this project?
Anthony Michael Hall: Well, it came up about three and a half years ago. My managers are a great company, Untitled Management, and they set up a meeting for myself and Mouly Surya, the filmmaker. So, I watched her film that was nominated, it was called ’Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts’, also like ‘Trigger Warning’, a female driven revenge thriller, and she did a beautiful job with that. That’s like her ‘Kill Bill’, and she’s a very talented filmmaker. So, I met with Mouly. We had a nice Zoom session meeting because it was COVID times, and she was lovely. She was cool about it. She had grown up watching a lot of my films. That’s why I feel old. Anyway, she was really kind enough to invite me to join the party and to make ‘Trigger Warning’ with them. It was interesting. I liked the script a lot. John Brancato, the guy who wrote it, is a friend of a mutual friend of mine that I knew in Brooklyn growing up, and I knew of his writing. He was talented. So, the guys did a good job with it. I think there’s something very stark about the good versus evil reality. When I did ‘The Dark Knight’, or even in a film like this, there’s shadings of a Western here too. But she’s, as you know, a special ops military woman who comes into town and discovers her father’s been murdered. I’m playing this career politician, Ezekiel Swann, who is a senator, and a dirty character. It was funny for me too, because suddenly I’m on set, and I’m in my late fifties and I have two grown men playing my sons. I was like, “Okay. I guess I’m my age now.” They did a great job. Jake Weary plays Elvis and Mark Webber plays Jesse, very different actors. They’re my Cain and Abel, my two sons. It was just an interesting project from all these vantage points. The fact that we were produced by Thunder Road who did the ‘John Wick’ series, so that guaranteed this level of action. We had the 87eleven, which is this famous stunt group that does all those films, so they just could not have been more prepared. By the time we got to the set in Santa Fe, the stunt crew had been there for about five or six weeks. So, they pre-visualized everything. They’d already shot the sequences, and so we had fight training and we had choreographed sequences and training to do, and it was just a lot of fun. I’d never done an action picture where there was that much of a focus on the action. It was great to be a part of. Then working with Jessica, she was game. She really did a good job. I think her acting is excellent. She did a nice job carrying the film. But also, with that background in action, it was very important for her that we execute on those levels. There’s that line in the film, which she says to Jake Weary, who plays my son, Elvis. She said, “You should put a little more weight on your back foot. You wouldn’t punch like such a b**ch.” I mean, she was game on. I think she ad-libbed that in the moment, and they used it in the film. But I thought the script was solid. It was a good group of actors I got to work with. Experientially, just being in Santa Fe, and shooting a picture there was a lot of fun too. All those elements become ingredients in the making of something and it was great to be a part of. I had fun.
MF: Can you talk about Senator Swann and Parker’s history together and working on that backstory with Jessica Alba?
AMH: That’s a great point. I think acting is often in the eyes more than it is the words. You’re right, there’s that backstory element that she doesn’t like me. You even wonder if Mark does, my son who’s the sheriff. A lot of that is how you can read their faces in the scene where I show up and I tell her, “Welcome back,” and she’s side eyeing me going, “This guy, he’s a real career politician.” Even though I didn’t base it on any one character, one of the things I tried to do, which was just give a little bit of a non-descript southern background to him, so I gave him a little bit of a southern snarl. Even though my sons weren’t doing that. But when you get to a set, it’s interesting. When I met with the costume department and our designer, she was great. She had a vision board and she had pulled all these pictures of Ted Turner from the ‘80s, guys that are very wealthy but just choose to live in the southwest and that country cowboy lifestyle, even if they’re not necessarily real cowboys. So, I think that that breathed life into it. Being in Santa Fe, seeing the level of production and professionalism from the stunt team. All these ingredients really make for a nice mixture. So, it was just fun to execute. Then working with Netflix, I’ve had the pleasure to work with them, and Amazon, I’ve done two shows for Amazon, ‘Reacher’ and ‘Bosch: Legacy’, but I did a film called ‘War Machine’, that I started in with Brad Pitt for Netflix. I have to say, they’re a great company to work for. I mean, they give you the resources, they’re supportive and they’re not meddlesome. They’re not looking over your shoulders as you’re making something. Even as an actor on the set, I saw that they had free reign to really deliver the movie that they were going to deliver. It was great working with Thunder Road and Mouly, and she couldn’t have been sweeter. She’s such a nice lady, but has great instincts as a director, gives great adjustments, and has a great eye visually. So, it was really a pleasure.
MF: Is it fun playing a villain and what’s your approach?
AMH: I’ve played bad guys a lot. I’ve done a bunch of villains over the years, but this is probably one of the more prominent films that I’ve done. I mean, I enjoy it. I think there’s a no holds barred approach, and I think when you’re playing a bad guy, you can pull out all the stops. I also think it’s important to inject a little bit of humor in there. One funny thing happened. There’s that scene where Jessica and I are talking, and I’m talking about Latinx and questioning her. The scene opens with me saying something asinine like, “Everybody in my town knows I’m not racist.” When we shot the scene, I didn’t find any humor in it, but when we were watching it with an audience a few weeks ago, my wife laughed her butt off. I started laughing, and the audience was laughing. It’s funny. It’s great when there’s a surprise element of humor and you didn’t really intend it, and that’s what happened in that scene. It was fun to work on and I really enjoyed it. I also really appreciated working with this core group of women that were really leading the charge. I thought that was impressive. In recent years, I’ve worked on ‘The Goldbergs’ and several shows, even on ‘Bosch: Legacy’ for Amazon, and I’ve had the good fortune of working with a lot of female directors, and I think it’s great. I think we need more of it. Because obviously the world should be about inclusivity and people getting opportunities, and I’ve been very proudly directed by a bunch of great women directors in recent years, and I enjoyed it. Mouly being probably the best among them.
MF: Jessica Alba is also an executive producer on the movie. What was it like working with her as both a producer and actress?
AMH: Jessica comes ready. She’s very serious. She’s very serious about her work and is very caring, but she’s also a great mom. Her daughters were on set with her. She’s very much a take charge woman. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her and her husband before we made the film, and they’re cool people, they really are. So, I’m happy for it.
Molly Ringwald in ‘Sixteen Candles’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
MF: It’s the 40th anniversary of ‘Sixteen Candles’, what are your memories of making that film with director John Hughes. You ended up working with him a lot, but was that the first time?
AMH: What’s interesting is he had written ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ in 1982, and then it gets made I think in ’82 or ’83. It was released in ’83. So, I didn’t meet John on that. I met him at the auditions here in New York City for ‘Sixteen Candles’ at the Universal building on Park Avenue. It led to me doing the two other films with him right away. So, if you include ‘Vacation’, the first four films of my career, they were written and directed by John, or written by John in the case of ‘Vacation’, so I think that there was something in the stars with us. He was just such a great guy. I can’t speak highly enough about him. He was so wonderful, so down to earth, and so helpful. When you worked on a John Hughes film, it was always a collaboration in process. You could discuss anything with him. We would typically shoot two or three or four takes as written, and then if you had ideas, he would be like, “Try that.” He had such a God-given ability as a writer and a director. He loved music, the way he incorporated music into his films to uplift certain moments, and the things that he did. But also, his sense of collaboration, I think that was another one of his real gifts because he wasn’t precious about it. He allowed things to happen, and he allowed you to play around and to ad-lib. If we were going to embellish something or change something, as long as it worked for the scene, he was all for it. He was really a great guy in so many ways.
(L to R) Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall in ‘The Breakfast Club’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
MF: Are you surprised by the legacy of ‘Sixteen Candles’, ‘The Breakfast Club’ and ‘Weird Science’ and that new audiences are discovering those movies and loving them?
AMH: Yeah, I am. I’m truly grateful for that. It’s amazing how they continue to find younger and younger audiences and new generations. I’m so appreciative of that fact. It’s interesting, I had many years to think about this. I think there is a paradigm to his work. In other words, all the characters start out at a certain place, but there’s an arc and they all wind up in a better place than they started, through finding love and humor. But also, mainly by showing their vulnerabilities, by showing the rough parts of childhood, by being honest about it, warts and all, pimples and all. I think that there is a method to his madness in a way. He allowed characters to be vulnerable, to be real, to let their guard down, all these very interesting things that we can all now see and reflect on. But when I look back all those years ago, to think that he was a relatively young guy. He was in his mid-thirties, so the fact that he had that kind of awareness and intelligence as a writer, and overview to be able to see his projects, was very impressive. I’m just grateful that they continue to find younger audiences. I think ‘The Breakfast Club’ particularly, because I think there’s a strong message of anti-bullying and just the overall idea that we’re all more alike than we’re different. To celebrate that and to celebrate the differences is I think something that the world has grown more accustomed to. For example, this new generation of kids, people that are millennials, they’re a lot more open-minded and a lot more inclusive let’s say, than the prior generation. I think that shows a healthy sort of evolution in our general character I think, as people, and I think that that’s very healthy and helpful.
Johnny Depp in ‘Edward Scissorhands’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
MF: What was your experience like working with director Tim Burton on ‘Edward Scissorhands’? Did you recognize his genius right away and what did you think of his vision for that project?
AMH: I did. Again, he’s another one where I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. You look at his work, I mean, his movies are artful, they’re masterpieces, they’re beautiful, and there’s an evolution there too. It’s interesting, when I look back on ‘Scissorhands’, I have a couple thoughts about it. I mean, it is like ‘Pinocchio’, and it’s a little bit of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. But when you look at his life, Tim Burton grew up in Burbank. He was a student of animation. His favorite actor was Vincent Price. The fact that he is in many ways, I think very Walt Disney like himself, and that he created this world unto himself as a filmmaker. I just think he’s brilliant. I loved Tim, and I still love Tim and I love all his movies, and that was the first of a great collaboration between he and Johnny. They went on to make another, seven or eight movies together. So, I felt very privileged to be a part of that, and it was exciting to work on. I think at that point, I had just come off the John Hughes films, and ‘Saturday Night Live’, and everything else I was doing as a kid. I had sprouted up; I had just grown into a bigger guy. I think he found that interesting and compelling. Like it could be interesting to pit me against Johnny, who was a different thing. But Johnny, God bless him, he had a lot of work to do. Just even before the cameras rolled, he would get to work at 3:30/4:00 AM, I remember reading the call sheets. Because it would take like three hours to do his face, and they had a team of people just getting him into that suit, and then putting the hands on, the scissors. It was quite a production. But again, a great project. Just happy to be a part of a Tim Burton film.
(L to R) Heath Ledger and Christian Bale in ‘The Dark Knight’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
MF: Can you also talk about working with Christopher Nolan on ‘The Dark Knight’? What did you learn from watching the specific way that he makes movies?
AMH: Well, you just said it. That was the key word. I was very watchful. I remember feeling, it’s almost like you remember that old movie, ‘Amadeus’ about Mozart? I felt like Salieri watching Mozart. I’m looking at this guy, and I had just finished ‘The Dead Zone’, and I kept looking at Chris Nolan and he just feels like such an old soul. There’s something very aristocratic about him. Obviously, he’s a highly intellectual person, a very smart man, but very eccentric in some ways too. He would come to work in the same thing every day. He wore a vest, a dress shirt, a three-quarter length jacket, like a conductor almost. He certainly was a conductor to work with. But I just remember having this feeling when I worked with him like, wow. This guy, he’s fascinating. I’ve got to tell you, scene by scene, the way he attacked it was amazing. I mean, some scenes we would shoot, it would be a three or four camera set up, and some there would be seven, eight, even ten cameras going. His technical prowess and his technical abilities are impressive, but also just his filmmaking. I remember seeing ‘Memento’, that was a great film. It really was an incredible movie. I’ve always been impressed with Chris, and it was an honor to work with him. I had a great time. I had auditioned for another role when I did ‘The Dark Knight’, and then he brought me back in for the role that I wound up doing. But it was interesting. At that time, all those years ago, 2007, after I did the audition, it was a period of months before I even found out about it. They circulate the tapes among the studio executives and all that. But just a great project to be a part of. We shot in London, and then I shot in Chicago for three weeks. I mean, I worked on the film for about a month, even though it was a small role. It was a great lesson too, in terms of that adage of “There are no small parts, only small actors.” I had a small role in the film, but I had the pleasure to work with Chris and to work alongside Gary Oldman. I can say I was in a movie with Michael Caine, even though I didn’t get to meet Michael Caine. I’m on the background on the TV in some of those shots, with he and Christian. But in terms of Christian and Heath, if I can just speak to those guys for a second, I mean, they’re both brilliant. I remember asking Chris Nolan about it. He said Christian was the first guy he met with at Warner Bros., and he just had an instinct. He just felt like he was the right guy. Then after we had made the film years later, I remember reading about his interactions with Heath. Heath was incredible. I know two of the things that were inspirational for them was ‘A Clockwork Orange’, because that’s a great film. Then also something about the Sex Pistols. He wanted to bring some sense of anarchy to the film, which obviously was reminiscent of the Sex Pistols in the ‘70s. I think there’s some Johnny Rotten in the Joker as well, a little Sid Vicious. So, that sense of anarchy coming in and attacking Gotham was very powerful. As we know, I think he just brought a lot of gravity to a comic book film. What he did reinvent the genre. It’s amazing.
(Right) Anthony Michael Hall joins ‘Bosch: Legacy’ as Special Agent Barron. Photo Credit: Tyler Golden.
MF: You appeared in a recurring role in season 2 of ‘Bosch: Legacy’. Will you be retuning for season 3?
AMH: Well, apparently, I don’t think I’m going to be returning on ‘Bosch: Legacy’. It was interesting. It ended the season in a cliffhanger, so I thought there might be an opportunity, but it didn’t play out like that. But again, it was a pleasure to work with those guys. I love Michael Connelly. I mean, they gave me a great opportunity there. I was playing a lead FBI investigator going after him, as you recall.
Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher in Prime Video’s ‘Reacher’ season 2.
MF: Finally, I understand that you will be appearing on season 3 of Prime Video’s ‘Reacher’. What can you tell us about your character and working with Alan Ritchson?
AMH: Season 3 of ‘Reacher’ was incredible. We started last summer, and we had a four-month break due to the strike, and it was supposed to wrap in November. We wound up starting in November and shooting until June. I just wrapped a couple of weeks ago. They’re going to be finishing next month. But I can tell you this, they’ve really upped the ante on the action. They continue to push the boundaries with that. I think that’s very important to the audience, that the action is there. I like Alan Ritchson a lot. I think he’s a good guy. I like working with him. I think he’s doing a nice job with his performance. He’s very vested too in the process, which was nice to see. It reminded me when I had ‘The Dead Zone’, because as the lead actor you must be the quarterback of the team. You must not just know your own stuff, but you must be able to be supportive, be a team player, and really help galvanize your team and get everything done. I saw myself in him because I see where he’s at right now in his career and he’s doing great. But he’s a nice guy. He’s a standup guy. He’s got a good heart, and it was a great show to be a part of. I’m excited that people will see it. It’ll air in 2025, due to the strike.
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What is the plot of ‘Trigger Warning’?
A skilled Special Forces commando (Jessica Alba) takes ownership of her father’s bar after he suddenly dies, and soon finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown.
