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Zoey Deutch stars in ‘The Threesome’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King and Ruby Cruz about their work on ‘The Threesome’, Deutch’s first reaction to the screenplay and why she wanted to work with director Chad Hartigan, Hauer-King’s take on his character’s unusual situation, and what Cruz learned about threesomes from her research.
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Deutch, Hauer-King and Cruz, as well as Jaboukie Young-White and director Chad Hartigan.
(L to R) Jonah Hauer-King, Zoey Deutch, and Ruby Cruz in ‘The Threesome’. Photo: Vertical.
Moviefone: To begin with, Zoey, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and what were some of the aspects of your character that you were excited to explore on screen?
Zoey Deutch: First impression was that it was a very strong script with a very strong director behind it, and I thought that he was an interesting and different choice to be the captain of that ship. I was really excited about that pairing, and I had been wanting to work with Chad the director for a long time. So, immediately after reading it, I reached out to him and asked him if he would be interested in meeting with me. I have this thing when I’m reading scripts that it’s like my body knows before my mind. There’s a lot going on here and my body, it doesn’t lie. Whenever I’m reading and I start to just speak out loud the lines, that’s always an indicator for me that I need to do this and I really want to do this, and that’s what happened. The second I started reading it, the words were just like flowing out of me as I was reading it. I loved the cadence and heard the way that she spoke, the dialogue, the relationships, and how nuanced it was.
Jonah Hauer-King stars in ‘The Threesome’.
MF: Jonah, can you talk about the unusual situation Connor finds himself in and how he navigates through that?
Jonah Hauer-King; I think it’s something that he’s not expecting. I think ultimately, he finds himself in a position where he must grow up very quickly and take responsibility for his actions. However intentional or not, he needs to take responsibility and try and be a good person and do the right thing in that quite complex delicate situation. He gets it wrong on several occasions, but he tries to right the ship and I think a lot of the story for him is about learning from those mistakes and trying to be a better person to both Olivia and Jenny. So, I really like that about him. He doesn’t feel sorry for himself too much at the time and any time there is a little bit of self-pity, he kind of drags himself out of it and realizes that there’s more important things that play and this isn’t about him. It’s very much about two other women and potentially bring new life into the world as well. So, I think he bit by bit starts to become a bigger man.
Ruby Cruz stars in ‘The Threesome’.
MF: Ruby, it seems like Jenny is caught in the middle of Olivia and Connor’s relationship. Can you talk about that and your approach to playing the character?
Ruby Cruz: I think when I was doing my research on threesomes, I learned about the term called “The Second Fiddle”. The Second Fiddle is the person in a threesome who doesn’t get as much attention, and that’s what Jenny is. Jenny is the third in this story. I think it was just relating to how she feels like the third in her life as well. She feels like they’re characters in her own life. After the first read of the script, I realized that, and I thought that was a very interesting way to feel. I was excited to dive into that.
‘The Threesome’ director Chad Hartigan.
MF: Zoey, you mentioned that you had wanted to work with director Chad Hartigan for a long time. Now that you have, what was that experience like for you?
ZD: So disappointing. I’m kidding. He was the best. I love him, I think he is such a wonderful human being, and one of my favorite things about him is how much he truly appreciates every single person involved and walks the walk and talks to talk about collaboration. There is no hierarchy with him. He wants everyone to feel invested, involved, and like their opinion matters. I saw that from the second I started working with him all the way to now, and I loved working with him. He’s just a wonderful filmmaker and a film lover. So totally, very grateful that I got that opportunity.
(L to R) Zoey Deutch, Ruby Cruz and Jonah Hauer-King, in ‘The Threesome’. Photo: Vertical.
MF: Finally, Jonah, what was your experience like working with director Chad Hartigan and did he give you room to improvise on set?
JHK: Yes, and I think that was partly down to the fact that when you have characters that are as well drawn as these ones, it is very subtle and it’s quite nuanced to how the story develops, how that all relates to one another, and the energy of a particular scene can be made very different with different types of performance. It was always about calibrating in this moment, like how emotional is Connor being or how difficult is he being? That was true for all the characters. Then that was a fun job for Chad in the edit to work out the emotional beats of the story and he had more to work with. Because it wasn’t like this is the exact point that the character is going through, or these are the exact beats that we’re going to hit through the story. He had more wiggle room to play around with it. That came very naturally to both Zoey and Ruby. I think that’s probably what they would do on any film anyway, they would provide different takes and different things. So, I think that came very naturally to them, and then I just had to keep up.
(L to R) Ruby Cruz, Zoey Deutch, and Jonah Hauer-King in ‘The Threesome’. Photo: Vertical.
What is the plot of ‘The Threesome’?
Connor (Jonah Hauer-King) wants to start a real relationship with Olivia (Zoey Deutch). While out on a date, the two meet Jenny (Ruby Cruz), one thing leads to another, and they have a threesome. In a strange twist of fate, both Jenny and Olivia end up pregnant.
The new series picks up over 30-years later and stars Ruby Cruz and Dempsey Bryk as Kit and Airk, respectively, the children of Queen Sorcha (Joanne Whalley), and Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), who is currently missing.
When a member of the royal family is abducted by evil forces, the Queen dispatches an unlikely group of heroes to save them and defeat the evil including Kit, her best friend and knight-in-training Jade (Erin Kellyman), young scholar Graydon (Tony Revolori), a thief named Boorman (Amar Chadha-Patel), a kitchen maid named Dove (Ellie Bamber), and Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), the sorcerer that helped Sorsha and her husband many years ago.
The series will also include returning actors Kevin Pollak and Rick Overton as Rool and Franjean, respectively, while Christian Slater joins the franchise as Allagash.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with writer and producer Jonathan Kasdan about his work on ‘Willow,’ his love for the original, why now was the right time to bring it back, working with Warwick Davis, the new characters, adding to the mythology, and the show’s unusual use of rock music.
Producer and writer Jonathan Kasdan talks Disney+’s ‘WIllow.’
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Kasdan, Ruby Cruz, Dempsey Bryk, Tony Revolori, Ellie Bamber, Joanne Whalley, Christian Slater, and Warwick Davis about ‘Willow.’
Moviefone: To begin with, it seems like ‘Willow’ has been the forgotten child of Lucasfilm for some time. Can you talk about your passion for this franchise and why now was the right time to bring it back with this series?
Jonathan Kasdan: Well, you said the magic word. I mean, it is the forgotten child. It was an idea that actually really appealed to me, which is like, I’m a great lover of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’ I love that final scene when the crates are being rolled in. You think, “Well, there’s potential for story in every one of these.”
‘Willow’ occupies this funny place in history of having been this very special thing to a lot of people. Then having been crated away and put in the warehouse. We literally wanted to embrace that idea and have the show open with an old dusty volume being pulled down off of a shelf. We get to read the part of the book that we didn’t get before. That was what really attracted me to doing it.
The reason that it’s now is because, simply, Disney+ exists. It’s the way that we were able to make this story, continue it, and actually take it in a direction that was exciting and surprising to all of us. Which was really to build into character and expand.
MF: What was Warwick Davis’ reaction to the revival series and what was it like for you to work with him on set?
JK: Warwick’s reaction was, “Bring it on. I’ve been waiting for 31 years,” I believe it was at that point he said, “And I’ve been ready all that time.”
He kept his wand close at hand. He was as enthusiastic and passionate about returning to this role that so many people loved from him, as anyone could hope their leading man could be. It was incredible.
MF: Can you talk about expanding the ‘Willow’ universe and the new characters on the series?
JK: I mean, that’s a big part of it for me, I’m a fan of sequels more than I am of prequels. I love stories that move it further. I want to know what happens next. One of the things that requires is a bigger, darker force somewhere out in the world. We thought there was a way, and it would be fun to integrate the legacy of the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) into a mythology that’s much larger and much scarier.
That was always a big part of the appeal to me, was like there’s a next stage to how things might go and where they could progress to that it would require Elora Danan (Kate and Ruth Greenfield and Rebecca Bearman) to come into her own as a sorceress.
MF: For fans of the movie, the series is filled with Easter eggs. Which one was your favorite to include?
JK: I mean, there’s so many, and they’re so specific. I think my favorite one is that in the role playing game of ‘Willow,’ there’s a casual reference to a book of evil magic called The Malatrium. On the show ‘Willow,’ we were able to make that book a reality. It is a hard copy thing that exists, and that they work with in the show to conjure some dark magic and to try to save their friend.
So, I’m the biggest nerd for that kind of thing in the world, and I was looking for any opportunity and anyone that I could bring back and repopulate the universe with.
MF: Finally, can you talk about the creative choice to end each episode with a contemporary rock song?
JK: Well, it’s a funny one, because it’s something that we sort of all held hands together on very early. It feels like there’s a world of people and of diehard fans to which that’s sacrilegious.
Then there’s a world of people whom are looking for these things to move forward and to have fun with themselves and be adventurous. For us, ‘Willow’ was the perfect experiment in that, because the show has so much youthful energy to it. It’s rebellious, it’s rock and roll, as I think the first ‘Star Wars’ was.
So, it felt like a really natural fit to give it a little of that punk quality in the most literal, possible way. We love doing it, and it gave us all a lot of joy when each episode came to an end and promised more and more feelings.
