The Reel Rejects - Speak No Evil - Talkin' W/ JAMES MCAVOY, Mackenzie Davis, & The Director!

Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm reunying to my family because we're going to Burlington for the event of liquidation Candente. We're going to find the best of the best in articles of liquidation, from roba, to decoration of the home and much more. With offers, over-offerts, I can't go every day to be how to earn. My kids and I expect with anxies the liquidation, because it's very cold to lose it. Burlington, Marks, Rebaughes, wow. Introducing the new Volvo XC90.

Starting point is 00:00:30 With seven-seat versatility, Google built-in, and advanced safety features for all your precious cargo. The new Volvo XC90, designed for life. Visit volvocars.com slash U.S. to learn more. This summer, try the new Strato Frappuccino blended beverage at Starbucks. It's the classic blended iced coffee you know and love, now topped with a creamy layer of handcrafted brown sugar cold foam. Available for a limited time. Your strato frappuccino is ready at Starbucks.

Starting point is 00:00:56 Emma Corrin just played your twin sister. Did it give you any nostalgia for Charles? Because she absolutely embodies what I think your generation, Xavier really brought out. And she found that Frank Quietly art and that Grant Morris and energy. Did you get any sense memory from seeing any of the footage? Remember that time you guys came to stay?

Starting point is 00:01:17 Two couples and their kids that meet on holiday in Italy. And they get on really well. And one couple is a family professionals that live in London, they're from America, the other couple are also, well, one of them is a professional, is a doctor, and they live on a farm in the West Country, one very rural, in touch with nature,

Starting point is 00:01:39 and one very urban and very modern. Our couple who live in the country decided to invite them post-holiday to the countryside for a sample of good old English living, and then once they've got them on the farm, things start to become less comfortable, less friendly, and certain... games start to be played between the couples, resulting in some really uncomfortable moments,

Starting point is 00:02:06 some really cringe-worthy moments, some really ecky moments, and then ultimately some really horrific moments as well. You and I did a panel at Megacom, Florida, right after you filmed this, and we had a whole hour talking about physicality. Yes, yes, yes, yeah. And physicality is so much a part of this character. Having trained with Magnus just once, I was wondering, did the physicality help click you back into Paddy? or did the accent, the speech? What did you use first in your tool set?

Starting point is 00:02:30 They're all, accent, speech, your voice, physicality. I think they're all the same thing. Because weirdly, when you do a different accent, I think it changes the way your mouth moves, your tongue moves, your muscles and your neck contract and decontract and all that. That is physical. That is physicality.

Starting point is 00:02:47 And so sometimes doing an accent helps you feel like you've changed into something else. And it goes, it's got a ripple effect down to your toes. So I think they are all linked. It's one thing. Yeah, I think it is one thing. So this character has this pain behind his rage and even his joy. There's this beautiful agonies going through.

Starting point is 00:03:05 Did you find catharsis in that, getting all that out? Look, I think I often find catharsis in just acting, in playing, in pretending to be somebody else, and try to find the human in them, even when they're completely inhumane, which Patti often is. And that search is about expressing your empathy and your compassion. I guess to be able to play somebody who's completely abhorrent as a person

Starting point is 00:03:31 so it's a sort of exercise in like fake empathy sure you're sort of stress testing your empathy every time you play an asshole you find it a little more by yourself yeah maybe or maybe it's just it just sort of resets your empathy levels and you go like oh no I can do this I can be empathetic we also talked at that panel about

Starting point is 00:03:48 cumulative storytelling whether it's X-Men or Sandman or these long-form stories and stuff you like that you're not in like battle star and Star Trek there's a journey of a moral compass in these larger-than-life tales. Yeah. How do you feel most different and what did you discover for that moral compass in Patty?

Starting point is 00:04:03 Well, he doesn't have one. That it's completely, if True North is the kind of, the touch to Warren Ferez moral compass, or it should be, it's like, it's just, you can't find it anywhere. He's just got his own moral code. It's not, it's not the same as anybody else's,

Starting point is 00:04:20 and he's just selfish, as a narcissist, he's violent, he's abusive, and he really enjoys it as well. He enjoys playing the game that he plays on others. I have to ask a comic question because my audience will kill me, but with the current wave of everything going on, Emma Corrin just played your twin sister, and I'm not sure if you've seen the film or not yet,

Starting point is 00:04:41 but Cassandra Nova is... Have you seen the trailer? I have seen the trailer, yes. Did it give you any nostalgia for Charles? Because she absolutely embodies what I think your generation Xavier really brought out, and she found that Frank quietly art, and they grant Morris and energy.

Starting point is 00:04:52 Did you get any sense memory from seeing any of the footage? I've seen... the smearedest snippet of what they did, and I think they did a great job from that snippet. But I also, weirdly, it was like, when people do AI versions of what I look like, that's what I look like. I look like Emma Corrin in, like, Instagram AI things

Starting point is 00:05:12 where, like, they put me, they put their arm around some space, and then they fill it with an AI me. I look like Emmett. That's almost more scary. That's like heading towards onslaught. That's crazy. It's crazy.

Starting point is 00:05:22 But I can't wait to see it. I'm really, really excited. And my last question for you, because I love that James Watkins described you as kind of the anchor. There's like this gravitational pull towards your character, and I know you were cast first, and then Scoot got brought on as kind of like the antithesis. Like there's the squirliness to the pure charm. When you guys were playing, there's so many levels to this film. There's so many moments where I was like, oh, things have to get better, and then it gets darker.

Starting point is 00:05:44 Did you find when you were playing around on the day, it was like a tennis match? Like, how did you guys find that balance? No, definitely. It was, look, as much as I've probably got the kind of most showy role on the film, but it really survives off the back of an ensemble working well together and one of the great things about a film like this is it has scenes that are actually long enough

Starting point is 00:06:03 for the scene to take on its own life and you start to get surprised as actors that things are happening in the scene that you didn't plan sometimes a lot of films these days the scenes are no longer than a page. Every scene's a page, every scene's a page, every scene's a page and it's kind of over before you know it. This film gave you the opportunity for the film to take over

Starting point is 00:06:20 and start to kind of like work through us and surprise us and you'd be like, oh, it is it? going in a weird direction. This is awesome. And it's like you're riding some wave that you're not in control of. But the weird thing about Scoot is you're saying he was brought on as the antithesis to Paddy. He is in real life much more Paddy than me.

Starting point is 00:06:37 He's not abusive and psychopathic or murderous. But he's the guy that's out there hunting building his own house and like can fix anything, man of the woods and all that. Absolutely 100%. Well you both and it felt so real because of those waves, man. It was really special. Thank you. This film has lived in me.

Starting point is 00:06:52 Thank you. Thanks. Cheers, man. Good to see you again, man. You too, you too. I think what interests me about Louise, the character that I play, is navigating a space as a woman and as a mother where you know you're not being cool, and you know that everybody else is easygoing and right and the right sort of energy in person. And she is a helicopter mum,

Starting point is 00:07:21 and she has a lot of things. anxiety, and she's in this very uncomfortable place in her life, and she can feel herself not being the cool person in the room. And she follows her instincts to protect her family and to protect her daughter, but it's always met with this, this, like, pretty humiliating response of, like, she thought she was being a hero, but she actually made an enormous misstep. I love your connection to people in this film and happiest season and so many things that really brings me into the film. I've always wanted to know how you connect. with your co-stars so authentically and then bring that connection to screen?

Starting point is 00:07:57 Oh, I don't know. That's nice. I guess I would rather have a nice time making a movie than not. And so I sort of ingratiate myself around the people I work with and like, should we spend some more time because of it? Or like life. You got to make that connection. I'll come over.

Starting point is 00:08:14 Did you do that on this set in particular? Like were there moments where you guys hung out off set? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah. James and Ashling and I in particular had like, you know, many martini nights together. Beautiful. It felt like it. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:08:26 Now, there's so many moments in this, and I imagine in the script all the way to the screen where there's those who's right moments, especially between you and Scoot. And I love that. It's like a relationship. I know. In this moment, was there a moment between those character beats that you knew you wanted to play this character in the script? Oh, God.

Starting point is 00:08:41 No, I mean, if anything, I was a little bit worried that she was too passive. And, like, yeah, in the end, she does what she does. But, like, I was concerned going into it about, like, she's quite silent and blah, blah, Blah, blah, blah. And so I had a nice chat with James before we started shooting about, like, I'm really interested in her silence, but I want to know that you're also interested in her silence, not that it's like just she's absent from the scene if she's not talking, but that like her silence speaks volumes. Yeah. And he was as interested as I was, and that was all I needed to know. There is an Almar that silence feels like a character that I love. It's really important.

Starting point is 00:09:15 Yeah, yeah. Now, you have a ton of amazing new films, but I love that you can pick into the world of Blade Runner, or you can dive into even playing one of my favorite characters, and Princess Buttercup, is maybe my fictional character. We were just talking about Princess Ryan. The only other person to play it. Like, that's so special. Oh. Like, that's a really unique one of one.

Starting point is 00:09:31 Is there anyone else that you'd love to be in the world of? Is there any sequel or franchise or genre that you'd love to play in? I mean, blasphemy, but like would in Romeo and Michelle's high school reunion, absolutely. Yes. And sequel, I don't know, kind of that. Or if David Lynch ever made another movie, I would love to do anything with him. Fantastic. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:51 Is there anything in Lynch that really speaks to you that, like, this ties into some Lynch. tones. Like there's some really otherworldly horror here but grounded. Is that what you liked about this? Yeah. I mean, I think this feels very Hanuky to me who's another one of my favorite directors. So like I, that sort of like creeping sort of suffocating dread, feeling being watched

Starting point is 00:10:10 and sort of toyed with. I love and then Lynch. I mean, I love Wild at Heart. I think it's like three movies and one that's just so bonkers and like joyful. I loved how much I hated how I felt in this and I love the experience of that. uncomfortability and I was able to see it a few months back like one of the first screenings that's lived with me like it's in my bones what was it like for you living through it and then watching it was there a decompression was there a closure well we did have an actor strike in the middle of it

Starting point is 00:10:36 so it's a little longer for you yeah so we had like a nice three month break um no I mean the making the movie was really fun like the people in it are really fun and lovely and and so it wasn't like I was in this sort of you know panic room for for three months I was having a really fun time in the Cotswolds and then finished and then moved on with my life. Fair. James Watkins described it as kind of finding a gravitational anchor with James and then

Starting point is 00:11:03 the diametrically opposed viewpoints with Scoot and then you're kind of opposed to his other half. When you guys were on set, what was that balance like to make sure everyone felt like real and relatable? I think that's just like casting to like James and Scoot are such marvelous actors and like so effortlessly

Starting point is 00:11:19 truthful and and I don't and then we all just sort of liked each other. I think the martini's helped. Yeah, it was martini's, yeah. This movie felt so real on its counterprogram. I'm not much of a horror guy, so thank you for the reality of this film. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:11:33 I really appreciate it. That's been cool. Bye. It does feel like that we're doing something different with the genre in keeping this film that draws you in with these sort of relationships and sort of like the trials of couples and the struggles that they go through, that you really start to feel like you're not watching a thriller or you're not watching a horror film genre. But this idea that you get to fall and care

Starting point is 00:12:03 and root for these characters but not through a place of survival of a place of their own inner humanity is what's different than most horror genre films. And I feel like James Watkins and Blumhouse have done a really wonderful job at sort of encapsulating that. Sitting now with Scoot McNary, how are you, man?

Starting point is 00:12:26 I'm good, man. How are you? Doing good. I'm excited. You always elevate work that is really tricky. The characters, whether it's the rover, killing them softly. Here, there's an earnestness that's so hard to balance. With this guy in particular, his arc involves such a squirreliness. How did you find that balance when you were first trying to play this version of him? Really good question. I felt like the screenplay that James Watkins had written had really started this character,

Starting point is 00:12:51 in a really, really tough rock-bottom plays, being vulnerable, having complications in his marriage, feeling a little bit distant from his daughter. So all those elements, you know, put Ben in a place. Well, you add in Patty, force of nature, his sort of character, and you're just immediately, like, I want to see these two collide. And so that was something that really attracted me to the project, is watching Ben play this sort of, or watching, seeing Ben play this vulnerable character, that actually ends up finding strength within all of his weaknesses.

Starting point is 00:13:24 Yeah. Was something that I hadn't done before. I played some vulnerable fathers in the past, but this one was different for me. And it's all more so James Watkins in the screenplay that he wrote in the direction that he took it. That dichotomy is so strong, and I love that his inherent coolness makes you kind of judge yourself,

Starting point is 00:13:41 especially you're kind of our eye line. Is there a moment in that script where you found, like, there's my guy, like, that's me. I know how to find him. No, I feel great question, but it was more of like him looking at Patty and thinking, okay, I want to be more, if I could just be more and more like this guy, more masculine, more charismatic, all those things, then it would inevitably fix the problems that he has in his marriage.

Starting point is 00:14:03 And with his daughter and at his job, he starts out at. But in that process, he ends up finding out so much more about himself and the challenges that he's taken. And he also learns that the guy that he's trying to emulate is not really the guy he says he is at all. Is there anything that surprised you in that? That emulation, I imagine, like osmosis happens day to day. We always kind of mirror who we're around. Was there a moment that surprised you coming off of Patty that you hadn't planned to start to emulate?

Starting point is 00:14:27 No, but what did surprise me as the way that James McAvoy played with those moments, you know, and the way he teased them and the subtleties that he gave to make you feel a little bit uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough to say something. I really enjoyed watching James McAvoy towed that line in those scenes because I had a front row seat to it. So it was really, he was just so great in it. How did you guys find that bond? Was it lots of rehearsals? Was it days on set?

Starting point is 00:14:55 Like, there is a real connection there between the two of you, and especially you're so diametrically opposed from the jump. How did you find that connection? Because it feels really real. I think there was a true, quick question. I was fascinated with James McAvoy's performance genuinely. Yeah. So it left very little work for me to do

Starting point is 00:15:14 because you were as a person and an actor, leaning into all these things that he was doing. And James McAvoy is an incredibly magnetic individual with incredible charisma. It's really hard not to fall into his tractor beam, you know? So as the character, I think you're just sort of watching that actually play out in real time and watching the movie because of all the colors that he shined within the masculinity and his charisma.

Starting point is 00:15:41 All that stuff, you're sort of watching Ben in real time be mesmerized by it from take to take. Well, I loved hating the way I felt. with you as my eye line. I love that. That vulnerability that was so masculine, was there any one moment that, my last question for you, that you really felt when you watched the final product that you had really loved in the script that you wanted to convey and you saw on screen and felt like that was the Ben you wanted to bring out? I couldn't take credit for it because it's something James Watkins came up with, but the finding the strength and resistance of not falling into something, that moment at the very end when he resists the things. thing that James' character wants him to do. James Watkins has told me that there is strength and weakness of finding, you know, being a good father, being a good husband, being a man that fights for his family. But I didn't really feel that until we had shot that final scene of what that really meant

Starting point is 00:16:34 to Ben and what James Watkins was really trying to portray in the film. It's beautiful, man. It's so unique. I really appreciate it. I love this work. Awesome, man. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. I'm Coy Jondro here with The Real Rejects. I'm here with the director James Watkins. I was just saying this movie is counter programming for me and the horror thriller elements were so beautiful because there was such a human nature to the character and I was really wondering with each unique personality in the film

Starting point is 00:16:57 there's a moment where you really understand and justify all their decisions there was no one running up the stairs when they shouldn't there was no one really making a decision where you'd be like come on what did you do when going through the script as you were developing it or even on the day directing it making sure that was never an unbelievable moment that removed us from that plausible deniability Well, because it's, for me, whether you call it horror or thrill or whatever, the films that I like the most are exactly as you say, the ones that are most relatable, where you go, it's real people doing real things, not movie people, not movie, you know, and I wanted to maintain that. And also because it's really a four-hander or a six-hander with the kids, you know, you're very tight with these people and there's an intimacy there. So if you've got an opportunity there to get to know them and to explore their different facets. And so if you don't take that opportunity you're missing one i suppose so yeah i just wanted to dig in and explore them

Starting point is 00:17:50 and then when we got into rehearsal with the cast we dug in a bit deeper i'm quite loose in how i do stuff so i'm like nothing is gospel because i'm writing it's like guys i'll i'll write that out i'll re-change that for example james and ashling had had a thing where james started she started finishing some of his lines and as that couple had both their thing and so he'd go it was james's idea he goes, why don't we give that second half of my line to Ashling as though it's what they do as a couple? They, you know, it's brilliant. And so I go, yeah, it's a direct gift.

Starting point is 00:18:20 And I'm like, yeah. And it actually, you know, and it breaks up the speech, it makes it more flowing. But it also has a psychological, like their sort of con artistry, their double act, their closeness, their intimacy, all those sorts of things. So it's a constant process of being on alert. And when you work with actors of that quality,

Starting point is 00:18:39 I think my film was so much more elevated by having such brilliant actors and we we excavated the material on set, if you know what I mean. I love that you were able to be loose with it because that made it more real and relatable and I'm wondering at the casting process there's a few moments in the film

Starting point is 00:18:56 where the roller coaster drops and I'm thinking like maybe we're okay everything's going to be hot and I love that feel and I feel like a lot of that is from it being a forehander. I care about everyone enough and the casting, the diametrically opposed way, Mac of the Way is cool

Starting point is 00:19:09 and the squirliness of Scoot when you were developing the decision to cast the way you did, did you know you needed them to be such a juxtaposition at Workaflow? Yeah, and it all came, it all comes from,

Starting point is 00:19:21 starts with James, right? So the first person I cast was James. I knew I needed to get my paddy because everyone was going to be kind of a, if he's the sun, everyone's gravitational. Gravitational, yeah. So, you know, I went to James,

Starting point is 00:19:35 I wrote it kind of with James in mind. John Harris, who cut the movie, has done about five or six movies, edited with James in, and I've worked with John for 20. years and it was like we were both going it's got to be mega for you know he's the guy and it wouldn't that be a dream and usually you don't get a dream it's you know people never say that when they're doing press right but you know it's true you don't find out who was really written for yeah yeah you know people go oh it was

Starting point is 00:19:57 always about him and you go you're lying you know but i'm not lying it was really about him and we sent it to james and he read it and responded and i went to his house in london and had a cup of tea and we chatted about it so it's that and then exactly as you say once you got him i'm like okay so Scoot was the next person they cast because I was like Scoot so brilliantly underplays everything you know and so then it's like okay that's going to be an interesting tension because James is going to

Starting point is 00:20:22 have to go big and go out there so he's going to know James is so smart as an actor he knows that that's going to keep he's going to have to stay in the same movie because if he doesn't it's going to be weird and so you know and so McKenzie it was like

Starting point is 00:20:39 okay how they how do they feed off each other was a relationship and then it was ashling and so it's just building the pieces that's beautiful so you've got gravity and anchors and that makes the film feel as real as it does yeah i so appreciate it so all the time i got thank you oh man movie has lived in my bones and i really appreciate i love it well please please spread the good oh absolutely i can't stop talking about it thank you so much

Your Ad Here

The Reel Rejects - Speak No Evil - Talkin' W/ JAMES MCAVOY, Mackenzie Davis, & The Director!

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.