When asked about how playing a detective with an unidentifiable southern accent compares to playing the most famous spy of all time, Daniel Craig had a simple answer: “Doesn’t hurt as much.”
Of course, that just scratches the surface of the filmmaking machine that Rian Johnson has built around Benoit Blanc, whom Craig plays for a third time in “Wake Up Dead Man,” due out in theaters this Thanksgiving with a release on Netflix shortly thereafter.
This time around, with a title from a U2 song and a tale inspired by G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mysteries, Blanc is summoned by a police chief, played by Mila Kunis, to investigate a murder that has befallen a close-knit church community.
Craig and Johnson appeared at TheWrap’s TIFF Studio with the film’s ensemble cast, including Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny and Daryl McCormack to chat about the film.
During their conversation, the cast talked about the environment that Johnson created for the previous Blanc films “Knives Out” and “Glass Onion,” including a green room where the whole cast could spend time together while the cameras were off. McCormack said the experience reminded him of drama school.
“In drama school you live with 20 other actors, and you get to know them so intimately and quickly I was astounded at how easy it was to just spend time, and the joy that actually came out of that green room, you would hope that it actually lends itself to the performances and to certainly, my own comfortability on a set like this,” he said.
Johnson said the origin of the green room came from a rec room that was in the basement of the mansion where “Knives Out” was filmed. “The trailers were a ways away, and so everyone just ended up hanging out in the rec room in the basement,” he said.
“For ‘Glass Onion,’ it was a little different because during COVID we were shooting in Greece and Belgrade, so we were all trapped in the hotel rooms, trapped in the best way possible together. So that was kind of insane, but yeah, we realized that kind of that green room was the big part of the experience,” Johnson added.
For Washington, taking part in a Blanc movie was a no-brainer. When offered a part in “Wake Up Dead Man” by Johnson, she said yes without even knowing what the role was.
“I was like, ‘Sign me up,’ and he was like, ‘Don’t you want to know the character?’ I don’t care. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out,” she said. “He’s like, ‘You should probably read the script.’ So I read the script, and then I went, ‘Wow, I really need to read it one more time. It’s shockingly complicated.’”
Johnson said that for “Wake Up Dead Man,” he added drawings into the script which Washington didn’t understand. He admitted that when it comes to writing mysteries like the Blanc films, they are “much easier and more fun to watch than they are to read.” But that didn’t stop Washington from jumping head-first into the production.
“With every production, I’m always weighing the pros and cons, thinking ‘Is this worth being away from my kids for?’ With this film, there were no cons,” Washington said.
“Wake Up Dead Man” premieres at TIFF this weekend and will be the opening night film at the BFI London Film Festival. It will hit select theaters on Thanksgiving weekend before its release on Netflix on Dec. 12.
Catch up with all of TheWrap’s TIFF coverage here.
