Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

By starrymag | November 20, 2022

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) How challenging was this to start, essentially, from scratch presumably?

RIAN: Well, it was, I mean, it was challenging, but it was also, I guess, you know, when Daniel and I were making the first one, even when we were on set, we were just having such a good time. We were, like, if this does even moderately well, it’d be really fun to keep making these. But the mode in which we were thinking to keep making them was always [makes noise] not to continue the story of the first one, but to treat them the way Agatha Christie treated her books and to do an entirely new mystery every time, a new location, new rogues gallery of characters. And also [makes noise] something Agatha Christie did that [makes noise] just as a fan, anyone who knows her work, she really shook it up book to book. It’s not just a change of whodunit. She was mixing genres. She was throwing crazy narrative spins that had never been done in whodunits before. She was really keeping the audience on their toes. And every single book had a whole new reason for being. So, sitting down to write this one, that was kinda the marching orders. Let’s not just turn the crank and do another, let’s come up with something that’s truly different and that actually is gonna make audiences say, “Oh, wow. I’m getting the same pleasure I did from the first one, but I’ve never seen this before.” And that’s kind of the exciting thing.

Q) The setting is obviously much different than beautiful New England this time around. Talk to me a little bit about how much, like, were you searching for a setting that was going with the thematics you were wrestling with in the script? Or did you, you know, spin a globe, and say, “This looks right”? Like, give me a sense of how you landed where you did.

RIAN: Well, there are few things. I mean, first of all, it was, you know, like I mentioned, just kind of wanting this to be a whole different movie and signaling to the audience really clearly up front. So, trading the browns of New England for the blue and yellows of Greece felt like a really obvious kind of “Oh, we’re in a whole new deal here.” Also, as much as there’s a rich tradition of murder mysteries in, like, cozy English, or in our case, New English countryside houses, there’s very much a rich vein of tradition of destination murders. Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile, The Last of Sheila, which is one of my favorite films. There’s something to draw from in terms of the vacation mystery and so tapping into that. Also, I wrote the script in 2020 in the middle of lockdown. So, like a lot of us, I was sitting at home, kind of wishing I was on a Greek island. So that might have had something to do with it.

Q) It does seem like a relatively easy ask for the actors assembled here: work with Rian Johnson and with Daniel Craig, go to Greece. This checks a lot of good boxes.

Edward: It was more of a bless you forever.

[laughs]

Q) Who among here chased Rian? Who did Rian have to chase?

KATE: I chased Rian.

RIAN: I chased all of you.

JANELLE: I manifested this.

KATE: I chased Rian.

JOSH: Did you?

KATE: I did.

Q) Kate, how did it happen? How does that happen? How does it happen for an actor that wants to work with a filmmaker? What did you do?

KATE: [makes noise] Sorry, Ram. I was slipped the script, [laugh] and we knew that this part was going to be cast. And I was like, “Get me in the room.”

JOSH: You said, “Sweatpants entrepreneur.”

KATE: And Rian said, “Sure, come on in the room. Let’s see what you can do with Birdie.” And I did my best, and that best seemed to find me here.

Q) How do you begin to approach casting an ensemble like this because there’s a domino effect. They all have to, like, work well with each other, feel like the right group. I don’t know. Is it, like, a board in Seven where you have a lot of string and faces, like, linked up? Or what are you doing?

RIAN: No, I mean, a little bit, but not really, though. It is kind of as simple as trying to get the best actors you can possibly get. And we got really lucky that we did that with this. I mean, just my head spins when I think about the fact that we were able to get this group together. There’s also the added elements of it’s a little bit like throwing a dinner party in that it is an ensemble. We know we’re gonna be on location together and all be kind of stuck together for a while. So, you’re also just trying to cast cool people who are hopefully gonna get along and have a good time together. And yeah.

EDWARD: Tick!

RIAN: That did that, too.

MADELYN: My first.

Q) It does seem like, yeah, I’m either drinking the Kool-Aid, or it’s true. You guys seems to actually get along pretty well on and off the set. Talk to me a little bit about when this group first got assembled. Do you remember, like, was there, a table read? Was there a moment, like, a get together, like, let’s all meet each other?

JANELLE: Was it Daniel’s house?

KATHRYN: It was Daniel’s. Yeah.

JANELLE: Yeah, in Greece.

KATE: And Daniel’s house, it was almost, like, walking into, you know, it was an entrance. You had to walk down these steps.

EDWARD: Past the helicopter pad.

KATE: [laugh] So every time a new cast member came down

the steps, it was like, “Oh, here comes Janelle,” you know?

You know, so it was a real meeting, you know?

GLASS ONION – GLOBAL PRESS CONFERENCE [00:08:37]

KATE: But it was great. That was fun. I feel like we all immediately just were, like, had known each other forever, immediately.

KATHRYN: It was a real —

EDWARD: Daniel in a salmon-colored linen shirt with espadrilles serving cocktails.

JOSH: Was this Daniel or Benoit?

EDWARD: Daniel.

KATE: Daniel.

JOSH: Oh, wow.

EDWARD: There’s a lot more Benoit in Daniel than that other franchise thing he does.

KATHRYN: [laugh] But there really had to be, going back to his throwing a dinner party metaphor, which is so true, a real sense of egolessness on the part of all of these humans.

KATHRYN: Because we really did get to and have to spend, like, every single day, really together, even in, like, it felt like there was a backstage and an on stage. Like, we had these holding areas where we were kind of all together. We ate lunches together for the most part. It felt very much like we were in a theater ensemble. Leslie was talking about this last night, and he knows from theater ensembles. So, like, [makes noise] and, Rian, you also used the word “grace,” which I think really applied to this experience as well. Like, he was able to find a group of humans that had that. That is really rare. Like, a group of people that was able to kind of just be there for the thing. And also starting with Daniel, who had been through it before and was there with such a welcoming generosity of spirit for every single person to just, to be able to — like, there were so many shots [makes noise] where the camera was on one person, but if you turned it around to see the rest of us all crowded around behind the camera for someone’s reaction shot to all be there was pretty remarkable and hilarious. And such a, just kind of a great metaphor for the spirit of the thing which came from, of course, Rian and from Daniel and Ram.

Q) Yeah. ‘Cause I mean, invariably, I mean look, in this film there are a lot — and by the way we’re not gonna get into spoilers ’cause there are a lotta fun, cool spoilers in this film. But invariably, like, these giant group conversation scenes of which there’s a lot in this film, through the entire cast or much of the cast. I mean, that’s a bear sometimes for a filmmaker to shoot and for the actors. You’re like, turning it around a thousand different ways. Okay, let’s get this reaction, this reaction. Like, how do you keep spirits up? Or is it, oh, I’ve cast the right group, they’re gonna entertain each other. Like, how do you make that work?

RIAN: It was the right gang of people, it was the right gang of people. And also, I mean, the supportiveness, which Kathryn just touched on. I mean, it was people just, like, clapping for each other after they did their monologues and, like, you know, people just truly supporting. And with a group of actors, all of whom can and have carried their own films, to come together as a true ensemble and to come together, not just so it works on the screen, but so that spirit is really infused on set. That’s that word grace, I mean, all these people have it. It was really fun to be a part of.

Q) Leslie, could you speak to what Kathryn was referencing? Like, did that surprise you, that theatrical kind of spirit? Did it immediately, when you got on set, you’re like, oh wait, I recognize what this feels like in a surprising but great way?

LESLIE: Oh yeah. I mean, I think, yes. I’ve had a couple opportunities, you know, to be a part of great ensembles with Hamilton and One Night in Miami. And this is, yeah, this is one of the best, you know. But it’s really an impossible thing I think to achieve without the leadership. You know, it happens from the top down. You know, you really can’t lead from the rear or from the bottom of the call sheet, as it were, or the middle of the call sheet, you know. It’s really Rian and Daniel and Ram making it feel that creative and that permissive and that fun. So yeah, I felt it. Yeah.

Q) Let’s do one of our first questions from our journalists that have submitted questions. This is from Indonesia, the SINDOnews, for all our actors here. When you were first reading the script, who did you think was going to die first? [laugh] And why? Obviously, no spoilers here. But I guess the broader question is, are you good at reading, predicting mysteries? Who here can see it coming?

KATHRYN: I thought I could, but I really was surprised. I also, well like, just a sidebar note to say, like, when I’m talking about the ensemble, there are no spoilers here. There are some humans on the stage that had, while the rest of us were having a great ensemble amount of fun, had to do some pretty serious heavy lifting. So, I just wanna just, no spoiler, say those humans, I also think the rest of us would be remiss not to just give a spoiler free. Just like, there’s — we all have mad respect for each other.

KATHRYN: You’ll know after you see it, and then you’ll keep it to yourselves.

EDWARD: Just based on the flow of this conversation so far, you’ll probably understand when I say, when I was reading it, I knew that Kathryn would not get who was the murderer.

KATHRYN: [laugh] But then I did.

EDWARD: I was one page 40. I thought, Hahn is completely going for the red herring.

KATHRYN: He knew that before I was even cast, which is weird.

Q) That’s a classic Hahn move, yeah. Edward, since we’re talking, you know I’m the world’s greatest Death to Smoochy Anytime you do some comedy, I’m in. And [laugh] this is a great role for you. Did you feel like you had license to kind of go to some extreme fun places with Miles?

EDWARD: I mean, when someone like Rian calls and says, you know, I’m basically gonna run a summer camp for deeply unserious people and I need people who are willing to ham it up. You know, it was printed in the invite, you know. But I do think, yeah, I think when you’re with a group of people and it becomes apparent that the words repetitive and boring have never been applied to any of them, it just, you know, it’s a lot of fun. I mean, we’ve talked about it a lot, we’ve said it. But I think the experience of, like, a summer theater troupe is kind of in — For a lot of us who came into this through theater or just that idea of being in a repertory company, an ensemble, it has a special pleasure. It reminds you of, you know, your high school drama club, for those of who were dorky enough to be in the high school drama club. But you know, it’s getting, you know, there’s a funny irony to making films or doing theater, which is it’s a bunch of adults playing dress up and pretending to be other people. And it’s kind of amazing how much seriousness we layer over that in so many of the things we do. So, when you strip that off of it, and I’m not saying, obviously this is a hardworking bunch of people, but I think when you liberate yourself from any pretention [laugh] to be doing anything other but entertaining the audience, entertaining yourselves, entertaining each other, it’s incredibly wonderful. And after a year and a half in your pajamas, it’s especially great.

Q) Janelle, again I’m not gonna say too much, but you deliver an amazing performance in this film and it’s unlike anything we’ve seen you do before, which is always the goal for any actor.

JANELLE: Thank you.

Q) So, talk to me.

EDWARD: I call it a B-side to Moonlight.

Q) That’s [laugh] right. Perfect double feature right there. [laugh] But talk to me. Look, Andi is kind of on the outs with this group of old friends, these disruptors. But again, fair to say we have been having a love fest so far. It sounds like you didn’t decide to, like, go method and, like, be the outsider in this group. If anything, you were almost like a team leader, it sounds like.

JANELLE: No, I am a fan of everybody on this stage. You know, I think that being able to work with Rian is a dream. I literally just told myself if I ever had the opportunity, it’s a yes. And then after reading this script, it was a hell yes. You know, because this is a character that you get to play with. So many layers, so mysterious. It took a lot of focus. There were moments where the cast was out having a blast after they did their scenes. And you know, maybe I was in a corner upset, jealous, mad. No. No, no, no, I wasn’t. We had murder mystery parties, like, outside of filming a murder mystery. Like, we’re in Greece, what can I complain about, you know? I got an opportunity to grow as an actor, I got an opportunity to also gain what I like to say family. Yeah.

Q) So, Jessica, when you walk into a murder mystery party and Janelle Monae is in full costume, are you like, what rabbit hole have I dived into? Or is the greatest job ever?

JESSICA: It was amazing. Janelle, it was a guaranteed serve. If Janelle was coming to dinner, it was gonna be a look and everybody else was underdressed. Yeah, yeah. I don’t even know how you had the time to go find those costumes in Serbia. Like, where were you going? Did you go to [Smizla?].

JANELLE: Well, I packed. I packed.

JESSICA: Oh.

JANELLE: I traveled; I have one suitcase —

JESSICA: You packed those?

JANELLE: — of just murder mystery, just in case I get invited to a murder mystery party.

JESSICA: Wow, wow. Did you just say you travel with a suitcase?

JANELLE: Yeah.

EDWARD: No, my –

JESSICA: Wow.

JANELLE: Just a little.

EDWARD: There are very few people in the modern world who travel with one of those old-fashioned armoire chests —

RIAN: Steamer trunk.

EDWARD: — that open into a full three compartment closet.

Q) That’s Janelle Monae.

JANELLE: As you can see, we were so not serious the entire time filming this. It was —

FEMALE: See? Yes.

JOSH: [laugh] Madelyn, what’s the call like when you finally find out you get a role like this? Because this is a big moment for any actor and for a young actor in their career to get to be a part of this ensemble.

MADELYN: So okay. [laugh] I was landing in New York. And you know when, like, you get close enough to the ground when everybody’s phones start pinging. And I got a message from Rian. He was like, would you have time for a call? And I panicked. I was like, he’s gonna tell me I didn’t get it. [laugh] And so I said, in an hour. [laugh] I had to prepare myself. Then I was like, wait, no, no, that’s stupid. Yes, of course. And so, Rian, I was huddled in a corner at baggage claim ’cause it was so loud and Rian was over the phone asking me if I wanted to be a part of it. I was like, you’re asking, is that even a question? Of course, I do. So yeah. And then I proceeded to, like, have the best weekend of my life and cheers to that. It was amazing. It’s –

EDWARD: She’s a lot younger than the rest of us and she hasn’t learned yet that if you don’t get it, you hear from the Israeli producer. [clears throat] Do you have time to talk for a minute?

KATE: Yeah. You rarely get a call saying you don’t get it from anyone involved in the production.

MADELYN: [laugh] You’re forbidden from this role. [laugh]

JANELLE: Rian’s so sweet. He would, I mean, I would think Rian, would you ever call anybody and be like, so — he’s such a sweetheart just in general. I feel like he would be like, you know what? This person deserves a nice call to let them down.

RIAN: Aw, it’s …

JANELLE: [Agreed?]. If anyone would be.

RIAN: It’s like, yes, yeah.

MADELYN: This is the best call ever.

Q) Ram, what are the biggest challenges of a production like this, besides making sure the cast actually is acting and not – participating in murder mystery parties?

RAM: Honestly, just make sure none of them got Covid. Other than that —

Q) [laugh] That’s fair, yeah.

RAM: — other than that, my life was pretty easy. I mean, those guys just, you know, you got Rian, you got Daniel, you got amazing cast. You just stayed out of the way, make sure they do their thing and that’s it.

KATE: Ram is playing this down. Ram was really, I mean, like, you were busting your ass trying to make sure that everybody was staying in place. [laugh]

KATHRYN: Spies, hired spies.

KATE: Yeah. It was like, you know, you were amazing and we got through it without one shutdown, yes.

KATHRYN: Yeah.

Q) Amazing. Let’s talk a little bit, even though he couldn’t be here with us, the great Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc. Of course, doesn’t happen without him. I don’t know, if I was on set, I would just want him to, like, do the voice, do the voice, keep talking. Because it just makes me happy to hear him talk as Benoit. When you first heard him speak in that unique Benoit Blanc vernacular –

KATE: Yeah. It kind of, like, lifts the veil. Like oh shit, I’m actually here. I’m in a Knives Out mystery. Yeah. I mean, for me, I think just watching Daniel work was a privilege and he’s a consummate professional. I mean, he shows up ready to deliver every line. He honors Rian’s words and he brings something just spectacular, as any movie star would. Just to be a part of that and to learn from that and to watch was, for me, really something.

KATHRYN: His physical comedy too, I was just floored by. Just like, his use of, like, his control of his body and, like, how he throws himself into this part physically is something that I was so excited to watch. He really is a gamer in that department, it’s really thrilling.

Q) It’s funny you say that. When I saw the film a second time, there’s a small moment where he’s running towards the pool. And I’m like, that is not James Bond running. [laugh] That is acting right there, ’cause that man knows how to run, I know that for a fact.

EDWARD: No, James Bond is acting. Blanc is Daniel.

Q) I wanna talk about what may be the greatest fashion ensemble I’ve seen also. I mean, every costume in this so reflects your characters so particularly, so uniquely. Who has bragging rights? Who had the best wardrobe, you think?

RIAN: Definitely Kathryn, right?

KATE: The tan beige shift.

KATHRYN: Beige, tan, like —

KATE: Yeah. That beige rack was solid.

KATHRYN: My beige rack of clothes.

KATE: It’s all about the visor for me.

KATHRYN: The visor.

KATE: Yeah.

KATHRYN: And I think also my wedge platform.

KATE: [laugh] They weren’t even a wedge, they were, like, a —

KATHRYN: Oh no, it wasn’t. They were just —

KATE: — they were, like, a flat.

KATHRYN: It was a flat, but just with a lift.

KATE: It was just a flat.

KATHRYN: And with an elastic to hold it on.

RIAN: They made a rope, also. They had, like, a rope sole. Yeah.

KATHRYN: Comfortable.

EDWARD: Actually, in the wardrobe thing, you know, they often have the polaroids up of everybody who’s been in before you. And I came in pretty late and I, you know, haven’t met anybody. And I looked at the polaroid wall and thought, this movie’s gonna be pretty funny. Like, I did, you know. And I saw Bautista in the crocodile skin bikini and I thought — there’s at least one really good laugh in this film. [laugh]

Q) Yeah, that will haunt me to my dying day. I think Dave Bautista in that bathing suit with a gun.

EDWARD: Because you know you can’t rock it. Like —

JOSH: Right. [laugh] I’ve tried, it just is not working for me.

KATE: My favorite was every time someone would walk into the green room, if it was a new costume, it’d be like, oh my God. Like, and then every time Kathryn walked in with a new beige. It was so damn funny.

KATHRYN: All the rage, the beige.

KATE: It was so deeply funny. And that is the genius of Rian’s writing. But Jenny [phonetic], you know, I mean, talk about knowing how to sort of create each iconic look, and it just was so dreamy. And the fittings. I think, for all of us, after talking about it so much, when we walked into Jenny’s fitting, it was, like, immediately you saw your character come to life. It was like stepping right into the character, and, at least for Birdie, it was like looking at Birdie’s closet. It was, like, insane.

KATHRYN: So fun.

KATE: But everybody, I think, had that, and Jenny was a real dream to work with.

Q) Leslie, I’m curious. This is a group that plays a group of disrupters. Who among your castmates here would you consider the greatest disrupter? Who stirs the pot the most, in the best possible way?

LESLIE: It’s probably a toss-up between Janelle and Kathryn, for me. Right? I mean, super disruptive. Listen to that laugh.

JANELLE: It’s definitely Kathryn.

EDWARD: Wait. Wait, wait.

JANELLE: Kathryn, hands-down.

LESLIE: This one’s disruptive.

KATHRYN: I’m flattered to be in the same sentence with you, Janelle.

EDWARD: I think we should be nuanced here. There’s disrupters, and there’s disruptive.

Q) [laugh] There’s a reason why Edward and Kathryn are furthest apart on this [overlap]. What?

KATHRYN: Yeah, why are they keeping us so far apart?

JOSH: There’s some flashbacks in the film, and speaking of wardrobe.

MADELYN: Sorry, it’s just the wigs.

JOSH: Yeah?

JANELLE: Yes, the hair.

Q) Do you have a favorite? ‘Cause you didn’t have to participate in that part, but to watch some of your castmates?

EDWARD: Edward’s wig. 100 percent. [laugh]

Q) It’s full-on Magnolia vibe, so let’s be clear, right?

EDWARD: I say the same thing I always say, which is my character has never had an original idea in his life. He’s borrowed from others at every phase.

JOSH: [laugh]

EDWARD: But actually, I will say this. Jenny and I sorta did that semi without Rian’s permission.

JOSH: [laugh]

RIAN: [laugh] Completely.

EDWARD: And just walked into the bar. [laugh]

JOSH: So, Rian, when you saw that, are you like, “Wait, this rings a bell”? [laugh]

EDWARD: No, I think, actually, he went, “No.”

RIAN: Hey, what?

Q) To be clear, there are connections with the Tom Cruise character from Magnolia, I would venture to say, wardrobe wise.

EDWARD: Yeah. Go rewind and, you know, decide for yourself.

Q) Okay, okay. Did you model Miles on any current billionaires?

EDWARD: What’s amazing, Rian and I have been talking about this a lot, the list of people it could be grows longer every day. [laugh] And even some of the ones we might not have thought were candidates have proved themselves to be just in recent weeks.

EDWARD: I said to Rian I think that it’s sort of like Carly Simon’s song, “You’re so vain, you’ll probably think this song is about you.” I think that there’s a lot of tech illuminati who probably will and should think that it’s in reference to them. Men and women.

Q) Yes. We learn a little bit more of the personal life, the background, a little bit, of Benoit in this one. Like, are there character, kind of, bibles, mini, kind of, like, stories that you provide each of your actors, or is it kind of all in the page, what you tell them?

RIAN: Not really, no. I mean, I think we probably all had conversations kinda separately. To me, it’s all just about what do they need. But for me, the characters are very much created in the context of the story that’s on the page, and anything anyone needs beyond that, I’m happy to make shit up. And the same with Benoit Blanc, I mean, you know, it’s not like Daniel and I have a whole backstory bible. And in fact, we kinda purposefully try to remind ourselves with these movies that the movie is not interesting because you wanna know more about Benoit Blanc. The movie’s interesting because of the mystery and the ensemble, and the detective plays his role in the center of that, in solving it. But the notion of doing, like, some backstory for him or something, yeah, it’s all about the mystery.

Q) So, does anyone here share, like, the passion and love of, like, the Agatha Christie stories, this kind of genre that Rian does? I mean, I feel like I’m so surface level. Like when you mentioned The Last of Sheila, I was like, “Oh, I’m gonna watch it.” And I watched it in recent weeks, and it’s great, and I see the connections. I didn’t realize an Anthony Perkins-Stephen Sondheim mystery existed. That’s remarkable. But I guess, yeah, did anybody have, like, long-standing affection for this genre prior to this?

LESLIE: I mean, when I grew up, it was a weekly thing. You know, it was “Murder, She Wrote –”

JANELLE: Yeah.

LESLIE: — and Perry Mason, and my parents were still watching Columbo and Baretta, you know what I mean? So, I have sort of, [laugh] like, warm and fuzzy memories around a weekly murder and a person that you, you know, have a real affection for getting to the bottom of it.

JANELLE: I just like murder mystery parties.

KATE: Yeah, me too. [laugh]

JANELLE: Hosting them, dressing up. A werewolf is one of my favorites, and assassin is another. And I’m a villager, and I’m not. Really.

RIAN: Get the playing cards. Let’s do it. Let’s do it.

Q) Who is the easiest mark? Like, who is the one that you could see right through their story? In the murder mystery context.

RIAN: I mean, Bautista was pretty bad at it. Dave was pretty bad.

MADELYN: Daniel, as well.

RIAN: Because he’s such an open soul. Yeah.

KATE: He’s so vulnerable, yeah, and available that you’re like, “Oh, he could never be a spy.”

EDWARD: And it’s ridiculous, but he is the least violent person of all of us.

MADELYN: Oh.

EDWARD: I mean, I think he’s probably the gentlest person and could crush all of us at the same time.

Q) [laugh] In the context of our conversation, this is probably the hardest question to ask, but I’ll ask it ’cause it was sent in from the Philippines, GMA News Online.

EDWARD: You’ve given two to the Philippines, by the way, and none to the rest of the world. What’s going on?

Q) [laugh] I’m gonna get to Mexico in a second, okay?

EDWARD: You’re on the take. You’re on the take.

Q) Okay. Yeah, I am. [laugh] It’s my roots, what can I say? Can the cast share the funniest, most memorable blooper from the shoot? Feels like that was nonstop, but what stands out?

KATE: It’s hard to do this that’s not spoiler-free.

MADELYN: Wait. It’s not a blooper, though.

MADELYN: It’s just a cut scene. Was it a blooper or a cut scene? What was it?

KATE: Can we talk about it, though?

Q) Could go either way.

KATHRYN: We can’t really.

MADELYN: Could we save that?

RIAN: [overlap]

MADELYN: But are you gonna release it one day? [makes noise] I hope so.

DAVE: Do you remember when I couldn’t stop laughing when Kathryn said the word “pancake?”

LESLIE: I thought that she was ad-libbing, [laugh] and then Kathryn was like, “It’s the line. I’m sorry, it’s the line.” And then I laughed, like, every time she [said it?].

KATE: Was it the pancake? That whole moment with Kathryn was just a day of a blooper. “With the thing and the thing, and I can’t say what any of it is, but the thing.” And it was so fuckin’ funny. Excuse my language.

RIAN: This is not a blooper, but we shot, like, a little thing that we then ended up using, which was in this basement bar in Belgrade, at the very end of our shooting day, so it was like one in the morning. Was it “Moonage Daydream” you guys did?

JANELLE: Oh, my god, yes. [laugh]

RIAN: So, it was Janelle singing and Edward playing guitar.

JANELLE: — On guitar.

RIAN: And Kate and Kathryn dancing on the side like Go-Go dancers.

JANELLE: Oh, my god.

KATE: [laugh]

RIAN: To Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream.”

JANELLE: Yeah.

KATE: Oh.

JANELLE: It was so good.

RIAN: Was it?

JANELLE: Yeah, it was “Moonage Daydream.”

RIAN: Yeah. Yeah, it was. Okay, yeah, yeah.

JANELLE: ‘Cause I had covered it years back.

EDWARD: We were trying to think of things that they might’ve done in the bar when it was good, when, like, we’re bonding.

JANELLE: To show the deep connection.

EDWARD: And I knew that Janelle and I have a Bowie uber fandom, and I knew she had covered “Moonage Daydream” in shows, but not recorded. Then we got talking about that.

JANELLE: That was the best.

EDWARD: Than we threw out the idea, “What if there was an open mic night back in the glass onion bar back in the day?” And Rian, you know, indulged us with two takes.

KATE: And we were their hype men.

JANELLE: Yes.

KATE: Kathryn and I.

JANELLE: They were fantastic.

KATE: [laugh]

JANELLE: They got the gig.

EDWARD: I know someone at Gibson, and Gibson rushed me a replica of Mick Ronson’s Black Beauty Les Paul.

KATHRYN: Like, how cool is that? How did that happen?

JANELLE: [So Miles?].

EDWARD: So yeah, we actually had the guitar.

KATHRYN: That was the coolest thing ever.

EDWARD: But Rian cut it. Let’s be clear. Rian cut it.

Q) Release the Bowie cuts. What’s going on?

RIAN: I almost never wanna show it.

JANELLE: It’s so good.

RIAN: ‘Cause it’s such an incredible memory of just this surreal late night, the best concert in the world for like seven people standing around in a basement bar in Belgrade. It’s so romantic, I almost wanna burn the footage. [laugh]

FEMALE: Totally.

FEMALE: Too intimate.

EDWARD: We’re working it into Janelle’s next tour.

JANELLE: Yes.

EDWARD: Yeah.

Q) Janelle, how would you characterize Edward as a singing partner? As a —

EDWARD: I wasn’t singing. I was playing.

Q) Oh, you were playing the guitar.

JANELLE: Yeah.

EDWARD: Yeah.

JANELLE: No, he’s a great guitarist. Rhythm guitarist. No, he was great. We were backstage, green room. Super, you know. I mean, you know when he gets into anything he’s doing, he’s gonna take it serious. He was like, “All right, Janelle, we need to rehearse.” And I’m like,” Listen. Give me a couple beers, let’s do this.”

EDWARD: She’s like, “Okay.”

JANELLE: I was like —

EDWARD: “Okay, amateur.”

JANELLE: [laugh] Well, he’s great.

Q) By the way, that’s the debut of Janelle Monet’s Edward Norton impression, and I’m here for it.

EDWARD: I loved it. [laugh] I have a, well, it’s not a blooper, but Daniel did a thing. I asked him what drink he’ll have, and Blanc said, “What do you have?” And I said, “Well, I have everything.” And I think he ad-libbed this, ’cause it’s not in the script, right? He goes, “Oh, well, in that case, I’ll have a Chateau le cristo pastis s’il vous plait.” [laugh] You know, and it was so good. Then he immediately laughed and he turned and he said, you know, “Did I go too far?” And we were like, “Don’t change a thing.” [laugh] You know. But I found the clip, so I’ve made Daniel saying, “I’ll have a Chateau le cristo pastis s’il vous plait” as my ring tone for him.

Q) Perfect.

EDWARD: Now, when we calls.

Q) We talked about all these great ensemble moments, these large group scenes. Who gave the best reaction shots? Who in the edit room, Ram, Rian, were you like, “Oh my god, we need to –“

RIAN: Oh, jeez. This is gonna be a cheat, but everybody for different reasons. I mean, I feel like you could always cut to anybody in this room. I will say, a couple, first of all, Maddy always was doing something hilarious in the background of every single shot. And then after I was editing and staring at this footage for, like, months, I would realize, there’s like a whole thought and intent. She’s playing a whole joke that’s a whole other screenplay in the background.

Q) And it’s just for her.

RIAN: It’s incredible, yeah. It’s amazing. Also, though, I love Kate’s reaction shots also because you had the best descriptor of how you played your part, which is, you said Birdie understands every third word. And if you watch her listening?

KATE: That’s right.

RIAN: And reacting? You can see her like —

KATE: I was just not — [laugh]

RIAN: [overlap] incredible. So good.

Q) Amazing.

KATE: Sort of there and kind of not.

JANELLE: A three-second delay.

KATE: But you know what? Can I add to this?

JANELLE: 10-second delay.

KATE: Because this was the most fun. There were times when we would be sitting there, and it would literally just be a reaction. And we’d all, you know, Rian would go to each one of us and it would be like, “And,” you know, “scream.” And you’re like, “Aagh,” you know. And we’d all have to just do the reaction. And then I just remember turning to, like, you know, Leslie and Kathryn were like, “Was that okay?” “Oh, yeah, no, that was great.” And then it was like someone else’s turn. And so, the reaction shots were actually, we were all, like, there cheerleading each other to, you know. Yeah.

Q) For Rian, you have mastered the modern art of telling a murder mystery. What has been your favorite thing of bringing a new audience into this type of story? I mean, you’ve really helped bring back this genre that you love so much. I mean, that’s got to be a source of pride.

RIAN: I mean, I feel like we’ve kind of rode a beautiful wave of, like, people rediscovering these, which has been really nice with a lot of other great filmmakers bringing them to life. As a whodunit junkie myself, it makes me really happy. And then what makes me the happiest, I guess, is, you know, I mentioned Agatha Christie’s books, but those movies that were based on her books in the late ’70s and early ’80s, when I was a kid watching those with my family, just remembering how big of an impact they had. And now the coolest thing for me is talking to friends who have kids around that age, and seeing them get into these movies, and recognizing, oh, that’s kind of what we made these for. And it’s super, super-cool that they can inspire whoever’s gonna, thirty years from now, do their own version of it. That makes me really happy.

EDWARD: But can I say, I think a lot of, with, you know, all love for every version of it, I think a lot of what we’ve seen is reheated beans in a way. And I think the reason that Knives Out was so much fun is that Rian has done, as he pointed out, what Agatha Christie was doing which is actually weaving it into the zeitgeist of the moment, you know? He’s found a way to have all the fun of the convention and the mechanisms and the traditions.  But laced through with jokes about how no one can remember what country Marta’s from, and an alt-right cousin. And, you know, and I think anything, you can see the times you’re living in, and characters who represent the foibles of our moment, gives it that extra thing. And I think in this, maybe even more abundantly so, but I think to take something and make sure that it’s for the audience that it’s of the moment that they’re living in, I think that’s like, that’s not trying to revitalize the old trope and the old costumes and the thing. Because then it’s kind of like someone observed once, that if something’s opaque, you watch it in a different way. If something’s transparent –

Q) The museum piece as opposed to an alive thing, yeah.

EDWARD: Yeah, exactly. If you can see through a thing and see yourself and your moment in it, you enjoy it more, I think. Or relate to it more. And I think Rian has pulled that off very uniquely within this kind of, you know, rekindled affection for the form.

Q) You’re two for two. Here’s to many more Benoit Blanc mysteries. Thank you for this one. The Glass Onion is, as you can tell, these guys had a decent time, and you’ll have an even better time watching it.

 

 

 

 

The movie has a one-week engagement in theaters November 23rd 

Watch Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery on Netflix starting December 23, 2022!

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*