'Slumberland' Cast Interview
The cast of Netflix's “Slumberland,” including Jason Momoa, Kyle Chandler, Chris O’Dowd, Weruche Opia, and Marlow Barkley, as well as director Francis Lawrence, sat down with CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor Sean O’Connell to discuss the film’s amazing visuals, Jason Momoa’s playful nature, and much, much more. We even get into some news regarding Jason Momoa's Dream DC Project, and the upcoming “Hunger Games” prequel, so you’ll want to check this one out.
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00:00 - I'm sensitive to chlorine.
00:01 - Aquaman likes fresh water or salt water.
00:05 - We don't advise kids take mushrooms
00:07 before watching this movie.
00:09 - Well, you don't.
00:10 (laughing)
00:12 - Pull the goddamn plug.
00:13 Get cinnamon blend out of here.
00:14 - Thank you so much.
00:16 - One story?
00:17 - All right.
00:18 I got one you never heard before.
00:20 It's a place
00:22 you can only dream of.
00:25 (upbeat music)
00:28 - I'm curious if you could tell us what Flip smells like.
00:33 - Well, he doesn't smell very great.
00:38 It's kind of the type of scent where it doesn't have a name
00:45 and you wouldn't be able to tell like,
00:47 oh, it smells like a mix of this and this.
00:51 I feel like he smells--
00:53 - I feel like it smells like sunsets
00:56 and beautiful dreams.
00:58 - Unicorns.
00:59 - Yeah, see that's what he thinks he smells like.
01:01 - Rainbow farts of love.
01:02 - Yeah, yeah.
01:04 But maybe take out the rainbow and the of love part.
01:07 - So putrid?
01:08 - Yeah.
01:09 - Putrid has many different flavors.
01:11 - Right, yeah, sure.
01:13 Just let a man dream, it's fine.
01:15 - I don't think he smells good, that's for sure.
01:18 I think, you know, if you have a guy
01:19 who hasn't taken a shower in, I don't know,
01:22 25 years or something, he probably smells like that.
01:25 So probably like sharply pungent.
01:28 - That's a good way to put it, yes.
01:30 Now I can actually visualize that.
01:32 Your character in his scenes with Marlo
01:35 gets to be a really captivating storyteller.
01:37 And I'm just curious if you had a compelling storyteller
01:40 like that in your own life when you guys were growing up.
01:43 - Look, that was fun to do with her
01:46 because that's kind of the deal that the kids,
01:49 we did a lot of story reading to the kids,
01:51 my two daughters when they were younger.
01:54 But also we would do that deal,
01:56 and sometimes it's a lot of work,
01:57 but you give a word, make a story out of this, dad,
02:01 and so you're sitting there late at night
02:02 trying to figure out these stories.
02:04 So it took me back to that with my own kids,
02:07 and it's just very enjoyable.
02:08 And I gotta say that she's a wonderful little,
02:11 I say little actress, that's sort of demeaning, I think.
02:14 I don't know, but she is little, she's not.
02:15 But she's a wonderful actress.
02:18 And it was very easy to get into all that.
02:21 And she gave so much, and the whole thing
02:25 was really a joy to work with her.
02:28 - Audiences are gonna see
02:29 a completely different side of Momoa.
02:30 Did you know he had this playfulness inside of him?
02:33 - I did, yeah.
02:34 He and I did a show together
02:35 and really enjoyed working with each other
02:38 and became friends.
02:40 And as I was developing the script,
02:41 I was thinking of Jason 'cause I was thinking,
02:43 Jason kind of is this guy in real life.
02:46 He's got this irreverent side and mischievous side.
02:49 He's really funny.
02:50 He can be really silly, really emotional
02:54 also at the same time.
02:55 - And I'm sensitive.
02:56 - And I just thought,
02:57 this is a really great opportunity for him,
03:00 but also to show people
03:02 a very, very different side of Jason.
03:05 - Marlo, there are scenes where your character
03:07 is immersed in water.
03:08 You have Aquaman right there with you.
03:10 Did Jason give you any tips
03:11 on how to give a performance in a wet environment?
03:13 - I mean, to be honest, love him to death.
03:18 But I was kind of the big kid in this situation.
03:22 Like I was like,
03:23 we had to pour this saline stuff in our eyes every time.
03:27 And I was like, I'd always be like,
03:28 "All right, go, yeah, go ahead, let's do it."
03:30 But then Jason, they give Jason the bottle and he's like.
03:33 - I'm sensitive to chlorine.
03:35 Aquaman likes fresh water or salt water.
03:40 Chlorine, I don't do.
03:42 Don't do pools.
03:43 - I'm curious what that movie was for you
03:45 when you were a kid.
03:46 If you can remember the first thing you saw
03:47 that was just like, "Oh my gosh,
03:48 "dreams are coming to life on screen."
03:50 - I think I was around the time of,
03:53 maybe I was a bit older than that,
03:55 but it wasn't so far away from "Jurassic Park" time.
03:59 And the idea that,
04:00 "Oh, we can make something extraordinary look believable."
04:04 It was really cool.
04:05 What I like about this movie visually,
04:07 and we were talking about it a little earlier,
04:09 'cause I don't feel like I've seen it like this before,
04:11 because you bring in this element of dreams,
04:14 you can have more creative freedom with the visuals
04:17 because it's not based in a very defined reality.
04:22 So the movie at times feels like it's a film
04:25 that's also micro dosing mushrooms,
04:28 where there are these swathes of kind of
04:31 different subconscious that you wouldn't see
04:33 in a normal film.
04:34 So you can get wrapped up in it and anything can happen.
04:38 - Right, we don't advise kids take mushrooms
04:40 before watching this movie.
04:41 - Well, you don't.
04:42 (laughing)
04:45 - I'm curious if you can remember the movie
04:46 that did that for you when first taught you
04:48 like what you can actually see massively on the big screen.
04:52 - I don't know, you know, I'm so old.
04:54 So I mean, "Wizard of Oz" like blew my mind
04:55 when I was a little kid.
04:56 Like when it went to color, I was like,
04:57 "Oh gosh, color."
05:00 - Yeah.
05:00 - It's Emerald.
05:01 Freaking flying monkeys.
05:03 So I'm old, so I mean, it's, you know,
05:06 let's say "Wizard of Oz."
05:08 - Yeah, I'm so old I did the junket for that one.
05:10 It was great.
05:11 They were terrific.
05:12 - Oh my gosh.
05:13 - So I'm really curious how Francis was able to convey
05:16 what the finished product was gonna look like
05:18 for you on set each day.
05:19 - So he would paint a picture,
05:22 but I guess it was already a relationship of trust
05:24 that I had with him.
05:26 I mean, seeing everything around
05:28 and being given as much as I did
05:31 just gave me a bit of a physical feel
05:32 of what it's gonna feel like.
05:34 I mean, he painted the picture quite vividly
05:36 and I think the writing as well does that.
05:39 So I did have to depend a lot on my imagination,
05:43 but I was quite impressed with myself
05:45 'cause it was a test to think, you know,
05:47 do I still have it?
05:49 Can I still like be, enjoy my imagination
05:52 and, you know, let it go as wild as it did.
05:54 And I was pleasantly surprised that, you know,
05:57 watching the film, it exceeded my expectations
06:00 'cause it went beyond my imagination.
06:02 It was like incredible to see, you know, a visual of it.
06:05 So it was challenging, but I mean, it turned out fantastic.
06:09 So I'm happy.
06:10 - It really did.
06:11 Usually, I'm not in the case of this movie,
06:14 but usually I shoot in a lot of real environments.
06:16 You know, for the Cuban hotel,
06:19 we actually shot in a real environment,
06:21 not in Cuba, but in a real environment.
06:23 So they had at least a sense of sort of architecture
06:26 and space and all of that.
06:29 But what I did have to help them with
06:30 was the idea of like, you know,
06:32 how things are being built and the butterflies
06:34 and where the dancers are gonna be
06:36 and, you know, all of that kind of stuff.
06:38 So I just do my best to describe
06:41 and show as many references as possible.
06:43 - Of course, everyone's thrilled to see you
06:45 return to the world of "Hunger Games."
06:47 I'm just curious, what your first day on set
06:49 was like returning to that world?
06:51 - It was, look, it was really fun.
06:54 I have to say that it was, you know, it was interesting.
06:57 It feels very different and very fresh,
06:59 but, you know, also very much a "Hunger Games" story.
07:02 And so it was really, really exciting.
07:05 We actually just wrapped two or three days ago.
07:07 I just got back from Berlin yesterday.
07:10 - Before they kick me out of here, Jason, on November 6th,
07:13 you were blowing kisses to the maestro
07:16 on your Instagram story and getting DC fans all riled up.
07:19 - Mwah!
07:20 You know who you are?
07:21 Mwah!
07:22 Oh, those two have no relation.
07:25 Those are two totally different.
07:26 - Oh, they have no relation?
07:26 'Cause I wanted to go with the maestro.
07:27 - No, it was two days of amazing news.
07:29 So no, that one is like beyond,
07:32 that one trumps the DC one.
07:35 That one's beyond.
07:36 - They're separate and it trumps,
07:38 so the maestro is not Zack Snyder?
07:40 - No.
07:41 No, no, no, no.
07:43 No.
07:44 You gotta dig, you gotta have to dig deeper.
07:46 It's a, it's like,
07:48 it's the Holy Grail.
07:51 It's the Holy Grail.
07:52 And it's different than the DC thing.
07:54 - And it's different than the DC thing.
07:55 - And I really can't say anything.
07:56 That's it.
07:57 This interview's over with.
07:58 - All right.
07:59 - Pull the plug!
07:59 Pull the goddamn plug.
08:01 Get Cinnamon Blunt out of here.
08:02 - Thank you so much.
08:04 - Bye, guys.
08:05 - Thank you, bye.
08:05 - Say goodbye to those flying monkeys after you.
08:07 - Nobody likes a smart-aleck kid.
08:09 (dramatic music)
08:12 (dramatic music)
08:14 (dramatic music)