'The Menu' Cast Interview
"The Menu" stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, Aimee Carrero and Hong Chau discuss their new hilarious thriller in this interview with CinemaBlend's Corey Chichizola. Watch as they dive into all the behind-the-scenes details, like balancing the script’s comedy with the theatrical horror elements, and of course, the food.
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00:00 No, I'm saying this movie should be the appetizer.
00:03 People should go and eat after watching this film
00:05 because you will be hungry,
00:07 regardless of whether you've eaten or not.
00:09 - Let's go!
00:10 (upbeat music)
00:13 - Nick, if I could start with you,
00:18 I was very taken by the menus, a very unique tone.
00:23 It's horror, there's drama, there's stakes,
00:25 but I was also laughing the entire run time.
00:28 You had a lot of moments that really killed me,
00:30 specifically.
00:31 Can you speak about balancing that unique tone on set?
00:34 - I think when it comes to the tone of it,
00:37 obviously reading the script,
00:39 it was clear that it was a balance of all those things
00:41 that you were describing there,
00:42 and that's obviously a tight rope to walk.
00:46 And luckily, Mark Milord's such a brilliant director
00:48 that that was all in his hands.
00:50 And I think for me anyway, personally, as an actor,
00:52 I was like, you just gotta play each moment truthfully
00:55 and honestly, whether you think it might be funny on the page
00:59 or horrific or whatever it might be,
01:01 you just gotta play the honest truth of it.
01:03 And then that's actually,
01:05 because of the extreme characters' natures,
01:07 that's what will make it amusing or bizarre and off-kilter
01:11 and will feel eerie and different.
01:13 So I think it's more about that
01:15 than trying to play a tone for me.
01:17 - Are you crying?
01:19 - It's just, I find it all very moving.
01:22 - Yeah, you know, I was really,
01:25 I wasn't nervous 'cause I knew I was working
01:26 with the top of the top,
01:28 but I was like, how are they gonna pull this off?
01:30 Because the tone is so specific.
01:32 And I don't know how they pulled it off, but they did.
01:34 But I think I have a clue.
01:36 - What is it? - I think when Mark,
01:38 sometimes we would do three takes at least.
01:41 And it was one just what's in the script,
01:43 and then it would get bigger or maybe smaller,
01:46 and he would sort of modulate the performance
01:48 so he could have some options in the editing room.
01:51 And he could hit that tone really well,
01:54 and I think he really nailed it.
01:55 And with our editors and our writers and everybody,
01:58 and I think the acting also,
02:00 it was truly a team effort.
02:01 It felt like, you know, like--
02:03 - So collaborative, yeah.
02:04 - Like putting on a play.
02:05 - Yeah, yeah.
02:06 I mean, it's a hard tone to get.
02:08 I mean, it's not,
02:09 this is what makes this work so beautiful by Mark Milod
02:12 and the excellent cast that he got.
02:14 A chef's kiss of a cast.
02:16 - In high tech. - Food fun.
02:18 - Yeah, yeah, food fun, sorry.
02:19 And I have to owe you 10 bucks.
02:21 - Yeah.
02:23 - To get that tone is so hard.
02:25 I mean, how many directors can get that sweet spot?
02:28 'Cause it's gotta be surgical precision
02:31 to get humor, but not let it get silly and ridiculous.
02:35 Keep the tension and the fear believable,
02:39 and the character's real, but still parroting.
02:42 It's a really tough, tough little task.
02:45 - And that's probably what makes him so wonderful.
02:47 You know, it's that secret sauce
02:48 that you can't really pinpoint.
02:50 I'm just assuming that getting all these different sizes
02:53 and the takes helped,
02:54 but I think you just have to have a vision like nobody else.
02:58 - You won't know till the end.
02:59 - Tone is a very tricky thing to talk about
03:03 and try to explain.
03:05 Whenever I read a script,
03:09 I'm always trying to picture it in my mind
03:11 of how it would look.
03:12 And I had no idea with this one,
03:15 when I read it, how it would turn out.
03:17 But there was something really exciting about that,
03:19 not knowing.
03:21 The thing that I did know was that
03:23 we were in very good hands with Mark Milod,
03:25 because I think a lot of people know "Succession"
03:28 and how wonderful, what a wonderful job they do
03:32 on that show of turning very unlikable characters
03:36 into people who you do somehow wind up caring about
03:40 in some way.
03:42 And I knew that Mark was gonna be able to take this
03:46 really rogues gallery of despicable characters
03:49 and make us care about what happens to them.
03:53 And Ralph Fiennes, I think, was just, you know,
03:58 he's a living legend.
04:01 He's one of our greatest actors.
04:02 And I could immediately picture him saying the lines
04:07 as I was reading the script,
04:08 but it was one thing to imagine it
04:10 and another thing to actually be there
04:12 and witness that he is just a force and a powerhouse
04:18 and has such a way with language.
04:21 And we all felt like we were sitting in on a masterclass
04:24 because we got to sit back and watch Ralph
04:27 do these really great monologues to us, his audience.
04:31 - I'll leave you to it.
04:34 - It was such a gift.
04:36 Listen, Ralph is such a talented actor
04:38 that whatever he wants to transmute on screen,
04:41 he will do that.
04:42 And so of course he is formidable and intimidating
04:46 and all of these other words,
04:47 but being in a scene with him,
04:50 I don't know whether it was our characters
04:52 or the way that we both approach acting,
04:55 I felt so comfortable.
04:56 It was such a warm intimacy between the two of us
05:00 and we really took care of each other.
05:01 And I think genuinely relished
05:04 any time we got to have those back and forth scenes.
05:07 It felt very, almost like a relief
05:10 because the way that Mark wanted to shoot was 360.
05:14 We were all mic'd all the time.
05:16 We were always improvising.
05:17 And it was incredible,
05:18 but it was also quite energetic.
05:21 And I feel like any time it was Ralph and I alone,
05:25 everything kind of calmed down a little bit
05:28 and we got to just be with each other
05:30 in that more intimate space.
05:32 - And on that note, food.
05:37 - I was wondering what your relationship was
05:39 to the food while you were filming.
05:41 Was it gross?
05:42 Were you hungry?
05:43 I got a burger immediately after seeing my screening.
05:46 - Oh my goodness. - That's not a joke.
05:48 - Yeah, no, literally though, that's all I want.
05:50 And I've seen the movie three times.
05:51 - I ate a burger that day.
05:53 - That's right, you went out and got it for five guys.
05:55 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:56 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:57 - But for the crew.
05:58 - That's right, you got burgers for the crew.
05:59 - 'Cause they were torturing us with that.
06:01 - Yeah, they were making that burger on set
06:03 and you could smell, we were like on this soundstage.
06:05 You could smell everything.
06:06 If someone farted on one end of the stage,
06:08 you could smell it.
06:09 - And it was usually Reed.
06:10 (laughing)
06:11 - So John treated us to burgers,
06:13 but you were saying that you were hungry the whole time?
06:16 - I was always hungry.
06:17 We just had to sit there for hours.
06:18 The camera was on us, then off of us.
06:20 - You're not moving.
06:21 - You're not moving, you can't get to the food.
06:23 So yeah, and then they're cooking this delicious burger
06:26 just for Anya.
06:27 - Yeah, right, right.
06:28 (laughing)
06:30 - And she took a bite.
06:31 - That's so true.
06:32 Yeah, we ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
06:34 But no, the food was the actual food we ate.
06:37 It wasn't necessarily the food
06:38 we were supposed to be having.
06:39 So like there was a scallop situation,
06:41 we got potatoes instead.
06:42 - A raw potato.
06:44 - Yeah, and there was a cold.
06:45 It wasn't amazing, it looked great.
06:47 - We can act, you can tell we can act our asses off
06:49 'cause we made that, those cold props look delicious.
06:53 - Yeah, so I was looking forward to the s'mores,
06:56 but of course.
06:57 (laughing)
07:00 - No, I'm saying this movie should be the appetizer.
07:03 People should go and eat after watching this film
07:06 because you will be hungry,
07:07 regardless of whether you've eaten or not.
07:10 So good, glad.
07:11 - I ran.
07:12 (laughing)
07:13 - They're like the stars of the show.
07:15 And it was beautifully framed in terms of the script
07:18 and each course being a different chapter of the story
07:21 and a different reveal of Chef Sloic's plan
07:24 for all these guests throughout the evening.
07:26 And all the food porn shots were made by,
07:27 what was the name of the person, Chef's Table?
07:30 - Yeah, it's the Chef's Table guy,
07:32 which I'm so sorry, it's just the end of the--
07:33 - You know the top shots of all the food.
07:34 - Yeah.
07:35 - It was done by the same person
07:36 who does all those shots for Chef's Table,
07:37 sorry I can't remember his name right now.
07:39 - Massive shout out, it's just the end of a press day,
07:41 so apologies.
07:43 But yeah, so the food was the real star of the show
07:46 and I got to eat a lot of it.
07:48 - Kudos to this man, he went for it,
07:51 every single take, genuinely impressive.
07:54 - Thank you.
07:55 - Good strong English stomach, well done.
07:56 (laughing)
07:57 - Is this Bergamot I'm getting, Chef?
07:59 - Yes it is.
08:01 - John, I love horror, I'm a big horror fan,
08:04 I was so excited to see you back in the genre.
08:07 Can you speak to kind of why this project
08:10 stood out to you and why it made you
08:14 return to the genre in this way?
08:16 - Yeah, I mean I was very fortunate to work
08:18 with a Latin hero, George Romero,
08:19 who invented the zombie genre.
08:21 Only a Latin person could come up with that
08:23 'cause it comes from Santeria.
08:24 - For sure, that Catholic, yeah.
08:26 Like the voodoo thing, yeah.
08:27 - All the voodoo and all the conspiracies.
08:28 - He's like, they're gonna come back and hunt you.
08:30 - Uh-huh.
08:31 That's how you better behave in this life.
08:33 - Yeah.
08:33 - I love the genre, you know obviously
08:36 it's one of the biggest, the biggest demographic
08:39 for horror movies are Latin people.
08:41 And with a religious tone.
08:43 - Yeah, for sure.
08:44 - This doesn't have a religious tone,
08:45 but I think Latin people are gonna love it.
08:47 And coming to this horror, it's a really smart movie.
08:50 I love independent films, this is my favorite genre flick.
08:54 And I love doing high art, I feel like this is high art.
08:58 And I love being a part of something like that,
09:00 that allows actors to be free,
09:05 let it be character driven instead of just plot driven.
09:09 It would become like so serviceable to the plot.
09:12 I like that we have a chance to breathe as artists.
09:14 And that's the power of being in a flick
09:18 like Mark Milod directed.
09:20 (dramatic music)
09:21 - Jesus Christ.
09:22 - This is just theater, it's stage crap.
09:23 - We're leaving, now.
09:25 - You know, I saw the menu at TIFF,
09:28 and I also saw the whales.
09:30 It was like very, I felt like it was like
09:31 a big festival for you.
09:32 So I just have to ask, if you could speak at all
09:35 to your collaboration with Brendan Fraser,
09:37 'cause that film, like I wept for an hour straight.
09:39 - I just, I just came from a screening,
09:43 we did a Q&A like an hour and a half ago,
09:47 and I cried on stage, I was so embarrassed.
09:50 It's something about the movie, it's still with me.
09:54 And just being next to Brendan and talking about
09:58 his character and all of the work he did for it,
10:00 I don't know, it still gets me emotional.
10:03 - Yeah, I agree, I felt embarrassed at my screening
10:07 because I was just like weeping.
10:08 - And that's how I felt this morning,
10:09 I felt embarrassed that I was crying on stage.
10:12 - Well, congratulations again.
10:15 - Thank you.
10:16 - Thank you so much for chatting with me.
10:17 - Thank you, Corey.
10:18 - Take care.
10:19 (dramatic music)
10:20 - This is what you're paying for.
10:22 (dramatic music)
10:23 It's all part of the menu.
10:25 (dramatic music)
10:26 - It's okay.
10:27 - No, we're gonna die today.
10:27 - Yes, we are. - Yeah.
10:29 (dramatic music)
10:31 you
10:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]