“Spiderhead” stars Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett, as well as director Joseph Kosinski and producer Eric Newman discuss their Netflix original film with CinemaBlend Managing Editor Sean O'Connell. Watch them discuss the film’s twisted script, the vague timeline, how Miles Teller and Joseph Kosinski are celebrating “Top Gun: Maverick’s” success, and much more.
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00:00I've been asked that a bit lately, you know, who knows, anything's a possibility, isn't
00:07it?
00:08I'll lean over and ask my wife and then lean over and ask Netflix and then I don't know.
00:20Miles this movie is fantastic, it's so wild and everybody in it's so great.
00:26I'm curious how far you even get into a screenplay like this before you just say, yeah, I'm totally
00:31in, I'm doing this.
00:33Probably not too far with this one just because it came from Joe and Joe and I have, you know,
00:40this was before this movie, we had just done two movies prior and I had such a great experience
00:44with him.
00:45So, I don't know, I mean, I'm not going to say he could offer me anything, but he could
00:49probably offer me a lot of stuff and I would say yes, but I just really enjoyed the world.
00:55I thought it, I think Joe coming into this, having done Oblivion and Tron and the worlds
01:01that he's able to create visually, but still maintaining it, you know, with really rich
01:06characters and performances, I was excited.
01:11I'd never done anything in this genre before, so luckily for me, the script was also very
01:17good.
01:18I think I was so, I was leaning into so many themes and ideas about it.
01:23The Milgram experiment was something that I kept thinking about as I was reading it,
01:27which was an experiment that I had read about when I was in high school and it stuck with
01:30me.
01:33And then, you know, when I met with Joe Kosinski, our director, you know, I had ideas and opinions
01:40about ways to really bring Lizzie to life and things that I wanted to do to just flesh
01:45her out more.
01:46And it became a brainstorming session right the very first time we met and I was like,
01:52I want to work with him, you know, I'm buying into his vision.
01:56He's such a visionary.
01:57You know, the music choices, the presence of an Etch-A-Sketch, all these things that
02:01make you think it's the past, but the tech is obviously the future.
02:05Did you think about what timeframe it was?
02:07Did it even matter?
02:08Good question.
02:09I mean, I think we had had that discussion.
02:13It was kind of, I had assumed it was a little further in the future than today, than present
02:20day.
02:21But it's up to interpretation.
02:22And as you say, again, it's just something unsettling about what era am I in?
02:26Where are we?
02:27What country is this, you know?
02:30And I think Joe did such a great job at combining all of those elements to have it feel unexpected
02:38and slightly unsettling.
02:41I mean, I think it should feel present day-ish or as science fiction goes, you know, in the
02:49not-so-distant future at times.
02:51I think that's kind of the dystopian reality that we're creating here.
02:56But I think it feels kind of parallel to the life that we're living now.
03:00Well, I think it's timeless, you know?
03:02Like, that's the thing.
03:03Like, Lizzie's costumes intentionally are from another era, you know, very influenced
03:09by like the 80s and the 90s period.
03:14And even like Lizzie's Walkman is like, not from now, it's not like some high tech thing.
03:22And yet everything else in the facility is high tech.
03:25And I think one of the things we spoke about was like, well, Lizzie has to feel like analog
03:31to digital.
03:32You know, like she's got to feel like vinyl player when everything else feels like, you
03:40know, an MP3.
03:42I liked the kind of hermetically sealed world of the Spiderhead where you don't understand
03:47what time it is, just as Jeff and Lizzie have no idea what time of the year it is.
03:51You know, it's this, you're going off on this journey to this place that is tightly controlled
03:57by Steve.
03:59Everything's designed, the soundtrack is curated by him.
04:03It's all part of this elaborate plan centered on the theme of control.
04:09And so it was a fun world to create.
04:13Let's do this.
04:20This film is amazing.
04:21The story is incredible.
04:23It's a terrific exercise in how far along you're able to string an audience before they
04:28finally start, need to receive some answers.
04:31So I'm just curious what kind of conversations you guys had as you were assembling the picture
04:35in terms of when you can just dole out some of the details.
04:41I think it was important.
04:43And if you've read the George Saunders short story, you like this guy, Ebnesty.
04:49There's a sort of facile quality and a charisma to him that makes you think, oh, you know
04:56what?
04:57I'd follow this guy.
04:58And I think that was important, that his villainy comes out at some point when you
05:04realize he's taken this too far.
05:07I think that was also why Chris was the perfect choice, because you like him.
05:15And I think there is a long history of charismatic villains that under different circumstances
05:21you would very much follow.
05:25So I think that to me was the goal, getting people comfortable with this thing before
05:33it becomes uncomfortable and then unpleasant and then terrifying.
05:39Beautiful people get away with too much, and I say that having benefited myself from time
05:42to time.
05:43You know, it really read to me like a piece of theater, this film.
05:47And it takes place in one set, basically, one environment.
05:52Because I had a lot of dialogue and American accent, I didn't want it to start to sound
05:57repetitive.
05:58I wanted to have it be, there was a sort of intimacy and a very personal way he spoke
06:05to people and individuals and very welcoming and opening.
06:09And that was the goal, to constantly be kind of luring people in and drawing them in.
06:14You like that word, but no, I mean, how attractive is she?
06:18And the script allowed me to do that.
06:21And what was great then was the moment they're drawn in, you're kind of hit with, whoa, hang
06:26on, this is not what I thought it is.
06:27And this individual is not who I thought he was.
06:30So yeah, I had a fantastic script and a great cast and Joe Kaczynski to collaborate with
06:37on it.
06:38Have you even had a chance to celebrate Top Gun's success?
06:42I mean, I guess, yeah, I'm being able to celebrate it when we're doing all of these premieres,
06:46really.
06:48Because as actors, that's really the only time you get to kind of experience it with
06:53the fans.
06:54It's not, you know, we're not, it's not theater where it's live and we're not, we're not rock
06:59stars.
07:00We don't get that kind of live feedback, but from, yeah, but I have felt it even just a
07:05little bit.
07:06I've been out, if I'm at the grocery store or something like that, the people are very
07:10generous with their, with their kind of praises for that film.
07:13So it feels nice.
07:15Well, we can't talk too much about Spider-Head because there's a lot of secrets.
07:18Joe, have you had a chance to celebrate Top Gun's success or have you just been nose to
07:23the grindstone?
07:24You know what?
07:25I am happiest when I'm working on something.
07:28So it's great.
07:30Obviously, you know, the Top Gun release has been phenomenal and being able to go around
07:35the world and talk about it was great.
07:37But now I'm pumped to be able to talk about Spider-Head and, you know, and then right
07:43after this, jump into prep on the next thing.
07:45You know, that's, that's my, that's how I like to do it.
07:47All right.
07:48How do we get the Interceptor and Extraction franchises to cross over Expendables?
07:52I've been asked that a bit lately.
07:56You know, who knows?
07:58Anything's a possibility, isn't it?
07:59Yeah.
08:00How do we do it?
08:01I just have to lean over and ask my wife and then lean over and ask Netflix and then, you
08:05know.
08:06Thanks for your time, Chris.
08:07I appreciate it.
08:08Thanks so much.
08:09Time to worry about crossing lines was a lot of lines ago.