'Lurker' director Alex Russell and cast Archie Madekwe, Zack Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Sunny Suljic and Théodore Pellerin stop by THR's studio in Park City to talk all about their new film. The cast and crew dish on the premise of this film. Plus, hear why Russell calls it 'Mean Boys' and who he would say is the most like Regina George.
00:00I think I've always been in some group of male friends and there's sort of this like unspoken hierarchy play going on of, you know, who is the most important and who has the power and who's sort of playing second fiddle and who's competing for for for advancement, you know, and I think typically I feel like that kind of thing has been has been explored like in Mean Girls for women.
00:30But I wanted to make Mean Boys.
00:37I wanted to make Mean Boys and this is the cast that plays them.
00:42Regina George is definitely Archie who plays Oliver.
00:49Oh, you said in real life, the answer is the same.
00:54In the movie, it's definitely Oliver played by Archie and in real life, it's definitely Archie.
01:01As Archie.
01:03Oh, look at him patty.
01:07I don't feel like Archie would tell somebody that they can't sit with us.
01:13No, I don't think he would.
01:14I don't think he would.
01:15He wouldn't have to.
01:16He wouldn't have to.
01:17Somebody would say it for you.
01:18He would just give a little look.
01:19That is such an untrue description of who I am.
01:23You know that.
01:28You are very polite.
01:30I'm from Atlanta, so it's the same thing there.
01:32You're all in like packs of rappers and it's like, who's the leader here?
01:38Who's B?
01:39Who's C?
01:40So, yeah.
01:41I felt like that in elementary school.
01:44I haven't really in my adult life.
01:47Thank God.
01:48For sure, while shooting the movie, I was like, this feels like when I was 10.
01:53You know, those power dynamics of like your friends, but then one day you're not going
01:57to be the friend.
01:58You're going to be the one that's on the outside.
02:00This kind of possibility of always being put aside, ridiculed, but then kind of brought
02:06back in feels very, yeah, my experience with it was really when I was a kid.
02:12You know, that has continued in certain dynamics, especially I think in the art industry,
02:18I have found in adult life, especially I think in, like I went to drama school and there's,
02:26you know, there's this constant kind of competitive nature, I think that some people can have.
02:32And there's a feeling of that, of like wanting to be seen and who's doing good work and who's
02:39exciting and Oliver in our film kind of rules that and everyone is kind of floating around
02:44him trying to impress and that dynamic, I think that we learn as kids that starts in school.
02:50It continues in different spaces.
02:52And I think maybe we're not as conscious of it always because we start putting ourselves in pecking
02:58orders and sometimes we feel quite comfortable and are in that position.
03:02And so we're not always aware of the dynamic as it's playing out around us.
03:05But it was really, it was really interesting for me.
03:09You know, these people have described me as Regina George.
03:13I didn't, I, that's not how I feel in my day to day life.
03:17And I found it really difficult and, and, and for me a real challenge to have to play someone
03:22so outwardly confident in their position in the, in the group.
03:26It's so much easier to play someone so much more introverted and insular.
03:30I think you just want to kind of disguise yourself.
03:32So to play someone who is so self-assured in that pecking order was, was fun.
03:38I think that there's an interesting, complicating factor though in this film, which is fame,
03:42which I think makes all of these dynamics that you experience when you're younger.
03:46It's just another lens to look at the same thing, but in a way that you can name more easily.
03:51It's like popularity, all of these power dynamics.
03:54It's, it's brought into another scale that I think is ridiculed as well.
03:57It's kind of removed from now.
03:59So it's not in the like tick tock generation where would that, what we live in,
04:03where everyone is so close to wanting fame and it's, it feels so accessible and it feels so quick.
04:09But we did grow up in that, that time where you were able to look on Tumblr and see people that,
04:17you felt cool and felt, but also felt touchable and felt realistic.
04:22And so the idea of then coming into contact with those people and, and, and feeling like it was in grasp,
04:29it, there is, that is our currency now, weirdly.
04:32Everyone, no one really wants to work.
04:34People want to be famous as the line in the film where it's like, how do I get like you?
04:38What do you do?
04:39And they can't even answer.
04:41It's just like, it's just, people just want to be famous.
04:44People are just stoked about the idea of being liked and being known.
04:48And yeah, I think the film plays with that in a really interesting way.
04:51Something I'm asking everybody who comes in is if you remember the first time you were starstruck.
04:552016, I was with the homie Thundercat and we went to Austin Nebo in North Hollywood.
05:02I had like $10. I think I was wearing like Tom's or something like that.
05:06I'm super broke. I'm the brokest person in all of LA, right?
05:10He'd take me to this restaurant. We were two members of the band King.
05:14They were like princes, like protégés pretty much.
05:18So it was four of us, right? So we chill in there.
05:20The restaurant about the size of where we at right now.
05:23Only like 20 people in there max.
05:25I see two Secret Service looking dudes with the wire in their ear pop in behind us.
05:31And I'm like, oh shit, Obama, right?
05:35Jay-Z walk in, right?
05:38They sit him at the table right behind us.
05:40This restaurant's like a closet, you know what I'm saying?
05:42And then I was like, oh shit, this is crazy. Like Jay-Z's behind us.
05:46And then two more Secret Service guys walk in and Beyonce came in.
05:51And then she came over to the table and she knows Thundercat or whatever.
05:56So she was like, you know, bigging him up on his work.
05:58And she said to our homegirl, I love your hair.
06:00And she just busted out and started crying.
06:03Like somebody died.
06:06Beyonce held my hands and sang Halo.
06:10What?
06:11Sorry to talk.
06:13What?
06:14Damn.
06:15Hold on.
06:16Okay, Regina.
06:17Okay, Regina.
06:18Exactly.
06:19A friend of mine rigged the competition so that she was a radio presenter.
06:25And she rigged the competition so me and my sisters won tickets to her album launch.
06:30So it was like a really intimate thing.
06:32So we were like right at the front and I'm so tall.
06:34Well, Beyonce, kiss my dad.
06:37And she came to the front and like, she kept singing to me.
06:40And then she like came down and I held my hands.
06:42And then I just remember her body, I was like frozen in time.
06:44I was like, ah, ah.
06:46Like I felt like the power of, I don't know, eternal life was being like given to me.
06:50And then I didn't want to let go and her bodyguard came over and just went chop.
06:53And chopped and chopped my arm away.
06:55I was like, cool, done.
06:56But yeah, that was pretty big.
06:58But I do think that that's a big part of the film as well is like how we view celebrity
07:03and people who are like, we have like, what position do we give them?
07:06Totally.
07:07And there's like this space of, they really, for a lot of people become like God-like figure.
07:12And I think that in this film for Matthew there is a big aspect of that.
07:16There is nothing above that.
07:18And that's why it's so incredible and like a one-time opportunity that you can't miss
07:25and that you have to go all the way with because that will never happen again.
07:30It's too big to enter that world in that way, to have such access to, yeah, to someone who is truly viewed like a God.
07:42So it's, it's, yeah, I think they're, they're really kind of taking the place of a, of religion.
07:50It has, well, it has been a lot of very like, people have their own personal religions,
07:55but in our general society it's, it's a lot, a lot less God-focused than, than it has been back in the day.
08:03And so we're, let's go back.
08:04People, people, people, let's go back.
08:06We need that.
08:07Back with the dating.
08:08I mean like, Nicki Minaj has her own defamation league.
08:10Like you, it's like, she is.
08:12Yeah, yeah.
08:13Oh my God.
08:14But right, like icons.
08:15Like that part is really, it's not for nothing.
08:18Like an icon, it comes from, from religious figures.
08:22Totally.
08:23It's so, it's so interesting to think about what people think they will be getting out of proximity to that person.
08:28Well, you can get nothing.
08:29Right.
08:30It's like Icarus in the sun a bit.
08:31Totally.
08:32It is.
08:33But that's exactly what this film is also.
08:34Like he really kind of gets disillusioned being in such proximity.
08:38Like it's like, oh, it's really not that complicated.
08:41I can, I understand the mechanisms of this.
08:43And I understand that everyone around you, they're not, they're not angels.
08:47They're just people kind of putting you and protecting you to stay on that level.
08:52Um, yeah.
08:53I feel like it's like that, uh, that part in the Bible where somebody was like.
08:59Was that it?
09:00I forget who said it, but they was like, talking about Jesus.
09:02Was it God?
09:03They was like, if I could just touch the hem of his garment, like, dang, you need to stand up.
09:07Like, if I could just touch his drip, like, that's surprising.
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