00:00I'm like, I don't really know what bergamot is. I bet there was a soap in a hotel the other day
00:04that had bergamot in it. I'm always that person in the restaurant that's like reading the menu
00:08and being like, I don't know what any of this is. The cast of The Menu is making sure we never look
00:13at fine dining the same in Mark Milod's new satirical horror. Stars Anya Taylor-Joy,
00:18Nicholas Holt, John Leguizamo, Amy Carrero, Judith Light, and Milod all chatted with The
00:23Hollywood Reporter, giving us an inside look at their new film, which takes the world of
00:28culinary culture to a whole new twisted level.
00:31The game is trying to guess what the overarching theme of the entire meal is going to be.
00:36You won't know until the end.
00:37I think in my own head, I pictured people almost like meditating and making food with a ton of love,
00:43and the reality is like backstage, it's just hectic.
00:47That was definitely the thing for me, it was like the dedication and the singular focus
00:51of these chefs to do everything in their power to create a story, but also like this perfect meal,
00:57I suppose. It's very impressive.
00:59It's like an art form, and any art form is going to demand a sacrifice of time, your life.
01:05The new film follows a couple, played by Taylor-Joy and Holt, who travel to a coastal island to eat
01:11at an exclusive restaurant, where the chef, played by Ralph Fiennes, has prepared a lavish menu
01:15with some shocking surprises. In order to properly prepare for their roles, Taylor-Joy and Holt
01:21said they indulged in some good old-fashioned binging.
01:24This was a very hard job in terms of research. Both Nick and I spent a lot of time on the couch
01:29watching a chef's table. It was really hard. Nick actually took it one step further and went
01:34to many fine dining experiences.
01:36I did, but I went and ate nice food, because I had to.
01:39Any favorites?
01:41Any favorites? I went to the Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, which was a wild experience,
01:46and actually really incredible for what they created, and pretty delicious. Yeah, it was a good one.
01:51Meanwhile, Carrero and Light called upon their prior restaurant experience.
01:55Well, I'd worked in restaurants as a server, like, over 10 years ago, but it wasn't a fine dining experience.
02:01I had a restaurant with my husband in Aspen, Colorado. Each business is a service business.
02:07As an actor, I'm in a service business. I am bringing a story. I am a storyteller. I'm bringing
02:14with a team. I'm bringing, and chefs, they're working with a team. So we have that in common.
02:21They are in a service business. So the ties that we all have are similar.
02:26As for casting fines, director Mark Mylod says it was a no-brainer, but wouldn't consider him a movie baddie.
02:33Both the writers and myself both said it's got to be Rafe.
02:36If you look at Schindler's List through to Grand Budapest Hotel, the breadth, the spectrum of his
02:43work is extraordinary. Rafe was able to bring all that poignance of self-loathing and specificity
02:49to the character, but also be really, really funny, which is such a rare ability. We both saw
02:56not necessarily a movie baddie, but an artist who's lost his way.
03:02The cast and crew also enlisted the help of Michelin star chef Dominique Frenn to design
03:08the true star of the film, the multi-course menu, creating a food palette based on the script.
03:13I was always trying to eat it so that I could eat a lot of it because I was starving because
03:17we were 12 hours on camera and then we'd have breaks every three hours. But then it was like,
03:24I'm going to eat it all. I don't care if my character is going to eat or not. I'm going to eat
03:27it all. It's almost like meeting a very fancy musician. You know what I mean?
03:31You're kind of, everybody's like- Like a great, great artist.
03:33A great artist, yeah.
03:34But being surrounded by a Michelin star chef and being a part of a fine dining centric film
03:39doesn't necessarily make them all food experts.
03:42I love food and I would love, you know, a nice evening out in that kind of instance,
03:49but I'm more of a takeaway girl.
03:51In the film when I'm like, when it's like, I have to ask what, what bergamot is.
03:54I'm like, I don't really know what bergamot is. I was, I thought there was a soap in a hotel
03:58the other day.
03:59Googling, Googling bergamot.
04:00I have bergamot in it. I'm always that person in the restaurant that's like reading the menu
04:03and be like, I don't know what any of this is.
04:05And with Thanksgiving just around the corner, the cast shared what they'd whip up when they're
04:09playing host for the holidays.
04:11I make a pretty good like sweet potato jerk curry thing, which I feel like also people like,
04:16they're not expecting it. Oh, okay.
04:18The other day my parents were at my house and I made shakshuka and I had made French begets.
04:23I'm such a nob.
04:24No, you're not.
04:25I am.
04:25Oh, shakshuka. That's, that's fancy though.
04:28Oh, I'm fancy.
04:29I want to impress I order food.
04:31No, well, I'll make, if it's, if it's like a casual, I'll make like a picadillo with,
04:35you know, like a lime food.
04:36But if I'm like trying to show off, I'll either do a shepherd's pie recipe that I caught from the Ivy,
04:43that restaurant in London.
04:44Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:44It is amazing.
04:45Or I'll do Julia Child's beef bourguignon, which takes like eight hours.
04:49That's so French of you.
04:51So French.
04:51She's very French.
04:52She's very European.
04:53Very European.
04:54But yeah.
04:54Not me.
04:55I make what I can make, which is chicken al pollo l'orno.
04:59That's my favorite dish.
05:00That's very good.
05:00Roasted chicken.
05:01Oh, I do it so well.
05:02The best roasted chicken you ever had.
05:04And I make the perfect rice.
05:06The menu drops in theaters November 18th.
05:09For more on this story, head to THR.com.
05:12And for the latest entertainment news and updates, keep watching The Hollywood Reporter News.
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