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00:12thank you for being here everyone appreciate it uh drew i want to start with you um vegas
00:19almost feels like another character in the movie and i'm curious what made you want to explore that
00:24side of las vegas and just the impetus behind it yeah i'm originally from rena nevada and it's
00:29kind of uh has a certain side to it that's like really gritty with a ton of texture and i'd
00:35seen
00:35so many vegas movies where it's you know it's mobsters or it's centered around the strip
00:39and this was an opportunity to explore just off the strip where there's just this gritty underbelly
00:46that you know i don't see a lot of films uh cover so it was yeah really attractive i want
00:52to throw
00:52that to the cast as well and kind of ask just how drew's exploration of vegas and that vividness
00:57kind of helped you get into character and understand the story i mean knowing that that
01:02he had a personal experience within a personal relationship it listed a lot of trust in me so
01:10you know i could we could lean into his expertise into uh the real the realness of it all and
01:17and it
01:18just also allows the that vaguest story to just be a real story you know you're not just playing that
01:23vaguest thing that we aesthetically know so that's great yeah and i think also it's like the energy
01:29you just feel it especially for me being overseas like coming in and seeing the lights and understanding
01:34his history with where we were shooting it just felt really sort of like just organic you know and i
01:39think that's just half of the battle you know showing up and then being like oh cool okay this is
01:43what we're doing so it was easy that way i just i really like the off off the strip concept
01:52and also
01:53because vegas was kind of a weird cowboy town thing when it when it started uh so my character being
02:01that guy kind of i leaned into that side of like early vegas uh which turned to the underbelly of
02:09vegas and
02:09not the strip and so he was kind of grew up with that side which is a different perspective of
02:16the
02:16of the neon uh in the modern sense so i i was approaching it that way like old vegas
02:25which i found interesting uh i mean i guess i'll just say like for me i grew up in jersey
02:32outside of
02:33new york and i always felt like um we were 45 minutes outside of the city and we were even
02:39though
02:39we were so close we were influenced by it but we had our own little kind of way of behaving
02:45that
02:45was east coast but very specific to new jersey and i think a lot of cities are like that um
02:50they have
02:51these outskirts that have their own culture in a way and so i kind of was able to relate in
02:56that in that
02:57sense i'm just here so i won't get fun
03:05uh the entire movie takes out takes place over the course of 48 hours and i feel like that really
03:10makes the pacing very propulsive yeah excuse me though of course yeah this nigga just said he from
03:16he's from reno and shit right like you feel like no we that i don't think that count bro
03:23yeah but but i mean you know the the whole the whole play on vegas like for sure i ain't
03:32gonna
03:32hold you like i'm looking for ass titties you know what i'm talking about the whole
03:36shit i'm trying to get you feel me i was trying to get with the shit and then they like
03:40you know
03:40like my man said like oh you know it's cowboys and i'm like i don't know if i ever know
03:45about
03:45cowboys and titties and like it wasn't it wasn't registering to me so i mean you know the way
03:51pulled it together though was it yeah it's like a different it's a different side of vegas yeah
03:58for sure um i'm curious about that like really propulsive pacing drew and just kind of figuring
04:03that out and and how how you wanted it to feel watching the film yeah i always wanted there to
04:10be
04:10a sense of urgency with uh joe cole's character ethan he's there he doesn't want to really be there
04:17um and he wants to get out of there so i wanted the film's pacing to reflect that
04:22and you know they kind of set up the the bar for the music as well you know the music's
04:26got kind
04:27of that heavy electronic consistent heartbeat pulse to it so um yeah then i wanted people to
04:34kind of get in and get gut punched and then get out for the actors when you're working with a
04:40project
04:40where the pacing is really propulsive like that how does it change your workflow or your process to
04:45kind of make sure your performance also has that type of energy to it i think i was talking about
04:52this before uh you know working on a project that is so propulsive that is something that i think you
04:57can um gather more after post edit i think you just have to approach the role as it is as
05:04you're feeling
05:04it the urgency of the character i think for us uh it would be more that urgency that it needs
05:11urgency
05:11there's a thing that needs to be done people are getting killed that there's a guy chasing us you
05:17know so so that urgency was like the most important bit of it all and i think we all kind
05:22of we have
05:23that from from the script we have that from the direction and we also have that from this element that
05:27um
05:28drew drew drew had music always as part of our performance it was playing he gave us playlists
05:36he would play it to us right before the takes so like that gave you that the the feel of
05:42what was
05:43how we were moving along yeah it was almost as if like the playlist was forming i mean for me
05:49my
05:49character and like you know megan she's such a survivor like she's just trying to survive and sort
05:54get on with it and she's in a very male dominated sort of world and so she's really gonna you
05:59know
06:00she's got to show up for herself so the music was just kind of giving me that fuel and then
06:03at the
06:03same time from a music background i just was trying to keep up with the pace and the tempo of
06:08it all so
06:08i was like constantly on the back foot but i think that really gave you know in the days especially
06:13because they're so long it gives you that sort of like spark to just kind of get up and be
06:17like okay
06:17we're surviving today mostly night shoots or i would presume good amount of overnights um i mean
06:24most of 75 of the movie takes place at night but you know we were able to make some indoor
06:28locations
06:29be at night but yeah there were some overnights they were really long josh had a brutal scene uh
06:35in the middle of nowhere it was freezing i remember looking over at him and just feeling really bad it
06:40was uh it was phenomenal i like to work hard and and i like to condense it all and and
06:46drew did that
06:47thank you so it was fantastic but but when you your first day is a three-page monologue talking
06:55about pacing if you want it not on the floor you better get your pace going and so i that
07:01was
07:01something i was conscious so i was like i don't want to tank the energy of this by like blah
07:09blah blah you
07:10really have to uh get your intention straight and and roll with that shit and i felt like we
07:17was trying to do that and must uh suck the air out of it and then we had an amazing
07:23night all night
07:24fighting i'm glad that the music got brought up because you know drew this is your feature
07:30directorial debut but you are very proficient with directing music videos and i'm curious what
07:34sensibilities you brought from that onto the shoot i mean from my music video experience one thing
07:41is moving quick you know you do music videos usually in one day and i think the speed component
07:47was important for this like to you know like i said it was a 19-day shoot so it was
07:53moving very fast and
07:53i felt that that kind of came in handy um and then just i don't know it's like the way
07:58i think about some
07:58of the scenes is music video driven and like like you said we had the music before time i was
08:03playing it for
08:03them um so it was helpful to you know um i guess i just kind of imagined some of those
08:09yeah scenes
08:10like mini music videos rita as a musician how did that approach um and having that music on set and
08:17kind of playing you know drew playing songs right before scenes were filmed help you get into character
08:21well it was like it's like drawing you know it was like seeing the script reading the script hearing
08:25the music while you're reading the script it really really helps i mean for me i've never sort of made
08:31a project like that before i'm always kind of making the music and then being like explaining
08:35the world so like having him really really do that i think for me because i'm very visual like it
08:40just
08:40was like okay cool when do we go like i was ready to go the next day genuinely and we
08:45spoke for a
08:46while you know on zooms and when i was abroad and talking about like what the character feels like and
08:52looks like and i think we all individually had our own sort of workshop with drew and i think for
08:58me
08:58i just already felt like i knew him before i even sort of got on set and that really just
09:02changes
09:03everything uh my last question for you all is for the cast when you first read the screenplay what
09:09really stuck with you and made you want to be part of the film it just was gangster i listened
09:16to i
09:16was listening to the music and reading i was like this shit is hard it was just so exciting you
09:22know and
09:22i was like just kind of like let's go because it felt so like as a like as a female
09:27it just felt so
09:28empowering to just like beat up all these people in the in the you know and i had this this
09:33urge to
09:33just be like let's go and then you know meeting these guys too we just really kind of clicked and
09:38so
09:38that was what i loved about it it just was such a powerful sort of moment for me i mean
09:44i don't like
09:44i don't necessarily like good characters like they're good people like i don't i just i just find
09:51that fake you know and you when you self-describe as a like good person or like hero or like
09:56so i i
09:57like where i come from and i grew up in the equivalent of the hood in puerto rico and that's
10:02like you know your morals have to be completely different and the ways that you have to live your
10:06life to survive are always scoffed upon but it's what you gotta do to to do what you gotta do
10:11where you
10:11live so so i i i appreciated that all of our all of our uh you know the little family
10:18that we got
10:18going on it's like a bunch of outcasts that are you know seen from the outside as like maybe low
10:24life
10:24or people that don't have a future but within we have some of the strongest i mean it's it's driven
10:29by by family values you know it's driven by what we think is gonna it's gonna get our family forward
10:36you know the decisions that we all make and they're very noble within our own uh our own hearts
10:42so i really like that i really like that it supported that and then allowed this these characters
10:46to be whatever the hell they needed to be under the our own rules you know and it makes for
10:51a much
10:52more interesting viewing experience and imaging some good people you know i agree and ishmael nailed that
10:59with the like playing a bad guy just to play it is so hollow and nothing uh but when you
11:06involve the
11:07brother and and my set of morals you know as a kind of an evil bastard all my life but
11:15to me no that's
11:16just my family and protecting it in my way you know so that actually grounded it and i was like
11:22okay i
11:23now i get this guy i can do this so maybe uh i mean for me i you know i
11:29have a pretty small role
11:30in the movie but he is sort of the the catalyst for you know his death is sort of um
11:35the the the
11:36thing that sort of starts the domino effect and i i uh i i appeared throughout the movie as a
11:42ghost
11:42and i kind of thought um how can i how can i create a connection with joe cole that is
11:48deep enough
11:49where the movie matters and him avenging his brother's murder means something to the audience
11:54i thought that was interesting and then also you know uh a bit of what uh ishmael was saying like
11:59i i actually reminded me a bit of my childhood in many ways you know obviously different but you
12:05know we we had you know we had a very specific lifestyle and it could have gone one way for
12:11me
12:12and it didn't you know and it kind of reminded me a bit of that uh and i had some
12:17friends that
12:17obviously didn't go well uh for um because they ended up staying in jersey and sort of
12:22getting in with the bad crowd and so i related in that sense yeah and then i you know i
12:29was coming
12:29from a uh from a different background all together with being uh with being an athlete and um with my
12:37transition that's just slapping turn that shit up okay but uh but you know like uh you know in
12:43transition into you know what my second act was gonna be um you know giving this a opportunity for
12:49me this shit was really just like a a no-brainer and then i mean what really kicked it off
12:55i read
12:56through the uh uh through the script and hella shit but actually having a conversation with uh with drew
13:02is i think what really pushed the nigga forward to go ahead and you know i mean step into it
13:07and then
13:07giving me the opportunity to to to create the character and uh image that i sent it in that
13:14was that was something that really uh you know stuck for me and drew me into really uh making this
13:21shit work it's the most mismatched cast that i think i've ever been part of but but in the most
13:28in
13:29the most wonderful way like it's in the most wonderful way it's so true because drew's vision so
13:35different and we like the way that we came together was we were all so important though you know um
13:40the female empowering sort of kind of energy that i bring on and the brotherly love and the sort of
13:48you know he he's really naughty in this movie in many ways but like i think all together
13:55we have to complement each other we do and like that's just what it is and you just
13:59you just really put us all in the right room
14:02you
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