Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington and Cailee Spaeny all had fun with their eclectic characters in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
The three actors told Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor Trey Mangum about how they found their characters. Kunis, who plays a police officer named Geraldine Scott, said that her characterization started with a hat.
“We try to make her outfit or her costumes kind of be her personality a little bit. We tried on a lot of different versions of what an outfit could look like, ’cause you could be a cop, a sheriff, in all different facets. And when we found the hat that was like, that was it…she’s kind of like the straight man next to Daniel [Craig],” said Kunis.
“When we found the hat that was like, that was it. [Director Rian Johnson] was like, ‘You have to have the hat.’ And I was like, ‘Obviously.’ And so like, I have this amazing hat on,” she added. “She’s kind of like the straight man next to Daniel.”
“One of the things I love about the film is that they try to make Mila look like an everyday person, like just a regular cop,” Washington said. “She’s still drop-dead gorgeous. Stunning.”
Washington plays lawyer Vera Draven, Esq. She said her character is trying to learn what loyalty means.
“I really like that Vera was grappling with loyalty and what it means to be loyal and who you should be loyal to your family, to your community, to yourself,” she said. “And I love that she has this real internal drive toward truth. I really identify with some of her journey because of some of my journey with my family. I really admired her courage.”
Spaeny, who plays Simone Vivane, a disabled former concert cellist, also talked about how Johnson’s religious outlook was familiar to her.
“In the same way that Rian’s sort of interrogating his past with faith and growing up in the church, we had very similar upbringing,” said Spaeny. “So I was like, ‘Oh, wow. I’ve never, never done that before. I’ve never had the opportunity to look at that.’ And I think for audiences, everyone’s got an opinion or an experience around that. And I think it’s so bold of Rian to do but such a beautiful place to, to set it visually and emotionally.”
Watch the full interviews with the cast and Johnson above. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is now streaming on Netflix.