Unraveling the Mystery: Mila Kunis and Cailee Spaeny Reflect on Craft, Chemistry, and Chaos in ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ [VIDEO INTERVIEW]
“I wanted to be the killer, or I wanted to be killed…duh!” said Mila Kunis as she recalled the moment writer-director Rian Johnson first reached out to her about joining Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the third installment in Johnson’s hit whodunnit franchise. Kunis, best known for her Golden Globe–nominated work in Black Swan and her long-running comedic career from That ’70s Show to Bad Moms, responded immediately with the obvious question: “Which one am I?” Johnson’s only reply? “You should read the script.”
For Cailee Spaeny, fresh off her Venice-winning performance as Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, the journey looked a little different. “I’ve just been a fan of Rian for so long and I knew the script was going to be brilliant, which it was. I was just going to be so sad if it didn’t work out, but it did,” she said with relief. “And it was the best experience of my life,” she added, echoing the praise many ensembles have voiced about working under Johnson’s direction.
On set, the tone was anything but somber, even as this third outing sends Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) into one of Johnson’s darkest, twistiest mysteries yet. Kunis admitted she couldn’t help herself. “I laughed a lot but that’s normal for me,” she said. One source of unexpected chaos? Glenn Close’s dog, Pip. Close, a three-time Oscar nominee with a filmography spanning Dangerous Liaisons, Fatal Attraction, and The Wife, brought her companion to set, where he sometimes stole the scene, literally.
“There’s a scene where Glenn Close’s character has a lot of feelings, and Pip does not like it when Glenn has big feelings,” Kunis recalled. “So, there were times when Pip would bark, and you’d be in the middle of really intense scene, and you’d hear ‘ruff.” She went on to describe Johnson, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for the first Knives Out, as even-keeled, joyful, and profoundly present throughout filming.
Spaeny jumped in to say she was part of the on-set giggles. “We were so unprofessional trying to get some of these lines out,” she admitted. “He had a lot of grace,” she said of Johnson, who has now directed all three films in the franchise for Netflix, with Wake Up Dead Man continuing his tradition of assembling a star-studded ensemble.
Kunis also revealed the cast often turned downtime into impromptu games. “You’d all be in the church and if you make eye contact with (Josh) O’Connor he would just randomly start playing rock paper scissors.” O’Connor, best known for his Emmy-winning work on The Crown and his standout performance in The History of Sound, apparently became the unofficial morale officer of the ensemble.
As for whether Kunis will return to the murder-mystery genre, she’s already lobbying. “All of his murder mysteries, I’m in! Sign me up!” she said, making it clear she’s ready for more Johnson mayhem. Spaeny, meanwhile, admitted she couldn’t help trying to solve the central mystery while shooting. “Even if you guess the killer there’s no way you’re going to guess how it happens.” Kunis echoed that sentiment by saying, “Because it’s not a simple as a killer.”
Wake Up Dead Man will open in select theaters on November 26 before streaming on Netflix beginning December 12.
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