Trigger Warning star Anthony Michael Hall in Netflix action thriller

June 23, 2024

Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies, Netflix | Tagged: Anthony Michael Hall, exclusive, interview, Jessica Alba, Mouly Surya, trigger warning

Anthony Michael Hall (Reacher) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his Netflix action thriller Trigger Warning, directed by Mouly Surya and starring Jessica Alba.

Published Sun, 23 June 2024 13:17:09 -0500

by Tom Chang

Article overview

Anthony Michael Hall talks about joining Netflix’s “Trigger Warning.”

The film was directed by Mouly Surya and co-stars Jessica Alba.

Hall praises the film’s strong female-led team and crew.

He gives insights into the dynamic cast and the camaraderie on set.

Anthony Michael Hall has made an impressive name for himself in film and television, with a career spanning four decades since his beginnings as a child actor in the television series Jennifer’s JourneyHall has been a success since his breakthrough role as Rusty Griswold in “The Vacation as part of the National Lampoon series and appeared as part of the group of young actors in the 1980s known as the Brat Pack, with memorable roles in Sixteen candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985) and Strange science (1985) before becoming the youngest cast member in Saturday Night Live History. While his appearance on NBC’s weekly late-night variety series was short-lived, Hall made his presence known as a character actor with roles in USA’s The death zonePrime Video Bosch: Legacy, and the upcoming season of GripperThe actor spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest action thriller, Trigger warning for Netflix, director Mouli Surya (German)Co-Star Jessica Albaand more. The film is about an experienced special forces soldier (Alba) who takes over her father’s bar after his sudden death and soon clashes with a violent gang that is wreaking havoc in her hometown.

Trigger Warning star Anthony Michael Hall explains why he believes in Mouly Surya’s “feminist revenge thriller”

Bleeding Cool: What fascinated you about “Trigger Warning”?
The filmmaker. I had an opportunity through my great representatives Mitch Mason and Jason Weinberg at Jason’s company Untitled Management. They arranged a meeting with Mouly Surya. I saw her film “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts” (2017) and was impressed. It’s like her “Kill Bill.” It’s powerful and a beautiful and interesting film. It’s a feminist revenge thriller like (Trigger Warning) but with a different context and story. I was impressed and amazed by her work on it. Mouly couldn’t have been nicer. She was a kind and down-to-earth woman. She’s from Indonesia and has a family. When I meet with directors, I do the same with David Gordon Green. I want to get a feel for their vision, what they want to achieve and what their intentions and plans are. (Mouly) and I had a great conversation; she was kind enough to bring me on board.

How do you break down the set she directed?
It wasn’t just tourism and “film is a director’s medium,” as the saying goes, right? We were working for Netflix, but we had Thunder Road (Films), which is a solid company. Esther Hornstein and Erica Lee, who run the company, were on set and running the direction. It was all ladies, including Jessica Alba, who was a producer. She’s smart and fun to work with, and we also had Zoë White, her cinematographer. That’s a dynamic I always tune into when I come to set: I look at the director and the DP, especially to see their dynamic and how they work in tandem, approach the day, choose the shots, and approach the work from a technical perspective, which influences everyone else’s work and what we’re going to do. They worked beautifully together. Zoë shot The Handmaid’s Tale and other great indie work. It was a core group of great women who took the lead, oversaw the project, and were great to work with.

How do you break the dynamic with your colleagues and what did they bring to the set? What was it like when Jessica took the lead?
It’s great. I had already landed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when we met. I was in my hotel room and we all went in to do stunt rehearsals, fittings and stuff. As an actor, I love the adventure throughout the process when you work in this industry. I’m thinking about collaborations with the costume department or whoever. To answer your question about the actors, we met on a Zoom call and in Santa Fe. It’s funny, right? As we all experienced during Covid, it’s like ‘Three Girls and Three Boys’ scaled up, right? Instead of nine boxes, ten people could be on the call (laughs).
The idea of a Zoom call is a little strange, but we jumped into it and read the script together. It was great because then it came alive. You see people’s rhythms and what you bring to the table. One of the fun things for me, now that I’m 56, was the first experience where I had to work on set and two grown men played my sons. It was Jake Weary and Mark Webber, but they were great guys, and they’re my Cain and Abel as my character’s sons, Jesse and Elvis. Jake plays Elvis in different styles with different actors, which is very cool. I really like Mark, and he’s a filmmaker too. His wife (Teresa Palmer) is a great actress. He’s an interesting guy himself with his subtle work, a cool guy. We became friends and a good rapport. I didn’t have too many scenes with Jake, but I love him. I thought he jumped off the screen. We also have Gabriel Basso, a talented young actor, and Tone Bell, a good group who are fun to work with. You can’t work with all of these actors, but the ones I have worked with have been fantastic.