The following interview contains spoilers for NO EXIT,
Proceed with caution!
The Damien Power-directed action-thriller No Exit, which is based on Taylor Adams' acclaimed novel of the same name, is now streaming exclusively on Hulu, and we were granted an opportunity to sit down with actors Danny Ramirez (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Top Gun: Maverick) and David Rysdahl (Nine Days; That's Not Us) to talk about their extremely pivotal roles.
Considering it was exceedingly difficult to discuss their parts without getting into spoilers, we ended up diving right into the biggest twists and turns, so make sure you've seen the film before you read any further.
In addition to discussing their roles at length, they also tell us more about filming in New Zealand during the pandemic, how they built chemistry with their castmates, and how they were able to get into the proper headspace to accurately portray their respective characters.
The main cast features Havana Rose Liu (The Sky is Everywhere; Mayday) as Darby Thorne, Danny Ramirez (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Top Gun: Maverick) as Ash, David Rysdahl (Nine Days; That's Not Us) as Lars, Dennis Haysbert (24; Heat) as Ed, Dale Dickey (Hell or High Water; Iron Man 3) as Sandi, and newcomer Mila Harris (King Saud; The Hill) as Jay.
Check out the full spoiler-filled video interview below, and keep scrolling for the full transcript!
ROHAN: It is hard to talk about your roles without really getting into spoilers - can you tell me more about how you approached these two unique characters, who have these very specific arcs?
DAVID: I actually - I don't know if Danny did this - but I approached mine as the hero. I feel like Lars, in his head, was the hero of the of the movie and I feel like it's boring to watch bad guys be bad and, *evil laugh* - I think it's more interesting if people do bad things and think that they’re doing the right thing, I think that feels more truthful to our world and so, I approach it that way and then, let the circumstances of what happened, let the audience judge it instead of myself as an actor, so I guess I approached it as the hero.
DANNY: Yeah, I didn’t necessarily approach it as the hero, but I think that's what makes Lars, there's so much heartbreak throughout when a little bit of the reality of the situation comes to light, but I tried to think of Darby's journey - outside of creating my own character of Ash - I was trying to, without giving any spoilers, trying to see based on Darby’s journey, kind of what are some of the things that would create the most friction in some capacity and make it the most volatile space in the story, but that was kind of my way into playing that because I think that playing the villain that twists his mustache, I think that's been done really well before and also just been overdone as well. So, I think there's something about adding that nuance that I think every character and every actor brought to the table.
ROHAN: Danny, your character is the most twisted of the group, basically a psychopath on some level - did you draw inspiration from other classic performances to kind of shape Ash? Or did you want to craft your own sort of monster?
DANNY: There's quite a bit of them, but I guess I don't necessarily want to stamp the inspiration that it’s been drawn from, but I think, most importantly, what makes him in your usage of the verbiage of psychotic, which is something that I tried to do. I wanted the desperation levels to just crank up unbelievably in what he was processing and how he was going about it, and, at the end of the day, what his goal was in what they were doing and just as that heat gets cranked up, your back is against the wall and what do you then do at that situation? Ash, as a character, happens to possess toxic traits that parlay into space in a very unsettling and very brash way.
ROHAN: David, there’s a line late in the movie that seemingly suggests Lars didn't really understand what they were ultimately doing to these kids - what was your take on Lars' mindset throughout the film and how he had rationalized his actions?
DAVID: Yeah, so much of it is his backstory, that was the biggest challenge for me to come into the script of how to make all of my actions make sense and I think, understanding who this Uncle Kenny is, which my character knows. Spoilers, but there's this sense of I wanted it to be, for my character, I think a lot of it comes from trauma, the idea that I've come from a place where I've been the kid locked in a van. You come to a place that you feel that what you're doing is all you know.
So, I think I remember reading the script and I was like, “Do I really believe that?,” and for me, and Damien, our director, is telling me, “Yes, you do believe that.” That was a huge moment in and I'm like, “Alright, if I believe that, then the character has to be this kind of way.” So, then I had to create that backstory that justified that line and, for me, a lot of it was that's where a lot of the physicality started coming from, because I think the trauma’s in my body, the way I talk, the way I disguise myself is safety mechanisms in a way and I think with that line actually, they point out, it was a big moment in, for me, into the character.
ROHAN: You guys had the unique opportunity to film in New Zealand during the pandemic. What proved to be the most challenging aspect of the shoot, or did it end up being a relatively straightforward production?
DANNY: I actually think New Zealand was a big help. We were so blessed to be able to shoot a movie there during the pandemic, that there was no Coronavirus cases or maybe one during the time we were there. It was something that the whole world had been swarmed with, how they were handling COVID, so, then to kind of be released from that it was a different ball that we didn't have to juggle while having to perform. I think that's one of the biggest blessings of being in New Zealand at that time and then, within that, the art department helped so much with the difference of the setting, which it was in New Zealand that we were shooting outdoors, but it was inside a studio, and the whole thing was a set. So, even that, just opened up like an artistic playground to just really send it.
DAVID: It allowed us to leave the characters there, because we could leave and we were free in this New Zealand kind of paradise of no COVID and everyone's so friendly in New Zealand and then, you come back and you're stuck in this snow globe. I think that is what helped us too is you could go that hard because you weren't bringing it home with you. You could leave that snow globe and you're back in fall in New Zealand. That helped us go that hard in a way.
ROHAN: Since all of the characters are pretty distrustful of one another at the start, did you, as a cast, attempt to develop chemistry before shooting, or did you want to go in pretty fresh so you can feel each other out during production?
DANNY: David was making the reservations for every place we ate, so we reached out via FaceTime while we were in quarantine and got to know each other that way and then by the time we were out, we didn't know anybody in New Zealand. So, we were going out to eat and then going out on excursions to check out different places in New Zealand. I think the chemistry is actually what made so much of the difficult stuff easier, because you knew that if you're going to throw down, you'd rather it be with friends and people you trust than to try to put yourself out there in the space that you feel, it wouldn't be receptive. Thank God it wasn't that, but I think we definitely developed some chemistry that made us all feel held in our most intense moments.
DAVID: Yeah, as actors, we're weird, we like to go to those really extreme places, so there was a lot of joy in going there especially because we trusted each other and I knew that Danny would have my back and I would have his and all the cast and, for me, that's important. If you're going to do something that dark, you need to have a relationship to hold each other's space to go that far.
20th Century Studio’s suspense/thriller “No Exit” is the story of Darby Thorne, a young woman en route to a family emergency who is stranded by a blizzard and forced to find shelter at a highway rest area with a group of strangers. When she stumbles across an abducted girl in a van in the parking lot, it sets her on a terrifying life-or-death struggle to discover who among them is the kidnapper
No Exit is now streaming, exclusively on Hulu!