On the mysterious planet of Ash, Riya (Eiza González) awakens to find her crew slaughtered. When a man named Brion (Aaron Paul) arrives to rescue her, an ordeal of psychological and physical terror ensues while Riya and Brion must decide if they can trust one another to survive.
That's the premise of the aptly titled Ash, a new sci-fi horror movie directed and composed by Flying Lotus. The movie debuted to glowing reviews - 86% on Rotten Tomatoes - after premiering at SXSW last week and is perhaps best described as part-Alien, part-The Thing.
We recently got to sit down with lead stars Eiza González (Ambulance, 3 Body Problem) and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, Westworld) and learned more about what drew them to this movie and how they approached their respective characters.
They also reflect on the unique challenges presented by working with Ash's gnarly prosthetics and share insights into the experience of getting to don some very cool spacesuits while shooting this movie (including the fact Aaron managed to take his home when shooting wrapped).
You can watch the full interview with Aaron and Eiza on Ash in the player below.
Ash has some great nods to movies like Alien and The Thing but what excited you both about coming in and putting your own stamp on the sci-fi horror genre alongside Flying Lotus?
Aaron: Eiza. Eiza did. I mean, honestly, I‘ve been dear friends with her for so long and we were presented with this opportunity at the same time. I hit her up instantly and she had not read it yet. We started diving into it at the same and we both really loved the story. I knew that she would absolutely crush this role. So, we sat down with Flying Lotus, our director, and we instantly connected with him. We dove in and to be able to just watch her tackle and watch her lead a set, as a friend and a fan, was a dream come true. It really was. She just came out guns blazing. She put her heart and soul into this thing as I knew she would.
Eiza: Thank you so much for that, I love you. It was the same thing. I’d never had an opportunity to play a role like this. I’d never done something like this. I was coming off The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, so I’d come from a very different genre at the time and right before that wrapped, I’d done 3 Body Problem. I’d dove into sci-fi but in a different style and it awakened my love for it. There was a point of view…listen, it’s very rare you watch a movie that’s 100% completely original, especially when you’re dealing with sci-fi. It’s all out of the brain of people who think about what could be but I thought Steven’s brain was incredible and I thought, ‘Wow,’ especially having seen Cuzo before that. The visuals, the point of view, and the way he’s going to direct this…a movie could go any way, but I knew it would have an artistic point of view. I always want to be part of stuff like that, so that mixed with an incredible cast and crew made this a no-brainer for me.
Eiza, when you’re playing someone who is as in the dark about what’s happening as is an entry point for the audience; does that change how you approach a character like this?
Eiza: You know, it’s funny because I never really had the opportunity to do that until 3 Body Problem. When you realise Auggie is similar to Raya, you realise everyone is a slow burn, but I had to shoulder the responsibility of throwing the audience into a storyline that’s really out there from scratch. That’s really challenging and I don’t think people talk about that enough. It’s not easy and sometimes, you get a specific type of narrative that helps an actor a lot even if it plays against you.
You really have to balance that and I’d never done it besides 3 Body Problem and I’m a big video game girl. I love video games and that’s how every video game starts. It’s very similar and Ash has a similar beginning to The Room, the Silent Hill game, where you wake up in this apartment. When I read the first scene, it immediately brought me back to Silent Hill and all these video games that I loved. I always yearned for something like this so I was immediately drawn to it and, again, once Steven opened up his vision board and was showing us what he was thinking and telling us, ‘The character is gonna go through these feelings,’ he’d have a timeline of the fever spikes and why things were being caused and even explained how the music and lighting would be tied to it. You’re drunk on creative juices and you’re in it. I really enjoyed it.
Aaron, you were part of a very different but equally as haunting sci-fi story in one of the best Black Mirror episodes, Beyond the Sea, but to come back to this genre as this character, what drew you to what Brion brings to this story?
Aaron: I just love that this guy is trying to figure it out along with the audience. We were able to shoot - thank God, because I think it really helped us - the film from pretty much the front to the back. That’s very rare when shooting a film or series but all of the location was on one set with the space station and the exterior was the planet. We were just trying to figure it out and, as I was reading it, I had no idea. ‘Could I trust him, could I not? Could I trust her? Should I trust her, should I not? Is she hiding something?’ It was just exciting and reading it with her in mind to play this powerhouse of a character was really exciting for me.
There are some wild prosthetics and special effects in this movie at points so I’m curious what you remember most fondly about those days on set or perhaps how challenging they were to work with because things get pretty nuts…
Aaron: [Laughs] Yeah, we’ve been talking about it all day today but these movies which we just absolutely love in the genre, I believe they deserve a lot more praise. They get a lot of praise but there’s just so much work that goes into it. It’s exhausting. You feel like you just got out of a boxing match.
Eiza: It really does.
Aaron: I don’t mean to sound dramatic but you’re sweating, you have blood everywhere, you’re catching your breath, and it’s fun. Look, it’s a blessing that we get to make movies, but at times, it’s very exhausting.
Eiza: Yeah, it’s challenging. I always talk to people about it, but you have to realise that your body is not realising that you’re acting or performing. Your body is going through the physical trauma that you’re putting it through.
Aaron: As is your mind.
Eiza: Yeah, you’re dumping all this adrenaline into your body, so imagine if you’re being killed or chased or possessed or something is bleeding into you…it was a lot! Then there were the practicalities. That really makes things easier but also sometimes harder. There were parts when we were doing some of the prosthetics that I don’t want to spoil, I had trouble connecting to it because I’d been in a make-believe world so much in my head, especially with the machine. What that does to me constantly…nothing is happening to me. I have to physically get my body to go through the stress of what I think it would be like with every iteration of when I’m under the machine. You’re playing complete make-believe here. There’s no source of some kind, it’s just you and your imagination and the prosthetics become a vessel but it is imagination.
That’s a scary part of being an actor because you’re like, ‘Is my imagination in the right place or not? Is it aligned to the vision of the director or other actor?’ When you’re going off against a prop or real conversation, it’s so much easier to be connected but when you’re creating thoughts in your head…I felt the same way on 3 Body Problem, that was a very challenging, scary job. I went back to back on two scary jobs because you’re relying on your own imagination and hope people will see it as it’s meant to be, especially as people use their own imagination when they’re reading the books. You’re living up to this expectation and it’s scary. We don’t talk enough about those little details that come into actor and become really challenging for a writer, director, and actor. It’s a very interesting process.
On the other hand, when you get to put on those space suits - the classic sci-fi - design, it must be so much fun and the kind of thing you dream of as actors?
Aaron: Oh yeah, we were giddy little schoolkids. It was a process to put on but you could move pretty fluidly. And I had a great lighting element to it as well so we could walk from the space station out on to the planet, Ash, and we’re just running around filming each other and doing photoshoots. It’s so great. And so much fun. I stole my suit, she’s about to get hers.
Eiza: You did? I don’t have mine!
Aaron: I did. You’re about to get yours.
Eiza: Can you imagine how cool it would be to have those suits? He’s like, ‘I have mine.’ I’m like, ‘Steven also said he has one, and he’s Flying Lotus, the director,’ and then Aaron says, ‘I have mine too.’ Hold up!
Aaron: [Laughs] They have yours! They just need a good address. You’ve been all over the place.
Eiza: That’s right. Girl has been all over the place.
Ash will be released exclusively in theaters on March 21.