Last Survivors takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where Troy (Stephen Moyer) raised his now grown son, Jake (Drew Van Acker), in a perfect wooded utopia thousands of miles away from the decayed cities. When Troy is severely wounded, Jake is forced to travel to the outside world to find life-saving medicine. Ordered to kill any humans he encounters, Jake defies his father by engaging in a relationship with a mysterious woman, Henrietta (Alicia Silverstone). As Jake continues this forbidden affair, Troy will do anything to get rid of Henrietta and protect the perfect utopia he created.
Earlier this week, we had the opportunity to speak to the movie's three leads about their respective roles. While it was only a brief conversation, Silverstone, Moyer, and Van Acker all offered some insights into the motivations of their characters and the relationships that develop between them.
On that latter point, Moyer talked in detail about the work he and Van Acker put into forming a father/son bond for this post-apocalyptic thriller, explaining how lockdown proved beneficial. Silverstone, meanwhile, shares her thoughts on Leslie Grace's Batgirl costume and the possibility she could one day reprise the role of Barbara Gordon in the DCEU's expanding Multiverse.
In our review of the movie, we concluded with: "Both an edge of your seat thriller and a fascinating character study, Last Survivors could have done with a little more time to explore its loftier ideas, but proves itself an engaging experience with a superb performance from Alicia Silverstone."
Check out the full interview with Silverstone, Moyer, and Van Acker below:
It’s great to be speaking to you about this film. I got to watch over the weekend and it’s a really special movie. Something that stood out to me, though, is the relationship between Jake and Henrietta. It’s so compelling, but Alicia, I’m curious what your take is on what draws Jake to your character and why she’s so open to welcoming this seemingly dangerous guy into her life?
Alicia: Well, thank you for all those nice things about our movie. I can’t entirely speak for what Jake is drawn to except for the obvious that it’s the first woman he’s ever laid eyes on [Laughs] as a man person. I know that for Henrietta, he’s just so intriguing. His eyes are wide open with so much love and he is so present and so interested in nature and everything Henrietta has escaped from in her life to come and be with. She’s also isolating herself because she’s running away and needs to find herself again, and so here she is with this boy, man, who is so good at what she is trying to do. He understands nature, he understands the world in a different way. He talks so beautifully with the way he speaks about things. He’s so passionate and thoughtful and considerate. [He’s] like an alien. I think she’s just so taken with that. I don’t think she intended for them to have such chemistry with each other, but that’s what happens.
Stephen, we do see in the film that Troy clearly wants to protect his son, but after getting into this character’s head, do you view him as the villain necessarily here or is someone who’s maybe in as desperate need of help as both Jake and Henrietta are in different ways?
Stephen: I think they’re all in a sense of stasis. Troy, my character, is just doing what he thinks is right. He is coming from his point of view from a moral centre and world beliefs that have been shaken by this cataclysmic event that happened twenty years before. It’s paternal care. It’s paternal love. His worldview has been rocked by this event and so he’s just doing his best. He loves his son and doesn’t want his son to make the mistakes of the past that other people in their situation have done. It’s all from a place of love.
And Drew, a lot of people will know you from action roles in projects like Titans and Training Day, but you do get to put that aside and delve into Jake’s mind here, particularly the childlike wonder he sees the world with when he does leave his father’s side. What was it like for you to take a deep dive into this character for the film?
Drew: It was a dream. It was a dream because that’s what I got into this for. To scare yourself a little bit and to find that project that is going to push you and make you a little bit fearful. That excites me a little bit and with Jake, this was definitely something where there were bits of him I really responded to on a personal level and things I had gone through myself in my life, but then there were other things I couldn’t possibly relate to. I thought that was something that was interesting in and of itself, so to kind of be able to explore that extreme arrested development that Jake goes through was something that really frightened me a little bit, but also made me excited as an actor to dive into and play with. To find what was working and what wasn’t working and to ask, ‘Who is this person? Who is this man who is so obviously stunted and immature in ways, but very mature in others.’ It was really fascinating for me to explore that, but also the challenge I think I’m personally really looking for. It was exciting.
Of course, the relationships we’ve discussed in this film are key between the characters, but I’m curious how you worked on that behind the scenes before the cameras started rolling? Did you get a chance to get together and delve into what they’d look like or was it very much what was in the script and the direction you were getting?
Drew: It’s different for each of us. I know Stephen and I wanted to create, because it’s a father and son relationship, this comfortability. When you’ve only lived with one other person for twenty plus years, there is a comfortability, but also a spatial, physical awareness. You just know and have this intuition of where each other is at all times and we really wanted to develop that. He and I spent time together. Stephen, you can probably talk about [that]...
Stephen: We played some acting games. Ultimately, my character is in control of the situation, so we played simple things like me not ever looking at him or giving him any eye contact, therefore he’s seeking that out. Because then, when I do look at him, he feels a sense of achievement. Things like that; just very simple psychological games. As far as myself and Alicia were concerned, we didn’t get a chance to do that, but one of the weird sort of blessings of the situation we’ve been in terms of quarantine, I’ve arrived at locations and had to quarantine for four or five days in a hotel room five or six times now during lockdown. That is just a dream because as actors you don’t usually get that. Alicia’s a mom and I’m a dad, and I don’t usually get time to sit in a hotel room by myself and just prep! [Laughs] A lot of the prep, for me, has been done prior to meeting the guys and it was great to research, learn lines, and go deep into the history of what the character would have been and stuff like that. That's been incredibly helpful to me.
I know we’re limited on time, so very quickly, I wanted to ask: Alicia, with actors like Michael Keaton and Andrew Garfield reprising their superhero roles, do you think we could see you back as Batgirl and what are your thoughts on Leslie Grace taking on that role so long after you brought that character to the big screen for the first time?
Silverstone: I think she’s going to be wonderful. Her costume looks amazing and I’m happy for her. She must be very excited. Her costume looks way more comfortable than mine was [Laughs]. And a lot less vulnerable! Mine was like, ‘Bing!’ It’s just weird.
Moyer: Weird? Fantastic?
Silverstone: Fantastic? Okay, good. I mean, Joel Schumacher was at the helm of that, so… [Laughs] I don’t know. I’m open to whatever the world brings me, right? I’ll see what happens and flow.