Summary

• Danielle Deadwyler plays the lead role in the action film Hand luggage alongside Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman.

• The film is about a mysterious traveler who forces a TSA officer to take a dangerous package on a flight.

• Deadwyler discusses the importance of grounded characters in action films to connect with audiences.

Danielle Deadwyler has had a huge year. She appeared in five films, including major critical and audience hits I saw the television light up And The piano lesson. The latter is actually the case Only earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her heartbreaking performance as Berniece Charles John David Washington And Samuel L Jackson. Her last release this year is Hand luggagean exciting Christmas action film starring the always impressive Taron Egerton.

In Jaume Collet Serra‘S (Black Adam) new action thriller, a mysterious traveler (played by a disturbingly dark Jason Bateman) blackmails TSA officer Ethan Kopek (Egerton) so he can get a threatening package through security and onto his flight. The film also stars Sofia Carson (Disney’s progeny) And Dean Norris (breaking Bad).

Deadwyler was kind enough to sit down with Collider’s Steve Weintraub to discuss everything Hand luggage. In this interview they discuss the difference in scale between these types of big popcorn action films and smaller dramas such as: The piano lesson, and how they ground the story and characters in reality despite the film’s outrageousness and extraordinary Christmas fun.

Pennies for Danielle Deadwyler’s thoughts

“They are poignant, beautiful little moments.”

STEVE WEINTRAUB: How are you?

DANIELLE DEADWYLER: What’s wrong, Steve? I’m doing well.

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your nomination for the Independent Spirit Award.

DEADWYLER: Oh, thank you.

I think you’re having a good day.

DEADWYLER: I’m ready!

So you probably can’t tell, but that behind me is not a matte painting. I’m in Brazil at a comic con called CCXP. It’s a huge, huge Comic-Con, so I’m going to ask everyone that today. Is there anything you collect or have collected?

DEADWYLER: Pennies.

Did you say pennies?

DEADWYLER: I said pennies.

Do you still have them?

DEADWYLER: I still have it. I especially like the older ones. When I find a penny, I take it and always look at the year. I know this is a tricky thing in a society full of germs, but I do it anyway. I still do it when I see it. There are poignant little beautiful moments where I see the penny and pick it up and say, “Oh, what year is this?” Sometimes I get things from the 1930s. This is crazy!

I also think it must become harder for you to find pennies because everyone is moving to a cashless society.

DEADWYLER: I know! Exactly. Exactly.

Danielle Deadwyler would star in this Michael Jackson classic

“I want to be one of those elegant dancers in those beautiful dresses.”

Here’s another curveball for you.

DEADWYLER: Uh-oh.

If you could be an extra on a television show or movie, anything even going back in time, what would you choose and why?

FATAL: The magician. I mean, I want to dance. “You have to be seen and green,” right? I want to be one of those elegant dancers in those beautiful dresses and stuff. I want to wear a beautiful dress, I want to lengthen it and all that stuff. This is the ticket.

I think this could happen to you in the future.

DEADWYLER: Oh, really?

Yes, I am confident. Everything’s fine with you. You could land on your feet.

“Carry-On” is physical, lighthearted and playful

“Christmas action films add depth and size, a size, to the film experience.”

True or false: You accepted it Hand luggage This makes it easier for you to arrive at airports with TSA agents.

DEADWYLER: (laughs) Wrong! I could do a TSA pre-screening. It’s still an experience. I took it over Hand luggage to have fun physically, but not moving through lines faster. That doesn’t necessarily happen.

Seriously, you’ve been playing a lot of serious roles lately. How much fun did you have making a popcorn movie?

DEADWYLER: It’s wonderful. That’s what I want. You have to make the experience of the body and the mind dynamic, and that was the point of getting into it, doing something much more physical and having the ability to combine that lightheartedness and playfulness with the rigor that Elena has. Right? It certainly was. Finding spaces to do things that bring different levels and different forms of energy out of youand working with different types of people.

This is a different kind of set, kind of like being out in space. Being on that set with fifty million background people in all sorts of uniforms working at the old New Orleans airport, that’s the crazy thing, you know… The intimacy of dramas is sometimes so closed, and so Christmas- Action films add a depth and a dimension, a grandeur, to the film experience.

Even the villain from “Carry-On” is very realistic

I really enjoyed this film and I think one of the reasons I liked it so much is Jason Bateman’s portrayal of the villain. It’s not an exaggeration. It’s not stupid. It is grounded. He plays it really well and it’s well written. Can you talk about the importance of having a good antagonist?

DEADWYLER: The nice thing about it is that you don’t have a villain, right? Nobody calls themselves a villain. They just do what they have to do to survive. Protagonists always have something challenging. The negative is not the only thing about a person, and the seemingly positive is not the only thing about a person. So we vacillate about what that means. The question of moral ethics: Who are you when the shit hits the fan, right?

Being anchored in any genre attracts you more than anything else. Unless it’s supposed to be camp or high-level or high-energy or high-genre or whatever. But that is the crucial nature of Hand luggagewhich makes it super grounded. Make it very accessible in a space that’s open to the public where you can actually imagine what you’re in because you’ve literally been there and pushed you over the bridge and over the building to test who you are as a person. So I think that’s what’s going to connect with people and the audience.

Jaume Collet-Serra’s ‘The Woman in the Yard’ is a ‘totally different ball game’

The horror thriller is planned for 2025.

Do you know what you’ll be filming next year? What can you say about Jaume and your next collaboration? The woman in the yard?

DEADWYLER: I’ll wait and see what’s going on. That’s on the plan. I’ll let you know when we get there. In any case, the Jaume collaboration is coming in the first quarter, for sure. And that’s a whole different game, but it goes deeper into Jaume’s beautiful spirit of darkness.

Hand luggage is now available to stream on Netflix.

Watch on Netflix