When The Running Man hits the market, this movie is ready to blast onto every screen with the effect of a grenade, and Jayme Lawson and Daniel Ezra are already preparing to absorb the shock wave. The two stars spoke with Where Is The Buzz‘s very own Kemberlie Spivey, peeling away layers to expose the adrenaline-packed, Stephen King-infused action fest, courtesy of the masterful direction of Edgar Wright. The information they uncovered is a perfect mixture of action-packed adventure, psychological warfare, and a set of tactics that can only be developed by actors familiarized with decimating gunfire, so to speak.
‘Welcome to the chaos.’
Jayme Lawson: The Heart of the Film and the Quiet Strength Behind It
The person who took over the part of Sheila, wife to Glen Powell’s judge, Ben Richards, and mother to a fighting-for-its-life daughter, was a perfect mixture of both warmth and ice, just like the character, and this is represented by the name Jayme Lawson.
On ‘Balancing Vulnerability and Strength’
When Kemberlie asked how Lawson handled Sheila’s emotional tightrope, the actress didn’t hesitate to go straight to the heart of the character.
“It is this tension between what she is faced with on the outside as opposed to what is happening when she comes through this door,” Lawson stated. “When I come through this door, this is all about this unit. Sure, we have a sick baby, but at the end of the day, it is us that are trying to save our child.”
She did not portray Sheila as a toughened survivor or a fragile mom. A woman who chooses, even as the world around is falling apart, to not make her husband an enemy – that is how Sheila’s strength makes an even stronger impression.
“That is a big testament to what Edgar and Michael wrote,” Lawson stated. “She is just doing the best she can.”
HER OWN SURVIVAL TECHNIQUES IN THE RUNNING MAN
Jayme Lawson didn’t hesitate.
“Lay low. Like, as low as possible,” she laughed. “But the game is rigged, so you would need time to strategize and plan. Like having different runners drop off mail in videos while you stay in one location.”
Does The Running Man allow team play? Absolutely not. Sheila, however, could have found a way.
DANIEL EZRA FROM TV STAR TO FUTURISTIC REBEL ON THE BIG SCREEN
Daniel Ezra, entering a passionate, young revolutionary type, exudes enthusiasm over the mayhem director Edgar Wright unleashed in this movie.
Why the Running Man?
“Edgar Wright,” Ezra replied immediately. “It’s a director that lots of actors want to work with, you know?” The script, he went on, “was fantastic.” “I loved the book,” Ezra added. “And to play this young, wannabe revolutionary, as a character, was really energizing, you know?”
Ezra has confessed that the scale of action scenes has shocked him in a very positive way: “It really has, yes, just from watching action scenes, the
“It is just about constant action,” he says. “I had never seen this scale before, so this was a big change for me. And to be honest, I didn’t know how much fun it’d be to watch things burning and going ‘kaboom.’”
You may remove the man from All-American, but you’ll never remove the pyromaniac from the man.
Daniel’s Strategies
Ezra didn’t even bother to feign that he was going to be a hero.
“I’d hide,” he stated matter-of-factly. “I’d just find a super safe and secure place and wait it out.”
“You know, my family doesn’t have any money, so we could really use one of those cars,”
“I wouldn’t go on a show like this. I know myself.”
Same.
“But like Ben Richards, when your world is falling apart, ‘who knows what you do under those circumstances?”’
THE RUNNING MAN: A BLOODSPORT FOR THE MASSES AND A FIGHT FOR FAMILY
Based on Stephen King’s novel and a rewrite by writer/director Edgar Wright, The Running Man plunges viewers into a future world where the number one viewed television program is a deadly 30-day manhunt. Contestants are required to survive 30 days as assassins hunt them out via a live television program. The longer they last, the greater their payoff reward will be. It’s simple, violent, and deranged.
Glen Powell takes the leadership role as Ben Richards, a desperate father pushed to the brink to save his child. Josh Brolin makes an appearance as Dan Killian, the charming yet cold-blooded television show producer, manipulating the game as a puppet master handling strings of human lives.
The all-star cast is a dream lineup that could have come straight out of a Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, Katy O Brian, Colman Domingo, and Josh Brolin.
Explosions, assassins, rebellion, family sacrifice. This is dystopia with style.
Edgar Wright’s Vision: A Nerve-Shattering, Fire-Igniting Spectacle
Written by Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright, produced by Simon Kinberg, Nira Park, & Edgar Wright, is an emotionally, brutally, & timely retelling of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger hit, The Running Man. The list of executive producers includes George Linder, James Biddle, Rachael Prior, Audrey Chon, Pete Chiappetta, Anthony Tittanegro, and Andrew Lary.
Yes, The Running Man is a thriller, a blockbuster. It is, however, a tale of how you will react when you are pushed to the end, when the world conspires against you to let you fall, and when your family alone is holding you to keep fighting.
