From writer/directorSam Levinson, the wild and crazy vengeance thrillerAssassination Nationfollows high school senior Lily (Odessa Young) and her three best friends – Sarah (Suki Waterhouse), Bex (Hari Nef) and Em (Abra) – who live in a world of selfies and sexts, where all aspects of their private life are stored online. When their town of Salem ends up the victim of a massive data hack, half of the citizens’ lives immediately become public and Lily finds herself targeted after being falsely blamed for the hack, forcing the four young women to fight for their lives to survive a very blood-soaked night.
At the film’s Los Angeles press day, Collider got the opportunity to sit down with co-stars Suki Waterhouse and Hari Nef to talk about making a fun movie that also has something to say, how filmmaker Sam Levinson sold them on his vision forAssassination Nation, that they immediately connected with each other, their most challenging scenes, the crazy home invasion sequence, and those red vinyl coats. They also talked about their desire to have more of a say in the projects and roles that they do, and Waterhouse talked about her roles inCharlie Says(about Charles Manson, withMatt Smithin the lead role) andPokémon: Detective Pikachuwhile Nef talked about the scripts that she’s currently writing for herself.
Collider: I had so much fun with this! This is one of those wild, crazy movies that has something to say, but you can also just have a ton of fun with it.
HARI NEF: It seems like everybody is trying to make these films that have complex themes, but then disguise them in genre stories, so that people can access them easily. That way, the films are universal while still being complex, and I feel like this film is very that. We tackle these hardcore themes of privacy and righteousness and feminism, but it’s woven into a thriller. It’s disguised as this girls with guns movie.
SUKI WATERHOUSE: Yeah. After watching it, it made me understand how just being a girl in this world is brutal, especially having social media. Everything is just terrifying and brutal, but you swallow that down and pretend it’s not there. There’s this thing, in this new age, where it’s just a slight veil of terror that we all have, that permeates everything.
When you guys first read this script, what was your initial visceral reaction to it? Did you immediately get a sense of how the tone would be, or has this developed a lot since you read it?
WATERHOUSE: I didn’t know what the tone was gonna be like, but I’d watched Sam Levinson’s movie,Another Happy Day, and I thought it was excellent. I really enjoyed it. I usually like to go off of how I feel about the director. I go for a meeting and I’m like, “Do I like this person? Do I wanna hang out with him? Are they interesting? Am I gonna be a changed human by the end of this?” And I felt that way about Sam.
NEF: Yeah. The tone, to me, did resonate, right off the page. I could tell that this was written and was going to be directed by somebody who was just my kind of twisted. I’m a twisted girl. I can put on my Gucci and sit with my legs crossed in a hotel room, but I also like the nasty and the confrontational. I don’t always get to use all of that when I’m working, but I felt like this was a person in a script where I could lean into those proclivities. And then, when I met Sam, that sealed the deal.
WATERHOUSE: Yeah, we could talk to Sam. We were all so incredibly open, with each other and with Sam. Having a director like that, you want to do well for him. You feel safe with him and you can talk to him about anything because he’s non-judgmental. He’s had a crazy past of his own, and he’s been on an interesting journey.
NEF: Sam is one of the girls, at this point, but he knows his place, as well.
WATERHOUSE: I actually haven’t really come across someone like that before. It’s very rare.
NEF: Sam is a very, very special, and very, very strange man. And I love him, dearly.
WATERHOUSE: We adore him. It’s such a testament to him that he managed to create this atmosphere where we could just run free.
To do something like this, it seems like there would have to be a certain level of fearlessness among all of you, and then there has to be a certain amount of trust with your director, which I would imagine you don’t always have.
WATERHOUSE: No, not at all. When you’re making a movie, you know when you’re making something special. You just feel it. You don’t come across movies, all the time, where you really have the best times of your life like, in this weird little hotel in downtown New Orleans.
Did you guys have a moment, before you had all met, where you were worried that you might not get along with each other?
WATERHOUSE: I’d met Hari before, but Sam would talk about everybody else, before we met them, and I just trusted that he’d put together this great group. We also wanted to bond quickly. It was in our best interest, for our work. We were just really lucky that it happened, organically.
NEF: Yeah, I think Sam was casting for girls who were able to be very open and honest, and almost brash, if they needed to be. That’s what was demanded, in the script. We show how snappy, snarky, dirty, weird and nerdy teenage girls are. There was an openness that we all brought to the table, that allowed us to connect, but we also wanted to connect. Actresses love to connect, but now, we’re really connected.
WATERHOUSE: Yeah, exactly! One of the best thing about making films, for me, is that I love just getting to know someone. I want to know all of their shit, straight away. I don’t know what that’s about, but that’s literally my favorite thing.
NEF: We all met in the nail salon, and we were just talking about the boys in our lives. It was instant dirty sex talk.
WATERHOUSE: Yeah, we just get to know each other so quickly.
NEF: I have three life-long friends from this movie. Four, if you count Sam.
In this movie, you all get moments to be vulnerable and to be bad-asses. What most scared you about your character, or about the scenes you had to do?
WATERHOUSE: Every day was an absolute whirlwind, whether it was getting beat up, or Hari in a pool, trying to nail gun someone.
NEF: I had my first sex scene.
Which is a very different type of sex scene than we typically see in film.
NEF: Yeah, and it goes from one thing to another thing, which is indicative of life. There are two different movies going on, in the heads of these characters. For her, it’s her crush reciprocating and she’s having that magic moment, which feels so much more magical when you’re a teenager. And with him, he’s doing something that he wants to do, but it turns into this secret, dirty thing that he doesn’t want to share with people. When those conflicting narratives crash against each other, there’s pain and tears. You think this romance is something, and then it’s not. That happens, all the time.
WATERHOUSE: That happened to me, recently.
NEF: I can’t really relate to Bex’s exact experience in that, but I can relate to, “Hey, I thought we had a thing going here,” and he’s just like, “No.”
WATERHOUSE: Yeah.
NEF: He’s just drunk at a party, pursuing the girl that he likes, but he’s not ready to like her anywhere outside of his head, his heart, and that bedroom.
WATERHOUSE: Which is like stuff that we do to boys.
WATERHOUSE: It happens, all around.
NEF: That’s true. I was talking with my sis the other day, and I was just like, “Nobody wants to date me. Why am I single? This is so sad!” And she was like, “It’s not that nobody wants to date you. It’s that you don’t want to date anyone. You’re the player.” And I was like, “What?! Oh. Whoops!” I’m busy! I’m dating, but I’m busy!
WATERHOUSE: We have a lot of things going on!
NEF: I always try to be transparent, but work is coming first, right now.
Was there a scene or sequence that you found most difficult to shoot, either physically or emotionally?
WATERHOUSE: Yeah. Me and Abra had a scene where we were taken out of our house and slammed against the cars, but I do quite enjoy that stuff because it’s just so physical. It’s scary. There were moments when our producer, Kevin [Turen], would have a complete freak-out when that was happening, being like, “Are you guys okay?,” and not really knowing if we were. That stuff is really exerting. It’s all challenging.
NEF: When I was rigged up hanging by my neck, that was uncomfortable. You’re in a body harness, but you’re hanging there and it hurts. Also, the pool with the nail gun was a challenge. I jumped into that pool like 16 times, with sand in my pockets.
WATERHOUSE: Shooting pool scenes are hilarious. I always wonder how people act while they’re underwater. Most people get put on a stand in the pool.
NEF: They had the stunt double ready and they were like, “She can go in,” but I was like, “No, I’m here. I wanna do it again.” It was gross.
I love the home invasion sequence and how it was shot from outside of the house, which just seems so terrifying. What was that like to shoot, and how long did that take to shoot?
WATERHOUSE: I think we did that in one night. It was actually really quick.
NEF: We shot it in 10 hours.
WATERHOUSE: It’s amazing filmmaking, though.
NEF: I had it easy. Bex was just in bed texting, the whole time, while they were getting dragged and tied up downstairs.
WATERHOUSE: [The final result] was really stunning. It was very, very cool. We were just doing our stuff in the house. It was all of them outside that were doing the complex stuff.
The shiny red vinyl coats that you wear in this are so iconic, but did you ever get sick of them?
WATERHOUSE: I don’t feel like we wore them that much.
NEF: We only wore them in those last couple of scenes, for a few days, but they are special.
WATERHOUSE: I kind of hated them. They were really tight, and it was New Orleans in the summer.
NEF: They weren’t breathable, and they weren’t lined.
WATERHOUSE: No. It was literally just like wearing a piece of PVC.
NEF: But shout out to (costume designer) Rachel Dainer-Best for her vision. I think we look really cool in the film
NEF: As long as we look cool!
When you have an awesome project like this, with these great roles, how hard is it to then find the next thing, or to find something that gets you interested and excited?
WATERHOUSE: You don’t know that something like this is gonna happen. Even if you love the project and love the director, you can be like, “What happened to our movie?!” The response we’ve gotten so far has been beyond. It seems to be touching people.
NEF: Yeah. This was the project I waited for, afterTransparent. I waited and waited and waited, and then this came. Now, who knows how long I’m gonna have to wait. Well, there are some good things coming.
WATERHOUSE: I would really rather wait. I’d much rather not be working, all the time, then doing stuff that I’m not 100% sure about. Even when you think you’re sure, you just never know what the fuck’s gonna happen. I just did a Manson movie, which was really different.
Do you want to get more involved then, so that you may have more of a say in the roles that you do? Do you want to get more involved behind the scenes, in that way?
WATERHOUSE: I don’t know. When I think about being a director, I’ve directed a music video, but I don’t think I wanna do that. I just don’t think I have the organizational mind for it. I have been looking into producing stuff, and finding projects and roles.
NEF: I write. I’m teaching myself how to screenplay write. I have two scripts right now that I’m about to go in to pitch for. I would like to produce and, eventually, I would like to direct. I’d like to sound design, as well. I’m really into the way sound works in film, and I did a little bit of sound design for theater in college. I don’t feel comfortable with the idea that my only gateway into doing what I love to do is auditioning for other people to give me the greenlight and say that I’m allowed to do it, or that I’m allowed to play this role, or that I’m allowed to be in this movie. I would feel much more comfortable making those opportunities for myself. Writing for myself to act has elicited the most productive period of time that I’ve had writing, ever. It makes me want to write. As an actor, being in a position to make your own work and making opportunities for yourself to work is feels like the most ethical way to work ‘cause you’re not beholden to other people.
WATERHOUSE: It’s such an industry of waiting around, and waiting for someone to say that you’re good enough. It sucks!
NEF: It’s not healthy!
WATERHOUSE: I’ve managed to not suffer from that too much because I do other stuff, in between doing movies, so I don’t mind if I don’t work as much.
NEF: Suki Waterhouse is an international business.
WATERHOUSE: Nef is a great writer.
NEF: It’s all secrets, right now. I’m shooting a movie, in a couple months, I’m doing a play in New York, probably next year, and I’m going into the pitch room in October for this thing. I really hope it comes to fruition.
WATERHOUSE: The world needs Hari Nef material. She’s just unbelievable.
NEF: Well, I wrote a part for Suki in that, based on our relationship, but a nightmarish version of it. So, we might be getting a reunion.
Suki, what was it like to make a movie about Charles Manson, withCharlie Says?
WATERHOUSE: It really permeated around the group. We were in an incredible open barn and we were walking around barefoot, all the time. Matt Smith, who plays Charles Manson, was genuinely scary to be around. I didn’t wanna look at him. We had an amazing writer, and we had people on set who knew the girls, so it was really very in-depth and cool to be around.
What can people expect then from the Pokémon movie,Detective Pikachu?
WATERHOUSE: It’s really, really cool. From what I’ve seen of it, it’s great. I was just on set with a lot of people with green screens and massive sets, watching Bill Nye and running around with like a little Pikachu that’s meant to be Ryan Reynolds. I think it will be absolutely incredible.
NEF: Suki plays one of my favorite Pokémon, Ditto.
WATERHOUSE: Yeah, I got to design my look for that, too. I really wanted to be really involved in that.
NEF: Ditto is the true original fluid icon.
WATERHOUSE: Yes, exactly! I even had a pink hairstyle.
That’s awesome! I’m excited to see what you have in store with that.
