Film

Writer/director Zach Cregger didn’t know where his story Weapons was leading him until halfway through writing.

Cregger told Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor Trey Mangum that even though he had the idea for children to mysteriously run away from their homes, as we’ve seen in the trailers, he had no idea where they were going or who was luring them out of their neighborhood.

When did the ending of ‘Weapons’ come to Zach Cregger?

“ That came to me about halfway through. I kind of had the idea of where it was all going,” he said. “But I mean, I’m writing half this movie and I have no idea where the kids went. So that was scary for me. As a writer, you thought, ‘Am I wasting my time or not?’”

Zach Cregger on the anthology-like format of ‘Weapons’

The story eventually shaped into an anthology-like storytelling experience, with all the loose ends wrapping up in the final chapter. He said that “it just kind of felt like what the story wanted to be.”

“It wanted to kind of cover the whole gamut of this town, like kind of every aspect of this town, I wanted to kind of hear from. And I knew I couldn’t do that with one or two characters,” he said. “I needed to do it with more. It felt like it posed an interesting challenge just as a writer to try and see if I could pull it off, you know, do like these different segments and have them all be cohesive and separate at the same time.”

Weapons follows a community as they try to figure out why all but one of a classroom full of children mysteriously disappeared from their homes in the middle of the night. The film also stars Alden Ehrenreich, Josh Brolin, Austin Abrams and Cary Christopher, with Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan.

Weapons is now in theaters. Watch the interviews below:

Alden Ehrenreich and Josh Brolin can’t believe the kind of story writer-director Zach Cregger came up with for Weapons.

The two stars of the film sat down with Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor Trey Mangum to discuss the film. Ehrenreich said that he was “amazed” when he first read the script.

“ I thought it was one of the best scripts I’ve ever read, and I thought Zach did such an amazing job of creating so much story in each one of these people’s stories,” he said. “You know, there’s six different stories or seven different stories going on, and in each one, there’s more drama and action and things happening than there is sometimes in a full feature film. Every single piece of it is just so heightened and impactful and also feels so personal and interesting. So I always just thought it was such a beautifully crafted piece of writing.”

Alden Ehrenreich on Paul in ‘Weapons’

Ehrenreich, who plays Paul in the film, said that his character struggles with feeling guilt around his behavior as the neighborhood’s children mysteriously run away.

“I think he’s so wrapped up in his own [stuff], and I think that’s true of everybody in some ways, that every character [is] wrapped up obsessively in our own internal drama about whatever’s happening to go on with us on this particular day that we’re missing being able to see what’s actually happening in front of us or going on around us. And I think all of these characters are struggling with that. And Paul in particular is kind of white-knuckling it.”

Josh Brolin on how Archer changes in ‘Weapons’

Brolin’s character, Archer, desperately wants to find out what happened to the kids, including his son. Archer’s characterization changes over the course of the film because of that, Brolin said.

 ”I just love his trajectory of like, coming across as kind of a staunch, super masculine guy who’s emotionally unavailable, and it sets him up as a kind of…the most typical man. And then he loses the thing that’s most valuable to him, yet you wouldn’t necessarily know it because his connection with his son is not necessarily there; it starts to break him down,” he said. “The longer he goes without being able to control the return of his son, the more he breaks, the more obsessed he becomes. And by the time you get toward the end, he’s kind of redeemed himself as a human being. Not as a man, but as a human being.”

He also praised Cregger for knowing how to balance the horror with humor.

“He understands that there’s breath and pause in humor,” said Brolin. “And you can be way more effective when you redirect somebody with humor and then surprise them. And he does that very, very well. He just uses the absurdity of the human condition and tongue-in-cheek humor to do that.”

Weapons follows a community as they try to figure out why all but one of a classroom full of children mysteriously disappeared from their homes in the middle of the night. The film also stars Alden Ehrenreich, Josh Brolin, Austin Abrams and Cary Christopher, with Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan.

Check out the full interviews, which include Cregger, below.

Weapons is now playing in theaters.

It’s been a little over two decades since Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan starred together in 2003’s Freaky Friday.

Now the body-swapping duo has returned in the long-awaited sequel Freakier Friday.

Freakier Friday not only follows up with the characters of Anna and Tess Coleman but also introduces a story that explores themes of healing, family and perspective.

Lindsay Lohan is back on the big screen

“I really enjoyed playing Anna originally, so to be able to bring her back and show everyone on screen who she is today was an exciting thing for me to do. It’s not every day as an actor that you get to kind of bring a character back to life, especially one that is so loved,” Lohan told Blavity’s Shadow and Act of her return to the big screen.

Lohan, a mother now, incorporates elements of her personal life into her character as viewers meet Anna again, all grown up, as she manages her career as a music executive, a budding romance and motherhood to her daughter, Harper, played by Julia Butters.

Butters, who wasn’t yet born when the original film premiered, said walking into a role with such a well-known cast “was crazy.”

“I was so excited to join because I wanted to get to know Lindsay and Jamie, meet Sophia. … I couldn’t wait to build that sister relationship,” she said.

Butters admitted, “There was definitely pressure,” but she put it on herself.

“Finding out how much I can trust myself and let go of my instincts and just let the character take over, that was definitely very inspiring for me,” she continued with a laugh. “I mean, it’s just Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis.”

Jamie Lee Curtis connects across time

Curtis reprises her role as Tess, the overprotective therapist mother who now supports Anna in her motherhood journey. Curtis’ comedic timing and ability to connect with her on-camera family come through as she navigates generational differences in the story.

The Oscar winner stated that connecting with others is the point and discussed the impact of telling stories that resonate with audiences of all ages and being in the moment together.

“I don’t know how there could be any other point,” she said, adding, “That’s the whole point of art.”

Curtis’ on- and off-screen presence is also reflected in her rapport with costar Sophia Hammons. Hammons plays Lily Reyes, the fashionable daughter of Anna’s boyfriend-turned-fiancé Eric, and Tess’ body swap.

Curtis reacted with surprise when Hammons recalled having “Freaky Friday” days in school, despite also not being born when the original film was released.

In the film, Hammons’ character has trouble connecting with the Coleman women from the start. Her London upbringing contrasts with Harper’s California surfer girl personality, and she works to prevent her father and Anna from marrying.

Move over, Jake; there’s a new guy in town

Actor Manny Jacinto plays restaurateur Eric Reyes, who meets Anna after a disagreement between their daughters turns into a moment of connection for the single father.

“I had to pinch myself a little bit,” Jacinto said of joining the cast of the sequel.

Jacinto shows range in the film, from dance sequences during wedding preparations to navigating the reappearance of Anna’s teenage crush, Jake, played by Chad Michael Murray.

Murray, who returned with his character’s ongoing fascination with Tess and signature blonde hair, said the cast dynamic felt the same as it did decades earlier.

“It feels like we never left,” he said of joining Curtis and Lohan onscreen again. “It picked up where we left off, you know what I mean? And more and more because I think everybody’s just a little bit more comfortable in their skin.” He continued, “You’ve lived a lot more life, which we had tons of stories to talk about, which was great.”

Nostalgia with a heart

The new film follows the same spell-induced plot as the original; this time, the Chinese fortune cookie is a hex placed on the characters by Saturday Night Live alum Vanessa Bayer.

Her role as Madame Jen brings together the events that unfold between the characters.

“We improvised a lot of stuff,” she said, mentioning, “Sort of every scene, we would have time to play around.”

She continued, “It was really fun because they were all so funny, so I was going into the scenes being like, ‘What if I can make them laugh; I’m gonna try and make them break.’”

Freakier Friday includes a Pink Slip performance and focuses on the idea of different generations seeing the world from each other’s perspectives, even if through a triple-body swap.