Director gambling on actors’ relatability to hit the jackpot
Its premise sounds like a cross between The Running Man and The Purge, but director Paul Feig says the inspiration for his latest film Jackpot! came from something other than dystopian sci-fi.
“Jackie Chan movies,” the 61-year-old Michigan helmer of hits like The Heat, Spy and A Simple Favour says, speaking to Stuff To Watch last week via Zoom.
“I love Jackie Chan movies and I’ve always been jealous of those because he just finds so many ways to have so much funny comedy action.
“[In films like Drunken Master, Police Story and The Tuxedo,] Jackie is always in over his head and his fighting – and all his action – is all about being in a panic and using anything around him to try and get out of it – and that’s where the comedy comes in.
“It becomes like a big kind of Warner Bros cartoon – in a way – but based in reality and based in true danger, because he’s about to get killed – constantly. The tone of those movies, to me, is so much fun that I’ve always wanted to do one of those and, so, when I read this script, I was like, ‘here’s my chance to do it’.”
Jackpot! (which begins streaming on Prime Video from this Thursday) is the story of Katie Kim (Awkwafina). A former child star, best known for a Spaghetti Squares commercial, she gave up a bright screen future to look after her sick mother in Michigan.
But now that her Ma has finally died, she’s returned to Los Angeles to try to reignite her career. California, though, has changed; the state’s obsessed with its new lottery. Winners can pocket billions. However, the rules state that anyone who kills them before the first sundown after the draw can claim the prize for themselves.
Thanks to a combination of poor Airbnb selection, borrowed clothing and fate, Katie finds herself in possession of a winning ticket and fighting for her life.
Help comes from an unlikely source, ramshackle bodyguard-for-hire Noel Cassidy (John Cena).
So how did Feig turn 30-something comedian and rapper Awkwafina (born Nora Lum) into a modern-day Chan?
“I didn’t need to,” he smiles. “The great thing about this is Katie does not have to be a good fighter – she should not be a good fighter.
“She should not have any skills, even though she went to stage fighting school – which means you can swing and miss.
“I just needed her to be caught in the middle of all of this and be reacting in funny ways and be alive enough to kind of take it all and move around and get out of the way.
“And then John’s going to come in and take over and then she learns as she goes along. She never becomes like a great fighter in the movie, she just smartens up.
“Really her arc is more about regaining trust in mankind, or at least being able to trust somebody in the middle of the most untrusting situation you can be in.
“That’s the only thing that drives me in any movie – what is the character arc and how relatable is it?”
That relatability, Feig believes, is also the key to both Awkwafina and Cena’s respective career successes.
“Yes, they’re great actors, on top of being really funny and knowing their way around a joke ... but they’re [also] just very relatable people. They are your best friends – both of them. Nora, you’re with her the minute you meet her.
“But that’s just who she is, when she comes on screen, you’re not intimidated by her – you’re attracted to who she is.
“I always say, to me, the formula for being a movie star is you have to feel like they could be your friend, or somebody who gets you – and John is the same way.
“As big as he is, he’s not intimidating on the screen because of the way he acts and his inherent sweetness. So many people ask me, ‘Please tell me John’s really nice?’ He’s nice, but you know, because you can see it in him, that’s why you like him and why he has real movie-star quality.”
When asked what the biggest challenge of the film’s Georgia shoot was, Feig quickly cites the scheduling.
“We did this in 40 days, which for this level of action, I wasn’t sure how we were going to do it, especially because I wanted to have enough time to do alternate jokes and try funny things.
“But [action choreographer and fellow Jackie Chan-movie lover] James [Young] was so organised and all the actors went to the stunt rehearsals to learn their choreography, so we were able to just get in there.”
Feig admits that while he always wanted to be a stuntman as a kid, standard action movies – “where Sly Stallone takes out a bunch of bad guys with an M16” – don’t really interest him.
“If it’s just mayhem … if it’s just action for action’s sake, I don’t know what to do with that.
“I watch those movies – and I can enjoy them – but I look over at my wife [Laurie] and she’s on her phone. I’m like, ‘Look at all this great action you’re missing’ and she’s like, ‘I don’t care about it, when are they going to be talking again?’ I guess I’m kind of the same way.
“But if I can find a way to have that amount of action and even more that is funny and fun … [Jason Statham-starring duo] Crank and Crank II are two of my favourite movies of all time, as is [Tom Tykwer’s audacious German thriller] Run Lola Run. Front to back, it never stops.
“I’d love to do something like that, if I can just figure out a way to have people engage in the story and the characters – and really make them care about it.”
Jackpot! is available to stream on Prime Video from this Thursday.