Editor’s Note: The following contains Fresh movie spoilers.With directorMimi Cave’sFreshnow streaming on Hulu, I recently got to speak withSebastian StanandDaisy Edgar-Jonesabout making their darkly comic thriller. Written byLauryn Kahn, who previously wrote the Netflix comedyIbiza,Freshis a regular boy meets girl story about the horrors of modern dating…until it isn’t. While I’d love to say more, I strongly suggest pushing play onFreshknowing as little as you can.Freshalso starsJojo T. Gibbs,Dayo Okeniyi,Charlotte Le Bon, andAndrea Bang.
During the interview, Stan and Edgar-Jones talked about how they’ve been describing the film to friends and family, the way the script was pitched to them, filming the dance scenes, how the film plays these upbeat songs during very dark scenes, how what is depicted in the film could really be happening, and more.
Check out what they had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below.
COLLIDER: How have you actually been telling your friends and family about this movie and what it’s about? Because I think this is one of those, the less you know about the second and third act, the better.
SEBASTIAN STAN: I’ve just been saying it’s about love and food. Two things we need to survive in the world.
DAISY EDGAR-JONES: Yeah, something similar. I’ve just sort of been saying, I guess it’s sort of a girl meets boy thriller is kind of one way of going about it. Yeah, it’s definitely a hard one to describe.
STAN: A girl meets a boy and then never leaves.
What was it like though when you guys got the script, because did your agents or managers or people involved tell you what was going to happen or did they say, you just need to read this?
EDGAR-JONES: Mine just said you just need to read this. They kind of gave me a little warning. They were like, it gets quite dark…but that was sort of all they gave me. I kind of came to it the way you did, which is I think the best way in reading it, I was just like, “What?” Every time you think you know what’s happening, it takes such a twist and turn.
STAN: I’d met with Mary Parent earlier, about six months before we started, and then she kind of gave me an idea. She didn’t say anything about what he actually did, but I had a bit of an idea. When I was reading it, I went in there with all these expectations. Then for the beginning of the movie, I keep getting all these funny moments and this banter and interaction. And then I’m kind of like, okay, I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then when it finally does it still caught me by a surprise even though I knew to expect something. So we hope people will feel that same drop as we did, I guess.
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Oh, 100%. Have you guys seen the movieEx Machina?
STAN: Incredible movie.
I’m going somewhere with this. SoEx Machinais, one of my favorite bits in that movie is the dance scene, Oscar with everyone dancing.
STAN: I know.
I judge every movie after that has a dance scene againstEx Machina. So I’m just curious when you guys were dancing in this, did you feel that pressure? We need to beat Oscar, I’m joking around, but you know.
STAN: I know we both love that song.
EDGAR-JONES: Oh yeah.
STAN: Saturday night.
EDGAR-JONES: It is such a tune.
STAN: But Mimi had this idea of us kind of at the end of the movie, sort of getting synchronized in this dance thing. I remember we had both been so worried about kind of keeping the movie and the characters as grounded as possible, it’s like, how could we get to that moment? But I have to say, we had rehearsals and then it just sort of found its way there.
I would imagine, and I don’t know this, but are you more nervous to film something where you’re dancing than even some of the harder camera moves?
STAN: Yeah.
EDGAR-JONES: Yeah. Our second day filming together was the dancing on that like second day.
STAN: That was my favorite, Steve.
EDGAR-JONES: That was so fun. Yeah.
STAN: The one with, because that was all kind of improvised and it was sort of us looking at each other being like, what’s your move? That’s where the hip thrust came out. And it’s like, I just know how to do the shoulder.
EDGAR-JONES: You were good at the shoulder, that’s your little thing.
STAN: But the one at the end needs to be focused and determined but…
EDGAR-JONES: And that was nice because it was a bit more choreographed. So Mimi, our director, has a background in dance, so she had a very specific idea of what she wanted. So that was sort of quite nice because we felt safe and like, I guess I’ll just, I’ll do these moves and hope they look good.
Something that also is really cool about the film is you have these really upbeat 80s songs playing against really, really dark stuff. The film does such a great job with tone and being able to balance these things. Can you sort of talk about, I guess, the music and also its bright lit scenes with really fucked up stuff. Sorry for my language.
STAN: Yeah. That was in the script and it was something that kind of intrigued me about the character because I saw that as an opportunity in a way for us to sort of see something different than what we’ve been seeing about him to that point in the movie. And just him and these private moments kind of dancing by himself were so, they were funny, but they were weird and also kind of revealing about who he was or he might have been in a way. So I thought that was just a very different way of telling backstory about a character. Then of course there was the one on the operating table.
EDGAR-JONES: I love it when films do that because you find yourself laughing or you find yourself enjoying something and then it’s almost like you feel guilty about it because you realize what you are watching. It really does, that kind of tone, I find so enjoyable because it sort of makes you feel all the more uncomfortable weirdly because you shouldn’t really be enjoying what you’re watching because it’s so dark. It means that you’re always feeling slightly unsettled, which I think is really good.
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One of the other things about this film is, and I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but it’s not that farfetched. The disturbing part is this could be happening. Did you guys even think about that or am I really reaching with this?
STAN: Well, you have Jeffrey Dahmer, right? Who really did eat his victims. I mean, and that was one of the things that I was sort of dead set on is I wanted to go back and kind of look at every serial killer in the last three decades. Ted Bundy, then you have like the Green River one. It’s terrifying because like you realize how many of these people, how many of these serial killers hunted women for the last three, four decades, all going back to the sixties. So it’s not unheard of.
Anything that you think soon to be fans of the movie would be surprised to learn about the actual making of the film?
STAN: Noa’s pink dress was steamedeverysingle time.
EDGAR-JONES: Oh it was.
STAN: And we were saying, but they’re in a fight now. And there was not a wrinkle in that dress. But I’m just, I’m only saying that because I think, I don’t, we were always looking at each other with Mimi and going like, “I wonder if this is going to become like a weird iconic Halloween costume or something one day?,” because the pink dress. It kind of does have that aura about it like other older movies that we’ve seen, when you kind of recognize.
EDGAR-JONES: And you with the eye, like the eye coming out.
STAN: The bulging eye.
EDGAR-JONES: The bulging eye, I mean Sebastian having to go.
STAN: That’s a pretty strong hit. But it was just a….and then they’re like, “No, she hit you with a meat grinder. I’d say it would do some damage.” I was like, “Okay.” The eye, yeah.
EDGAR-JONES: The eye.
STAN: I was terrified. My eye would never come-
EDGAR-JONES: You permanently stuck like that?
I’ve got to stop there. But I really mean it, congrats on the movie. You guys did such a great job.
