The film needed a contrast of charm and darkness... we sent it to Chris
Actors Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett and director Joseph Kosinski talk about twisted new Netflix thriller Spiderhead
he was looking for a leading man for his latest film, director Joseph Kosinski needed someone who could embody a “contrast of charm and darkness” while also being “very verbal, very funny, but also a sociopath”.
He sent the script for the movie in question, Spiderhead, to Thor star Chris Hemsworth, which felt, he recalls, “like a little bit of a long shot”, but in a lucky twist the Australian star liked what he read and got on board.
The film, streaming on Netflix, sees Hemsworth in the lead role as “visionary” Steve Abnesti, who runs state-of-the-art penitentiary Spiderhead, where, in exchange for commuted sentences, the inmates wear a surgical device that administers mind-altering drugs to them as part of an experiment.
Based on the George Saunders short story, titled Escape from Spiderhead, which first appeared in weekly American title The New Yorker in 2010, it reunites director Joseph, who recently helmed Top Gun: Maverick, with actor Miles Teller, who starred opposite Tom Cruise in the blockbuster sequel, and takes on the role of inmate Jeff, serving time for a horrific incident, in Spiderhead.
American actress Jurnee Smollett, 35, whose list of credits includes TV series Friday Night Lights and Lovecraft Country, and films like Birds of Prey, stars alongside Teller as Lizzy, who forms a connection with Jeff.
Spiderhead, with a screenplay by Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, is not sci-fi though, Joseph explains.
“I think sci-fi is an easy label to put on something with technology in it. But I don’t think there’s anything in this movie that’s purely fictional. Everything depicted in the film could be happening today,” he says.
Speaking about landing Chris to play Abnesti, he reflects: “We needed someone who could present that contrast of charm and darkness – someone who could be very verbal, very funny, but also a sociopath, you know?
“We’ve seen Chris’s sense of humour and comedic timing in his movies as of late, so it felt like a little bit of a long shot when we sent him the script, but he read it very quickly and responded to it instantly.
“Abnesti’s got some issues, certainly. But he’s not evil for evil’s sake. He truly believes that what he’s doing is the right thing. He’s a great salesman and a bit of a b ****** t artist, but he truly does believe he’s going to change the world with this technology.”
For Chris, 38, it was the questions the script raised that attracted him.
He says: “I loved the psychologiWHEN cal thriller aspect to it and the different perspectives it offered.
“From a practical standpoint, when I first read the script, we were in the midst of Covid lockdowns and restrictions, and I wanted something that we could film in a short amount of time, on a handful of sets in a closed-set environment.
“Something that would allow me to just focus on performance. And that’s how this script read to me – like a piece of theatre. I haven’t done anything like that in my career and it really excited me.”
In taking on the character, the
Ghostbusters and Men in Black star says while he did reference “different tech entrepreneurs and people in the Silicon Valley world”, he did not base Abnesti on anyone specific.
He says of the character: “I saw an opportunity to play a character who’s neither a hero, nor a traditional villain.
“There’s quite a bit of complexity in Abnesti in the sense that he does believe what he’s doing is just and that it comes from a good place, but there’s almost an unconscious naivete about the consequences of
his actions – the way some like to act naive out of convenience”.
American actor Miles, 35, speaks of the “trust and a shorthand there” when it came to working once more with Joseph, who had not only directed him in Top Gun: Maverick, but also 2017 film Only the Brave.
In taking on the role of Jeff, Miles says: “I’ve never done anything quite like this in tone before. I’ve certainly done some things set in the science fiction realm, but the core of this story is really about people who are carrying a lot of weight around with them.
“Weight they’re trying to shed. It’s a story about rehabilitation, an opportunity for transformation and rebirth”.
Miles says of the story: “For me, what stuck was the idea that people are always looking for ways to better themselves or become a little more introspective or reflective.
“They’re always trying to reinvent themselves or digest something that allows them to grow.”
Filmed during Covid, actress Jurnee, whose Birds of Prey character Black Canary is rumoured to be featuring in the upcoming DC Comics Batgirl film, says she drew on the sense of isolation everyone was experiencing in lockdown for her character Lizzy, who carries a terrible secret that has landed her serving time in Spiderhead.
She explains: “I was absolutely able to use that feeling of isolation, that loneliness, and the desire to have a friend. It’s such a simple pleasure, having someone to connect with.
“The value of it can’t be underestimated.
“I mean, it was like next-level loneliness during that time.
“For artists, we go through this chaos and it somehow finds its way into our art. And tapping into that was certainly valuable for my character.”
She says the script was “unlike anything” she had read before.
“It’s a wild ride. While it feels incredibly relevant to certain topics and things we’re experiencing in the world, it’s still so heightened and fictionalised that the world itself demands that you expand your imagination.
“It felt so relevant and timely in its themes – the desire to just be yourself, to forgive yourself, to be free of your past. There was so much in the script that I could relate to that moved me”.
I loved the psychological thriller aspect to it... Chis Hemsworth on the script for Spiderhead