"Civil War" set an A24 box office record as the studio’s first debut at the top of the box office charts. Writer/director Alex Garland’s contribution to the 2024 movie schedule has been raking in praise alongside that cash, and the internet can’t stop talking about how good Jessie Plemons is in his one pivotal scene. And as Garland himself revealed, the process of Kirsten Dunst’s husband landing that role was a very quick and surprising process at that.
Jesse Plemons has a reputation for being a memorable actor that can crush in a scene, and I’m totally in agreement with the world boosting that signal. We even highlighted the "Killers of the Flower Moon" actor in our "Civil War" review, as his presence was further proof that Alex Garland assembled a cast of absolute titans to deliver his electrifying war epic.
Jesse Plemons has a reputation for being a memorable actor that can crush in a scene, and I’m totally in agreement with the world boosting that signal. We even highlighted the "Killers of the Flower Moon" actor in our "Civil War" review, as his presence was further proof that Alex Garland assembled a cast of absolute titans to deliver his electrifying war epic.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 - I would love to talk about,
00:01 whenever I had the pleasure of speaking
00:02 with Kirsten Dunst at The Junket,
00:04 she told me, and maybe this was a joke
00:06 or the way she was phrasing it,
00:07 but she said that Jesse Plemons took his part
00:10 in the film as a favor to her.
00:11 And obviously it paid off because that scene
00:13 is honestly one of the most tense sequences
00:15 I think I've seen in a very long time.
00:16 I'd love to know the story
00:17 of how he became involved in the movie
00:19 and if their personal relationship off camera
00:22 at all affected the scene on camera.
00:24 - Well, I don't know.
00:28 I literally don't know about the way
00:30 it would have informed the scene,
00:32 but what happened was there was another actor
00:35 who was gonna do that part.
00:37 And around about a week before we started shooting,
00:42 because we were in the rehearsal period,
00:44 for various reasons, that actor just had to drop out.
00:49 And I was really worried because that scene
00:52 is kind of like a pivot point in the film.
00:57 And it contains a lot of really important information
01:01 in the film actually.
01:02 And I was pretty despondent.
01:07 I was standing outside this tower block
01:09 and had took the call outside and then thought,
01:14 well, I better go in for the rehearsal.
01:16 But inside I had a kind of hollow, empty, worried feeling
01:21 like, oh boy, we're in big trouble now.
01:23 And got the elevator up, went into the place
01:28 that we were rehearsing and thought,
01:30 I should tell the cast this immediately
01:32 because it's the right thing to do.
01:34 And Kirsten immediately said, I bet Jesse would do it.
01:37 Let me find out.
01:39 And 24 hours later, Jesse said, yeah, yeah, I'll do it.
01:43 Read the script.
01:44 So it was a huge result, huge.
01:47 - It was honestly, it was unbelievable.
01:51 I know it's, again, it's a 10 minute sequence,
01:54 but it's one of my favorite performances of the year.
01:56 - He's pretty stunning.
01:59 It's a great bunch of acting,
02:02 great bunch of actors, excuse me.
02:04 But that thing he does, arrive,
02:09 encapsulate something, leave, film loves that.
02:14 And it's, so it was a real,
02:17 it wasn't exactly a pleasure to shoot that scene,
02:21 but it was like a masterclass.
02:25 It was very, very impressive to watch.
02:30 All of them together joined him
02:32 in the tension of that moment, all of them really.
02:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]