ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to The Wrath of Becky stars Lulu Wilson and Seann William Scott and directors Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote about the sequel, which is set to have its world premiere at SXSW on March 11.
“Two years after she escaped a violent attack on her family, Becky attempts to rebuild her life in the care of an older woman — a kindred spirit named Elena,” reads the film’s synopsis. “But when a group known as the ‘Noble Men’ break into their home, attack them, and take her beloved dog, Diego, Becky must return to her old ways to protect herself and her loved ones.”
Tyler Treese: Sean, a lot of your antagonist roles in the past have still been likable and on the fun side and there’s an inherent comedy to this movie, but you’re this extremist leader, you’re this nasty villain with no real redeemable qualities. So was this an interesting change of pace for you? I haven’t seen you in a role like this before.
Seann William Scott: Yeah. Yeah, I mean it. I loved it. For the most part of my career, I’ve played variations of the same character and that’s in broad comedies. So the opportunity to play this type of role in this movie was really, really fun. The whole experience, to be honest, just the way that it came about — that Matt and Suzanne were interested in me for the part, and I read the script and I loved it. I had some thoughts about some ideas for the character and we got on the phone and started talking about it, and they really responded to it and then just kind of evolved.
I think it was like two weeks later that I was on set, but they took those ideas and they added some scenes, and rewrote stuff. It was a totally awesome experience and totally different than anything that I’d had before. Then on set, just really trying to bring it to life and trying to keep it grounded. And I loved it. I really, really enjoyed it — especially because I’ve really never done anything like it, you know, in my career.
Lulu, we see how Becky has changed since the first film. We go forward a few years and she’s a runaway. She’s training and staying prepared. What did you like most about this evolution of Becky that we get to see throughout the second movie?
Lulu Wilson: You know, it was really important to me that we were able to see how much that she’s gone through within these two years that we haven’t been with her, between the first and the second movies. I wanted it to be really obvious how much she’s been through and how she still has her guard up very much, if not more.
I wanted it to be obvious that she’s never going to let that guard down and she’s still training … she’s still ready. But she’s dropped that teenage angst that’s a really big deal in the first movie. She’s more mature, she’s grown up, she’s independent, [and] she’s just ready to survive. She’s ready to take on what’s happening next.
Matt and Suzanne, I was curious, what does it mean for you two to have this being premiered at SXSW? It’s such a great festival with such a great history to it. What does that mean for you two?
Suzanne Coote: Like, everything.
Matt Angel: More than I can put in words, really. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. We leave tomorrow for Austin and it hasn’t hit me. It might not hit me until we’re home next week and I’m like, “Wait, did that happen?”
Suzanne Coote: He was really grumpy last night, and I was like, “What’s going on?” And he was like, “I think I’m nervous.” It means … we’ve never had a movie in a festival and for it to be something like SXSW … the honor is massive. Massive honor.
Matt Angel: We wanted to make a crowd-pleaser, too, and it feels like it’s resonating.
Seann William Scott: I think what’s so cool about this movie was, and Matt, you could speak to this, but just kind of how it all came together. Didn’t it, for you guys, come together pretty quickly from when you were approached to when we ended up shooting the movie?
Matt Angel: I’ll actually never forget. So we had just found out that Suzanne was pregnant. On December 16th, BoulderLight Pictures called us and we had been trying to work with them for years and find the right project. And J.D. Lifshitz said, “You guys wouldn’t be interested in doing a sequel to that movie, Becky, from like 2020, would you?” And we were like, “Yeah, we would dig doing something fun like that. We have a lot of ideas for what we’d want to do.” And he was like, “Cool, we don’t have a script and we need it in three weeks.” And she was like, “No.”
Suzanne Coote: No as in, like, “Have fun writing. that. I’m going to lay flat.”
Matt Angel: Yeah. So I just put myself in a room and wrote it in three weeks.
Suzanne Coote: To Seann’s point, then we were shooting.
Matt Angel: Yeah, Seann got the call and was on set two weeks later. It definitely happened very quickly, but it felt organic. It always felt organic.
