ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Arcadian stars Jaeden Martell and Maxwell Jenkins about the post-apocalyptic movie. The duo spoke about playing Nicolas Cage‘s kids and their characters’ animalistic qualities. The film is now playing exclusively in theaters.
“In a near future, normal life on Earth has been decimated,” reads the movie‘s synopsis. “Paul and his two sons, Thomas and Joseph, have been living a half-life – tranquility by day and torment by night. Every night, after the sun sets, they face the unrelenting attacks of a mysterious and violent evil. One day, when Thomas doesn’t return home before sundown, Paul must leave the safety of their fortified farm to find him. A nightmarish battle ensues that forces the family to execute a desperate plan to survive.”
Tyler Treese: Jaeden, one aspect that really impressed me about this film was how you both really felt like brothers. The slight annoyance at each other that you would definitely get from being trapped for a long period of time together — how was it getting that chemistry between both of you and getting that brotherly feel?
Jaeden Martell: It did. I got lucky because I love this man right here. I can go on and on about how much I adore this person, and that helped a lot. I didn’t really grow up with siblings around my age or anything like that, but I know what it’s like to have some good friends and how it can become competitive, how you compare your maturity and your life experience.
That’s what a lot of this movie is about. It’s about the dynamic between them and Thomas’ adventure, love, and fun in this dark world. Joseph is focused on their survival and they’re staying together. And with that comes, “0I’m bigger, I’m more mature than you, I’m faster than you.” [Laughs]. All that comes together.
Maxwell, I wanted to ask about your character, Thomas, because he is seeking more out of this life — this very limited existence that he has in the post-apocalypse, and there’s so much uncertainty. Can you speak to bringing that to the character? I thought you really portrayed that sense of wanting more from just his life very well.
Maxwell Jenkins: Thanks, man, I appreciate it. Yeah, I think when we first got into rehearsals and pre-production, I don’t know … maybe it’s just like a weigh-in for me. I’ve always grown up loving and really kind of nerding out over animals and their behavior. I’m a very physical person when it comes to my work. I always find that the physicality of a character is my initial point in history. So I think I talked with Ben [Brewer, director] a lot about this kind of caged animal nature that Thomas has. It’s like he’s finally … it really kind of came at it from a coming-of-age standpoint. But it’s a world where you can’t grow up and you’re these last three people to most of our knowledge, with the entire world beyond you, but you can’t leave your house.
So we talked a lot about this “caged animal” nature that Thomas has. But it’s more of a question of, yes, they’ve survived this many years by staying indoors and following the rules. But I guess Thomas starts to question, “How much do I want to survive versus how much do I want to live? “How much do I want to feel alive? I can follow the rules as much as I want, but I’ve met this girl — I run 10 miles every day and back to to see her.” And unfortunately, the stakes are so high in this world that one mistake changes everybody’s lives. There was this battle between impulse and logic that I really wanted to make sure it was there with Thomas.
And the biggest switching point is obviously when my actions of following my instinct really damaged and hurt everybody around me. That’s the first moment we see Thomas start to question himself. Up until that moment, he’s really confident in his abilities — running full speed through the woods, trusting that I’ll make it back on time and it’ll be fine. He totally is a physical minded person up until he really messes up. The physicality was my first way in to Thomas.
Jaeden, he mentioned the caged animals. Your character has a caged animal very literally later on in the film. What did you like most about your character? He was so fascinated by the creatures, he wanted to learn about them and had a scientific and inquisitive mind. Can you speak to that aspect of your character?
Martell: Yeah, I was a bit worried at times. I was like, “Is this guy really that smart, Ben?” I would ask Ben and be like, “Did he need this car fully? Okay.” [Laugh]. I mean, a lot of it was like … he’s just a sucker for knowledge. He reads anything he can, he absorbs everything. I also think, probably, when you’re a young kid nowadays, we have this phone of ours that has all the answers. So if that’s there, then we don’t necessarily need all the answers. I have this habit of asking a question to myself and not Googling it, even though I have access to it. So in a world where you have none of that and you have to survive, I think you make an effort to really collect all that knowledge and understand how to survive.
I mean, it was fun. It was fun, because we had a wonderful set dec and props and also effects and the creature design– all of that made it so much easier for me. Just having all the gadgets … it was blast to also play with what he knew and what he didn’t know, like using a pizza cutter to cut open the monster when he’s doing that autopsy. It just shows what he doesn’t know. He’s able to build this machine but doesn’t necessarily know how to drive it. That was really fun.
Maxwell, could you tell me what was most interesting about seeing how Nicolas Cage works? I imagine, as a young actor, that has to be quite the learning experience, getting to see his process.
Jenkins: The first thing that I really picked up off of Nick is how much energy he brings to every single thing. I think that really is what makes him such a unique and amazing actor. The first scene that we filmed together was the scene where I’m running home late. It’s kind of the first interaction you see between the two characters and gives you an inkling into what that father/son dynamic is. And the way it was written. And, and the way that I kind of read it was … I read it as this lighthearted moment between father and son where, “Yes, I’m late, but ultimately, we race each other back and we make it in time.” It gives this kind of intro into Thomas’ mind where I can get away with this certain thing because of my physicality.
I can run faster than my dad. There’s that bond there. But the way that Nick came into it is he really — and I wasn’t expecting it on the first take — he really leaned into me on the, “You are late.” And that took me back a second and kind of made me pause. From then on, Nick really approached everything with so much energy and so much emphasis behind everything.
The dinner table scene is really my favorite scene that we have with Nick. That, “Are we not men?!” And he slams his knife into the table — that was a personal element from his own life and that really changed what the scene was written as and what it meant in my mind for sure, as we carried on throughout it. This is a world where the father … it changed the dynamic between what the father/son relationship was. A lot of it didn’t need to be said. A lot of it was just expected. We’re living in a society of rules. “Are we not men?”
