ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Reunion star Nina Dobrev about the murder mystery comedy movie. The actress discussed her character Amanda Tanner, Shaun White’s cameo, and more. Directed by Chris Nelson, Reunion is out June 28 on digital via Republic Pictures (a Paramount Pictures label).
“Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), Billy Magnussen (Game Night), and Jillian Bell (22 Jump Street) star in a wild ride of twists and turns where a high school reunion gets cut short by murder. Trapped in a snowbound mansion, they race to uncover which one of their old classmates is the killer before they’re all iced out for good. Also starring Jamie Chung (Grown Ups), Michael Hitchcock (Veep) with Nina Dobrev (Sick Girl) and Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl),” says the Reunion synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Your character, Amanda Tanner, calls herself a future congresswoman. She has a clear ambition to her. What elements did you really hone in on for your performance?
Nina Dobrev: She is guarded and cold at times, but really all that is a bunch of walls that are up, a facade that she has built up because she has a lot of secrets behind the walls that she’s hiding. It was really interesting to play someone who’s that complicated. I’ve always kind of been drawn to… I hesitate to use the word flawed because we’re all flawed, but complicated people, complicated characters that have secrets and flaws and things that they’re trying to overcome.
Challenges are really interesting to me. I’m not interested in sort of playing or watching just sort of one-dimensional people. So even though she may appear that way off the top, you peel back the layers of the onion and get to know more about her. I can’t say more without spoiling too much [laughs].
One thing I like about the movie is that everybody in the ensemble is acting a little suspicious. I was curious, when you are in this type of murder mystery, are you trying to act a bit more suspicious on your end or is that mostly in the editing and writing?
Our approach was to just sort of play it as real as possible and from that reality, the situations that the characters were in were already naturally suspicious. But the comedy is also born from playing things as real as possible.
I mean, the cast is incredible. Everyone in this movie is fantastic. Rel is my on-set bestie. He is hilarious and wonderful. I think the world of him. Jillian is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Billy is fantastic. Chace is obviously Chace. I’ve known him for longer than I’d like to admit on camera. Michael Hitchcock is a legend. Jamie is fantastic as well. So yeah, it was a really amazing cast, and a huge part of why I wanted to do the movie was to get to collaborate with all these amazing artists.
You really hold your own comedically too. You have some hilarious lines. I liked, “If I had feelings that might’ve hurt.” That was a really good one. What was most rewarding about working with all these talented people like Jillian and Rel and really getting to show your funny side?
It was fantastic. I loved watching them. I loved learning from them. I love the friendship that I’ve gained by getting to know them and Jillian also helped me. We were on set when I got the screen test for The Out-Laws, the Netflix movie with Adam Sandler and Adam DeVine. So we ran during a lunch break into this little room, and she helped me tape off-camera the lines. I owe a lot of that experience to Jillian.
That’s such a wonderful full story.
The director, Chris Nelson, helped create a great atmosphere on the set that led to a very funny movie. What really stood out about working with him and his collaborative style?
Yeah, Chris was really open to suggestions and, like you said, created the environment that we were all in. We shot this movie in less than four weeks in the summer in California. I think the biggest challenge of the film was for the makeup artists really to make us look like we weren’t sweaty in 110-degree weather and sweaters and long sleeves.
Yeah, I would’ve never guessed. They do a good job of making it look like a snowstorm really hit.
Billy Magnussen has such a good role in this film. It’s fun really seeing a different side of him since he’s usually playing such different characters. What really stood out about getting to work with him and seeing him in a more comedic role as well?
I’ve been following Billy’s career for a really long time. I remember watching Made for Love on HBO and, and thinking this guy’s really talented. Since then, obviously the Bond movies and Road House, his career has really flourished and in a really cool way. So this was a great role for him, and I’ve always known that he was really funny. I’ve seen a lot of his work, and he’s been funny, and I was excited to work with him.
Murder mysteries are such a great genre to pair with comedy. What did you like most about just working within the confines of the viewers being suspicious and people dying left and right? It’s a very fun atmosphere to take in.
It is really fun. Yeah, I agree with you. I really like the genre and ever since Knives Out came out, it sort of gave life to this genre. It gave it a second lease on life, I guess I should say, because it had existed before, but it hadn’t been done in a while. So they made it possible for a movie like ours to be made. I’m a fan of the genre as well. I really love the first Knives Out especially. It was fun that we got to take our stab at it and put our little twist on the genre too.
One of my favorite scenes has a cameo from Shaun White. How special is that really having you both appear in the same film? That has to be pretty cool.
Yeah, that was like a little Easter egg, a cameo surprise that we wanted to do. He was just on set visiting me and got pulled into a scene, so it was really fun [laughs].
Thanks to Reunion star Nina Dobrev for taking the time to speak about the movie.
