Aaron Paul and Eiza Gonzalez tease their mystery sci-fi movie Ash : 'Our dynamic is super intense'
Aaron Paul (Westworld) and Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver) have been friends for more than a decade, but only now are they finally working side by side onscreen. It took a particularly fascinating movie to bring them together: Ash, the second film directed by the musician Flying Lotus (a.k.a Steven Ellison).
Ash's plot details are being kept under wraps, but we know the basics. As revealed in EW's exclusive first-look photos, Gonzalez stars as a woman who wakes up to find the rest of her space-station crew dead from unclear circumstances. Can she trust the man (Paul) sent to rescue her? Can he trust her? "We don't wanna really give away too much, but I would consider it like a sci-fi/thriller horror movie," Gonzalez tells EW over the phone.
That starting point evokes sci-fi classics like Alien or Sunshine, where space crews get picked off by unknown threats. But with a creative mind like Flying Lotus (who directed his own innovative music videos before his 2017 feature debut, Kuso) behind the camera, audiences should expect the unexpected.
GFC Films and XYZ Films Aaron Paul in 'Ash.'
"The way his brain works is quite special," Gonzalez says of the filmmaker. "He reminds me a lot of David Fincher, who also started in music videos, as someone who is quite interested in pushing boundaries and not being scared of diving into something. But this movie also required someone who had a really authentic and unique artistic take. We couldn't have been more lucky, because his visual imagery and the way that he spoke to us about the movie really translated to the making of the film. It's a movie that causes the audience to stay engaged consistently. I love movies that require you to keep thinking and trying to figure out what is actually happening."
Based on an original screenplay by Jonni Remmler, Ash also counts Iko Uwais (The Raid), Beulah Koale (Hawaii Five-0), and Kate Elliott (Wentworth) among the cast. Neill Blomkamp, another filmmaker known for unique sci-fi (District 9, Elysium, Chappie), executive produced the film with Echo Lake — XYZ Films and GFC Films are producers. A release date has not been announced.
As you might expect from a director who started as a musician, Flying Lotus uses songs as a key element of the moviemaking process. Even beyond the original score he composed for the film, the director would deploy curated music to set the tone.
"He was always playing music on set," Paul recalls to EW in a separate interview over Zoom. "Not necessarily his own music, but just stuff that he dug that fit the vibe of where the characters were at. And then, just before rolling, he would start messing with some stuff that he'd been working on and playing it over the speakers, to get us in the mood. Then they'd yell 'action!' and we'd cut the music and go into it."
GFC Films and XYZ Films Eiza Gonzalez in 'Ash.'
Gonzalez is no stranger to musical movies. Her breakthrough performance came in 2017's Baby Driver, whose director Edgar Wright wrote the soundtrack into the script.
"Music gives you an ambiance. It definitely sets you up," Gonzalez says. "So having this specific movie and his specific music being made at the same time was so incredibly helpful. Even little details he gave us, like, 'I want such-and-such instrument predominantly throughout the movie,' gave us a completely different vibe, especially for me and Aaron. We have a lot of scenes together, and our dynamic is super intense and crucial in the film, so it really made a gigantic difference."
Both actors are fans of sci-fi, and that's clear in their recent run of projects. Gonzalez spoke with EW for this article shortly after completing a round of ADR work on Netflix's 3 Body Problem series (an adaptation of the best-selling Chinese novel of the same name), while Paul just popped up on the latest season of Black Mirror after a multi-year run on Westworld.
"It's funny, when I was doing Breaking Bad, I got offers almost on a daily basis, like, 'Please come play our lovable drug addicts,'" Paul says. "But I've already done that. I don't need to do that again. So then I dove into Westworld. That was my first sci-fi gig, and since then I've just kept leaning in. Now I get endless amounts of sci-fi offers. Luckily both Black Mirror and Ash ended up being such interesting stories that allowed me to sink my teeth into them."
GFC Films and XYZ Films Eiza Gonzalez in 'Ash.'
On top of everything else, though, these two pals were just so excited to finally collaborate on a film.
"Aaron is such a supportive friend and he's one of the kindest people I've actually ever met in my life," Gonzalez gushes. "Working with him was so special, he's so disciplined, and we had a great dynamic on set. We kept saying, 'Can you believe we're making a movie together?' And it's such a special movie. I hope that people love it, but this is one of my favorite projects I've ever worked on in my life."
Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.
Related content:
