What do you do when you’re a career politician with a reputation for incorruptibility, and you find yourself in a hotel room with the corpse of a very young man on your hands? It’s quite simple: we dial this mysterious telephone number that an acquaintance once suggested using in such cases. Thus comes Jack, an “expert”: relief. But here comes a second expert, Nick, who was commissioned by the owner of the hotel, ready to do anything to avoid scandals – including resorting to indiscreet hidden cameras. Forced to collaborate, Jack and Nick must overcome their mutual enmity. However, things become even more complicated when it appears that said corpse is… very much alive. In the movie Wolfs (Wolves), it is Austin Abrams who plays this role, opposite George Clooney and Brad Pitt. We spoke to him exclusively.
“It’s one of those scenarios that you get a lot of pleasure from reading. Obviously, there was the prospect of playing opposite George and Brad…” explains Austin Abrams about his immediate desire to play the man we nickname “Kid”.
One of the “young wolves” revealed in the popular series EuphoriaAustin Abrams not only avoids being devoured by his two illustrious partners, who share a notorious complicity since Ocean’s Eleven (The Unknown of Las Vegas) and its sequels, but it almost steals the show. However, Austin Abrams had no other ambition than to do his job well.
“The goal is always to put yourself at the service of the film, to find your place in it. »
Still, sharing the screen with two stars who have often worked together before, and who are also best friends in real life, must come with a certain pressure, right?
“Yes: there is a pressure that comes from knowing that they share this incredible bond. And you don’t want to be the outside element that comes scraper That [fuck that up]. And George and Brad are so smart and witty, so you want to follow them; you want to be good enough. I grew up watching them: I know their voices and their faces by heart, so to find myself in their presence was moving… To clarify what I was saying earlier, I would say that my goal was both to putting myself at the service of the film and the complicity of George and Brad. »
Among the memorable sequences involving the three actors, special mention goes to this hilarious chase through the snowy streets and alleys of New York, while Jack and Nick try to catch up with a dazed Kid… and in his underwear.
“This sequence proved to be very, very complex technically and physically. It was three pages of script, but it took about a month to shoot,” notes Austin Abrams, smiling at the memory of this passage following Kid’s awakening.
You want to create a whole character and even if there are a whole bunch of things you thought about that aren’t on screen, the fact that you matured them enriches the film.
Balance and humor
Precisely, from his unexpected return from the dead, which occurs early in the film, Kid reveals himself to be a character all the more interesting because he is the exact opposite of Jack and Nick. Indeed, the latter two display excessive confidence to the point of being funny. This, on purpose, since behind this “in control”, “know-it-all” and slightly macho facade, various doubts and anxieties loom.
Conversely, Kid is completely sincere, vulnerable and fundamentally kind: characteristics not conducive to survival during this incredible night, but which he is nevertheless not afraid to show. This contrast, this opposition of characters, gives the film balance and humor.
“You could see on the page what Kid’s function was, as well as his qualities, which ultimately allowed the characters of George and Brad to soften a little. My character allows the other two to introspect and recover a little of their humanity lost after years of practicing their type of profession. »
For Austin Abrams, the challenge here was what didn’t appear on the page.
“The script was hyper-precise in terms of construction, rhythm and musicality, but it contained little personal information about Kid: who he is, where he comes from, what is his past? There are little bits of information here and there, but it’s minimalist. Who is this guy? Obviously, it is intended that way. It was up to me to answer these questions. There is this thing that Ernest Hemingway talked about: he could write pages and pages which were not intended to go into the final novel, but whose existence, if only in his head, contributed to making the ‘fuller, fuller story. This idea feeds me a lot: you want to create an entire character and even if there are a whole bunch of things you thought about that aren’t on screen, the fact that you matured them enriches the film. I am convinced that people can feel it. »
Yes, they can.