Janelle Monáe’s response to joining Glass Onion was “yes,” then “hell yes,” then “F yes”
Janelle Monáe just wanted to work with Rian Johnson, then she read the script, then she heard they'd be filming in Greece
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[The following contains light spoilers for Knives Out sequel Glass Onion.]
Janelle Monáe is, effectively, the second lead of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel Glass Onion. If you want to be a little reductive about it, it’s the same kind of role that Ana de Armas played in the first movie, sort of a “regular person” who plays off of the over-the-top cartoon person that Daniel Craig is playing when he puts on the ridiculous accent of gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc. And at the risk of saying too much, she is important to the plot of the movie (to be fair, everyone in the ensemble cast is, to some extent, important to the plot of the movie… it is a whodunnit, after all), but it sounds like everything about making Glass Onion to Monáe was just a bonus to actually getting to be in Glass Onion.
Speaking with Austin Butler as part of Variety’s ongoing “Actors On Actors” feature, Monáe said that she saw Knives Out and was just “so excited” to see someone making a movie that you could see with your family where “you didn’t leave heavy”—you just got to solve a murder mystery. So she said yes to Glass Onion simply because it meant working with Johnson on another movie like Knives Out. But, as she told Butler, her reaction went from “yes” to “Hell yes” after reading the script, and then from “Hell yes” to “F yes” when she found out that they’d be filming in Greece. She said that, with the pandemic going on and a lot of things getting canceled, it was “a dream come true” to get the offer.
We’ll have to dance around this next bit to avoid spoilers (avoid the full article if you want to avoid all spoilers), but Monáe added that she had to keep multiple notebooks to track her Glass Onion character while filming, and one thing she appreciated was having a chance to play with her character’s accent and to use that as a way to make people sympathize with her, saying, “You’re like, ‘Oh, I want her to win. I love her. I want to hug her.’”
Elsewhere in the chat, Butler sheepishly admitted that one of the few times he ever danced in public before making Elvis was when he saw Monáe at Coachella, which is cute, even if he says he’s ashamed of the fact that he went to Coachella.
33 Comments
I’m always skeptical of people who cross over from one art form to another. Just because you are a good singer doesn’t mean you can act *cough* harrystyles *cough*, but I think I have liked Janelle Monáe in pretty much everything she has acted in. Maybe not “Welcome to Marwen,” but that probably wasn’t her fault.
I saw Glass Onion in its short theatrical run the other week, and she is amazing in it.
I’m always skeptical of people who cross over from one art form to another.
Musical theater performers are going to blow your mind then. 😀
More like make me want to blow my head off.
No. Musicals always suck ass.
Suck ass, blow head, whatever turns you on.
Might have to pay for the good seats tho
Both at the same time?
At the same time, some of the best film actors and biggest movie stars were established singing stars before they started acting. Of course, Doris Day and Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra were REALLY GOOD singers, not just successful singers. I don’t really have a point here. I guess really, those three were atypical – really good singers AND really good actors, not just passable at one or the other. Elvis Presley would likely have been both, but never really got the chance.
Haha yeah. The singers whose record success didn’t translate into film success definitely outnumbers those whose did. George Strait…Madonna…Beyonce…Brittney…Mariah…varied from “nope, flop” to “meh, ok, I guess”.
Like Jimmy Kimmel in Band of Brothers.
Maybe she’d be good at designing a line of footwear or a fancy sparkling wine?
This young lady certainly has a foul mouth. Does society reward that these days?
I’ve heard everything else she does with her mouth, and it is worth rewarding.
I’ve heard what else she can do with her mouth too. Ooooh yeah.
Are you roleplaying as an old person?
EH?! What’s a “roleplaying”? I was just whacking a hoop down the street with a stick!MATLOCK!
Does society reward that these days?Since long before you were born. It is part of why society is awesome.Keep judging from the fringes. That’ll certainly lead to a happy life.
It’s not just that you’re out of touch, it’s that this would be a completely out of touch question for the past 40 years. I’m guessing you’re trying to do the trad dweeb cosplay crap, but if that’s your game then you should drop out of following pop culture and go chop some wood, but also get some better material ya hack loser.
I blame that hairy top hat guy from the 80’s. I think one time he may have been inebriated on live television.
Slash?
What an insincere cunt.
I really don’t understand the release strategy here. Why only put it in theaters for one week and then wait another three weeks plus to release it on Netflix? Why not just do the week right before or keep it in theaters for a month?I get Netflix wants subscribers but who is really subscribing for this movie only? The first movie made over $300m in theaters. What is the downside in widely-releasing this and screening it for a month vs tabling it for 3/4 of a month instead?I used to assume I was just missing something with the business model of streamers because they avoided obvious moves like this. But given how terrible they’re all doing financially, I’m starting to wonder if they’re really just so dumb that they sidestep obvious moves to make money.
Like a lot of companies, Netflix wants to make as much money as they can while not appearing to make any money that they might have to eventually pay taxes for. A coworker of mine once assured me that Netflix was losing money even after being the most popular streaming service for a decade or more. And he was right of course, at least according to their earnings reports, because no matter how much money they make, they’re quick to spend 1.5x as much to pump out as many Gunpowder Notices and Red Milkshakes as they can. The whole “spend money to make money” is great in infinite growth capitalism, because you’re always raking in way more cash next year anyway, so no need to worry about a loss this year. If Glass Onion did make Netflix $150 million or so in theaters, then they’d have to go through the trouble of financing another six of them to equal it out.
Hollywood as a whole has been doing this forever as far I can tell. The whole “Black Adam didn’t actually lose money” argument Johnson is currently running is the same story for most big studio movies, even flops. That money comes back eventually, but if you can’t see a 400% ROI on a property, better to just have it show as a loss on some spreadsheet somewhere so that mom and pop operations like WB can get a tax break to keep their struggling studio going a little bit longer.
Netflix is a public company, what they want to do is hit the metrics that their investors care about. For a long time, that was subscriber growth and only subscriber growth because people assumed that streaming companies could flip a switch and become profitable any time they wanted. So Netflix spent billions and billions a year on new content and marketing to draw in new subscribers.Now investors are starting to see that subscriber growth isn’t infinite (who would have guessed?!?) and that the business models of streaming companies isn’t viable long-term. Companies like Netflix can’t keep spending the way they do but they also can’t really stop spending on new content because they have so much competition that users may just go away. So you see them trying to generate revenue in new ways, like creating cheaper tiers with ads.So I don’t think you’re right that Netflix wants to lose money. I think they want, and really need, to show that their business model is sustainable. And adding box office revenue for these high-cost movies they’ve ordered to their gross seems like an unbelievably obvious way to do it. It would also make filmmakers happier and make them more prone to come to Netflix to begin with.As for Glass Onion specifically, keep in mind that Netflix paid $469m for the rights to make that movie plus one other sequel to Knive’s Out. That doesn’t include marketing or any additional costs. They could easily still show those movies as losses even if they made $250-300m at the box office (given theaters take a cut of box office revenue).
I don’t entirely know, but one of Netflix’s goals is to combat churn. So they’re not only seeking new subscribers, but constantly trying to have new exciting things on the horizon to keep people subscribed. Maybe this was the one they had scheduled for Christmas. The week in November certainly got the buzz and anticipation going.
I guess. Personally, I think people would be just as appreciative of a service if they had really good movies available only 4-6 weeks after premiering on the big screen as they would be if they had exclusive rights to view it after 1 week of previews in theaters. Because having big movies hit a streaming service only a few weeks after it is in theaters is still a relatively new concept.Disney does this with their new movies – they still have the traditional wide release and then the movies hit D+ within a few months. Is anyone complaining that these movies weren’t D+ exclusive to begin with? No, people are just happy that they don’t have to wait a year to watch Black Panther 2 at home.Netflix raised the bar to a level it never needed to and cost themselves money IMO.
I don’t think it’s about being “appreciative”. It’s about giving them a reason not to cancel. Basically create they thought, “Oh, I can’t suspend yet, Knives Out is next month!”
That’s fair. But I do wonder how many people we’re talking about and if the number would offset $150m of revenue from the box office or so.
I haven’t understood any release strategies in the last couple years. Do you think whoever is in charge are all locked in some Mad Men-looking board room and they’re all tripping balls or have some brain infection that makes you go stark raving bonkers before you bleed out via your eyes?
Isn’t it hep when the celebrities say the profanity words in the media?
Funny enough this was also my reaction as the cast annoucements for Glass Onion rolled out.