Like all the best whodunits, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story is rife with twists, curves, and swerves. No one’s precisely who they seem and everyone has a motive for mischief, if not outright murder. It’s this kind of writing that makes a mystery so compelling and that drives viewers to unwind — or to borrow the metaphor of the title — peel back the layers until you discover the truth at its center.
That, at the very least, is the audience’s experience, but as it turns out there were plenty of surprises for the film’s cast as well. “I always say there’s a couple of movies we get to experience. There’s the one we read, there’s the one we act in during the actual filming. And then there’s the one you see on screen,” Kate Hudson, who stars as Birdie Jay, a proudly politically incorrect influencer in the film, tells PRIDE.
Courtesy of Netflix
“[Director Rian Johnson] didn’t show it to us until Toronto, in front of 1,700 people, which never happens. Usually, it’s like, you get to see it, you have a few friends and family [over], It’s calm, you get your sweats out, you get a headache, he kind of gets all the critical moments out. And then you see it with an audience. Not this time,” she laughs.
“I have to say I was so delighted watching this movie for the first time with an audience because they’re so engaged. It’s so funny. And Rian did such an amazing job. So that’s a long-winded way of saying yes, there’s so much that I experienced for the first time watching it,” says Hudson.
Courtesy of Netflix
Kathryn Hahn, who stars as Claire Debella (a politician who might have a bit more baggage than she’s letting on), watched Glass Onion for the first time and was struck not by the plot twists and character reveals, but by something else entirely. “The score is so incredible,” she raves to PRIDE. “I think that was such a part of the first time seeing it for me was hearing Nathan [Johnson’s] incredible score, and just like being transported in that way, was really, like, goose bumpy for me.”
As for creating their oh-so-deliciously awful characters, both of the actors really credit Johnson’s incredible writing — although it’s nearly impossible as a viewer not to draw some real-world connections to each of them. “It’s really interesting because people are drawing parallels to these characters to people that at the time Rian [who wrote the script in 2020] couldn’t have been writing towards,” says Hudson. “It’s very interesting to watch.”
Courtesy of Netflix
Ultimately though, Hahn had no trouble finding her character right there on the page. “For me, it’s always just what’s in the script,” she explains. “Of course in the world, of course, there are so many people that one could say — for any of these characters — there are a million specifics that we could take from.
“I’ll just say, all I needed was what was on the page. For me, [Claire] was built already by Rian and through Jenny Egan’s amazing costumes.”
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story premieres in theaters today and on Netflix December 23. Watch PRIDE’s full interview with Kate Hudson and Kathryn Hahn below.
