By Paul Salfen AMFM Magazine
There’s something undeniably electric about sitting down with Kerry Washington, Mila Kunis, and Cailee Spaeny just hours before the world premiere of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. The third and darkest chapter in Rian Johnson’s billion-dollar whodunit franchise reunites Daniel Craig’s inimitable Benoit Blanc with another murder that defies logic—this time inside the shadowy stone walls of a remote upstate New York church. And if the trio’s infectious energy is any indication, Johnson has once again curated the kind of ensemble that doesn’t just act together; they play together.
“Lightning speed,” Washington laughs when asked how quickly she signed on. “I said yes before I even had the offer or read the script.” Kunis and Spaeny nod in enthusiastic agreement. “You don’t even need to read it,” Kunis adds. “When Rian calls and says, ‘I want to do this,’ there’s no pause.”
That instant trust is the secret sauce of the Knives Out universe, and it was on full display during the London shoot. “Day one,” Spaeny says, eyes wide. “No wardrobe fitting—just figuring out what this cop looks like. She could have gone a million different ways. I was like, God, this is really fun.”
For Kunis, who plays no-nonsense local police chief Geraldine Scott, the joy came from diving straight into the deep end. “My very first day was some of my most intense work on the film,” she recalls. “Getting thrown in with actors I’d never met before and just going for it—it felt like being on a dream team at the Olympics. You don’t want to drop the ball.”
Washington, stepping into the role of tightly wound small-town attorney Vera Draven, felt the same rush. “Is this what it feels like to be on a dream team at the Olympics?” she echoes, laughing. “Inspiring and terrifying, but thrilling fun.”
The camaraderie wasn’t confined to the set. Between takes, the cast retreated to their now-legendary “rec room” tradition—ping-pong, stories, lemonade in the forest with Andrew Scott. “We were giggling,” Kunis remembers. “Then someone would yell, ‘Okay, you’ve got to go film the scene!’ and we’d just flow right into it.”
That ease translated directly to the screen in a film Johnson describes as the series’ most Gothic yet—closer in spirit to the locked-door impossibilities of John Dickson Carr than the sun-soaked excess of Glass Onion. “It’s got graveyards, old stone churches, that earthy feel,” Johnson has said. “We wanted to dig into darker, more intricate murder-mystery territory.”
When the conversation turns to advice for aspiring actors, the mood grows thoughtful. Washington, never one to sugarcoat, is blunt: “If there’s anything else you want to do, go do that.” She pauses, then softens. “I say that because the odds are so stacked against you. You have to be resilient, scrappy, take a lot of rejection. Only do it if you have to do it—because all the stuff around the scene work is a lot.”
Kunis jumps in: “There’s an aspect that’s completely out of your control. You don’t get a degree that says ‘I am an actor’ and then the world hands you jobs. And if you want to do it to be famous or rich? Go be rich first—then come talk to me.”
Spaeny, the youngest of the trio and fresh off Priscilla and Civil War, listens intently before adding, “It’s about loving the play-pretend part. That’s the part that’s pure joy.”
Back to the work itself—how do you stay grounded when the cameras roll on scenes that swing from hysterical to heartbreaking? “You don’t really have to reset,” Washington says. “We’d be in the tent laughing, telling stories, feeling close, and it just flowed right into the scene.”
Kunis agrees: “When you work with this level of director and this level of actors, all you have to do is be present. I look across at Kerry or Josh O’Connor and I’m immediately in it.”
As the interview wraps, the mutual admiration is palpable. “You’re all amazing in this movie,” I tell them. They deflect with the easy grace of pros who know the real star is the ensemble itself.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is, at its core, a love letter to the genre’s shadowy corners—and to the rare alchemy that happens when great actors are simply allowed to play. If the laughter and lightning-fast “yeses” in that room are any indication, Rian Johnson has bottled that magic once again.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is in theaters and on Netflix soon. Prepare for Benoit Blanc’s most dangerous—and holy—case yet.
