Even Eva Green couldn’t resist the opportunity to work with Samuel L. Jackson again.
The French actress had a brief run-in with the Oscar nominee while filming Tim Burton’s 2016 dark fantasy Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, in which Jackson — of Pulp Fiction, Star Wars and MCU fame — starred opposite Green’s titular character as the villainous shapeshifter Mr. Barron.
But Green, best known for her role in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven (2005), an iconic Bond girl stint in Casino Royale (2006) and as Vanessa Ives in Showtime series Penny Dreadful (2014-2016), wanted more. Almost a decade letter, it’s finally happened: her Jackson itch has been thoroughly scratched with Martin Campbell’s sun-drenched thriller Just Play Dead.
“I’ve been wanting to do another comedy for a long time and fell in love with the script and the idea of working with Sam,” Green tells The Hollywood Reporter about the project, repped at AFM by the Highland Film Group. “His energy and generosity were unforgettable [on Miss Peregrine]. Sam brings humor, focus, and total confidence. He’s generous and fun: the best kind of partner on set.”
Highland Film Group are handling international rights at the market for Just Play Dead. The film follows wealthy criminal mastermind Jack Wolfe (Jackson) who, when cornered by federal police, plans to fake his own death and claim a $30 million life insurance payout with his “grieving” wife, Nora (Green).
Jack and Nora plot to frame her surfer lover Chad for his murder. But Nora is cooking up a scheme of her own: kill Jack for real, pin it on Chad and keep the fortune for herself. As their twisted lies unravel, Nora and Jack scramble to outsmart one another — with only one of them set to come out on top.
“Nora started off as a high-class escort, then married Jack Wolfe, a very powerful gangster,” teases Green about her character. “She is definitely Jack’s equal, just as smart and just as ruthless. She’s a great manipulator and loves playing games with people’s minds.”
The project also sees the star re-team with frequent collaborator and Casino Royale director Campbell, another considerable incentive for boarding the movie. “It’s such an excellent film,” Green reflects on the Daniel Craig-starring instalment in which she portrayed elegant double agent Vesper Lynd. “Martin has a rare ability to make big stories feel intimate. He can balance great dramatic momentum with real character. He can give the audience great entertainment, but with depth and meaning. That’s exactly what he did with James Bond,” she adds. “And — as they like to say — nobody does it better. When someone like that invites you back into the creative arena, you say yes with gratitude.”
Has Campbell’s directorial approach evolved since the two first shot together 20 years ago? “He’s the same in all the best ways,” responds Green. “[He’s] precise, curious, demanding — and has more energy today than when we made Casino Royale. I would love his secret recipe because he has even more energy than me.”
You’d be forgiven for thinking Green has shedloads of energy; filmed in the Canary Islands, Just Play Dead isn’t too much of an abrupt change of pace for the actress, whose last appearance on the big screen came with another Campbell nail-biter: the 2024 military thriller Dirty Angels. Perhaps the more recent projects on Green’s portfolio are indicative of the kinds of roles appealing to the star at this stage in her vibrant and impressive career.
“I’m always up to play characters that I’ve never played before and especially [with] a well-written script that has great banter,” says Green. “The characters in Just Play Dead are very colorful, bigger than life… We don’t do dialogue like this anymore and it’s very jubilating.” Still, the film’s playful tone and pulpy plot makes for lighter material than audiences might be used to with Green, an actress so well-suited to the more dark and eccentric roles she’s often gravitated toward.
A glimpse of that Green resurfaces while discussing her dream director list. “I would love to work with Magnus von Horn,” she says. “The Girl with the Needle is an absolute masterpiece. It’s horribly compelling and took great courage to tackle such an impossibly dark, gothic tale.”
For now, it’s murder and mayhem with Samuel L. Jackson on the beach for Eva Green. What comes next is anyone’s guess.
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