Renowned comedy director Paul Feig is back in the game with his new Amazon MGM Studios film Jackpot, which may be his most action-driven movie.
Many should recognize Feig’s name, as he’s been a director and producer on extremely popular projects such as Freaks & Geeks, Bridesmaids, and Ghostbusters.
Now he’s back with Jackpot, a story set in a dystopian alternate future where one lucky scratch-off winner can be legally killed by the residents of Los Angeles and their winnings stolen before the sun goes down. The film stars some big talent, including Awkwafina, John Cena, and Simu Liu.
John Cena and Awkwafina Are the Perfect Leading Pair for Jackpot
In an exclusive interview with The Direct’s Russ Milheim, Jackpot Director Paul Feig spoke about his newest comedy and why John Cena and Awkwafina made for the perfect comedic duo.
As for why Awkwafina and John Cena make for the perfect pairing for the film, Feig explained that they both “bring two very different tales on the world and on comedy:”
"Because they bring two very different takes on the world and on comedy... [and] a very unlikely pair. They're both hilariously funny, but from kind of different schools. [Awkwafina] is just born and raised on comedy. It's who she is. And John [Cena] has come to comedy through his work in movies... He's learned in the WWE, which is not comedy, but at the same time, you have to have a good sense of humor about yourself for that world. And the combo of the two of them, they're really good opposites that actually play as very similar by the time their friendship blossoms in the film."
When asked what makes Jackpot different than any film he’s done in the past, Feig explained how he feels it is “the amped up version of things [he’s] done before,” and that this one is also a “full-on physical comedy:”
"It's just the amped up version of things I've done before. 'Spy' had a lot of action in it and 'Ghostbusters' had action and 'The Heat' had some action in it. But I've always been wanting to do like a full-on physical comedy. But I never wanted to do one that was just silly or frivolous. And so when this script got sent to me with this kind of really hardcore concept in the middle of it, it just felt like the perfect opportunity to get to do everything, to do something that wasn't completely frivolous, but still could be super fun."
Feig shared that when it came to what was the most challenging aspect of the production, he feels that it was definitely "the schedule:"
"The schedule, I think. We had a very limited schedule, we only shot for 40 days. And it was definitely a movie that we could have shot for at least 60 days with all the action, but I didn't want to cheap out on the action. Fortunately, I had an amazing stunt team led by James Young, who does a lot of a lot of the stunt coordinating for Marvel movies like The 'Captain America' movies and all that. And so they're hyper organized. But also we're dying to do funny action comedy, because they don't normally get to do that."
Jackpot hits Amazon Studios' Prime Video on August 15.
Read about other projects on Prime Video here:
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