As Adam mentions in his review, Colossal is many things. It's a comedy. It's a monster movie. It's an alcoholism drama. It's an adult coming of age film. It's even (kinda) a wrestling movie. With the cineplexes awash with sequels and remakes what it is most is refreshing. Anne Hathaway (who also produced Nacho Vigalondo's film) stars as Gloria, an out-of-work journalist who's shelved her work aspirations in favor of top-shelf alcohol—to the point where she finds all her things packed up by her boyfriend (Dan Stevens) and she treks back home to figure things out. When she returns home, she immediately picks up with a childhood friend, Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) who owns a bar and not only enables her desire to drink away her problems but also gives her a job at the bar. A funny thing happens after her small town benders, though. A monster appears in Seoul mimicking her movements and destroying buildings. What does it all mean and what will Gloria do with this newfound responsibility?

Colossal is quite funny. I appreciated the old school sitcom charms that attaches itself to some pretty heady subjects. The monster movie has always been used as a fun foray into some pretty though provoking arenas. And Colossal eventually reveals itself to be not just a fun and different monster mash, but also a comment on toxic masculinity and our personal disconnect from the globe despite being more connected than ever through the world-wide-web. But as Hathaway would remind you before you (I) get too serious, it's first and foremost a monster movie.

Recently, I got the chance to sit down with Hathaway and Sudeikis in New York to talk about the unique film. In this exclusive interview, Hathaway discussed her favorite monster movies and why she was worried people would throw shade at her for making this particular one. Her co-star (and her biggest Saturday Night Live-host champion), Sudeikis joined her to talk up monster-movie themes, the surprising ad campaign and how their athlete-become-actor background helped them immediately create a connection.

But only one of them reveals that they had a professional phobia of being caught with their fly down. Read our full interview below and definitely give this movie a shot when it hits your city. It's unique and very fun.

COLLIDER: When you guys were reading the script for the first time, when did you realize it was something completely different?

ANNE HATHAWAY: I think when [Vigalondo] described the .gif. When the monster attacks and someone drops “thug life” as a .gif that goes viral. That was a big one for me. [laughs]

SUDEIKIS: Gosh, it may have been as deep into it for me, when it became different, different… When Oscar, you know, sort of reveals another layer.

HATHAWAY: You’re so hamstrung.

SUDEIKIS: I know, I know.

HATHAWAY: About wanting to protect people’s viewing experience.

I will say, I did re-watch the trailers beforehand and I had to kind of cross off a few questions, but I think it’s great how they haven’t revealed a ton.

SUDEIKIS: I know.

The ad campaign is focused on the monster attacks, but there’s a lot of character things that are completely under zip until release, which is kind of rare. Especially for a film that started getting buzz six months ago and has played multiple festivals.

SUDEIKIS: I 100% agree. I was very surprised by that but also happy to see it happen, because how many second act reveals don’t show up in trailers nowadays? It was maybe the dumbest thing they’ve done for the industry to agree that the best way to sell a movie is to show all of it. There’s a lot that hasn’t been revealed, but it also makes it harder to do press [laughs]. But we’d obviously rather people be surprised so I’ll sit here and deflect.

I know this is more than a monster movie, but do you have an affinity for that genre at all or have any favorites?

HATHAWAY: I really enjoyed Pacific Rim. Like, really enjoyed it. I saw it in the theaters, I’d made a film with Charlie Hunnam a long time ago (Nicholas Nickleby), it was great to see him up there fighting in a giant robot [laughs]. So I thought that was really fun; I liked the creatures.

SUDEIKIS: Yeah. It’s not a genre that I go, you know, when one shows up I go, okay, I gotta go see this, but—I mean, it feels like Wizard of Oz is a monster movie to me with the Wicked Witch, you know, because—

HATHAWAY: You’re gonna get so many more props for you saying that than me saying Pacific Rim.

SUDEIKIS: No, Pacific Rim is a great film! I don’t think Oz comes to people’s heads enough. But yeah that just rattled me, especially growing up in Kansas, it was scary as hell. With tornado watches being a thing that happened all the time, you’re like, oh no, here we go! Somebody going to see Wicked from Kansas would be like, are you kidding me? That sounds like a nightmare, you know, and not just because people are singing, but because of a woman walking out on stage with green skin spun out of a tornado would send them into absolute shock.

So your favorite monster movie is Twister, then.

SUDEIKIS: Yeah, Twister, exactly. But I like when monster movies are—I always like them in hindsight, when people break them down and sort of explain to you what, well, you know, this was that. Like Godzilla is a response to nuclear terror, Kong is a fear of globalization. Or even listening to (Pink Floyd’s) Dark Side of the Moon with the Wizard of Oz playing, have you done that? It’s pretty enjoyable.

HATHAWAY: I fell asleep during it, because of all the reasons why you fall asleep when you listen to Dark Side of the Moon. [laughs]

SUDEIKIS: Exactly, yeah. All that research, early days of the internet, that each person represents a branch of the government, I like how science fiction and monster movies allow for deeper sort of dissection than maybe, you know, Horrible Bosses.

Well, that actually, I had this scribbled for a little bit later, but we’ll go into that now because there’s a segue.

HATHAWAY: Shoot.

When you make a film, a lot of times it isn’t tied to news that’s going on, but when it’s released, the audience sees it and kind of relates to it to how things are happening in the world.

SUDEIKIS: Yeah.

I love Rachel Getting Married, so much…

HATHAWAY: Thank you...

When that came out in 2008, I don’t think it was maybe part of the script, but it felt so much like the Obama "HOPE" poster come to life for having all these cultures in one party setting, like America was invited back to the table of the world after eight years of Bush. And with Colossal, watching it in 2017, I know that it debuted at TIFF 2016, there’s kind of this extra narrative of fighting off men who are trying to control every aspect of Gloria’s life that is kind of interesting within the political climate that we’re watching at the moment.

SUDEIKIS: I mean, you know, men controlling women is a tale as old as Genesis. [laughs]

HATHAWAY: A tale as old as crime. [laughs]

SUDEIKIS: Literally, yeah. It could’ve come out in 2015, 2013—

HATHAWAY: 1015.

SUDEIKIS: It does have a very fine point on it right now, and one that’s certainly on the world’s stage with various marches and protests, and there was prior to the election obviously. But the difference our discourse now feels similar to why people watch Jason vs. Freddy or an MMA fight.

Which does have some fun references in this film. Reactions that are similar to a wrestling match to a faraway tragedy.

SUDEIKIS: Yeah, the applause from the apartments when the monster destroys.

HATHAWAY: Yeah, that was another “thug life” type moment. [laughs] But back to your original question, Rachel Getting Married, we made it in 2007, it was sort of before Obama had jumped to the forefront of everybody’s minds, as that Obama “HOPE” iconography that you mentioned. And same thing with this one; you’re right that it goes out into the world and people add to it but we didn’t have any of the specifics in mind.

Actually, my feeling about [Colossal] when I first read it was oh, is this just speaking to my inner feminist that wants to see this movie? We had an interesting discussion today about the fact that, within the pantheon of films, the making of this movie is feminist without it actually being a feminist movie itself. And so I just thought, am I gonna get called out for wanting to produce this movie because I’m a woman or any of those things, and at no point since then have I been called out on it because it’s all come true in the real world. Not that it’s come true, it was happening before, but it’s all become so undeniable that it’s not some feminist horror show fantasy. It’s not any of the clickbait headlines that you’d want to put on it if you’re a certain type of news organization. It engages with gender ideas but it doesn’t vilify any gender. It’s real, and it’s happening, and it’s around us, I think we wish we weren’t so prescient.

Gloria at the start kind of thinks everything is her fault or her creation due to her alcoholism; like she’s programmed to wake up and apologize but she’s not taking a step back and looking at the fact that she’s also allowing other people to make her feel like she should be in a constant stage of apology...

HATHAWAY: Well, I don’t think she’s ready to take a step back period, because I think that the story she’s telling herself is one of isolation. “I’m doing this to myself, I’ll stop when I want to stop,” and so she’s looking at things very, very closely. When things become real for her is when she realized that she’s putting other people’s lives in jeopardy—across the world, no less. And that’s when she grows up. And that’s when she can start to see certain situations for what they are, and I always loved the fact that her compassion is the thing that starts to show. Can I just pause and mention, because we're getting into some serious conversation, that this is also a monster movie? [laughs]

Yes, but it’s also very funny! You had hosted SNL when Jason was part of the cast, prior...

HATHAWAY: Two times or three times when you were in the cast?

SUDEIKIS: I think it was three. At least three. No, at least two, but I think three.

I’m wondering if, when you make a film like this, it’s much different than a larger film, it’s more contained in the shooting time, it’s much shorter. I’ve always wondered if you’ve worked on SNL and worked with a host on SNL and had some funny collaborative bits, if that chemistry is already brought to a film such as this. Did you guys already kind of see each other riff before and this made it really natural?

HATHAWAY: I just liked you.

SUDEIKIS: Yeah, likewise, yeah.

HATHAWAY: I just feel comfortable with you.

SUDEIKIS: Yeah. I mean, you grew up playing sports, and I grew up around people that did theater, and those worlds rarely collide, you know what I mean?

HATHAWAY: Yeah.

SUDEIKIS: It’s a weird thing for me, for my previous life to be one as an athlete and now in the arts because a lot of times there’s the preconception that people who were athletes shoved people in the arts into lockers. And I loved ‘em, and I was around them and I did speech and debate. So there was that, that Annie and I were both athletes who loved art and I think people who are both end up having a wider view of people’s best qualities because they’re more open. But I would say it was, as much as the joking around and being able to go from being serious on the highway and then get off a little joke, we could do that pretty effortlessly.

I found in our first week working on SNL, that friendly courtship that you share with host, especially because I was heavy in the show that Anne was in. But more importantly, two of my favorite scenes that I’ve done on that show were things that I had written previously, that Annie took a shine to and wanted to do. Based on our initial ease, I was inspired enough to say hey, will you do this? And then her digging it, and then just the way to watch her work. To watch the work is already lovely, but then to watch the way she goes about the work is very inspiring, because there’s a lot of people that really—there’s a choice you make as an artist to love yourself and the art, or the art in yourself, and I think the proper way is to love the art in yourself. She chooses that, it’s second nature to her, so that chemistry is all stuff that you get to see when you’re watching SNL. After a few years, the first year you’re by yourself and eventually you gain more confidence to collaborate and I’d been there a few years already by the time Anne had come in to host, so that was nice because I was able to collaborate with her and she was more than willing to follow down the yellow brick road. [laughs]

A quick question to wrap it up, if you—like Gloria—had an identifiable tic that you would be able to know it was you because you saw the monster do it on a live broadcast, what would your tic be?

HATHAWAY: That’s my tic. [motions to the poster of the monster scratching the top of its head with one finger]

Literally, I was so disappointed because mine’s back here [motions further to the front of her head] and I was looking forward to playing that up, but Nacho said “Oh no, I need it to be up here” [gestures to the back of her head] and, I was like no! I was so sad.

When I made Get Smart, I do different things in different sets sometimes I watch playbacks and sometimes I don’t, but on that movie there was so much physical comedy that I wanted to watch it back. Literally, they would yell cut, and I could tell how anxious I actually was making that movie and how scared I was, because they would yell cut and I would look like a monkey every single time afterwards because I’d scratch with one finger at this one spot on my head. So when I read that she had that tic in the script it felt very meant to be.

SUDEIKIS: Whenever I have a beard, and I’m doing it throughout this whole interview, I mess with it, I pull it a lot.

HATHAWAY: You do do that a lot.

SUDEIKIS: I remember when doing Second City, eight shows a night in the same suit for like three years, I’d have a fear of walking on stage with my fly down, and so there was literally like a burn mark in the front of my fly that I had to get new pants because it just me sort of brushing against to make sure the fly was up. I noticed, I was like, wait, what is that? Oh my god, it’s literally just from the repetition of a cheap suit from, who knows, Old Navy or something.

HATHAWAY: So you went out and bought three from Joseph A. Banks. 29.99.

SUDEIKIS: Three pairs of the same one. I just patched it, I just patched them and you could never take the pants off. Had to get cut out of ‘em. [laughs] So previously an old tic of mine would’ve been checking my fly. [laughs]

Colossal opens in limited release April 7 and expands further in the coming weeks. Here’s the official synopsis for Colossal:

Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is an out-of-work girl who, after getting kicked out of her apartment by her boyfriend, is forced to leave her life in New York and move back to her hometown. When news reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, South Korea, Gloria gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to his far-off phenomenon. As events begin to spin out of control, Gloria must determine why her seemingly insignificant existence has such a colossal effect on the fate of the world.