From first-time feature filmmaker Edson Oda, the stripped down fantasy drama Nine Days follows a reclusive man named Will (Winston Duke), whose duty it is to interview human souls hoping for a chance to be born and select who is the most suitable. When the free-spirited Emma (Zazie Beetz) forces him to face his own demons, it sets Will on a new path in his own life.
During this virtual interview with Collider, which you can both watch and read, co-stars Duke and Beetz talked about how writer/director Oda brought this world to life, Will’s personal conflict, why Emma awakens something in him, and what it was like to share that moment at the end of the film. Duke also talked about how emotional it was to return to set for Black Panther 2, while Beetz admitted to not having any info. to share on Invincible Season 2.
Collider: This is such an interesting film because it feels like this big concept story, but it’s told in such a personal way. When you read the script, what did you make of the world that it creates? Did you visually see it right away, or did you have a lot of questions?
ZAZIE BEETZ: I actually feel like I saw it, basically just as it appears in the film. I have to say, I think it’s pretty true to when I imagined. I think (writer/director) Edson [Oda] did a good job of providing a visual world in the script that he wrote, with the contrast of this small house that felt womb-like, in comparison to the expanse of the desert. I think it matched up pretty well to what I had pictured.
WINSTON DUKE: Yeah, I would echo that. What was on the script and on the page really translated pretty directly to screen. The script didn’t change very much. We changed a little bit of language to make it a lot more nuanced for the actor playing. We got a chance to cut lines and things like that. If anything, Edson did more cutting back on the script that he did really adding to it because it was already so full. What we made was pretty much what it always was on paper.
It feels like a huge responsibility to be someone who determines which individuals are most suitable for the journey of life. Winston, up until this moment, how has Will felt about that?
DUKE: I think Will is in a place of deep confusion and it is a huge conflict for him, being a person who’s lived before and who, to some degree, feels like he was defeated by life, to the point where he took his own life, and now has to be the person who is deciding who gets to be born. He has a clear understanding that life can be hard and life can be traumatic and it can be painful, but he’s still in a space where he’s trying to decide and help guide these spirits to essentially what might be their final destination and giving this present to all the others. It’s just something that’s really special. For Will, I don’t think he really wants to be there, but the way he goes through his life and his world is one of trying to have as much control as he can because that’s the only thing that seems like reality that he can actually discern. Even him waking up in that space, I imagined was incredibly traumatic.
It seems so sad and lonely and empty to watch life unfold on a series of old TV sets. Zazie, what do you think it is that makes Emma different? What do you think it is about her that makes Will start to look at things differently?
BEETZ: I think that Emma functions a lot in the present and remaining present, and really just seeing things as they are, right in front of her, whether they’re good or bad. Will, being in this space of the doldrums of day-to-day existence, Emma awakens interest again. These things that he’s doing every day are special and her childlike wonder around it all is infectious to Will and allows him to review what he’s been taking for granted. He even chooses to review what his pain is and what his grief is versus just compartmentalizing it and putting it away. She challenges it and says, “I see this here too. What is it?” And makes him face it. She’s a very unique character. All of them have this, but the uniqueness in not having a backstory and not having a background, and really just engaging in what’s right there. Emma, particularly, is just very moment by moment oriented, and not the future or the past. Some of the other spirits are a bit more concerned about the future and what’s gonna happen with them.
There’s something so incredibly beautiful and sad about that sequence at the end, where Will is giving his monologue and the two of them are having these moments and they’re screaming with each other. What got you into that moment, to really live in it and embrace it and feel all of it? Was part of what helped you guys, having each other there?
BEETZ: Yeah. We shot most of this in sequence because it allowed us to build to that moment. It’s very interesting, we didn’t rehearse that scene at all, between the two of us. When Winston was working on the monologue, he and Edson were doing stuff together, but I went in and just listened. During the whole shoot, Winston’s character was guarded or trying to protect himself. And I remember that day, he came in and was like, “I’m just ready to give.” It was really cool to see Will give. I was very moved by it and I was surprised at how just being there, and then with the desert being so wide open and having such a different feeling, felt very cathartic versus this small space that we had been living in, up until that moment. Those were the last days of shooting, when we did that. It was a shift in how we were working, and then also just a change in space.
Was it the same way for you, Winston? Did that really just felt like a moment to have?
DUKE: Of course. That scene didn’t really come together until the final scene partners showed up, and that was the salt flats and the desert. The desert itself informed us on what the monologue meant and how we could exist in that moment because we were just out there in the open and there was a lot of beautiful energy of land and environment there. When you’re speaking about resources and natural factors and being in touch with the earth and being in touch with all things around you, there’s no better stage and no better scene partner than the landscape. It really became something incredibly special. We built towards that moment, so we had nothing, but a lot of trust as performers. The love that Emma and Will created for each other got to be center stage, at that moment, where she finally got to play with him and he finally got to play again. It became something that just was really special.
Winston, we all know that the Black Panther sequel is filming. After making the first movie and the success of that, and then the loss of Chadwick Boseman, was it emotional to read that script?
DUKE: To read the Black Panther 2 script?
Yeah.
DUKE: Yeah, it was very emotional to read the script. It was emotional to pack to go back to set. But we’re all a bit of a family now and we grieve together, and we’re making something really special.
Zazie, what can you say to tease Season 2 of Invincible?
BEETZ: I don’t know what’s gonna happen. You probably know more than I do.
Nine Days is now in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York City, and opens nationwide on August 6th.