Joey King is proving to be quite the force in this industry. Her incredible range and screen presence have been on display since day one, but now she’s also using her years of experience to further influence her projects for the better behind the scenes, projects like her latest feature film, The In Between.
King leads the Paramount+ release as Tessa, a teenager who bounced around foster homes for quite some time growing up and now believes finding “the one” just isn’t in the cards for her. However, then she meets Kyle Allen’s Skylar. There’s an instant spark between the two that blossoms into a love story one could only dream of. But then their romance is cut short when they’re involved in a car accident and only Tessa survives. While struggling to cope with what happened, Tessa becomes convinced that Skylar is trying to contact her from the afterlife.
With The In Between now available to watch on Paramount+, King joined us for an episode of Collider Ladies Night to retrace her steps in the industry and pinpoint exactly how she built up the skillset to both headline and produce a feature film.
One thing that made a significant impression on King during her early days making movies? She was often surrounded by the best influences, creators like her White House Down, Stonewall and Independence Day: Resurgence director, Roland Emmerich.
“I did three films with Roland. I’ve been friends with him for almost 10 years now. I remember working with him when I was 13 and I was just amazed by him, how everyone on set loved him, how he spoke so candidly with everyone while still remaining so kind. He wouldn’t lie to you or beat around the bush and say things that weren’t true. He would just be super frank with you, but in this way where you’re like, ‘Oh my god, you treat me like a family member. This is wonderful.’ And I just love him and I think I always will. He’s a great man.”
King was a young actor looking up to seasoned pros for many years, but eventually, the time would come when she would be looked at in a similar way. Here’s what King said when asked for the point when she first noticed she was being treated like an adult on set and her creative input was being heard in a different way:
“Even though I was still a young lady, I was 17, on the first Kissing Booth is kind of when I felt like my opinion on this character and on the trajectory of the story was being taken into consideration. And that’s because of our wonderful producer and director and Netflix, Vince [Marcello] and Michele [Weisler] and everyone at Netflix, really wanted me to feel so part of it. And so when I was offered the position of executive producer on the last two films, that was when I was like, ‘Okay, this is freakin’ awesome.’ But coming from the first Kissing Booth, I almost went right into filming The Act, which was also, in a different way, very different genres, in a completely different way [was] a little bit of an awakening for me as an actor as well. And what better person to lead me in this new awakening than Patricia Arquette, who just is the coolest of all time! So those two in extremely different ways I feel like awakened different parts of me that ultimately made me a better actor and a better person I think.”
So at this point, yes, King had producing experience working as an executive producer on The Kissing Booth 2 and 3, but The In Between was a different situation that challenged King to board a film before a script was even written and then see the project through to fruition.
“I was with this project from the very beginning, before the script was even written. So for example, I gave lots of notes on each draft of the script, which was so exciting and eyeopening because I feel like I learned how to give proper notes and I also was like, ‘Wow, it’s really fun to be able to notice things and be able to say something and have it be taken seriously.’ And I got to help cast Kyle [Allen] who is just the best. I love him!”
King also noted that working as a producer on this particular film gave her the opportunity to be involved in conversations that actors are normally kept out of. She explained:
“A lot of actors are a lot of times sheltered from conversations on set because people just want them to focus on the work and not worry about cleaning up the mess that’s behind the scenes, but learning about that stuff and knowing it was happening, for me, I think I’m able to compartmentalize, and so I really liked that aspect of it because I knew what was going on but when it came time to perform, I was able to block out the noise. And I liked learning that about myself because I feel like it would make me more productive in the future to know that I can do that.”
Looking for more from King? We’ve got you well covered in that department! If you’d like to hear more about King’s earliest acting experiences, how she feels about her Emmy nomination for The Act, how she connected to The In Between’s exploration of After Death Communication and more, you can give her episode of Collider Ladies Night a watch in the video at the top of this article or listen to the 30-minute interview uncut in podcast form below.
The In Between is now available to stream on Paramount+!