Taylor Sheridan’s Those Who Wish Me Dead features a stellar ensemble across the board, but the relationship between Jon Bernthal’s Ethan and Medina Senghore’s Allison is an undeniable standout.
The film focuses on what happens when a young boy named Connor (Finn Little) makes his way to the Montana Wilderness. He’s trying to evade two ruthless killers (Aiden Gillen and Nicholas Hoult) and suspects he could find safety with his uncle Ethan, a sheriff’s deputy. But before Connor can make it to Ethan, he runs into Angelina Jolie’s Hannah, a smokejumper stationed at a fire watchtower. While Hannah’s leading Connor through the woods, it’s up to Ethan and Allison to stop those killers from getting to them.
Again, Those Who Wish Me Dead features a rather large ensemble of key characters, so there’s only so much screen time to go around. But even while sharing the spotlight, Bernthal and Senghore do an exceptional job conveying the love Ethan and Allison have for one another, the weight of their past together and their excitement for what’s to come in the future. With the movie now available to watch in theaters and on HBO Max, I got the chance to chat with Senghore and Bernthal and had to ask the pair about creating that palpable on-screen connection with one another. Here’s what Senghore said when asked about what made Bernthal an ideal scene partner:
“It’s easy when you’re working with someone who you connect with before the cameras are rolling, who is just a kind, genuine person who puts you at ease. And so, you don’t have to work for that part of it. Okay, great. And then the cameras start rolling and working with an actor like Jon who’s present and who’s spontaneous, all of the sharp right corners that can be there sometimes, just weren’t.”
Bernthal returned the compliment by explaining:
“I feel like you know kind of immediately. You know, ‘Okay, is this person here to really connect?’ And with Medina, you’re dealing with somebody who’s ridiculously intelligent, ridiculously talented and really wants to commit and explore and find something with you. You can’t ask for a better partner for that. I hate to say this because I think a lot of time actors and performers, they try to overcomplicate things. It really does make that stuff kind of easy; when you work with somebody like her, you really can just jump off the ledge together. I believed everything I was seeing, and so that kind of does my job for me. So enormously grateful; I was enormously grateful for her.”
If you’re looking for more from Bernthal and Senghore about their experience making Those Who Wish Me Dead, you can catch our full chat at the top of this article! We’ve also got a conversation with Jolie and Little for you just a click away below.