If you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind charmer, writer-directorMiranda Julyhas you covered with her latest feature,Kajillionaire. The movie starsRichard Jenkins,Debra WingerandEvan Rachel Woodas the Dynes, a family of rather eccentric con artists. They’ve got a system and stick to it, but when they letGina Rodriguez’s Melanie in on their scams, her involvement causes Old Dolio (Wood) to doubt if she really wants to keep following in her parents’ footsteps.
WithKajillionairehitting select theaters on September 25th, I got the chance to chat with Wood about her experience working on the film. Wood broke down how she developed Old Dolio’s unique qualities with July, and also spoke a bit about how they prepared for the Dyne family’s cons. Turns out, they actually toyed around with the idea of attempting some real cons prior to filming:
“We talked about maybe pulling some actual cons before shooting, but we didn’t get a chance. But me and Richard and Debra actually rehearsed a lot with Miranda, and she would choreograph things for us to do, she’d have us change costume in the middle of the scene, she’d have us steal watches and she had us do strange choreographed cons to rehearse so that we could get into it.”
So does all that practice mean Wood might have acquired a few skills, maybe something along the lines of some pickpocketing abilities? Wood got a good laugh out of that question and explained:
“No. Here’s the thing; the Dynes are not good con artists and so I don’t know if we actually gained any useful skills. And I’m also a bad liar. You know, a good actor is very different than a liar. It’s two different things.”
If you’d like to hear more about how Wood and July went about developing Old Dolio’s physicality, Wood’s collaboration with Rodriguez, aPractical Magicmemory and more, check out the full conversation at the top of this article!
