‘No Sudden Move’ cast weighs in on twists and filming in COVID

NEW YORK – Oscar winning director Steven Soderbergh brings together an all-star cast for crime drama “No Sudden Move” in which a bunch of criminals are called on to carry out a heist that goes wrong.

Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Ray Liotta, Jon Hamm, Brendan Fraser star in the movie, set in 1954 Detroit, where the robbers embark on a mission to find out who hired them.

The actors and co-stars Julia Fox and Frankie Shaw spoke to Reuters about the movie’s unexpected twists and filming during COVID. “No Sudden Move” is released on streaming service HBO Max on Thursday.

Below are excerpts edited for length and clarity.

Q: Did you agree to this film without reading the script?

Del Toro: “For me it was, Don Cheadle in the film, Steven Soderbergh… I said yes before I read the script. I assumed that Don reads the script for me and then I go.”

Hamm: “We shot this movie in deep pandemic in October, November in Detroit … you couldn’t be in better hands than to be in Steven’s (Soderbergh) hands … he works tirelessly, he is editing while he’s shooting. He’s got everything in his head … That feels very good. In a mode where we were very much uncertain about everything, this felt very certain.”

Q: What was filming during the pandemic like?

Shaw: “The crew was pretty pared down because of COVID, which also led to probably more intimacy because there weren’t like a lot of people around.”

Q: Did you figure out the twist in the film when you first read the script?

Liotta: “What you think might be happening doesn’t exactly happen, it goes off into a different direction, so you never really know what’s going on … who knows who.”

Q: Can you describe the film in one word?

Fraser: “Everyone wants something desperately in this film and everyone gets what they deserve.”

Hamm: “Suspense … it’s a very complicated story and it pays off.”

Cheadle: “Entertaining.”

Del Toro: “Fun.”

Fox: “I would say greed.”