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Review: ‘Closer to God’ Offers a Modern-Day Frankenstein Tale

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By Andy Webster

• July 2, 2015

Billy Senese’s suspense movie “ Closer to God ” would like you to know the weightiness of its “Frankenstein”-like themes of scientific irresponsibility. So it hammers them home again and again: in staged TV news reports, in scenes of public protest, in conversations between its main character, Dr. Victor Reed (Jeremy Childs), and his wife, Claire (Shannon Hoppe). Victor has produced what he says is the first human clone, an infant named Elizabeth, and taken her home for observation. But Elizabeth isn’t as problematic as Ethan, a previous child experiment raised secretly in a separate house on Victor’s estate. Ethan tends to be manic and homicidal.

Working with skilled collaborators (Mr. Childs, the cinematographer Evan Spencer Brace, the sound designer Nicole Drouhard), Mr. Senese, who wrote the script, has created a cautionary yarn with echoes of David Cronenberg’s “ The Brood ” and an exaggerated sense of its own topical urgency. He persistently exploits the visceral impact of the colicky distress of infants, employing wails and cries so often that they prove less chilling than annoyingly dissonant. Here, the pitchfork-wielding villagers in James Whale’s screen classic “ Frankenstein ” are protesters outside Victor’s front gate, invoking the sanctity of traditional human reproduction. The ferocity of their religious zeal — burning dolls are tossed onto Victor’s lawn — is certainly unsettling.

Having painted Victor as a transgressive offender, Mr. Senese backpedals furiously with a coda asserting the potential rewards of genetic manipulation. It isn’t convincing.

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Film Review: ‘Closer to God’

Billy Senese's small-scale sci-fi suspenser updates 'Frankenstein' for the era of scientific cloning.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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A small-scale sci-fi suspenser, “Closer to God” updates Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story — complete with protags named Victor, Mary and Elizabeth — as commentary on the controversial emerging science of cloning. Here, our modern mad scientist is a sober if obsessive geneticist whose creation of the first human-clone baby stirs a volatile mix of media attention and public protest. A greater danger, however, turns out to already reside in his own household. This Nashville-shot first feature for writer-director Billy Senese is an intelligent, restrained take on genre conventions, but those seeking fantasy thrills may find it too dry, while neither the ideas nor the eventual scares are quite original or surprising enough to elevate “Closer” from the respectable to the memorable. Pic opens July 3 in limited release; modest prospects should be a bit brighter in simultaneous VOD launch.

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Dr. Victor Reed (Jeremy Childs) is a humorlessly committed biological scientist with a privately funded genetic experimental laboratory secreted away on a locked floor in a hospital. We first encounter him as he’s delivering Elizabeth, a seemingly normal infant who’s nonetheless very special as the first of her kind. Reluctantly if cryptically announcing this breakthrough to the public (he refuses to name anyone involved in the baby’s conception or birth besides himself, or to let her be seen as yet), he braves an immediate firestorm of pushy press inquiries, as well as outrage from those who believe such scientific explorations represent a grave offense against God and nature. Others note the great medical advances that cloning might help instigate, but they’re generally shouted down by the pious and appalled.

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The outcry is such that government authorities are pressured to drum up criminal charges against Victor. Worried about security, he transfers the baby from the lab to his own home, a gated country estate where wife Claire (Shannon Hoppe) is already fed up with his workaholic neglect of their own “normal” family, including two preschool daughters. While she can’t help but take a maternal interest in Elizabeth, the tense atmosphere worsens as protestors and media discover the baby’s new location — as leaked by lab assistant Laura (Emily Landham), who has serious ethical and safety worries over the doctor’s treatment of his experimental progeny.

Perhaps even more perilous than the rising clamor outside, however, is a ticking time bomb within: A couple (Shelean Newman, David Alford) who work for the household are also charged with minding a murkily explained older child who is evidently the product of a less successful, earlier cloning attempt. Kept in barred quarters away from the main building (and little seen until the end), the increasingly violent, misshapen Ethan (Isaac Disney) inevitably busts out to go on a rampage, terrorizing all in the climactic reel.

While this story may recall everything from the 1931 “Frankenstein” to “It’s Alive” and 2009’s “Splice,” Senese downplays the horror aspects until late in the game, preferring to focus on the ethical issues of cloning from various conflicting viewpoints. But seriously presented as they are, the arguments are familiar and not all that compellingly acted out. Nor does the eventual monster-on-the-loose action feel very fresh, though it’s staged tautly enough. The result is ultimately admirable more for what it resists — the usual sci-fi horror exploitation cliches — than for the watchable yet somewhat underwhelming impact of a narrative that feels perhaps a little too reined-in for its own good.

Performances and tech/design contributions are fine. Evan Spencer Brace’s extra-wide-format lensing is likewise pro, though to an extent it seems wasted on a production so resourcefully yet borderline-claustrophobically limited in physical scope.

Reviewed online, San Francisco, July 1, 2015. Running time: 81 MIN.

• Production: An Uncork’d Entertainment and Breaking Glass Pictures release of an LC Pictures presentation. Produced by Billy Senese, Jeremy Childs, Jonathan Rogers, Jennifer Spriggs. Executive producers, Billy Senese, Erika Senese.
• Crew: Directed, written by Billy Senese. Camera (color, widescreen, HD), Evan Spencer Brace; editor, Jonathan Rogers; music, Thomas Nola; production designer, Brian Parker; costume designers, Buffy Brooks, Velvet Elizabeth; art director, Rachel Edwards; set decorator, Danny Dones; sound/sound designer, Nicole Drouhard; special effects, Doug Mallette, Daryl Stamps; visual effects supervisor, Scott Brooks; assistant director, Drew Langer; casting, Jeremy Childs.
• With: Jeremy Childs, Shelean Newman, Shannon Hoppe, David Alford, Isaac Disney, Olivia Lyle, Jake Speck, Emily Landham, Josh Graham, John Schuck, Josh Childs, Piper Hoppe, Anna Garges.

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Review: ‘Closer to God’s’ cloning thriller a modern-day ‘Frankenstein’

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The nifty little thriller “Closer to God” tells the what-if story of the first human cloning and its fraught aftermath. With admirable economy, writer-director Billy Senese has crafted an eerie piece that’s as much an effective cautionary tale as it is a stirring film of ideas — and ideals.

A kind of modern-day “Frankenstein” infused with a David Cronenberg-like chilliness, the movie tracks the efforts of Dr. Victor Reed (Jeremy Childs), a biological scientist who has secretly cloned a baby he names Elizabeth.

The landmark experiment proves a cable news bonanza as well as a magnet for protests from the don’t-mess-with-nature crowd. Still, the impassive Reed’s motives seem largely altruistic (think genetic engineering as a way to bypass disease) even if legal, medical and ethical ramifications abound.

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Meanwhile, on the homefront, Claire (Shannon Hoppe), Reed’s wife and the mother of their two daughters, worries not just about the fallout from baby Elizabeth but the presence of the doctor’s erstwhile failed “experiment,” Ethan (Isaac Disney). Feral, deformed and prone to blood-curdling screams, he’s a boy (young man?) hidden away in the Reeds’ guesthouse and tended to by an anxious pair of married employees (Shelean Newman, David Alford).

Perhaps in response to the dubious arrival of Elizabeth, Ethan is ready to rumble — big time. Thus, the film’s third act shifts from sci-fi creep show to slasher picture as the murderous Ethan triggers mayhem across the Reed estate.

The results, in Senese’s capable hands, are tense, telling and haunting. Check this one out.

-----------------

“Closer to God.”

No MPAA rating.

Running time: 1 hour, 21 minutes.

Playing: Laemmle’s Music Hall 3, Beverly Hills.

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‘closer to god’: film review.

A scientist runs into trouble when he creates the first human clone in Billy Senese's sci-fi thriller.

By THR Staff

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Closer to God Still - H 2015

With its scientist protagonist named Victor, Billy Senese ‘s sci-fi thriller Closer to God emphasizes its inspiration from Mary Shelley ‘s Frankenstein . This low-budget effort depicting the calamitous aftereffects of the first successful human cloning presents a modern-day spin on its familiar subject matter. Instead of rampaging, torch-wielding villagers decrying the scientist’s tampering with nature, there are bloviating cable-television commentators.

The film begins with the seemingly normal birth of a baby girl named Elizabeth — except the infant immediately has a sensor attached to her forehead. It turns out that she’s the creation of Dr. Victor Reed (a very convincing Jeremy Childs ), a geneticist determined to use cloning to strengthen the human race. When photographs of the baby leak to the media, he’s forced to give an awkward press conference in which he explains that, technically, he’s not just Elizabeth’s father, but also her brother.

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Things get worse from there, as the good doctor is barraged by a negative publicity blitz, threats of prosecution from various government authorities and throngs of protestors outside his suburban home. It naturally puts a strain on his marriage to his wife, Claire ( Shannon Hoppe ), with whom he’s had two daughters in the more conventional manner.

But even more disturbing is the eventual revelation that the seemingly normal baby girl is not the first product of the doctor’s scientific experiments. His first effort was Ethan ( Isaac Disney ), and it clearly was not a success. The misshapen, maladjusted youth secretly is cared for by Victor’s married housekeepers ( Shelean Newman , David Alford ), and Ethan’s increasingly violent behavior, accompanied by guttural outbursts, veers the proceedings into conventional horror-movie territory.

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The latter aspect is handled in fairly effective, if predictable, fashion, with the feral little boy, seen only in fleeting glimpses, a truly disturbing creation. But the film is less effective in its attempted philosophical examination of its serious themes, largely composed of sound bites from Fox News-style pundits and such shouted exclamations from the protestors as “She has no soul!” The results are neither sufficiently weighty to attract serious-minded audiences nor scary enough for genre fans. The writer-director deserves credit for his comparatively low-key approach to the potentially exploitative material, but much like the infant baby at its center, the film seems artificially cobbled together.

Cast: Jeremy Childs, Shelean Newman, Shannon Hoppe , David Alford, Isaac Disney, Olivia Lyle Director-screenwriter: Billy Senese Producers: Billy Senese , Jeremy Childs, Jonathan Rogers, Jennifer Spriggs Executive producers: Billy Senese , Erika Senese Director of photography: Evan Spencer Brace Production designer: Brian Parker Editor: Jonathan Rogers Costume designers: Buffy Brooks, Velvet Elizabeth Composer: Thomas Nola Casting director: Jeremy Childs

Not rated, 81 minutes

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CLOSER TO GOD and the Ethics of Science

Closer to God. 2014. Directed and Written by Billy Senese. Starring Jeremy Childs, Shelean Newman, Shannon Hoppe, David Alford, and Isaac Disney. LC Pictures. Unrated. 81 minutes. Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller.

Dr. Victor Reed (Jeremy Childs) has completed the first successful cloning of a human being. He creates a baby girl – Elizabeth. She is a full-on experiment; made for research and genetic modifications. Not to mention little Elizabeth is made with the genetics of Dr. Reed/an unnamed individual. Naturally everyone is outraged. People hate what the doctor is doing, but they’ve got no idea what else is going on inside the house. While the storm of angry people push on, morally outraged by the new cloned baby, another child is causing trouble – Ethan.

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Closer to God

This modern day Job like tale of an up and coming Christian lawyer who has come a long way from the streets of his childhood. He and his family are faced with several tests to their faith in... Read all This modern day Job like tale of an up and coming Christian lawyer who has come a long way from the streets of his childhood. He and his family are faced with several tests to their faith including betrayal, success, death and greed. This modern day Job like tale of an up and coming Christian lawyer who has come a long way from the streets of his childhood. He and his family are faced with several tests to their faith including betrayal, success, death and greed.

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• May 21, 2019 (United States)
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• $15,000 (estimated)

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Fantasia Review: Frankenstein Story ‘Closer to God’ is an Endearing Update

John anderson.

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As they say around the water cooler at the genetics research lab, when you’re a clone, you’re never alone.

That’s certainly the case for tiny Elizabeth, the replicant/science project of “Closer to God,” which materialized this week at Fantasia Fest in Montreal. A Frankenstein story with an advanced medical degree, Billy Senese’s cautionary tale – cautionary about what, exactly, we will pursue below – possesses a vague sense of ’70s melodrama; exhibits a facility with dread; and, most critically, makes a convincing argument that what we don’t see is definitely going to hurt us.

When Dr. Victor Reed (Jeremy Childs) announces to the public that he has created a human clone, using his own DNA and that of another unnamed source, the response seems predictable to everyone but Victor. The villagers, forsaking the pitchforks and torches for Bibles, are outraged; so are the authorities, who immediately start looking for ways to prosecute the good doctor. Victor’s household, where he is forced to bring the baby thanks to the onrush of press and protesters, is none too happy either.

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The infant Elizabeth, who has made a blood-soaked caesarean intro of her own during the film’s opening moments, has a sensor immediately attached to her forehead, an appliance that is airbrushed out of the photos that Reed subsequently distributes to the press. No one’s supposed to know, but the plan for the baby is research and genetic modification; the atmosphere of peril is thick: Do the conventional niceties between movie directors and babies – a quasi-Hippocratic “do no harm” – apply to clones? We start to wonder, as does one of the doctors, who leaks info to the media and helps create the siege situation outside the Reed home.

What’s inside that house already, however, is equally dangerous — and despite the fundamentalist ravings of the anti-clone mob, far more scary.

There are a lot of reasons to oppose human cloning that don’t involve, strictly speaking, religion: The breeding of humans for spare parts, for instance. Or the creation of a second or third class of people in a society that’s far too stratified already. Writer/director Billy Senese, making his feature debut, focuses on the religious aspects of the debate, perhaps because he comes from the religious-publishing capitol of the world (Nashville), or maybe because it’s an effective way to imposing black and white morality onto a very grey issue. Regardless of motive, Senese does create convincing tension. And while he tells an intelligent story, he fails to examine the issue with anything close to balance, despite some gestures in that direction.

But the mystery at hand evolves with precisely calibrated, skin-crawling momentum: Childs, who appeared in Senese’s highly praised short films (“The Intruder,” “The Suicide Tapes”) is not a conventional leading man, which is great: He looks like a research scientist, he sounds like a research scientist and he acts like a research scientist with something to hide — and it’s not the perfectly developed infant clone with the stud in her head. It’s the thing he’s hiding at home: Ethan, the human result of an earlier failed experiment, who has been tended to for years by Victor’s housekeepers Mary and Richard (Shelean Newman, Richard Alford) but is getting too big to be confined to his closet, and too much in pain to be ignored.

Victor is running a madhouse of moral, ethical and biological horrors, but it’s the pedestrian stuff that falls flat: Claire (Shannon Hoppe) is Victor’s wife and mother to his two conventionally produce children – a source of additional apprehension during the antics of Ethan. But there’s little reason to think the parties are related, much less intimate; Hoppe is not directed… well, much at all and it makes for confusion about who is caring about whom.

The upside is Senese’s feel for the visual flourish, and his evident distaste for ignorance and fear: A dream in which Victor imagines baby dolls, burning in effigy and being hurled over his front gate by the horde beyond it, is a wild bit of anti-fundamentalist fun. Less amusing are the rantings of God’s “chosen,” eager and ready to savage a baby who violates the will of God (a god with whom they have a personal, intimate and, most of all, exclusive relationship). Senese couldn’t have intended it, but his scenario suggests those patriotic Americans currently screaming at refugee children on our borders, or attacking the wrong school bus.

Senese has made a convincing, slightly campy contribution to genre cinema. But he’s also struck a blow against stupidity.  

“Closer to God” premiered this week at Fantasia. It does not currently have U.S. distribution.

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Closer to God

Closer to god movie review.

Written by Richelle Charkot

Released by Uncork'd Entertainment and Breaking Glass Pictures

Written and directed by Billy Senese  2014, 81 minutes, Not Rated  Released on VOD on July 3rd, 2015

Starring: Jeremy Childs as Victor Shelean Newman as Mary Shannon Hoppe as Claire David Alford as Richard

For some reason, the last couple of things that I’ve had to review have been really tired mad scientist stories. So, imagine my surprise when I finished Closer to God , yet another story about a Dr. Frankenstein character, and found that not only is it a unique and interesting story, but it has a relevant and interesting message for its viewers. This air-tight plot is paired with dark and subtle cinematography, and although it is no easy viewing for someone who is looking for something to passively watch, it is entertaining and undeniably eerie.

Dr. Victor Reed is a geneticist who has created the first human clone using part of his DNA, a precious baby named Elizabeth. Although the experiment seems to have gone off without a hitch, Reed insists that Elizabeth be kept a secret from the public for at least a month, so that he can finish testing and make sure that she is safe once she is out of a controlled environment. News leaks of her existence and the hospital quickly becomes a dangerous place for her to stay, so Reed moves his ‘daughter’ to his home, where he is confronted with the fact that he has been ignoring his own family and all of the glaring issues in that dynamic, such as his depressed and lonely wife. Religious protestors begin to flock around the residence, and toppled onto the mountain of the doctor’s problems is that his caretaker Mary can’t bare another moment taking care of Reed’s failed secret experiment before Elizabeth, a mutated and angry clone named Ethan.

Using everything that is in his arsenal as a filmmaker, writer/director Billy Senese has created a realistic depiction of what might happen if someone created a human clone. The script is equipped with believable dialogue and understandable motives from each character, whether they be a primary, secondary or tertiary inclusion. Also, the actors are brilliantly cast and not too ‘Hollywood’ for their roles, specifically Jeremy Childs as Victor, as he looks exactly like what one would expect from an obsessive geneticist.

Closer to God manages to accomplish a lot by showing very little - specifically, the amount of discomfort that’s inflicted from the scenes featuring Ethan. Only in the last few moments is he fully seen on camera (and even then he’s immersed in shadows), but before that, all that the film gives you is a glimpse of his hunched shoulder or an elusive peek at what his face might look like, but for the most part he is not seen whatsoever and his high-pitched and grating screams are only heard. The choice to not depend on makeup and prosthetics and instead allow the viewers minds to run wild with what he might look like suits the tone of this film beautifully, because it isn’t a monster movie, it’s much more psychological.

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Closer to God: Jessicas Journey

Dove review.

This story will move you…guaranteed. This cast is wonderful and the movie features an outstanding performance by Savannah Rae Linz as a dying teenager named Jessica Donaldson. She has cancer and just wants to live life before she dies but her loving mother, Rose (Jaqueline Hickel), is overprotective and is finding it more than hard to let go. Jaqueline Hickel, like Savannah, gives a terrific performance. Also in fine form is Bill Suplee as Rose’s dad, Kelly Doyle, who wound up in prison when she was a child and comes back into her life. He wants forgiveness and to be a part of her and his grandkids life but Rose finds it difficult to forgive him. When Grandpa helps Jessica live a little bit, like teaching her how to drive, Rose becomes unglued.

Yet it is Grandpa and Jessica who teach Rose that life must be lived before one can peacefully face death. When Rose learns it is her dying daughter’s wish to attend her prom, she becomes determined to find a way to make it happen. This one is a bit of a tearjerker due to the moving performances by the actors and the tender story which is told. The director, Jenn Page, knocks it out of the park with how she tells this warm and touching story. In one unforgettable scene Jessica is making a video and says that her doctor told her that her cancer is a level 3, which is the highest. “I’m an overachiever” she jokes, and then she cries. We are more than glad to award this terrific movie five Doves, our highest rating. Due to the sophisticated themes regarding death, we are recommending it for ages twelve plus although some parents will be fine with their children ten and up watching it. This film features themes of forgiveness and giving God the reins when life doesn’t make sense. This one will hit home to everyone who has ever lost someone close. It’s one that should be seen.

Dove Rating Details

H-1; Dummy-1; MG-1

A woman tells her father to make sure she gives the daughter her prescription drugs.

Family tensions between a woman and her father; the topic of a dying teen; grief; a girl is heard getting sick and is seen kneeling at the toilet.

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AVAILABLE NOW IN THEATERS & ON-DEMAND

“The results, in Senese’s capable hands, are tense, telling and haunting. Check this one out.” The Los Angeles Times

“A stellar performance from Jeremy Childs.” Dread Central

“childs’ performance is quite riveting.” ain’t it cool news, “childs takes us on a tour of human emotion when confronted by every imaginable institution. his performance is excellent.” truth on cinema.

Available Now In Theaters & On Demand

New york – cinema village los angeles – laemmle – music hall portland – clinton street theater san francisco – roxie theater philadelphia – the roxy chicago – facets cinematheque denver – sie film center miami – cinema paradiso dallas – texas theater cleveland – capitol theater.

In this dark and gritty sci-fi thriller, a brilliant geneticist, Dr. Victor Reed, has just achieved a huge scientific breakthrough by successfully cloning the first human being, an adorable baby girl named Elizabeth. This immediately becomes a media spectacle and ignites a firestorm of debate concerning the moral and religious implications of such a discovery. Soon, Dr. Reed and his family lose all sense of privacy and safety as they are swarmed by protesters and the media. Their biggest threat, however, could be Victor’s own secret.

“gut-punch cinema, done harrowingly right” fangoria, “a frankenstein story with an advanced medical degree” indiewire, “it’s rare to come across a film that deals with the ramifications of such groundbreaking science in as real and terrifying a way” dread central, “smartly-executed” twitchfilm, “great performances, and an unbearable air of tension and foreboding” the hollywood news, “genuinely unsettling … truly transgressive horror” badass digest, “gothic thrills … with a climactic burst of old-fashioned horror” screen daily, “a genuinely terrifying and balanced film of incredible quality.” the hollywood news, “an ambitious, thoughtful and provocative take on the frankenstein story” screen daily, “there are moments where viewers may forget to breathe” the hollywood news, “precisely calibrated, skin-crawling momentum” indiewire.

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Nikolaj Coster-Waldau may be best known for his role as Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones , but for audiences who didn't watch HBO's watercooler hit, Coster-Waldau is perhaps most recognized as Mark King in Nick Cassavetes ' revenge-filled rom-com The Other Woman . Now, a decade later, Coster-Waldau and Cassavetes have reunited on a new film, which trades rom-com hijinks for murder, kidnapping, and plotlines that aren't for the faint of heart.

God is a Bullet , which arrives in theaters on June 23, is a harrowing action-thriller based on Boston Teran 's novel by the same name. It follows Bob Hightower's (Coster-Waldau) descent into the criminal underbelly, as he pursues the dangerous cult which murdered his wife and kidnapped his 14-year-old daughter.

In order to get close to the cult, Hightower is forced to shed his good-natured, even-keeled personality, and become just as ruthless as the monsters who took his daughter. In the process, he forms a close bond with Case Hardin ( Maika Monroe ), the only surviving escapee of the cult, and their connection becomes the emotional anchor amidst the horrors of their situation.

Ahead of the film's premiere, Collider had the opportunity to chat with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau about the film, why he chose to take on the project, what it was like to explore such stomach-churning and emotionally-charged plotlines, why there is so much beauty in the connection between Bob and Case, and how he approaches each role he takes on—especially one like Bob Hightower.

COLLIDER: So, this movie is so intense from start to finish, and I really loved it, but I'm curious to know what drew you to this script.

NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU: Well, Nick Cassavetes drew me to the script. We did a movie years ago called The Other Woman , which is a very– I don't know what you call it [laughs]. It's obviously a comedy, it's this female revenge fantasy, in some ways. When we shot that, he gave me the script to God Is a Bullet , and he said, “I've been wanting to make this for years. Take a look at it.” Then I read it and was like, “Great, let's do it!” Then it was another, I don't know, eight years, and he called and said, “I found the financing, so let's do it.” So it was always Nick. We had a great, great time on The Other Woman .

I mean, it's an insanely dark story, and I was convinced with a movie like that, you need someone with the passion that he has, and he has incredible passion. And then he was so focused on his vision, and I wanted to support that. I thought, “This is gonna be a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” and it was. We shot most of it in Mexico. I'm so happy I did that movie, and I'm so happy for Nick that he got to do the movie because he carried that for, I think, now it's more than 20 years. But again, just to answer your question, Nick Cassavetes, that's the answer.

You can definitely feel that it's a passion project because it's done so well, and you feel the passion of, “This has to be made!” To the point that you made about it being very dark, your character goes on such a compelling, emotional journey throughout this film. For you as an actor, what was it like to explore essentially a crisis of faith, a descent into darkness, and so many really fascinating themes?

COSTER-WALDAU: Well, it was a challenge. You always talk about movies, and how does it affect you? And I think this one, for a number of reasons, took its toll. I think it took a toll on all of us. We were isolated, and as you can imagine, every day the scenes were brutal and extreme, emotionally. You're kind of facing the darkest aspects of humankind, in a way. And then what Nick was so good at was saying, “Listen, at the core of this, it's about finding hope when there's no hope and insisting on connecting with people,” and also, even that whole basic thing about not judging a book by its cover.

You have this man of faith who, when we meet him, he's kind of in an existential life crisis; he's lost his wife, he's kind of lost his purpose. He only has one thing going for him, and that's his daughter. That is the reason he gets up in the morning, and then suddenly, the worst thing that I think any parent can imagine happens. She is taken by this horrible cult. Then he finds hope through the most unlikely person, the character Maika [Monroe] plays so incredibly well and moving, in this young woman who is also facing a life crisis, if you will.

It was really just an insane shoot, and it brought all of us very close because we really needed each other, all of us, because there weren't really any scenes that were just full of joy. There really weren’t. It starts really dark, and then it just descends into further darkness. But even then, Nick is a romantic. You can say that he clearly believes in love, and he believes that there's goodness even in the darkest places, and he found those moments of light, or at least of compassion, that I thought were interesting to explore.

That's what made me love this so much, the romantic undercurrent between Bob and Case. I saw the 2.5-hour director's cut, so I don't know how the final cut will end up looking, but I spent so much of the movie trying to figure out if I was reading too much into the chemistry between them, so I was so happy that there was an actual payoff for that. I'm curious, can you talk a little bit about that dynamic between Bob and Case? It is so fascinating to watch how it evolves throughout the film.

COSTER-WALDAU: Well, it's interesting because, in many ways, it's a classic story of two people who couldn't, at least on the surface… That whole thing about don't judge a book by its cover, you have two people who, when they see the other, the other one kind of symbolizes everything they don't like about other human beings [laughs]. He's this cop who's, in her mind, he's stuck in his ways. He's full of prejudice towards her. And they have that, they share that, they see each other, they already make up their minds about who the other person is, and it's definitely not someone they would like to spend time with. But they slowly connect, and they realize, “Hang on. Actually, there's something here. We have to go below the surface.” And below the surface, they're both two people desperate for help and also to help others, to connect and to be seen, and through this nightmare, which it really is, they find maybe another version of themselves that is true to who they really are. Bob is faced with having to kind of question his whole belief system, and in a way, the same for Case.

Also, I have to say that I didn't know Maika before. I've seen her in a movie called It Follows . Obviously, I knew she was a fantastic actress, but… I mean, if you've seen the film, it's quite extraordinary to play someone with that much passion, anger, and yet be so vulnerable at the same time. I was just in awe of working with her.

She really is fantastic to watch. You both are in the way that you explore these characters, and it got me thinking. Before I started doing this job I worked in the film industry and I love to hear about how actors build their characters. How do you build your roles? Are you somebody who journals or reads the kind of things that the character would read or listens to the kind of music they listen to? What was your approach to bringing all of that nuance and life into Bob?

COSTER-WALDAU: I don't have a set way of doing things. It's very much, you know, a project will kind of guide you along if you allow yourself to open up, and this one just sucked me in. I mean, Bob just sucked me in. And again, credit to Nick for being very clear on what he wanted and what he saw. I mean, to be able to play with him, to discuss with him, to argue. We both share a focus on finding truth, whatever that is, an emotional truth. Because, of course, there's all the basics, he's a cop, a lot of time being spent on how he ended up where he is now, like imagining his life, what he was as a young man, how he slowly was broken down into what we meet at the beginning of the film.

But, really, for me, it's when the work starts—I mean, we had rehearsals before, of course, and that's when you start opening up—to me, it always happens when I work with the other actors and with the director. That's when you have all your ideas, all your thoughts. But when the director is Nick, it just becomes clearer. And this one, it became clearer and also became harder because you just constantly— I mean, I spend most of the film imagining the worst. I have two daughters, they're older than Gabi in the film, but of course, it’s, as I said, every parent's nightmare that not only is your daughter gone, but you know that she's going through hell and there's nothing you can do. So to carry that despair and the horror of that situation for the whole shoot, it just got deeper and deeper, which made the need to connect with Maika’s character, Case… It just became a natural thing.

I always find it difficult to talk about process, but you just have to allow yourself to open up, but for this movie, you open up to a lot of very unpleasant thoughts. But I have to say, also, the good thing with the whole gang, both the crew and the actors, we were able to cast some– Because usually when I work, I very much stay to myself. I mean, for some reason, I like to go to work, and then I go my own way. Here we were together all the time, and it was actually a thrill. We had some great nights on the weekends where we just had to be silly and have fun because the week was so…you know. Everyone, the whole gang, Karl Glusman, who plays Cyrus, he has to deal with being this monster, and you know, everybody just needed to just breathe, and thank God it was such a great group of people.

God is a Bullet is in theaters this Friday. Check out the trailer for the film below:

• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

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