PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I have to say… Director Gore Verbinski (Read our interview with him HERE) choosing Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die for his first film in nine years was the absolute best thing to do. We last saw Gore with 2016’s A Cure for Wellness and fans have been waiting impatiently for his next project. And he’s so back! Starring Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple, Michael Pena, and Zazie Beetz (Read our interview with them HERE), Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a wildly unique, inventive, in-your-face sci-fi think piece that audiences need right now. It’s relevant. It will invoke discussions that need to be had about the dangers of AI and the effect and consumption of technology in our lives and society as a whole, and you know what? It’s pretty fucking terrifying.
A “Man From the Future” arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence
To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with star Haley Lu Richardson via Zoom about what made her want to play Ingrid, crafting her favorite scene, and more!
PopHorror: I loved Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die! I’m super excited to talk to you about it today.
Haley Lu Richardson: Thank you!
PopHorror: What intrigued you about the script and made you want to be a part of the project?
Haley Lu Richardson: Everything. There wasn’t one thing that I was like, oohh I don’t know about that. It was the funnest script I’ve ever read, but also the most fucked up unsettling script I’ve ever read. It tackles these themes that are real that are happening or are about to happen but it does it in this way that’s just funny but also should I be laughing? But also like wow, I’m going to leave the theater really thinking about this. It’s just a one-of-a-kind movie and I think it’s very important timing in a lot of ways. Also, just all of the characters… Just everything about the way Matthew [Robinson] wrote this script is perfect to me. I love it. It’s maybe my favorite experience reading a script ever.
PopHorror: I agree 100% with all of that. It’s going to invoke a lot of discussion and I like that.
Haley Lu Richardson: Yeah, important! Hopefully it will and it’s an important discussion. I love when movies can do that in a unique way and this is a very unique way.
PopHorror: This movie moved me with its chaotic and engaging social commentary on our consumption of technology. What particular scene are you most proud of?
Haley Lu Richardson: I guess something that’s so fucked up for Ingrid is when Tim [Tom Taylor] leaves her to live in this VR world. It’s like, been a couple days and he completely loses himself and any tether to reality in this beautiful relationship that they share. Doing that was such an extreme situation that I was drawing on heartbreak and rejection and abandonment, things that I’ve experienced in my life, but this was such an extreme, ridiculous but not that far off something that could be happening scenario. It was like I cared a lot. Well, I cared a lot about all the scenes because I care about acting unfortunately. I try really hard, unfortunately. But that one in particular, I was like this is such a pivotal moment for her and then it’s what sparks her going to Norms and being in this really hating life place and then sparks the energy that she carries around the rest of the movie. I really wanted to get that right because he’s really all she has and he truly just abandons her in the most fucked up way. When we were done with that scene, I was… I don’t know proud but I felt accomplished that we did it and I did everything I could with it.
PopHorror: I love that. I really felt for her after that.
Haley Lu Richardson: Thanks! Yeah, there was a lot I realized, like my makeup artist would AirDrop me screenshots that she took of the monitor throughout filming and stuff so I could see because she’s such a cool look. She has such a cool look so it was so exciting to see how it was coming across on screen. She would send me these screenshots and I just realized that nine out of ten times Ingrid is making this face [makes face]. She’s literally emoji frowning the whole movie. I feel for her too.
Thank you so much to Haley Lu for taking the time to chat with us. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is now in theaters!
