Nicholas Hoult (The Great) did a deep dive into the world of foodies to prepare for Searchlight Pictures’ twisted horror comedy The Menu. Hoult plays one of the guests at an exclusive – and isolated – restaurant who discovers his delicious meal comes at a higher price than anticipated.
“It was very difficult because I had to eat at nice restaurants and watch lots of food shows,” said Hoult, laughing. “It was one of those amazing things that the more of Chef’s Table I watched, the more that I was in awe and amazed by these singular-minded, dedicated chefs who committed their whole lives to their craft. And then I was starstruck because Dominique Crenn, who was the food advisor on the movie and designed the menu, she was on set one day and I’d seen her episode and I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s her!’
And I was asking her how you pronounce French words and if I got it right, I’d be like, ‘Oh, she said I said it right.’ So, I just basically became an annoying little person, like my character, that was just obsessed with that world.”
Director Mark Mylod (Succession, Game of Thrones) dished on how he and his stellar cast were able to serve up a variety of juicy courses in The Menu. Mylod, who participated in a press conference along with Nicholas Hoult, Anya Taylor-Joy, Judith Light, John Leguizamo, Hong Chao, and Aimee Carrero, explained that the script’s mashup of tones is what attracted him to the project in the first place. Finding the right balance was quite the challenge, but one that the entire ensemble embraced.
“[…] It’s quite a small target to hit, but we were all attracted to how specific that was,” explained Mylod. “I think for me it was the few days or the week that we spent doing our version of rehearsals, which was basically to sit together or in smaller groups in a room and just talk about issues that interested us in the script and in our story and about our characters. And in doing so, it was perhaps less about what we were actually saying and more about us all tuning in by osmosis, perhaps unconsciously to get on the same level.
I think it’s a Sydney Pollack quote about everybody making the same movie so that by the time we were on set, we all tuned in together and we continued to do so with the huge benefit of shooting the film almost entirely chronologically.”
Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit) plays Hoult’s guest and a last-minute invitee to this pricey dinner. Without revealing anything spoiler-ish, Taylor-Joy described why filming in order was the right choice.
“I think it helped us immensely because there’s a very specific turning point in the film where things do start to get dramatically darker. And up until that point, we’d all been having quite a nice, if odd, dinner party. And then the way that this scene was shot was so visceral, I think it kind of shocked all of us when it happened. That led us down to the new tone of the film. Less of the laughs, more of the gasps, really,” offered Taylor-Joy. “So, I think it really helped us carry that through.”
Judith Light (American Crime Story) and Reed Birney star as a couple in a rocky marriage who, as repeat customers, are no longer impressed by Chef Slowik’s theatrics. (Ralph Fiennes’ Slowik sets the tone and is the architect of the action.) Light described The Menu‘s script as “so fragile and so skeletally created on the surface, but there’s all this other stuff that’s going on underneath and there’s all this room for creativity and expansion, and that was really how we came to work on it together.”
Light added: “Also, a camaraderie was formed. We really were with each other all the time, every day. And there was this intimacy that was also created that allowed for all those different tones to take place.”
Hong Chau (Homecoming) runs the dining room as Elsa, an intense and uncompromising figure whose words slice and dice impertinent customers.
“I signed on not really being able to picture what the final product would look like. That was exciting to me, because I was curious to see how it would turn out and I knew that the people involved were great collaborators to take that leap of faith with. I was a huge fan of Succession and I knew that Mark would be able to take these characters who are unlikable for so many reasons, and somehow weave together a story where you cared about what happened, not necessarily to them, but cared about the situation.”
John Leguizamo (Bloodline) channeled a certain washed-up action hero to get into his character – an actor whose career is basically over even though he refuses to acknowledge that fact. His date for this exquisite dinner is Felicity (Aimee Carrero), his assistant whose plans for the immediate future don’t include remaining in his employ.
Director Mylod revealed the cast was given the freedom to improvise during scenes in the dining room. And it turned out one of the lines that got the biggest laugh in early screenings was one that Leguizamo improvised.
“I don’t want to spoil it for the audience, but something to do with you handling in your notice Amy, and a bad reference maybe that John’s character gave you, which still gets huge laughs in every screening. As well as those laughs, just the insight that gave us to explore these various entitled characters, but to find their underbelly, to find out how and why they got there and where their vulnerabilities are, specifically,” explained Mylod.
“John had something which you can barely hear in the final edit, but man, it gets me every time. You said something about, ‘Oh yeah, I love a frozen ice treat.’ And he’s talking about ice cream, but he calls it ‘frozen ice treat’ or something, which to me is just…I think I even heard it when we were doing ADR. I don’t even know if it’s in the final whatever, but it’s just a crazy thing you say that you hear in passing,” said Carrero.
“I was trying to channel privilege because I don’t understand that,” said Leguizamo, laughing.
In addition to being able to sink his teeth into the role of an actor behaving badly, Leguizamo really enjoyed the film’s political and social commentary.
“I feel like it’s tapping into something that’s happening, especially in America, maybe across the world as well. The disappearing middle class, and these billionaires who think they can control our democracies, control our social platforms, control us, and how they separate us and keep us out and go into their little special bubbles. I think it’s a great commentary on the privilege that’s happening in America, and entitlement and people creating an ‘us vs. them’ and I love them getting their punishment in this flick,” described Leguizamo.
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Searchlight Pictures’ The Menu opens in theaters on November 18, 2022.
