TIFF 2022: A Q&A with the Cast of ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery’

Please note: This Q&A recap does not contain spoilers for Glass Onion. However, details of the film will be discussed.

Prepare for the charming Knives Out caper to sweep you back up in its star-studded embrace with Glass Onion!

I had the opportunity to attend the world premiere of Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). This mystery loves its tricks, but after the credits rolled, it was all treats as the cast stepped onstage to share their first impressions of the film.

The panel included Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, and Kate Hudson, with Producer Ram Bergman and Director Rian Johnson also in attendance.

Not In New England Anymore

The critical difference between films is the setting. Glass Onion does away with the cozy New England architecture in favor of a secluded Greek island that doubles as Miles Bron’s millionaire lair.

“We shot it a few hours south of Athens. There was this beautiful resort called Villa 20,” Johnson described. However, the centerpiece of the mansion is all movie magic. “Minus the glass onion, that was us.”

The island getaway has many easter eggs hidden within its walls, one of which is the hourly gong you hear throughout the film.

“That’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s cameo in the movie. He says the word “dong,” and then we turned it into a musical chime,” Johnson revealed.

Fans may find themselves in an unfamiliar setting when Benoit Blanc returns, but the director ensured “rich, entitled assholes getting together” is still the common theme inhabiting these stories. “To me, that’s just a byproduct of the very purposeful choice of these movies being set in America in the present day.”

Stand Out Scenes

Since the cast was seeing the finished film for the first time at TIFF, they were happy to share their favorite scenes with the crowd.

For Henwick, her character’s line, “Do you think sweatshops are where they make sweatpants?” stood out, and how could it not? Iconic.

For Monáe, getting to smash the glass sculptures on set was memorable. “Shoutout to the crew that would have to clean up that glass every time we dropped it,” she mentioned. Cline agreed with her co-star, “I think smashing the glass was my favorite. We rehearsed how that would work for weeks, so we became very acquainted with that set and very much enjoyed it.”

With only a few locations featured in the film, Hahn confirmed the sets became the centerpiece of their time together. “The sequence in the living room in Miles Bron’s amazing house. That was really fun to watch and shoot because we were in there for some time, and it was a real bonding experience.”

And Norton’s favorite scene is so good, it’s only right we preserve suspense. “On the page and in the film, Blanc running the table and busting [spoiler] in one stroke just took me right out.”

Seeing It On the Big Screen

Odom Jr. shifted gears to acknowledge how incredibly satisfying those first moments of watching the film on the big screen were for him and the rest of the cast.

“I think coming in tonight, not having seen it, I was understandably a little tense and a little nervous. So I don’t think I’ll ever forget that first ten minutes of the movie with all you guys — like it means so much. It’s so funny, and seeing it all cut together, my shoulders went down. That was really special,” he admitted.

“I’m going to go with Leslie on this one,” Hudson said. “I loved seeing all of us come together because we didn’t get that opportunity. We only did it in rehearsal together and then shot it all separately. So to see that for me was the same feeling like *sigh* there we are.”

Monáe chimed in to add to the feels, “My favorite is a scene that you guys didn’t see. The scene of us all being together outside of working on this movie.”

“We really bonded. I mean, we were in the middle of making a murder mystery film, and we literally were having murder mystery parties,” Monáe said, inciting hope videos of such parties exist somewhere.

“We act, we make art, and we do all these things, but it’s really the people that you have these experiences with that make them so fulfilling and rich.”

As for Daniel Craig’s favorite scene? It was “every fucking one of them.”

And the actor couldn’t be happier to hear the audience react with similar enthusiasm. “All of these guys just blow me away, and I’m so happy you guys reacted the way you did. And seeing it with you means so much to us. We had a great time, but we didn’t make it for ourselves; we made it for you.”

Outsmarting the Audience

Knives Out‘s success suggests the key to a good whodunnit is being able to outsmart the audience, but Johnson disagreed.

“Nobody is smarter than the audience, and it’s a fool’s game to try and outsmart an audience,” the film’s director explained. “I think the thing is to take people on a roller coaster ride as opposed to seeing it as a chess game. They’re whodunnits, but they’re also movies, and movies are not for us to sit there and puzzle over what the solution is to them. Movies are there to see in a big crowd and have a blast. That’s always the object.”

On that note, there was no particular point of difference for Johnson when distancing himself from the sequel’s predecessor.

“This one has a very different narrative gambit to it. And tonally, I was going to go where the characters led me and the characters of this movie end up in a slightly bigger place. It wouldn’t be creatively exciting to redo the predecessor. So it was just giving myself the freedom to make it creatively exciting.”

Sequels are like Donut Holes

There were two questions on everyone’s mind regarding this Knives Out sequel, and the creatives behind the project were more than happy to provide answers.

So, will there be a resurgence of Detective Blanc’s iconic “donut hole” monologue? Sadly there will not. “It was cut,” Craig revealed.

And are there more mysteries on the horizon beyond Glass Onion? “Yes,” Bergman announced. “I’m going to keep making these until Daniel blocks me on his phone,” Johnson added.

For him, Craig’s only ever been at the center of this donut. Everyone else has come later in the process. “It’s dangerous to write with actors in mind because inevitably, if it doesn’t work out, you get your heart broken. It’s also more fun to write characters in a vacuum and then see who you can get to play them,” he said, gesturing to the stacked ensemble.

“So I’m the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in the world looking at this cast.”

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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery premieres Friday, December 23, on Netflix.

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