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Companion Director Praises Jack Quaid And Sophie Thatcher

Companion writer-director Drew Hancock discusses using Jack Quaid's baby face to their advantage and how Sophie Thatcher "makes the movie."

Casting can truly make or break a film. When a movie is well cast, it can take something already good and elevate it into legendary status, something that will stand the test of time. However, if a movie is poorly cast, it can completely kneecap an entire production, and it doesn't matter how good everyone else is; everyone will be focused on that one miscast person. For writer-director Drew Hancock, as he explained to Total Film, he knew that finding the perfect people for Josh and Iris in Companion, considering that the film isn't what you might be expecting. While most people probably know Jack Quaid from his time on The Boys, he had a stint of being a complete asshole in Scream 2022. Hancock explained Quaid's appeal: "Taking someone with a baby face and giving them moments of aggression and anger, it's the contradiction that makes it so much scarier."

However, it's Sophie Thatcher that elevates the entire movie. She will be familiar to fans of Yellowjackets, and Hancock says she "makes the movie." He elaborated that this role isn't easy, saying, "I can't imagine anyone else in that role. I knew before we started rolling that it was a really tough part to cast. We started auditioning so many good actresses – I don't want to undersell the quality of actresses – but there's the emotional journey she goes on, which many struggled with. Five seconds into Sophie's performance, my heart was pounding so fast because I was thinking about a future where this movie didn't have her." From the bits of footage we've seen from this movie, Warner Bros. is doing a good job of masking exactly what is going on much in the same way 20th Century Studios did with Barbarian; it does look like Iris goes through it in Companion. Even that shot we see as the title card for the trailer above speaks volumes while saying nothing at all. Let's hope this year starts on a strong foot with this one.

Companion: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

New Line Cinema—the studio that brought you The Notebook—and the unhinged creators of Barbarian cordially invite you to experience a new kind of love story…

Written and directed by Drew Hancock (My Dead Ex, Suburgatory), Companion stars Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets, The Boogeyman), Jack Quaid (The Boys, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse), Lukas Gage (Smile 2, Dead Boy Detectives), Megan Suri (Never Have I Ever, It Lives Inside), Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows, Blue Beetle) and Rupert Friend (High Desert, Asteroid City). The film is produced by the filmmakers behind Barbarian—Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz, Zach Cregger, and Roy Lee. The executive producers are Tracy Rosenblum and Jamie Buckner.

New Line Cinema presents A BoulderLight Pictures Production, In Association With Vertigo Entertainment/Subconscious: Companion. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, in theaters only nationwide on January 31, 2025.

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