Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: aaron paul, Beulah Koale, Dual, exclusive, interview, karen gillan, Riley Stearns, rlje films, xyz films

Dual Star Beulah Koale on Creative Challenges in Sci-Fi Comedy

Since busting out of the New Zealand entertainment scene, Beulah Koale is always looking to take on new challenges after a string of roles in dramatic and action, including his turn on American projects with shows like Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS: Hawai'i and films like Shadow in the Cloud (2020), the actor was ready to take on different genres, which was the case in the sci-fi comedy Dual from director Riley Stearns. I spoke to Koale about the opportunity working on such a film allowed acclimating to the set and working with co-stars Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul.

"What got me interested in 'Dual' was just working with Riley watching his past films and seeing his particular type of style," Koale said of the writer-director. "I just wanted to just the work with him and to work with the genre that I'm not usually comfortable with, which is, I think is, comedy and sci-fi." He had nothing but the best things to say about his co-stars. "They're cool people. I always judge people by how they are as a person, and they're just genuinely nice human beings. As actors, they're very hardworking, very driven, and they really showed me a new standard to join up my game. That was fun."

The film centers on Sarah (Gillan), who, upon receiving a terminal diagnosis, she opts for a cloning procedure to ease her loss on her friends and family. When she makes a sudden and miraculous recovery, her attempts to have her clone decommissioned fail and lead to a court-mandated duel to the death. Now she has one year to train her body and mind for the fight of her life. When asked if he would get a clone, "I personally wouldn't, because I feel it defeats the purpose of life," Koale said, who plays Peter. "You appreciate life more because it's going to end. Sometimes maybe appreciation and enjoying life wouldn't be as great and, yet for each individual out there in the world, it might be different."

Koale said it took some adjusting coordinating with Stearns. "Doing the type of comedy Riley does is kind of dark, very particular, and it was a challenge," he admitted. "I'll be honest, and it was hard because I was I had a lot of tricks up my sleeves as an actor, and Riley kind of just removed all of those tricks from me and told me, 'You can't do that here, and there's a particular way I work' and giving in to that, I'm just learning something new is like learning a new technique. It was very interesting, but the film looked great and in the end. I guess that was a great technique to learn."

The actor was able to contribute creatively. "Working with Riley is always going to be a unique experience for any actor with a bunch of stuff or not, and you're only going to be used to it if you've worked with him before," Koale explained. "There's a couple of things that I could adjust as an actor, and I did, but it was mainly led by Riley, which is like I invited that as well, and the things that I added to it were me, myself, and my background. The breakdown of the character that I came up with and how he was going to be played and what he listened to, what he had watched and talked to Riley about that, and we figured it out. At the end of the day, when we you call action, that style is a style that I wasn't used to, and I put all my interest into writing, and it worked out." Dual, which also stars Theo James, comes to theaters on April 15th.

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