Jeff Heller
Anthony Michael Hall has been in the entertainment industry for nearly five decades. Starting out as child actor, Hall made a name for himself in such ‘80s classics as National Lampoon’s Vacation, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Hall would go on to appear in films such as Johnny B Goode, Edward Scissorhands, The Dark Knight, and War Machine opposite Brad Pitt, as well as television series such as The Dead Zone and The Goldbergs.
Hall’s latest project has him squaring off with Jessica Alba in the new Netflix film, Trigger Warning. We chatted with Hall about his role in the action thriller, as well as his prolific career.
AR: First, congratulations on Trigger Warning.
AMH: Thank you, sir. It was a fun movie.
How did you get involved in the project?
AMH: I have a great management team in Jason Weinberg and Mitch Mason, and they set up a meeting with [director] Mouly Surya, because I often like to take a meeting with the creator or the filmmaker. So, I heard she wanted to meet with me, and we had a Zoom call, which was back in 2021, and she was great. What a nice lady. We just really hit it off. I had seen her film “Marlena the Murderer in Four Acts,” which is similar to “Trigger Warning” in that it’s a revenge thriller. I think there’s also sort of shadings of an old Western, the good versus evil thing, and I love it. Senator Swan was a great role for me. There’s some cool writing there. I had these two sons who were kind of like Cain and Abel, Jesse and Elvis, played by Mark Webber and Jake Weary, and they’re great. Really good actors. We had a really good company of actors. Tone Bell did a great job, and Alejandro De Hoyos, who played Jessica’s father. There’s a lot of really nice, interesting actors.
And Mouly did a great job, and I think a couple things stood out to me about it. First of all, there was a whole team of women really spearheading the project, not just Mouly. We had Jessica producing, and the ladies at Thunder Road Pictures, who were excellent producers, and then we had a female cinematographer, Zoë White. So, it was really great to see a core group of women really leading the way and forging with leadership and goodwill. And then we also had 87eleven from “John Wick,” who are the top tier stunt coordinators in the business. They’re really phenomenal.
There’s a sense of adventure. Santa Fe was really cool. It’s a place I’d never been to, but I always wanted to go. When I got there, I had great meetings with the the costume designer, Samantha Hawkins, who was great. She had a vision board with these early Ted Turner images that she clipped from the 80s. Guys that are so wealthy that just choose to live in the Southwest. They’re not necessarily cowboys, but, it’s just a certain type of look, like a wealthy cowboy. So, that helped me a lot too, just getting the clothes on. Simple things to piece it all together.
AR: This is Mouly Surya’s first American language film. Can you talk about working with her?
AMH: Mouly’s a real filmmaker. She’s got a great sense of taste and has a great eye with camera work and technical stuff. And then I saw that she really vibed with Zoë, and Zoë,was brilliant. So, those two ladies really attacked it, because you’re looking to them for leadership in terms of shot selection, how we’re mapping out the day, right, where the camera’s going, and so really fun project for all those reasons, and to watch those collaborations unfurl is beautiful. One of the things I always study is the dynamic between the cinematographer and the director, and typically it’s two guys, to be honest. I’ve worked with a lot of great female directors in the last five years, and I love that, both in film and on television, like on “The Goldbergs.” A bunch of women that were really standout directors.
AR: How would you describe Senator Swan?
AMH: (laughing) How would you describe him first, Jeffrey? What do you think?
AR: What was interesting to me is that I almost feel as if that an audience’s political leanings may inform how much they trust him when we’re first introduced to him.
AMH: That’s an interesting statement. There’s a scene where I’m talking with Jessica about Latinx, and he comes off like kind of an ass. When I shot that scene, it was like late in the evening, and we were both kind of playing it low-key, trying not to act type of acting, you know? And I had a certain thing I was doing with his voice, so I enjoyed doing that scene, but I remember not thinking it was very funny. And then when we watched the film with an audience, it’s such a funny scene, because I say something stupid, like, “Everybody in my town knows I’m not racist,” or something like that. So there’s a funniness about that, actually, that he represents that. But as an evil character, it’s great. You can kind of pull out the stops. This guy has all kinds of shades. He’s a career politician, though wasn’t inspired by any particular one. I just try to give them like a little bit of a Southern snarl. I wanted him to have that kind of background, but I wanted it to be subtle. I didn’t want it to be kind of nebulous.
It was fun to create the character. It really was. But in terms of his, like you’re saying, his politics, or the kind of seedy politician that he is, it seriously comes forth, right? And making that scene with Jessica was a nice juxtaposition, And she does great, man. She’s like a female Clint Eastwood. She’s kicking ass in the movie. She moves through it nicely. She never overacts. She’s really like very subtle. I really like her work. She was like another stunt coordinator with the 87eleven. I mean, she knows her stuff. And Jessica would not hold back as a producer. She would have notes about the action, or execution, or certain things. It was very impressive to see. She had that background doing those films with Robert Rodriguez, as well as “Dark Angel,” so yeah, she’s done a lot of action. She’s a very respectable lady. She’s cool.
AR: You get roughed up a little bit in the film. Do you like that physical aspect of acting?
I’ve done it a lot over the years. I think most recently, it was about 10 years ago, I did this Western with Mickey Rourke and Danny Trejo for Universal called “Dead at Tombstone.” I had a lot of fight scenes in that, and I was riding horses and all kinds of shit. It was a lot of fun. So, I’ve done stunt work over the years. I love it. I always throw myself into it.
But this one, it didn’t require too much of me, but Jessica will have notes, just like the stunt coordinator would, about certain aspects. So, that scene you were referring to was one of the scenes we were choreographing, and it was an interesting challenge, because we’re in a narrow hallway, so we were figuring out how to cover it. And Mouly and Zoë, were in there with us just picking out the angles and picking out the shots. It was fun.
You know, it was really, but to be in a film where it’s so action-heavy, that was excellent. It was great to be around that, because it brings another level.
AR: This year marks the 40th anniversary of Sixteen Candles and the 40th for The Breakfast Club is next year, which is pretty wild.
AMH: Jeffrey, do you know how it feels to have movies that are 40 years old? I feel like George Burns.
AR: Well, you were so young.
AMH: Listen, I’m grateful, man. You know, I started as a boy. I was eight years old. I worked with Steve Allen in 1976, and I’ve been very blessed to have a creative life and to maintain myself in the industry. I’m really grateful. It’s been a 48-year run so far, and it’s nice to be involved, and it’s great to be a part of a team, and that’s a lot of times what people lose sight of. I think, in the push for celebrity news, people forget how difficult it is to make something. They say that it takes a village to raise a kid, but it takes about two villages to make a movie or a TV show. So, it’s such a great collaboration of so many people contributing and doing their best.
AR: You found fame long before the advent of social media. How do you think you would have navigated the waters of fame in today’s Hollywood environment at such a young age?
AMH: Well, that’s a good question. Listen, if I can remove it from that context a bit, I think it’s challenging for everybody, right? The social media, just the rate of information. You know, years ago when I played Bill Gates, I remember reading a book of his called ‘Business at the Speed of Thought,’ and at that time, it was about taking companies paperless. But the idea of what technology does to the world, the internet and now social media, and a lot of it is very positive and fun. It’s also become a form of creativity for people, which is interesting. Everybody’s like their own publisher, you know? So in the context of that, I think it would be even more challenging today.
But then again, you see some of these young entertainers, and they’re amazing, from Taylor Swift all the way down to whoever else. And a lot of these young performers have multiple businesses and companies. I mean, look at a guy like Mark Wahlberg, who I really admire. He’s kicking ass. He’s got a sports municipal clothing company, and a tequila, and this and that. It’s amazing. So, I respect everybody’s entrepreneurship, and if people can maintain and do business at that level, and take on all the pressures and responsibilities of fame, and maintain that, it’s to be respected, you know? You can never make fun of anybody making that money, man.
AR: You were cast in very specific type of roles when you were younger, but then with films like Johnny B Goode and Edward Scissorhands, you took a hard shifty and instantly shed that geeky image. Was that a conscious decision?
AMH: It was in part, Jeffrey, because, not to play shrink here, but I was individuating. I was trying to separate myself. I was trying to create more for myself, and further my growth, you know? Even as a kid, I had that instinct, and I didn’t feel pigeonholed. It didn’t really bother me as a kid. It was just more like, I had this great fortune of working with Johnny. These films were comedies and they were a blast. I had a great opportunity, and it was such a gift. And I tried to just do my best and deliver, and then it became a career. And it was after that that I decided, ‘You know what? No one’s gonna take this away from me. I wanna do this till I’m an old man. I want a career in this industry, and I wanna keep going.’ So I’ve had to adapt and flow, and just kind of go with it over the years, and keep pursuing the work and mixing it up.
I think over time, it makes you a better actor. And then if you hang in there long enough, after a period of decades now, you can look back, and you have a body of work that is paying you back, in a sense. So, it’s very fortunate. It’s not lost on me. I think in our culture, everybody’s very quick to assume. I think maybe you get the impression from some stars in Hollywood, that, ‘Oh, I planned all this. I meant that.’ I can’t say that we all have that luxury. So you have to really plan your work and work your plan. So, it’s been a very interesting and amazing journey, and it’s brought out the best in me.
AR: Have you found that the types of roles you’re looking for have changed over the course of your career?
AMH: Great question. Yeah, they have as I’ve evolved and done more, playing different parts, villains, and teachers, and dads, and whatever. One thing I hearken back to, like in my 20s, I was struggling. After the John Hughes period, there was a period in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, where it was difficult for me to get work. So when I did get a “Touched by an Angel, or a “Murder She Wrote,” or a “Diagnosis Murder, and I got to work with people like Dick Van Dyke, or Angela Lansbury, these great legends, it was not lost on me. I was like, ‘Thank you, God. Thank you for this opportunity.’ So, I’ve learned, that idea of there’s no small parts, only small actors. That’s humbling, and there’s growth to be had there, as well. Like being in the “The Dark Knight.” I had a small role, but it was a great opportunity, working with Gary Oldman, and all these greats, and watching Christian and Heath work up close. It’s been a wonderful gift. The hard work pays off. The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Trigger Warning is now streaming on Netflix.
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