Cannes weighs the reception to its world premieres in standing ovations, however, at SXSW they’re measured by screams.
Anecdotally, in a battle of it girls in Austin, it could be argued that Ms. Jenna Ortega received more cheers tonight following the world premiere of her A24 genre comedy Death of Unicorn than Blake Lively did at her opening night premiere of Amazon MGM Studios’ Another Simple Plan, but that would be like assessing the distance of Aaron Judge homeruns.
Clad in a plaid suit and maroon satin shirt and tie, the Wednesday star kept it glib among the ensemble of Paul Rudd, Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant, Tea Leoni, Anthony Carrigan, Steve Park and Sunita Mani onstage at the Paramount.
Asked by the moderator how Rudd and Ortega bonded onset as father and daughter, the actress answered, “Fortunately, we got on, we had a couple of conversation, we started shooting a day or two after we met.”
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Rudd answered hysterically, “Fortunately, we had the experience. Jenna is a daughter in real life, and I’m actually a dad! We hit it off right away, when you’re lucky enough to act with Jenna Ortega, you’re job is easy because she’s incredible!”
The movie follows a father and daughter, Elliot and Ridley, who are on the former’s business trip. He’s trying to sign a mega-wealthy pharmaceutical CEO and his family as client. But on the way to the family’s estate, Elliot hits a unicorn with the car. Ridley has a spiritual connection with the dying baby beast. The whole incident sets off the unicorn’s mother and father to look for it, laying destruction to anybody in its path. The pic repped the feature directorial debut of Alex Scharfman and it’s executive produced by A24 edgy and absurdist heavyweight Ari Aster.
Poulter said, “We really had the most fun in the world,” giving kudos to Scharfman for setting a playful environment on set.
This tipped Grant to ultimately deadpan just how much the ensemble bonded during shooting: “Being somebody who grew up in the ’70s because I’m the oldest person in this room, and there are no moral police in Hungary, the fact that we had group cast on a daily basis…”
Grant earlier had another pun about working on the unicorn horror film: “I love getting horned.”
Rudd responded, “When in Budapest…”
“Pocket full of sunshine right there!” chimed in Carrigan at which point Ortega dropped to her knees laughing. Carrigan plays the dutiful, largely silent family servant in the movie.
Ortega added to great laughs from the crowd, “To credit Anthony’s silent acting, we didn’t realize until we were two thirds in the film, that he had a Scottish accent.”
Poulter said “Anthony was so funny in this movie, there were scenes that I would take my contact lenses out so I wouldn’t see him. I was like, we’re not going to get the day.”
The post ‘Death Of A Unicorn’ At SXSW: Richard E. Grant Cracks Up Jenna Ortega, More After Telling Crowd “We Had Group Sex As A Cast On A Daily Basis” appeared first on Deadline.
