Writers and directors use all sorts of tricks when working with their cast, including withholding information, if they think it will achieve their desired result. This can be for a number of reasons, for example if you’re Marvel and working with loose-lipped actors like Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo. And you would think with a script for a murder mystery whodunnit, where the movie is allllll about those twists and turns – there might be information that you want to withhold from certain cast-members. But the cast of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery say that this is not a trick that Rian Johnson keeps up his sleeve.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, cast-members Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline said that they were sent complete scripts, with nothing hidden. “You know what, we didn’t actually do a cast read-through. It was strange,” Jessica Henwick said.
“No, never. We never did a table read. I would say [we found out from] the script,” Madelyn Cline added. “Rian didn’t hide anything from us.” So instead of keeping the end a secret from the cast, Rian Johnson included all the juicy details in their scripts.
“Most of my jobs, they have withheld scripts until the last minute and of often they just won’t give you the end of the script and it’s just a surprise,” Henwick said. “Rian is an actor’s director. I think because he used to be an actor. Back in the day, he was a little theatre kid. So, he understands how important it is [to have all of the information] from the get-go.”
Rian Johnson’s murder mysteries which centre around Daniel Craig’s detective Benoit Blanc has been so successful, you may be wondering how many Knives Out movies there will be. Once you watch the movie on Netflix when it arrives on December 23 (and no longer need to worry about spoilers) – you may want to have the ending explained and also read about how one of the characters subverts the scorned woman trope.