Jake Johnson says he combined 2 really unlikely movies to make Self Reliance
Self Reliance, the lively, funny, weird new Hulu comedy movie produced by The Lonely Island and directed by New Girl and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verseco-star Jake Johnson, has a premise built for action. A schlubby guy named Tommy (played by Johnson) is so depressed and disengaged with his life that he agrees to be part of an underground streaming reality show where he tries to evade assassins for a month. If he wins, he gets $1 million. If he loses, he dies.
That may sound a lot like a riff on The Most Dangerous Game, or on Stephen King’s The Running Man, where desperate victims try to evade killers looking for kicks. But Self Reliance is a much smaller, odder, and more emotionally driven movie, focused on human connection over big set-pieces. Speaking to Polygon ahead of the movie’s premiere, Johnson says he wasn’t looking to any of the obvious “people hunted for sport” classics for inspiration.
“Two movies were an inspiration that I pushed together in my head, even though it’s a strange two to push together,” Johnson says. “I love Jacob’s Ladder. I saw it when I was a kid, and I’ve rewatched it a lot. I love the performances, I love the look, I love the way it’s shot. I love watching Tim Robbins go through this whole journey of trying to figure out what’s happening.
“And then I love [Wes Anderson’s] Bottle Rocket: I love the comedic tone of it, the feeling of it. I love how everything for Dignan [Owen Wilson’s character] is dead serious. I love that it’s a little sad. I love that he gets hustled, but he’s still optimistic. I love that he’s a little bit of an idiot, but he’s also a little bit right. I love the love story in that; I think the love story with Luke Wilson and the maid is just right, and I don’t need any more. So for me, it was trying to push those two movies into one thing. If there was something I was looking toward, it was Can I get it to feel a little bit the way I feel when I watch each of these? What if I watched them at the same time?”
John
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