Reminiscence, out August 20, combines sci-fi and surrealism in a new and hauntingly beautiful way. The film, directed by Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy, follows a private investigator of the mind, Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), who soon becomes haunted by his own memories in his search for the truth about the woman he loves (Rebeca Ferguson).
Daniel Wu, who plays the film’s antagonist, spoke to Screen Rant about crafting a three-dimensional villain and working with Lisa Joy on her directorial debut.
Screen Rant: What was it about the themes that attracted you to Reminiscence?
Daniel Wu: I'm a huge fan of sci-fi, and I'm a huge fan of Westworld. When Lisa Joy called me, I was already in my mind - before I even heard about the character - like, "Oh, yeah, I'll do it. No question whether I want to work with you or not."
And then she started telling me about the character and the story, and I was just really attracted to it. The character was a big challenge because she wanted the character to be the bad guy, he's evil and dark and scary. But at the same time, I wanted audiences to love him also. I'm like, "Okay, that's different. That's a different challenge here." We worked really hard on making this guy really three-dimensional, and have him be vulnerable, but also a badass at the same time.
I think it was those elements, but also the world-building and what she's trying to say in this story. It's this idea of love and how it's fleeting, and how people want to grasp on to these memories of the past. All those themes were really interesting to me, and it's so layered. There [are] so many things going on in this film that, after you're done watching this movie, there's so much to think about and talk about. And you can watch it again and find something different. I love those kinds of movies. Those are the kind of movies I love: a movie that makes people think after watching it.
Nick Bannister was in the war, but Saint Joe was a victim of the war. Can you talk to me a little bit about who Saint Joe is?
Daniel Wu: Yeah, he's a very complicated character. Lisa and I talked about creating this backstory for him, and that he didn't start out life as a bad guy. He was probably a normal guy. And we talked in that line about how people like Bannister - meaning white people - got to be drafted and put into this war. Whereas people like me were interred. So, we're talking about our racial past, racial history, and also racial trauma that this guy went through.
When floods happen, he escaped, he got out, and then it became about survival. And I think he's a survivalist through and through, from the very beginning. He had to survive in this world, and the one way to do is to come up in this underworld as this gangster.
The interesting thing about him is that he's selling this drug, Baka - which is very similar to what Bannister is doing by taking people out of the horrible reality that they're in now in the present and putting them in a different place. Bannister is doing it more beautifully through memories, and Saint Joe is doing it through this Baka drug. I think that's really interesting.
And then the fact that both these characters, the hero and antagonist, have loved the same woman and are being heartbroken by the same woman. That was really interesting as well. There is so much there that made me want to work on this movie. It's hard to begin with where it started.
Lisa Joy makes her directorial debut here, and she has such a creative mind for sci-fi. Can you talk to me about the collaboration process of working with her on Reminiscence?
Daniel Wu: Yeah, it was awesome. First of all, she's incredibly smart. She's a Harvard lawyer, so she's incredibly intelligent, and you expect that out of her. But also what was different working with her was that - I've worked with a lot of Chinese directors in China and Hong Kong, and I've worked a lot of American directors here in the States, but I've never worked with the Chinese-American director before, right.
I'm Chinese American, and to have a sister on set? I've never had that before, so it was really interesting. Because the way we interact with each other was like brother and sister. She's like, "Dude, I want to do this! Blah, blah, blah." She's extremely intelligent. but she also talks like a guy - like one of us, right? It was just a really comfortable environment to work [in].
Then the cast, like Hugh, Rebecca, Thandiwe [Newton], and Cliff Curti. These are the people that I saw on set. They're amazing actors, but incredibly warm and sharing and generous people as well. It just made the environment just completely awesome to work on.
Reminiscence is available in theaters and to stream on HBO Max on August 20.
