Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, out in theaters on July 16, is a sequel to 2019’s surprise hit. The survivors of the previous film, Zoey and Ben decide to take the fight to the evil corporation of Minos but find themselves trapped with other “champions” before they reach their destination.
Logan Miller reprises his role as Ben, while Holland Roden joins as fellow survivor Rachel. The actors spoke to Screen Rant about how the scale of the sequel grows and how their characters fare at the start.
Logan, in the first film, Ben was on a downward spiral. But by the end of that, he found his fight again. Where's Ben at in this film, and can you talk to me about his friendship with Zoey this time around?
Logan Miller: Yeah, you said it best. He was a cigarette-touting, cynical asshole in the first one. And he's really changed his tone, because he's gotten that second chance at life. I think he's trying to fire on all cylinders and do the best that he can.
Zoey has this fight in her; she really wants that revenge, and she really wants to take down this corporation. And the only person that she knows that has experienced it like her is Ben. So, Ben needs to be there for her on all cylinders. We're ready to take it as we can. I want to be the hero for her, I want to be the hero for all of us, and I want to try to survive and make sure that we all come out surviving instead of just one person.
Rachel is a very interesting character, because she has a medical condition where she can't feel pain. Can you tell me a little bit more about her?
Holland Roden: Yeah, I thought that was an interesting aspect. For her aesthetic, we put a lot of piercings and tattoos on her. She's a fan of the British punk rock era, and I love being able to create a character from the outwards in.
That was different for me, as far as my process as well as just being able to play a punk rock girl, and trying to take control of diagnosing everybody as a former EMT. Both of those aspects, I had never played before. So, I was excited.
Logan, there's a lot of moving pieces to some of these giant set pieces. Can you talk to me about the physical challenge of some of these shoots? Because some of it was done practically, like the beach escape room.
Logan Miller: I would say 80% were actually practical effects, which is really what's great about it. The physical element is there. Hell, I think I lost 10 pounds during the filming of Escape Room 2, and I'm not exaggerating. It's a thing where you've got to be ready to be in the elements of it all.
We created such illustrious sets, and now we just get to make them our playground. It really is that sandbox. Everything is there; all of the elements of finding the clues, we have made practical. You've got to really sit there and figure out how we're going to make these things interesting. At the end of the day, they are giant theater pieces, so let's try to shoot it as if like everybody's there. That makes the interactive experience that it is when you see it on screen.
Holland, the emotional scars for Rachel are worse than the physical pain that she has to go through. Can you talk to me about that duality of the character, and why that interested you?
Holland Roden: Yeah, I love that she carried her heart on her sleeve, because she had to overcompensate. I feel it's like someone that talks louder when they have a hearing problem - same analogy. She at least tried to carry the weight of other people, and she felt a sense of responsibility to take the first blow.
It was a different kind of leadership than Ben had, but I feel like Rachel always takes on others people's problems. It's definitely something she would do.
In this film, how does the scale grow? Because I really like that it's less horror and more psychological thriller.
Logan Miller: Yeah, the first one was a bit of an experiment. We were trying to see how expansive we could make something for a small budget. They took it to the 10th degree with that, it really showed, and I think audiences and fans alike really resonated with it.
Now, we get a chance to do it all over again. Why not amp it up? We certainly did, and we did that with the sets. We did that with the characters that we brought along. It's always great when you get a chance to do a sequel, because you can add so many more fun elements. We did that with the actors, we did that with the sets, and we did that with the story. It was just such an honor to be able to expand the universe.
