Last Looks is a Neo-noir dark comedy starring Charlie Hunnam as ex-police detective Charlie Waldo, who sets out to solve the murder of the wife of actor Alastair Pinch, played Mel Gibson. The film also stars Morena Baccarin as Lorena, an ex-lover from Waldo’s past who has more than a complicated relationship with the recluse ex-detective, and Lucy Fry as Miss, Jayne White, Pinch’s son's school teacher who is more than meets the eye.
Screen Rant sat down with Last Looks' cast, Charlie Hunnam, Morena Baccarin, and Lucy Fry about what attracted them to the Neo-noir and working with Mel Gibson in a role that we’ve never seen him in before.
Screen Rant: First of all, Last Looks is brilliant. It’s so much fun. I'm a big fan of old-school noir, and this had all of the elements of that to me. Charlie, I got to ask you first, this film is modern-day noir. Can you talk to me a little bit about what you connected with and what attracted you to the role of Waldo?
Charlie Hunnam: Yeah, I had actually just been going through a little neo-noir moment in my life because sometimes like, kismet-ly, these things happen. I've been watching a lot of old noirs, particularly "The Long Goodbye," which is one of my favorites and a fantastic movie for those of you at home who haven't seen it.
That was in my mind. I thought the world that Howard Gould, our screenwriter was fresh and warm, and kind, and fun and felt original. I really liked the character. I came in, which is very unique for me so far in my career, I came in before there was a director. I also got to work with Andrew Lazar, our producer, and find the director that we thought would be perfect together, which was a really fun experience for me to get in early like that and have a say in that part of it. It was sort of all across the board for many reasons I was really attracted to this.
I love the characters in this film. Morena, your character, Lorena, is brilliant. She's really the catalyst that sets off a lot of the events that Waldo's going to go down. Talk to me a little bit about Lorena and her connection to Waldo, played by Charlie.
Morena Baccarin: These two have a very complicated relationship. Also, one of the things that really attracted me to this part, it very much lives in that film noir world of cat and mouse, love/hate, moonlighting. They deeply, I think, love each other, but also, have a lot of... They just miss each other. The communication is not altogether there. It was really fun.
There are a few, this is one in a series of books. I read all of them to sort of going big, do a deep dive on these characters. It was really fun to embody the sassiness and the smarts, and the shit giving, and also the hurt, the pain, all of it. Just those like two or three scenes that send this guy off on a crazy journey.
I'd love to see more Lorena and Waldo down the line, myself personally. Now, Lucy, let's talk about some Jayne White for a second. She seemingly wears a white hat, but she's more than meets the eye. Can you talk to me about her connection with Alastair Pinch?
Lucy Fry: I think it's a complicated relationship in that she's someone who doesn't really know herself fully, yet and is on a journey of finding who she is and has been doing that through her relationship with men and kind of using that almost as an addiction. She's quite an addictive personality. I think that everything in her relationship with Alastair occurs before the film begins because it's a key part of the mystery and how the murder occurred.
I think that there was a kind of love there with them beforehand, but that ends before the film begins.
Charlie, we got to talk about Mel Gibson. He really disappears into the role of Alastair Pinch in this film. What did Mel bring to the role that wasn't necessarily on the page?
Charlie Hunnam: Goodness. I don't know how to answer that only in that it was so good on the page already. It was really, you know, it was sort of a cheeky thing to go to Mel and wasn't sure if he would respond or not. You know, I never really seen him do anything like this. I suppose that's something that he brings to it that its sort of such an unlikely character for Mel. But it was really good and really strong. We just thought, he was the first person we thought of when we were going out to try to cast that role. I just thought he was perfect.
I couldn't agree more. He's great in this role. Morena, I want to talk a little bit about Tim Kirkby, your director. I haven't seen much from him, but I, really impressed with his, with this film. Can you talk to me about working with him as a director and a collaborator?
Morena Baccarin: He has this very unique insight into the humor in this that I felt was so key to the tone of the film. These scenes are more difficult than they seem. Especially the scenes I had with Charlie, it was very, very verbal, a lot of words. You had to sort of land the punchlines in a very nuanced way.
I felt Tim really understood that and was very helpful with me in regards to just the comedy in it. But the reality and the realness of the relationship and landing the... You don't want to just be funny. You want it to come from a place of hurt. That's almost funnier and more tragic, at the same time. He was just really great with the nuance in that.
Yeah. Your guys' characters and interactions felt so genuine. Do you know what I mean? Like a real relationship would. Charlie, this is a question from a fan perspective of this film. I noticed that I'm a hat guy, your character wears a hat throughout most of the whole movie. The only time he really takes it off is in that one scene with Lucy where she's cleaning him up. And even when she's taking it off, he looks uncomfortable. You can see him looking at the hat uncomfortably. Can you talk to me about the significance of Waldo's hat?
Charlie Hunnam: Well, just the costume, in general, was something that we felt like... There were like hallmarks of iconic neo-noir characters that you sort of has to adhere to. Like the jacket and the hat, it's a big thing in neo-noir. We spent a long time looking for the right jacket and the hat.
We always had just instinctively thought that we should be trying to push it as far as we could into that world of neo-noir. We felt like he should be wearing a detective's hat. But it was a fine line to get that right.
We had a fantastic costume designer, I think. Particularly, also that Charlie only has a hundred items. We knew the clothing was going to be really limited. We were going to have sort of like a uniform that he wore and not really change it up too often.
I don't think I changed at all. Maybe I changed my T-shirt once in the film, but you know, so, yeah. We got lucky with a great costume designer, ultimately.