‘Weapons’ Star Alden Ehrenreich Says Hollywood Needs More Ideas That Are “Not IP”
In echoing one of the sentiment of many a modern moviegoer, Zach Cregger’s Weapons star Alden Ehrenreich believes that Hollywood needs to move past its current obsession with “IP” films and once again embrace more “unique”, creator-driven stories.
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Ehrenreich, perhaps best known for portraying a the titular smuggler in Disney’s Solo: A Star Wars Story and who appears in Cregger’s Weapons as Paul, a small-town cop whose grip on sanity continues to loosen the more he learns about the film’s central mystery, spoke to the current state of mainstream American filmmaking during a recent interview given to Collider‘s Robert Brian Taylor.
“I think that a lot of the life for artists has become — through the internet or through the way that our culture has evolved — just way too enmeshed with corporate commercial interests,” he told his host, from there raising his newly founded Huron Station Playhouse as an example of his desired creative environment, “[A place where writers and artists can] yell at the top of their lungs about the weird interesting thing that they really care about.”
“It kind of protects people from the math that creeps in,” he explained of his new endeavor. “There’s so much financial instability for artists now. And so, even if people have to go take a money job, this is a space where they can work alongside other artists and push each other so that their voices get developed.”
To this end, the Marvel’s Ironheart actor later admitted that while horror is far from his preferred genre to work with, it was Weapons‘ originality that ultimately convinced him to join its cast:
“I think it’s really good for movies to have an idea that is not IP, that is not the Hungry Hungry Hippos movie, that is a totally original, unique, exciting thing born of someone’s personal experience. And to have this movie stand as proof that that still works, that people, maybe now more than ever, are too smart to get fooled by ‘Hey, this sounds and smells familiar’ — I think that’s really exciting.”
“If we look at where the medium is, in terms of cinema, there’s as much — if not more — interesting work being done in horror than maybe any other genre. If you look at the Ari Asters (Hereditary, Eddington) and Robert Eggers (The Northman, Nosferatu), and Jordan Peeles (Nope, Him) and how many interesting filmmakers have come out of that genre in the last few years, it’s definitely having some kind of moment. Maybe that’s just an expression of a darkness that people feel in the world that they want to experience being expressed by somebody.”
Later pressed as to his feelings towards Weapons‘ critical and commercial success – the film currently holds a 94% critic score and 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and after less than a month in theaters has already made a worldwide $214 Million USD against its $68 Million budget – Ehrenreich asserted, “While it’s nice to have something come out and do well, it’s of secondary importance.”
“What I said to Zach [Cregger] — he was asking me about that same thing — is that, for me, the great thing happened, which is making the movie. We had a great time making it, and it felt like a genuinely creative experience. So whatever happens afterward is gravy. It’s obviously of practical usefulness for a movie to do well. It helps with your opportunities on the other end. But it’s not as important as the creative side.”
