One of the craziest films you’re going to see this year (and maybe this decade) is writer/directorBoots Riley’s debut movie,Sorry to Bother You. Unlike most films that are pretty easy to explain, the less you know aboutSorry to Bother Youthe better, because it’s a film with a few unexpected twists and turns. However, the non-spoiler summary would be it takes place in an alternate present day version of Oakland and follows a telemarketer named Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) who begins rising up the ranks at his office when he’s taught how to use his “white voice”—which is justDavid Crossdubbing all the lines. The film tackles issues of community, greed, assimilation, unionization, corporatism, racism, misogyny, feminism, gentrification, and much, much more. The film is highly satirical and takes place in a heightened reality that, as it gets crazier and crazier, somehow continues to feel realistic.Sorry to Bother Youalso starsTessa Thompson, Armie Hammer(the less you know about his character the better),Terry Crews,Steven Yeun,Omari Hardwick,Jermaine Fowler, andDanny Glover.
Trust me; you definitely want to check it out when the film opens in limited release this weekend. For more on the film you canread Matt Goldberg’s review.
At the New York press day for the film, I got to sit down with Armie Hammer. During the wide-ranging conversation he talked about how he got involved in the project (his agent told him it was the craziest script he’s even read), how he’s never played a character like the one inSorry to Bother You, how when researching the role he learned there are a lot of psychopaths that are CEOs because they have to value success over human life, what it’s like to ride around Oakland with Boots Riley, and a lot more.
Check out what he had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about followed by a few images.
Armie Hammer:
