2 weeks ago
17
Listen via: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | More Platforms
Haley Lu Richardson has built a career out of swerving expectations — from teen angst in The Edge of Seventeen to psychological dread in Split and spa-resort chaos in The White Lotus. Now she’s diving headfirst into AI apocalypse absurdity with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, the long-awaited return of director Gore Verbinski. Richardson speaks with Kyle Meredith about the “brilliantly bonkers” ensemble film, which also stars Sam Rockwell, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, and Juno Temple. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.
The story kicks off in a diner when a man claiming to be from the future barges in with a detonator and a warning about an impending AI-fueled doom spiral — and from there, it only gets weirder. Richardson says she tore through the script in one sitting. “My agent said, ‘Haley, there’s a good script. We want you to do it,’ which is rare,” she explains. “And then I read it all in one sitting… which is also rare.”
She immediately connected with her character, Ingrid, a princess-dressed mystery with more emotional gravity than first glance suggests. “I could feel myself playing her,” Richardson says. “I haven’t gotten to play a lot of mysterious characters because I’m not very mysterious. But it’s in Ingrid’s blood.” Verbinski, she adds, treated the film like “a psychotic opera,” obsessing over rhythm and tone, even describing the movie as a kind of chili where “Ingrid was the special ingredient.” Richardson spent most of the shoot in a handmade corseted princess dress. “They made probably 10 to 20 different versions,” she says. “Different amounts dirty or burned or bloody.”
As for working opposite Sam Rockwell, there’s a White Lotus crossover twist: while filming in South Africa, Rockwell was offered his now-iconic scene for Season 3 and asked Richardson to run lines with him. “He was like, ‘Is this guy too creepy?’” she recalls. “And I was like, I think people will understand you’re playing a character — and I think you have to do this, Sam.”
Listen to Haley Lu Richardson talk about Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.
English (US) · 