Orlando Jones was all smiles when we caught up with him about his new movie, Til Death Do Us Part. He jokes that, though the movie is very different from the major box office hits in theaters now like Barbie and Oppenheimer, Til Death Do Us Part is a fun film to add to your watch list.
The film follows a bride as she runs away from her wedding, and a lifestyle she wants to leave behind. However, that just won’t do, and the best man and groomsmen go after her, determined to bring her back. What starts as a retrieval mission turns into a bloodbath as the bride and men fight to the death.
MovieWeb had the opportunity to speak with Orlando Jones to hear his thoughts about creating his character and working with co-star Natalie Burn.
Orlando Jones on Creating His Character
Jones plays one of the groomsmen. None of them are named, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have character. When discussing his role with director Timothy Woodward Jr., the actor proposed the possibility of his groomsman focusing his energies on antagonizing the best man, played by Cam Gigandet, rather than the runaway bride. The director was on board, encouraging Jones to move his groomsman in that direction.
“I just thought that’d be a lot more fun to play instead of we all come in with the same thing… come in, and he’s really like, I’m really not worried about this. Because why would he be? She’s a colleague, there’s no reason to worry, he knows she’s a badass, but he’s not expecting her to go that way. I just thought it gave it another layer, another wrinkle, and made the story more fun for the fans. And Tim totally co-signed and really kept pushing me down the road, so it was very fun, a lot of fun to do.”
Jones thought quite a bit about his character, his motivations, and why he may be in the same line of work as his fellow hitmen groomsmen. When we asked what he thought of the bride’s motivations and decisions, which we won’t spoil for you here, he shared why he thought his character has the job he does.
…unlike many of the other groomsmen, I don’t think he gets off on the killing. I don’t think that’s the fun for him, I think it’s the interplay and the madness, what he gets to do. I don’t think it’s the actual killing that really is what excites him.
But, while creating his character, he was also thinking about three other ones. When he got the call about Til Death Do Us Part, he was also filming for his roles in Abbott Elementary, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, and Swagger. It didn’t impact his participation in Til Death Do Us Part, but it did mean there was about a week of room that he had in his schedule to make it happen.
“I was shooting Swagger and Abbott Elementary and Winning Time all at the same time, and there was just one little window of a week I think it was, literally, and [Timothy Woodward Jr.] was like, “I’ll do it right now. If you’ll do it, I’ll do it.” And literally, I was like, “Okay, I’ll get on a plane,” and I got on a plane, and that was it.”
Orlando Jones on Working with Natalie Burn
Natalie Burn plays the bride the groomsmen are after, but she isn’t what many may picture as the “damsel in distress” in this type of film. While part of what drew Jones to the project was the idea of playing an unnamed character, he also liked that it wasn’t “a little puff of a girl” playing the main female character. He sang nothing but praises for Burn, noting that “she’s fantastic in the movie.”
Natalie Burn’s about six feet tall. And she can jump, straight up, flat-footed and wrap her legs around my neck and take me down. Like, she is that strong. She’s fantastic in the movie.
Not only did Jones develop the personality we see on screen, but he and Burn also figured out their key fight sequence together. Burn’s physical ability as a dancer made the sequence possible, and with the director’s expertise, they nailed the shot in just two takes.
The prosthetic was just kind of crazy, ’cause we were trying to think, what does that look like, the knife in the eye, and Natalie put a kick up above my head… We put that together and make-up kind of ran in. It’s literally two takes… Tim is, he is a wonderful shooter, he knew exactly where he wanted to angle it from, and as soon as we showed it to him, he was like, ‘That’s it, stop. Let’s shoot it right now.’
The actor finished discussing the scene by complimenting Burn’s performance, noting that her kick “really sells” their fight. Again, we don’t want to completely spoil the film, but her kick is an important part of the intense fight scene.
And Natalie’s kick is perfect. It really sells it, it makes it really feel like it happened because her kick is so high… We had a good dance together.
Til Death Do Us Part is available to dance with (i.e. see in theaters) starting August 4. For more information, please visit the film’s Facebook page. You can watch the trailer below.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
