Killer Heat's Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Shailene Woodley On "Brick Flashbacks", Snowden Reunion & Trope Subversion

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley are reuniting for the murder mystery thriller Killer Heat. Gordon-Levitt has proven to be one of the most versatile actors since breaking out as a childhood star with Angels in the Outfield and 3rd Rock from the Sun, having frequently collaborated with Rian Johnson going back to his directorial debut with Brick, while also finding acclaim in the dramedy world with the likes of 50/50 and his own directorial effort, Don Jon. Woodley similarly found acclaim in her teenage years before finding success in the YA genre with The Spectacular Now, The Fault in Our Stars and the Divergent franchise.

Gordon-Levitt leads Killer Heat as Nick Bali, a former New York City Police detective-turned-private eye who is hired by Woodley’s Penelope Vardakis to investigate the mysterious death of her brother-in-law on a small Greek island. Partnering with a local detective, Nick begins uncovering dark secrets about the late Vardakis and his twin brother, including the love triangle they had with Penelope going back to their college days. Bringing up his own past trauma of jealousy driving a wedge between him and his ex-wife, Nick finds himself torn between the lines of personal redemption and professional case-solving.

Alongside Gordon-Levitt and Woodley, the ensemble Killer Heat cast includes Eternals alum Richard Madden as Leo and Elias Vardakis, Clare Holman as his mother Audrey, Babou Ceesay as Georges Mensah, the local detective who helps Nick, and Abbey Lee as Nick’s ex-wife Monique. Based on the short story “The Jealousy Man” from The Snowman author Jo Nesbø, the movie is a beautifully shot and nicely twisting effort in the murder mystery genre.

Ahead of the movie’s release, Screen Rant interviewed Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley to discuss Killer Heat, how the former had flashbacks to his time on Rian Johnson’s Brick while shooting, how the latter sought to subvert the genre’s trope of a femme fatale, and why their experience working together on Oliver Stone’s Snowden proved to be a major benefit for the pair.

Gordon-Levitt Loved Coming “Full Circle” From Brick With Killer Heat

“…that’s a bizarre masterpiece of a little indie movie.”

Screen Rant: Killer Heat is just quite the captivating mystery thriller. Joseph, I’d like to start with you. Last we spoke, I mentioned how big of a Rian Johnson fan I was, and I can’t help but obviously have flashbacks to Brick with this between the private detective character, the narration, all of that. What was it like stepping back, not only into the role of a private detective, but also finding this very unique version of a private detective in Nick Bali?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Yeah, I love that you compared it to Brick. I had Brick flashbacks the whole time, too, because doing Brick, the conceit was, “Well, here’s this high school kid who’s behaving like a grown-up detective.” So, it felt appropriate to finally come full circle and now play the actual grown-up detective, now that I am a grown man. [Chuckles] Brick subverts the genre in so many ways, that’s a bizarre masterpiece of a little indie movie. And this one, I think, more just plays it straight. It does the thing that murder mysteries have done for 100 years or more, and just kind of hits those targets, but then takes it out of the shadowy urban landscape, and puts it in a beautiful Greek island. It makes it something I think is really easy and fun to watch.

Woodley Feels There Are “So Many Ways To Bring A Femme Fatale To Life”

“…it was fun to play with her femininity…”

Shailene, I’ll turn to you, because, like Joseph just mentioned, this genre obviously goes back a long ways, and Penelope almost feels both like she fills the femme fatale role that is often seen in these stories, but also has a lot more depth and compassion than we often see from these types of characters. What is it like really getting to explore those layers and bring them to life in this film?

Shailene Woodley: That’s really fun. I think there’s so many ways to bring a femme fatale to life, and I think there’s leaning really deep into sort of the sexuality of someone, or really leaning into the sensuality of someone, and for me, with Penelope, neither of those choices felt like the right choice. For her, it was sort of somewhere in the middle with a lot of guard and a lot of fear, but it manifested in a strength that I haven’t really seen a lot of. So, it was fun to play with her femininity, but also, like you mentioned, keep it grounded and keep it guarded. I thought that that would add something interesting to her, this really deep sense of vulnerability underneath the shield that she presented.

Gordon-Levitt & Woodley’s Snowden Past Was “100%” A Benefit In Finding Their New Rhythms

“…there’s true comfort, and there’s a human connection.”

Shailene Woodley's Penelope meeting with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Nick by a car on the runway in Killer Heat

I did also want to ask, this is a reunion for you two, from Snowden, and your chemistry as these two people who are on guard with one another, but are also friendly with one another, it really pops off the screen. Did you find that that past experience working with each other really helped you both to sort of find that rhythm?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Oh, yeah, 100%. I remember as soon as we started talking, it’d been a few years since we’d spoke, and to me, it’s a sign of a good friend when you can just kind of fall back in with somebody, and it feels like no time has passed. And that’s how it was with us. And yeah, having that comfort and trust, and also, she’s just really good at what she does. Yeah, it just made the scenes fun to do.

Shailene Woodley: Absolutely. I mean, when you’re lucky enough to actually have and feel a friendship with someone outside of just what you’re doing at work, and to feel comfortable with them. Obviously, it’s going to lead to a different type of chemistry, because there’s true comfort, and there’s a human connection. And that’s not required with what we do, but it certainly makes our job easier and more fun. And I think I was just excited to be able to explore a totally different tone with Joe than we got to do on Snowden, because of the nature of making a film about Edward Snowden with Oliver Stone as the director, and the weight of it.

This film was the complete opposite. This film was light and fun and playful, and did have sort of these exciting opportunities to create different rhythms that we weren’t able to play with before. That’s one of my favorite parts of acting is going, showing up and seeing what happens, and it was a joy to be able to do that with Joe.