Summary

Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke with Courteney Cox, David Harbour, and Patricia Arquette for Evil Genius at TIFF 2026.

Cox directs the darkly comic true-crime take on the 2003 “Pizza Bomber” case.

The trio discusses shooting in 24 days, David Fincher’s involvement in the film, and the toxic chemistry between Harbour and Arquette’s characters.

Courteney Cox’s sophomore feature as director, Evil Genius, explores the stranger-than-fiction story of the infamous 2003 “Pizza Bomber,” with Stranger Things’ David Harbour and Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette headlining the dark comedy. At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie World premiered, Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the pleasure of sitting down with the trio to discuss the making of the raucous film. The movie is inspired by one of the most bizarre cases in US history, with a number of absurd rabbit trails. In the movie, Harbour portrays Bill Rothstein, who makes a call to the Pennsylvania police station to report the body of a murdered man stashed in the freezer of his ex, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong (Arquette). This report unleashes a whole can of worms, tracing back to the moment Marjorie first threatened her local bank, prompting her to plot a murder, before landing on conspiring to rob a bank with Bill.

In this interview at the Collider Media Studio, presented by Campari and The Cayman Islands, Cox, Harbour, and Arquette discuss the dark humor and dysfunctional love story adapted from the “Pizza Bomber” heist. Cox discusses the challenges of directing, and Arquette and Harbour reflect on Cox’s approach to directing actors. Cox also reveals how David Fincher contributed to and helped shape the film. Don’t miss the full conversation in the video above, with time codes provided below.
How the “Pizza Bomber” Case Became a Darkly Comic Love Story

“I’m not retelling the documentary.”

Image via Photagonist

COLLIDER: I really want to start with, thank you so much for coming in and a huge congrats on your movie. I thought you guys did such exceptional work, and I really thought you did a great job behind the camera. So, I just want to say congrats. COURTENEY COX: Thank you so much. It means a lot. I’m so excited to be here. And that means a lot coming from you. Now, I apologize, but a lot of people will not know what the movie is about because obviously it’s premiering here, so how have you been describing it to people? COX: It’s based on a true story, but I’m not retelling the documentary or just telling you about the bizarre heist. I’m telling it in a way that is has dark humor. It’s about a dysfunctional love story, about deception, about betrayal, about real people. That’s a good question. Good ahead. [Laughs] DAVID HARBOUR: How we describe the movie? COX: That’s hard! HARBOUR: Yeah, we don’t have a bullet pitch, do we? PATRICIA ARQUETTE: It’s a bank robbery gone wrong. HARBOUR: It’s like the darkest rom-com you’ve ever seen, I guess, really is how I would describe it. There was this case back in 2003 called the “Pizza Bomber” case, where a pizza delivery guy walked into a bank, and a bomb was strapped to his chest, and he said he’s here to rob the bank. It was later discovered that he was put up to it by this couple, basically. And so our story investigates that couple and the romance between them, and what they were thinking, and the dark depths to which they descend through their twisted love. And it’s also just a really fun, absurdist movie. It’s crazy as it unfolds because you just can’t believe what’s going on. For the two of you, you obviously read a lot of scripts. What was it like reading this script, and when did you realize, “Oh, I absolutely have to do this?” ARQUETTE: Well, I’ve known Courteney for so many years and loved her, and she was putting this together, and she came to me, and I want to support her. I mean, the conviction she’d carried for so many years. And I knew the story. The story was insane, and the part’s crazy. So it was like, “Whoa, are you ready to go for it?” You have 24 days, low budget. You gotta just jump all the way in. This lady’s a crazy person, and you’ve got to do all this research and all that. But it was exciting. I mean, parts like that are complicated, difficult, and also exciting. HARBOUR: I think for me, there are sort of emergent filmmakers in my mind now that are doing things in the genre space that are very genre-bending. We’ve seen it with Obsession, with Weapons, with these movies, and I think that I’m starting to find scripts come across my desk that have that in the comedy space. I just did a family comedy with this new writer-director, Alex Kavutskiy, who’s sort of genius in terms of bending genre, as well. So when Courteney presented me with this, it had the same sort of feel where I had to keep leaning in, and it felt weird, and it felt like the tone was off, and I didn’t understand it. I think we’re so inundated with media now, we’re so savvy with story that we can just peg something and go, “Oh, that’s this. Oh, that’s this.” Or I can look at a poster and I can go, “Oh yeah, I know that movie.” And so I’m always interested when I get something and I go, “What is this?” And I keep getting into it like 10 minutes in, 20 minutes in. I’m like, “Oh, it’s this?” And, “Oh no, it’s this.” And I think that this had that quality to it, and I was really excited. Especially, Courteney’s really very smart. She has an incredible comedy background and TV background, obviously, and all that sensibility. And then with Patricia as the lead actress, it’s like all that sensibility just adds a certain weirdness to the whole thing, which excites me because I don’t quite understand. COX: Yeah, I think that’s what I love about most movies when they’re not easily identified in a certain genre. You can’t label it. I’m so glad that you say that, because those are my favorite films. You obviously made this on a very tight schedule and a very tight budget, and it’s a pretty big story. As a filmmaker, you have to make your days, you can’t really go over, and you probably have very limited takes, so what was it like on set, maintaining that calm through what could be a real storm? COX: Well, I think one thing that I am good at is trusting that I’ve gotten it. I never went over. I think one day I went over 15 minutes, but usually we’d get out early. I’d get calls from people saying, “Get a close-up of this,” and I said, “You don’t need it.” I have such great actors. The characters are incredible. I just want to stare at every one of them, and I felt confident with not having all the takes. They came so prepared. I don’t know, I think that was the easy part for me.
Courteney Cox Explains Her Approach to Directing Actors

“What we do is pretty vulnerable.”

Image via Photagonist

You’ve obviously been an actor for a while, and I’m so curious, what are you like as a director when directing actors? What was she like? What were the notes you were being given? Because you obviously are both so talented, but maybe when they were doing something that you wanted a little different, what was it like? COX: Well, they can speak for that part, but you don’t need to give notes just to give notes, to be heard, just to feel like you’re in control of something. But when I wanted a different layer or maybe something that I could see, that, “Oh, maybe it’d be nice to have that a little bit,” I don’t know, I think you give notes when you might be able to bring something different than what they’re thinking. But if it’s working perfectly, I would let them, you know… ARQUETTE: But one of the things that I don’t feel like I have a lot of experience in is comedy. I mean, I’ve done a couple comedies, but Courteney, she has it all the time. Even when she’s telling jokes around, it’s just funny. So I said, “Listen, this is not one of my strong suits, so in those comedic moments, remind me of that and help me with that timing.” So she would come in and help with that. But it wasn’t just comedy either, by the way. There were times where she’d be like, “Now remember, Bill had done this before.” “Oh, right. Thank you so much.” Or just to remind you of the richness of something, some connection with another character, or another color you wanted to see. HARBOUR: And I do think that one of the things that people don’t realize maybe on sets, or directors don’t realize, is that to a certain degree what we do is pretty vulnerable, and we can be quite humiliated if we’re bad or if we’re whatever. We were showing up in big old suits and prosthetics and all sorts of things that is a swing. It’s a swing, and I think that Courteney is very sensitive to being enthusiastic and generous with her energy so you feel safe to take those swings. ARQUETTE: I was worried about the time, and I was worried about, “Did we get it? I don’t know, we’re having to move so fast.” “I got it.” She’d be like, “Yep, we got it.” And I really had confidence in your eye. COX: One of the things, because we were in such a tight schedule, they had scenes on the same day, let’s say of the heist, and David wasn’t there on that part where Patricia was working. It was just one of those things that I had to sit and pretend to be them on the radio. Remember, I was next to the car? You’re so good. I’m going, “Okay, so now she just said this to you right now.” I don’t know if other directors do that, but it was really embarrassing. [Laughs] I acted out the other parts. One of the fascinating things about the movie is determining who is manipulating who. Did your perspective change while you were making it? HARBOUR: Yeah, like every day. I feel like they’re so enmeshed in such a codependent power struggle, but also love and need, and all these things that are deeper than that power, as well, that every day it was a dance of, like, who is really manipulating who? ARQUETTE: Yeah, Patricia could see that happening, like, “Whoa, she’s manipulating him,” but my character always thought everyone else was manipulating, basically. Yes, she needed somebody to do something for her, and who cares about them? But she still saw them as the manipulator. [Laughs] She never saw herself as that.
Courteney Cox Reveals How David Fincher Helped Shape the Film

“If I wrote him right now and said, ‘Can you help me finish this sentence,’ he probably would.”

David Fincher smiles during a red carpet eventImage via Abaca Press/INSTARimages

I was looking at the credits, and you thank a bunch of people, but I want to specifically mention you thank David Fincher, Liam Neeson, Justin Theroux. Those three people, how did they get a thank you? COX: Well, I think I can say this: In the beginning of the movie when David’s calling 911, we had someone doing the off-camera work, and I needed to change the dialogue. Everything was on the fly. “Justin, will you do me a favor? Can you just record this on your phone and send it to me?” I put it in the movie. That was it. So, thank you, Justin. I didn’t pay him for that. Liam had seen the movie, and he was so sweet, and he was obsessed with the music that I chose, and he wanted to pitch in. He wanted to donate something to letting me get the song. I didn’t end up using the song because they wouldn’t let us — not “they” as in the producers, but the band — and I just thought it was so generous and kind. And David Fincher introduced me to the writer, spent hours upon hours sitting with me, talking through scenes. As soon as I figured out how I wanted the credits to look, that was all from the notes of the demand note it, I took that, and that’s what I used as the font for the credits. So I’d say, “David, what do you think? Do you like the version with this or do you like this?” And he just was there. If I wrote him right now and said, “Can you help me finish this sentence,” he probably would. David is also just a really effin smart man. COX: Oh, God. ARQUETTE: And he gave notes on… Because at one point, there’s so many different points in time of Marge growing up, of Bill when they’re younger, of different points in the heist and different points in the post-heist, and so there was a whole different time structure in the script. COX: He put me through an exercise. ARQUETTE: Yeah, and so you guys changed the whole beginning, just the structure of that. COX: He said, “Okay, every time you switch the scene, I want you to tell me what time of day it is.” It was really, really fascinating. What he had me do was exhausting, but it really helped go, “Oh wait, it is confusing.” It all worked out — didn’t it? [Laughs] Oh, 100%. By the way, if I could get David Fincher to give me feedback on just my life and how I do things during the day, I would take it. COX: And talk to him about watches. He could talk about that for hours.

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So you have a cut that you’re happy with, you’re in the editing room. Who do you end up showing it to for really honest feedback, and what did you learn from those early screenings? COX: Besides David, I would say just close friends. Did anyone give you really good feedback that you were like, “That is a great note and I need to incorporate that?” COX: I’d say a lot of people did. You know what I don’t like is a lot of friends and family things, and people just love to start talking. It’s like, “Okay, you don’t need to say that out loud just because you had a thought.” I can’t stand that. It’s like I’m not changing the whole movie because you had a thought. And then the next person goes, “Oh, I love that!” Everyone, be quiet. Turns out I don’t take advice. [Laughs] Some people I’ve spoken to can watch a movie, and they can really diagnose what was a key scene that’s missing or how this line of dialogue would really change this. It’s amazing. ARQUETTE: Who is that person? Can you give us their name? COX: I should have said my producers were obviously were all helpful. They gave great notes. I didn’t want to leave them out. Totally.
Courteney Cox Recalls the Emotional Moment She Knew the Movie Had Come Together

“I was so proud.”

Image via Photagonist

For the two of you, the movie depends on believing this toxic chemistry between Bill and Marjorie. How did you two figure that out and the way you wanted it to play?

HARBOUR: I mean, it was pretty natural. Toxic chemistry just comes naturally to me and Patty. ARQUETTE: True. HARBOUR: Yeah. I just feel like you know, I don’t know, she’s someone whose work I’ve admired for so many years, and I’ve just loved. So working with her, I just want to fit in to that thing. I just want to respond to what she’s giving me. And I think that we just played the scenes as hard as we could. We didn’t go out to dinner or talk about anything. It just sort of happens in the moment. And I think that we’re pros, and it was just super fun. ARQUETTE: I think that he was very clear on his character’s need, right? He needed her to want him. He needed someone to think he was brilliant. He needed someone to come to him and see him. His parents saw him as a loser. The world was not celebrating him. For her to keep coming to him and thinking he’s this person better than all these other guys around, better than the other things, he needed that validation from her. And she had issues with her dad since she was a teenager and needed someone to make her safe, someone to fix things for her. For him to express that kind of love and her to challenge it, “Prove it. Prove I’m safe. Prove I’m safe,” created a bond between them. Their real needs bonded each other. When you think back on the making of the film, what’s a day you will always remember because it either went completely sideways or was an amazing day, or you did something incredible in one take? COX: I’ll share something pretty personal. When these two came to work the first and second day, it was the interrogation room, and there was about, I would say, 14, 15 pages of dialogue that you had to know. I’ve been working on this for so many years, through all the strikes, lockdown, and it just finally came together. It was the first day, the second day, and how many ways can you shoot an interrogation room? I watch those YouTube videos a lot, but I was like, “I’ve just got to make it interesting.” I watched them; I was watching Patricia, and I was trying to give a note, a thought, dropping all my papers, and I thought, “Oh my God, I just look like I’m such a disaster. Can you hold on one second?” And I went into the other room after we had finished this tape, and I burst into tears. I literally was like, “This came together! Oh my God, it’s incredible.” I was so proud. I came in, tears in my eyes, and I just hugged her, and, “I’m sorry, you had to see that.” But I was so proud. ARQUETTE: What happened there was the script, the timeline, we were talking about how it changed. Originally, there was all these cuts going forward and back, and you were going back to the interrogation scene. We had so little time, and I was like, “You know what? I know we could shoot all these different chunks, but I’m just going to memorize this 15 pages as, like, a monologue.” Because we had so little time, 24 days, so I just memorized this like a monologue so we can just blow through this like it’s one long giant scene. So we did that, and the sound guy goes, “I gotta tell you, I took this movie, and it was a little movie, whatever. Okay, I need a job,” He goes, “But you came in that first day and you threw down 15 pages, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what am I working on?’” So it was that level of commitment, like, “We don’t have any time. We’ve got to deliver this thing for her. We’ve got to get it in the can. We’ve got to throw down.” I mean, I love her as a person, beyond a director, so it was like, “Courteney believes in me, and us, and we’ve just got to put it in her hands so she can have it in the editing room.”

Image via Photagonist

HARBOUR: For me, I remember a lot of days, a lot of scenes on it that were really special, but there was a special day where we put the bomb on Tom McCarthy, where we strap him into that bomb, and we all drive into this spot. I remember it was kind of a tough day because we started the day and there were some things wrong, like certain departments had messed some things up, some things didn’t work the way we wanted it to. This is always the way it is with film. It’s like you have to deal with contingencies, and it was a real contingency. We didn’t have a lot of time to shoot it, and it was a big scene and a really important scene. I remember just having, again, an ensemble of actors with Garret Dillahunt, Tom McCarthy, Michael Chernus, Patricia, myself. I mean, we’re all just like animals, and we just want to do the scene. We just did it, and the camera sort of follows us around a couple of takes. There was just something about it that felt… Everyone’s trying to talk it through, and I was just like, “Let’s just do it. Everybody knows it.” They’re like, “No, no, and then you’re going to move here…” “We know it. Let’s just do it!” And we did it, and it just kind of works. And I think that was so magic about the whole production was when we would just let go and just let these acting animals just go at each other. We just had a blast. I’ve been told we have to wrap, but I’m going to sneak one last thing. I’m doing a supercut of everyone coming in, and it’s a very easy question. Where do you like to sit in a movie theater? HARBOUR: I like to sit back left, way up top, far away from the screen. Popcorn and a Coke. ARQUETTE: You know, there’s the first section in front, and then there’s an aisle, and then there’s the next section. I like to sit in the middle of the second section, behind the wheelchair access rows. COX: I like to sit in that section, but on the right side, because it’s still in the middle, to be able to get out — I mean, when I hate the film. No, I’m just kidding. Getting a popcorn, I don’t know. Evil Genius premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2026.

Director

Courtney Cox

Writers

Courtenay Miles

Producers

John Buderwitz, Courteney Cox, Jason Bateman, Michael Costigan