The Big Picture

Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat with the cast and crew behind the horror comedy,
Ick
, at TIFF 2024.
Director Joseph Kahn innovated editing and soundtracks on a budget, and searched for a “Mena-Suvari-type.”
Malina Weissman reveals her non-comedic approach to her character, and Brandon Routh laughs about hanging upside down for two days.

What if a bizarre sci-fi entity encroached into every nook and cranny of your town, and no one cared? Director Joseph Kahn’s Ick, which premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, riffs on sci-fi horror classics like The Blob and delivers us a satirical horror comedy that taps into the idea of becoming numb to living in a state of perpetual emergency. As the “Ick,” a strange vine-like growth, invades a town, only science teacher Hank Wallace (Brandon Routh) and his student Grace (Malina Weissman) seem to be concerned. When their suspicions are bloodily confirmed, havoc and biting satire ensues. They are also joined by Harrison Cone, Taia Sophia, Zeke Donovan Jones, Debra Wilson, Mena Suvari and Jeff Fahey.

At TIFF 2024, director Kahn, and cast members Routh, Suvari and Weissman sat down with Collider’s Steve Weintraub as they discussed what made this script so appealing to bring to life. The crew talk about calling in favors to get a hold of killer soundtracks, Weissman’s non-comedic approach to her character, Routh hanging upside down for two days, and searching for the perfect “Mena-Suvari-type.” Routh also gives us an update on the Magic The Gathering series. You can hear about this in the video above, or you can read the conversation in transcript-form below.

‘Ick’s Cast All Thought Director Joseph Kahn Was “Brilliant and Genius”
Image via AGC Studios

COLLIDER: No one has seen the movie yet who’s watching this or maybe two people have. How have you been describing the film to friends and family?

JOSEPH KAHN: It’s a horror comedy, but a satire, a dramedy. It’s kind of everything at a certain level. It’s a fun ride, it’s a roller coaster, you know. I make no apologies about it. We made a roller coaster film on purpose.

For the three of you, I’m curious what you thought about when you were reading the script and also what was it like seeing the finished film last night, because this is something that really requires the editing, the VFX, the music for it to really come off the page and come together.

BRANDON ROUTH: There’s so many elements coming into place to make this film, and it’s pretty astounding. The script was a fun ride and interesting thoughts about the Ick, and what the Ick is, and the people and how they’re handling it was interesting to me and Hank’s journey was interesting to me. The most interesting part of it was working with Joseph because, I thought, with this script and the work that I’d seen from him, that was all I needed to see to go on a journey. Also, just having a lovely conversation with him about how he was approaching the film and also his appreciation of actors and what we bring to the table too, was pretty great.

MENA SUVARI: I completely agree. I just felt really, really grateful to be thought of by somebody like Joseph. I feel he’s absolutely brilliant and genius. I agree. We need to see many more films of his. I hope to be a part of them. But I love to work in the comedy element. This was really exciting to me. I was really honored to be thought of by Joseph for a character like this.

ROUTH: Because you’re very, very funny.

SUVARI: Coming from someone like you really means a lot. I got to meet such incredible humans and really build a new family. It was just overall just an awesome experience to be thought of, to read such an exciting story. Then get to work with incredible people.

MALINA WEISSMAN: I feel like I speak for all of us when I say that we’ve never worked with a director like Joseph, and it’s so cool, and it was such an awesome experience. Working with them was so cool, as a young actress, learning from all of them and learning from Joseph was really, really special and it was awesome.

‘Ick’ Soundtrack Has Songs From Blink 182 and Good Charlotte’s Benji Madden
“I called on every favor I could.”
Image via Photagonist at TIFF 2024

I have so many things I want to talk about, and I’m debating the order in my brain right now. I’m just gonna start with the soundtrack because it’s the first thing. I don’t think there’s gonna be a movie with a better soundtrack this year. It’s jaw dropping what you accomplished. So how the “F” did you do this?

KAHN: I called on every favor I could. You’re not exaggerating. I know, and we know that one of these songs could cost a million bucks. And we got like 20 of them. We have a $20 million movie just right off the bat of the soundtrack. [Laughs] It’s not a $20 million movie in terms of soundtrack, so it’s not what I spent. I just called in a lot of favors. I will give one spoiler: Blink 182. That’s a personal request, that’s a personal thing. You can give them all the money in the world, and they won’t put their song in a movie. The fact they did it, and they gave it for such a friend’s and family rate. It was a nice piece of validation. There’s the film industry, which is one community, and there’s the record industry, which is another community, and I suddenly realized, wow, I have some good friends in the record industry, and I’m genuinely thankful.

Did you have to show the movie or is it one of these things where you explain the film? Talk a little bit about that behind the scenes.

KAHN: I did work with a legend. His name is Budd Carr. He’s my music supervisor. He did the doors. He’s Oliver Stone’s guy, and he’s a phenomenal music supervisor, probably the best in the world. Between him and I having contacts, it was just a matter of calling them up, reaching out to artists, directly reaching out to the managers. One artist – I’ll give you another spoiler — Benji Madden from Good Charlotte, we instagrammed each other. If he says no, then you don’t get the song, but he said yes. I would show little clips of it and just whatever it took. There’s longer stories, but that gets into spoiler turf.

Believe me, when I say there’s something in the third act that I would love to talk about, which I can’t.

Joseph Kahn Makes Movies That Encourage Multiple Viewings
Image via Photagonist at TIFF 2024

I really want to commend you on the beginning of the film and because this is in the beginning, I’m just gonna talk about it. You have some incredible editing that you accomplish telling a story very quickly. Talk a little bit about what it takes to do that kind of an edit where I was watching, and I’m like, this is not something you can do in a day. This is like editing, professional, high grade editing.

KAHN: It’s tricky because if I say the wrong things, I think people will interpret it incorrectly, but there’s just some danger territory that I have to go into. One is that comes from my commercial background. I do more commercials than I do music videos, and I tell stories in 30 seconds. Imagine telling 3 acts of a movie in 30 seconds. If I have essentially 15 minutes to tell, then that’s actually a lot of space for my type of filmmaking. The big trick behind it actually, is, I believe that people can watch movies two ways now. They can either watch it once or they can watch it twice and every experience is different. I actually make these movies to be watched multiple times. I think that if you watch that particular sequence, and you watch it again a second time, the rhythm becomes even better for you. It’s like a music video. I had to make a choice: what movie am I making? Ultimately, I don’t believe movies are made to be watched once. If you love them, they’re made to be watched multiple times. So that thing is actually edited for multiple viewings.

This goes back to what I said at the beginning. You read it on the page, it’s one thing but seeing that work, what was it like watching that stuff — without spoilers?

ROUTH: I read the script, of course, and was in a large portion of the movie, and I’d seen a lot of stuff cut together on the day a little bit — rough cut. I had a feeling what the pace of the movie was, but then seeing it all put together, it is what Joseph is saying. I understand that now that every movie has a rhythm and probably changes. But this has a specific rhythm that is a pretty amazing way of telling the story. There was so much more funny stuff in it than I even realized reading it because of the devices that Joseph was using to tell the story. It made things that I didn’t understand were funny, funny. [Laughs] Oh, that’s the joke.

WEISSMAN: Joseph has such an understanding for actors. Then to see the actors put it to life and how you were talking to us on set was that how we portrayed our characters was so important to bring the story to life. It’s a whole different experience than reading the script, but it’s so cool and so beautiful.

Malina Weissman Did Not Think of ‘Ick’s Script Comedically
“She was just so completely serious, yet she was funny at the same time.”
Image via Photagonist at TIFF 2024

There is some great dialogue that is written for your generation. What was it like delivering some of those lines? Because I laughed a lot.

WEISSMAN: It was so fun. I don’t know if I would say it’s dry humor, but that’s just how I speak in my normal day-to-day life. I love doing that. Again, when you’re reading a script, you don’t get the humor until it’s kind of brought to life. It was so fun to take on this monotone humor that I hoped people would see and hope people can. It’s so relatable because kids my age are mean, and they’re dry to their parents, and they speak in that way. It’s a relatable humor that other people laugh at. I don’t think Grace thought she was being funny. She’s not trying to be funny.

KAHN: Can I say something here about that? We had auditioned a lot of girls for Grace, there’s a lot of names that came by for 18-year-old girl. Malina’s performance on the audition was so radically elevated versus everyone else.

ROUTH: I spilled my water! [Laughs].

KAHN: That is Hank by the way. [Laughs]. That’s why I casted him. He is the living embodiment of Hank.

ROUTH: Nobody come up here. Continue please.

KAHN: [Laughs]. The difference was that she actually took it seriously. The other girls were trying to make comedy beats and their funny lines and try to play into the comedy. Malina didn’t do that. She was just so completely serious, yet she was funny at the same time. It was her belief in what she was doing and her naturalism that was amazing. She was the first person I cast in the entire movie.

ROUTH: She really put a lot of grace into the part.

WEISMANN: I don’t think I’m funny in real life. I don’t think I’m a funny person whatsoever.

KAHN: But you’re hilarious.

WEISMANN: When I read the script, I’m not thinking of it comedically. I don’t think it’s funny. I literally don’t think it’s funny, but I’m glad that people think it is.

Brandon Routh Had to Hang Upside Down For Two Days During ‘Ick’
“They could see how bad it was from my face.”
Image via Photagonist at TIFF 2024

I ask this of everyone because it always leads to an interesting story from everyone. For all of you, you see the shooting schedule in front of you, what day do you have circled in terms of, I cannot wait to film this? And what day is circled in terms of how the “F” are we gonna film this?

WEISSMAN: Upside down scene. That was a big one. He’s upside down for a long time, and he took it like a champ. But that was really hard.

ROUTH: Yeah, it was really hard.

WEISMANN: It was hard to watch.

ROUTH: The hanging upside down scene was very challenging. I didn’t want to think about it. I wasn’t too afraid of it. I knew it was gonna be bad because I’ve done that before in Chuck, hanging upside down.

KAHN: But you didn’t have two days of it.

ROUTH: I didn’t have two days of it. Everyone is accommodating after a while. They could see how bad it was from my face. It’s very hilarious, unintentionally hilarious because you can’t hear my voice because blood is rushing to my head and some of it. But it’s pretty funny.

Honest to God could not do it for two days. No chance.

ROUTH: They let me up. They let me up every once in a while, and they fed me sometimes. But also, the tower scene. The end of the movie scenes seemed wild however we were gonna do it, and it looks amazing.

Mena Suvari Is the Perfect Casting For Kahn’s ‘Ick’
“It is no longer a Mena Suvari type. We got Mena Suvari.”
Image via Photagonist at TIFF 2024

What day did you have circled in terms of I can’t wait to film this?

SUVARI: Everything. I was so excited to be a part of this. To think about how I would be experiencing going back in time and shooting these scenes as a teenager again in high school. I was working in this space with things I’d never worked with before, ever experienced. It was really, really cool and exciting and just riveting, each day, to be able to step into that character and go back into time. Even when you see Stacy in the future. Getting to work with Peter Wong, incredible comedic talent. It was just so exciting for me every single day to play up this character, to live this character. I feel she’s an opportunist in a way. It was fun. I love these types of characters, really fun dialogue. I don’t wanna give too much away, but these moments that I have with my daughter. I’m sending her off to school and the way that she’s just half checked out. It was just a lot of fun to construct all of those little beats, all of those little moments and see it put together.

KAHN: Let me tell you something about Mena, by the way. I had cast it Malina then we got lucky to cast Brandon — that’s the whole story in and of itself. But then, the third big one is the Stacy character. I kept saying, I want a Mena Suvari type. Because I don’t think we’re gonna get Mena Suvari. Like she’s gonna turn this down, she’s gonna turn this down. Look for a Mena Suvari type, right? She actually played poker at my house many, many years ago. She doesn’t remember this.

SUVAR: [Laughs] Don’t put me on the spot. That’s a long story.

KAHN: When you try to get like these big celebrities and stuff like that, you have to know them to even get access to them. We had a mutual friend and so we sent the script over and then she said, “I’ll do it.” I was like, whoa, so no it is no longer a Mena Suvari type. We got Mena Suvari.

SUVARI: There is no other Mena Suvari type. [Laughs].

ROUTH: There’s only one Mena Suvari. [Laughs].

SUVARI: But that’s awesome. That’s just so beautiful in and of itself. How can you not just be excited and ready to go?

Image via Photagonist at TIFF 2024

ROUTH: I just wanted to add something. One of the things I was excited to film was the football stuff. Because I never done a football movie. [It’s] my first.

KAHN: There is a shot where he has to throw a football, and he has to be pretty accurate from like 50 yards away, and he did it. That’s not a stuntman. That’s him actually throwing the ball.

SUVARI: I just want to mention Chancler [Haynes] too, our editor. Some of the things that we got to experience for me that I’d never seen before. We would literally shoot a moment. We were in a gymnasium to shoot part of a scene. Then we were able to run over a Chancler who’s on the other side of the gymnasium editing, and he’d have it edited. I’d never experienced anything like that and just the pace. It was incredible.

When you’re also editing like that, you can figure out the shots you’re missing faster, and you don’t have to do additional photography.

SUVARI: Just as an actor, to have that experience. It’s not just a playback of that shot, it’s like seeing it cut together immediately. It was so cool.

ROUTH: It was very validating and confirming that we were doing good work as we went along. I could see that and that helped me build confidence, because I like seeing what I’m doing and knowing how I can improve it.

WEISMANN: It helped us in the future too, as we were filming more and more. It helped us understand what was going on and why we were doing certain things. It was really cool.

Joseph Kahn Has A Precise and Specific Style to Shooting
“You can do 10 times the effects because you’re not doing 10 times the takes.”
Image via Photagonist at TIFF 2024

One of the things about this is that you made this on a budget, but you have a ton of VFX. So… how?

KAHN: It’s calling every favor in the world. I can’t just keep saying it’s just the favor thing. It’s a combination. One, obviously I have to get some great deals, and I’m calling every favor. But the second thing is that the way I shoot, and they can attest to this, I shoot very specific. There’s no fat. If you look at the scraps on the floor, there’s nothing. I might have multiple takes, but don’t necessarily have multiple coverage. It’s a very dangerous way of shooting frankly. Because you’re locked into the edit. It’s a preconceived way of doing it. What it does is it eliminates waste.

Like in a Marvel movie, they’ll shoot something, and then they’ll redo a whole scene and then reiterate that and then shoot a whole thing. We can’t do that. We got one shot at it. It has to be super accurate. When I go to the visual effects people, I have to say: this is the monster; this is what it does; this is the way it’s lit; this is the way it moves; this is the texture. All the VFX artists are not wasting their time. If you can iterate precisely what you want, you can do 10 times the effects because you’re not doing 10 times the takes.

ROUTH: People can’t make this movie. Joseph Kahn can make this movie. Joseph Kahn can make this movie because he planned it, and he strategized, and he learned everything he needed to know about all the things he needed to know. It wasn’t a lot of money. That always makes it challenging. That’s just a testament to knowing what his organization is and knowing what he wanted to do and being prepared. That’s invaluable in a movie and for actors also.

KAHN: Look as much visual effects there are, as much lighting and technical and all that stuff, at the end of the day, you’re not watching it for camera, you’re watching for people. The acting is the most important thing. For me, ultimately, it’s about that. One of the fun things about it was we couldn’t even afford a video monitor. I actually had to operate the camera for the entire time. The fun thing about that is that when you’re directing because you’re right behind the camera, old school, when you have a line, you want to talk to an actor, you’re not walking there, you’re there. We immediately have a conversation.

ROUTH: We had a great dialogue. I really enjoyed it.

KAHN: If you had a thought or something like that, we’re there.

ROUTH: My favorite thing to do on set was trying to get Joseph to smile or laugh. I got everybody else, but he was very, very focused. He’s commanding the ship. It worked every once in a while.

WEISMANN: I wish people could see your binder. You had the coolest, most awesome binder of drawings and things from the whole movie that was in and of itself an art piece.

Brandon Routh Confirms ‘Magic The Gathering’ Series Is Canceled
Image via Netflix

I have to ask you an individual question if you don’t mind. I read that you are doing this Magic the Gathering series. Am I wrong about this?

ROUTH: I’m not sure. I did do a voice for it. As far as I understand, nobody’s put out a press release about it, but apparently it’s not happening. That’s kind of old news. I’m not sure why it’s surfacing again.

This is what happens, but this is also a good way to ask about it and put the information to bed.

ROUTH: It should happen, because people would want to see it. I would want to see it.

People will now know it’s not happening.

Special thanks to this year’s partners of the Cinema Center x Collider Studio at TIFF 2024 including presenting Sponsor Range Rover Sport as well as supporting sponsors Peoples Group financial services, poppi soda, Don Julio Tequila, Legend Water and our venue host partner Marbl Toronto. And also Roxstar Entertainment, our event producing partner and Photagonist Canada for the photo and video services.