Australian actor Daniel Henshall is no stranger to working with the genius that is Bong Joon Ho, having collaborated on 2017’s science fiction comedy Okja.
Now, the two are reuniting on the director’s eagerly anticipated Mickey 17, the first since his historic Oscar win in 2020. Mickey 17 tells of an unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes who finds himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.
Alongside an ensemble of such greats as Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette, Henshall is volleying with their director’s unique vision, and as the film arrives in theatres this week (read our review here), the actor spoke to our own Peter Gray about the unique personality he was asked to channel for his character and how he responded to the ethical and philosophical questions Mickey 17 raises.
Because Bong Joon Ho is such a genius, was there ever any worry from you when reading this script, realising how bonkers it was? Do you just have to trust the vision?
It’s a little of column A and column B. I was just saying this to my partner, I still don’t know how he made this movie work. I love the film, and I’m saying that objectively. It’s been many years since we shot it, so I don’t even recall some of the film, and I haven’t looked at the script since, so I was coming into it quite fresh. Even some of the moments that I was in, myself, I was still surprised by. I don’t know how he tied it together so seamlessly. It’s such a unique film. It’s original. And yet the themes feel like we’ve seen them in some shape or form, but not like this.
To answer your question, you read the script and you think there’s no way. This is so funny, so on point, so different and bizarre and wonderful and cinematic. How can you put this in one film? How can it make any sense? Of course, (Bong) does this for a living. This is what he knows. He’s a genre defining director, and he manages to get his voice through on each of his films. It doesn’t matter how small a story it is, like in Mother or Barking Dogs Never Bite, or the more epic ones in nature, like Okja or Snowpiercer. They’re all his films. They all look and feel and sound like him.
So, of course, you know it’ll work. Maybe, sure, this is the one that doesn’t, but it’s him and there’s never a doubt.
Looking at the themes of the film, like mortality, identity, and the nature of existence. As an actor, are you personally connecting with those complex ideas? Did that inform your character at all? Or it all just came from the stud piercing under your mouth, and that’s all you needed to know about Preston?
Bong took me out to lunch, and we’d worked together before (on Okja), but we hadn’t seen each other for a couple of years. So we had a nice catch up, and then he’s like, “Let’s talk character.” He tells me that Preston is “shiny, smells like shampoo, and has no hair.” That was so fantastic because it takes it out of any sort of intellectualization. So, now I’m thinking how this person gets to exist, and how he fits in with everyone else.
And then when Bong started talking about the church aspect, and the corporatization of this unnamed church that sponsors the voyage to another colony, on another planet (in the film), as a person, as Dan Henshall, I connected to the very real understanding that the resources on the planet that everybody existed on have been exhausted. The world is now trashed, and we need to escape this planet because it can’t sustain us. Yeah, that’s so true for all of us right now.
And we made this in 2022, right? So, there’s stuff that has happened since that feels quite prevalent. I can only speak to that as a person of the world watching it happen. I don’t know what Bong’s intentions were, but it’s pretty crazy.
As an actor playing the character though? I’m working with a great who knows exactly what they want. He said to me, “You’re Mick Jagger, but nobody knows that and you never show it, okay?” And that was great. Whatever that meant (laughs). He works very prescriptively. He wants to have that storyboard where he can dot the I’s and cross the T’s, but within that you’re allowed to play, and that is such a gift.
Looking at the real world considerations, as you said, with the film feeling more relevant now, and you have Mark Ruffalo projecting the characteristics of a certain leader, and the expendables concept raises ethical and philosophical questions. Did you find yourself reflecting on those issues during filming?
I mean, it was just so inhumane. I know an expendable, as a person, signs up for certain expectations, but there’s still a person with intrinsic value and a heart and a soul, and it’s unique to them, and I don’t know how you could treat anybody like that. But in the construct of the film, it feels like a very true possibility at some point that this may or may not happen. God hope we don’t get to that point.
But, you know, it’s played with such dark, absurd hilarity. It’s commenting on how stupid and sad we all are, and if we can admit that and accept it, it takes away from the personal gain and grief. You know, Mark’s (Ruffalo) character is so desperately wanting to be someone of value, and he goes down such a dark, manipulative, narcissistic path, but I think all Mark really wants is a hug, you know what I mean? And be told that he’s a good boy. I think everybody wants to be told that they’re appreciated.
I hope we never get to the technology in the film, but it doesn’t feel like an impossibility. Sadly.
I found myself very oddly connecting to the creepers. I couldn’t handle seeing them injured in any way. I know they are CGI creatures, but I was just thinking of my French Bulldog every time they were in danger, so I was very emotionally invested.
Oh, they just want to live harmoniously. They’re not even offended that this new race of beings is on their planet. But the way they protect themselves in the end, you know that “All for one and one for all” (mindset), it pulls on all the strings. Because they’re the “others” and we don’t know anything about them, we’re terrified so we make up stories about them that aren’t true, and it’s not until we come face to face with them that we realise they’re just trying to do their best and live harmoniously with their community.
They all want the same thing, right? They want their people, their creepers, to thrive and procreate and flourish in safety and good health, just like the better parts of the people on that mission. It’s hard when you see a defenseless creature, or, you know, Rob’s characters be treated so badly. I’m a dad now, so I think anything that happens like that is just going to break me.
Mickey 17 is now screening in Australian theatres.
