Bad Samaritan Interview: Kerry Condon, Jacquelin Byers, & Carlito Olivero On Working On The David Tennant Thriller

David Tennant is sure making good money off of playing unhinged psychopaths. He did a bang-up job in the Marvel/Netflix show Jessica Jones, and he’s continued this trend in the upcoming thriller Bad Samaritan.

In the film, two valets make the mistake of trying to rob his house, but when they do so, they find a woman chained up in the office. It becomes perfectly clear from that point forward that they bit off more than they can chew, and Tennant’s character is more than happy to invite them into his own personal hell.

We recently posted an interview we had with director Dean Devlin and writer Brandon Boyce, but now we have a roundtable interview with the supporting cast, which consists of Kerry Condon, Jacqueline Byers, and Carlito Olivero. Take a look down below!

RELATED – Bad Samaritan Interview: Discussing The Dark Thriller With Director Dean Devlin And Screenwriter Brandon Boyce


So what drew you all to this project?

Olivero: Um, what drew me to the project? I mean, I think the script. The script pretty much spoke for itself. You know, all the time when you hear about these thriller type of movies, there’s always some type of bank robber or person breaking into a house, a person you’re trying to keep out of a house, but you never really have anything on valet workers, on valet drivers. So once I actually saw that these guys weren’t this complete masterminds where they’re going away, they have these elaborate schemes how they’re going to walk away with a million dollars worth of stuff. Like, no, they’re pretty much the worst criminals ever and they’re breaking into houses and walking away with items and materials that you wouldn’t even really know that you’re missing. Books or small little credit cards.

Byers: That’s actually quite clever, though.

Olivero: Yeah, it’s quite clever, but we don’t give ourselves that much credit, at least. Like, we think we’re doing a good job, but realistically we walk away with five bucks sometimes. So, I mean, just that alone and actually seeing that David Tennant was attached to it and just seeing where the characters went, that just automatically just pulled me in. And I was hoping that I would book the role, so…

Byers: It was suspenseful. Like, I read it and you, when you’re reading it and you can’t put something down, I always say if I have to take a break reading a script, it’s not the script for me. And I just read it straight through. And then you audition, and when I met with Dean [Devlin] … Big thing is the relationship that you’re gonna have with the director and if they’re gonna … How they’re gonna shoot it, it’s the style and the way that you see the film and make sure that you balance out those things, and it was lovely. He’s lovely.

Condon: What drew me to it, I like the idea of playing that part. You know, it just seemed kind of fun to do, I suppose, and also David being attached, again because if the person opposite me was somebody I didn’t really think was that great, I wouldn’t have done it because it just, it would be too hard, it wouldn’t be good. And then also, a big thing was Dean had his own distribution company within the company, and like it’s all well and good sometimes doing a movie, you know, but you don’t know if it’s going to get distribution. And so knowing that that was kind of a guaranteed thing because he was going to do it himself, that was a big point, too, ’cause I was like, “Well at least it’s going to get released.” I mean, you can’t be sure all the time that things get released.

Byers: Also, I’d never done a film before so there was like a big aspect of me…

No way.

Byers: Yeah, it was my first movie.

You killed it.

Byers: Yeah. So sometimes you put energy out, I’ve done television, so it was nice.

So each of you had a moment in the movie with David, what was it like to be on the receiving end of his intensity? That glare and everything.

Olivero: I think it’s when you’re in the moment, besides the fact that you’re in the character and you have to just, you have to kill it every single time it just makes you want to do that much better. You know, it depends on what set you’re on where rehearsal is a big big thing usually you just mark the movement of what you’re gonna do. When I saw him in rehearsal he was just in it before they even yelled action. They just automatically kept me on my toes and I knew that I had a lot more scenes to do with this guy, and it just made me, if anything it made me intimidated in a right way to actually be like, “Nah, I’m here, I booked this role, I’m gonna do great.” And I’m gonna give it my best cause I see he’s obviously doing it before they even yelled action, I hadn’t even done my scene with him yet and I see that he’s in it, so, yeah.

Condon: It depends on the scene you know, I couldn’t, as Kerry or as a spectator, stand back and say, “Excellent, David.” So it depends on what scene I was in

Did he make you actually feel the fear that you’re portraying on the screen?

Condon: I mean, to be honest, it was more like, like fear I don’t know, I was kinda mixed with like really fucking hating him and the fear starting to turn into what I would do to you if I was able to and making it like that, because I thought it was a little more interesting to play, since playing fear all the time is one-note. Then what was the other thing? I suppose I can’t remember my train of thought.

The director mentioned that he doesn’t believe in putting actors in danger, like he does a lot of digital effects, but it doesn’t sound like he had any problem putting you guys in uncomfortable situations. Can you talk a little bit about working in the cold, working in Portland, any long days, any stories, especially having to be in chains and tied up? Any stories like that as an actor to kinda prepare yourself for that?

Olivero: I think Adine is all about safety first, you know he wants to make sure that we, you know, don’t get hurt, even for stunts that we know we can do by ourselves, we make sure that there’s a stunt double to make sure that we’re okay. But he didn’t say anything about us freezing our balls off. It was really cold, guys, it was like negative… it was so much snow. It never snows it Portland but last time it snowed it was like ten years ago, it was like five different storms while we were there. So, but we had to get these shots, you know, so I think it helped us it made me a little bit more vulnerable and it made me wanna kill every single take because I needed to get inside [laughing] cause I was freezing, I’m like “okay done!” And I would run inside. That definitely helped.

Byers: I’m Canadian so it wasn’t that cold [laughing]. But, I don’t like, he never put me into that and I don’t have that much, I guess there’s one scene where I get beaten up pretty bad, but I always think when it snows all those things just add to the experience of making a movie. Every single person on set, it might be the person working the boom is also going through that and it becomes a family and a team. It’s inclusive when something is thrown at you like that, it’s not just everyone doing their roles and going home, it’s like we’re all dealing with this thing together.

Condon: Getting in the chair everyday, that was a bit, you know, from the very first time that we practiced it I just had the plan that I was just gonna zone out when they were putting it all on, like to completely kinda not think of anything and zone out, because if you start to think about it — and the guys who were doing it were getting kinda nervous cause they kept having to check who had the key to which lock and they had to have this kind choreographed way of doing it because they had to be all on in a specific way. I was like can we the key and telling me they have the key and everyone was more worried, so it was easier for me to just like pretend that none of it was happening. Like okay, yeah, cause everyone felt like it was so weird.

Byers: Seeing that chair it was like a, its like when you go to a museum and you see like torture stuff and you’re looking at that knowing that she’s gonna have to actually sit in it, it’s like the most uncomfortable.

Condon: And then to take off the chains took ages too, so once I was in it I had to be in it for ages. Like I couldn’t pee so I’d be like, “god, I can’t have coffee, I can’t have water,” this is bullshit! [laughing] I threatened it a few times, I was like “I’ll have to go to the loo if you’re not careful”

Byers: I love, this is like a women’s panel.

It did kinda turn out that way.

Byers: It’s frickin’ awesome.

We heard a lot of laughing from over there, did you guys have some funny stories? Any interesting stories from behind the scenes?

Byers: So I live in new york and Dean, I had literally just met him cause it was all through Skype and all the technology now, and he was like “have you seen Hamilton?” And I’m like “no” and he’s like “why not?” And I was like “cause it is so expensive and impossible to get tickets and he goes “All right, so I got two tickets delivered to my trailer to go see Hamilton in New York” and next week which is crazy because like the wait list is crazy, and then I go and Paul McCartney was sta behind me. So that was insane and also like musicals are great, so Dean and I we sang a little bit on set (laughing).

Olivero: I went to my first strip club in Portland (laughing).

Byers: They also had a vegan Mexican restaurant attached to it, which I think is funny.

Olivero: I thought it would be a lot nicer (laughing). In the movies it looks so much fun but I was like this is not what I thought it was gonna be like, I respect all the working girls there but it’s just, it was an experience. Then I had to like, make it rain, but I was like the only one there doing it. Everyone else was putting in like two dollars and I was just like I’ve always wanted to do this so I threw it up and no one yelled. I left afterward. I am never going to a strip club ever again in my life.

Byers: Also only ATM because the restaurant on the other side was in the strip club

Olivero: Yes.

Byers: So I had to walk through it to get my money out to pay for my burrito.

Olivero: But they got good food there, good Mexican food.

Female: Was this on the outskirts of Portland?

Byers: No, this is right downtown.

Olivero: No, it’s apparently one of the famous strip clubs in Portland.

So would it be something you would be interested in going back and trying?

Olivero: Yeah, I’m still doing music, music and acting full time. Its basically at first, I started doing music and then I got like eighteen years old was when I first booked my first film and from there it was like music and acting. Right now I’m on another series called Step Up: High Water and the character I’m playing is a young homeless R&B singer. So I’m signing on the show, you know, on top, so it’s cool that everything’s kinda coming full force. Where I can be on a series where I can act, sing, and dance. Second album just came out a few months ago, working on the third album now, the plan is to be like the latino Justin Timberlake in the sense where he’s releasing albums, he’s acting, he’s writing, he’s producing, he’s doing all that. So that’s what I’m tryna do.

Condon: Good for you!

Olivero: Thank you, thank you, my love.

Condon: I believe you do this well.

Olivero: I’m trying, I’m trying.

It’s actually a good segue because we want to talk about this movie but also we know you guys are moving onto other things, what are the next things that we can see you guys in?

Byers: Well I’m shooting the second season of Salvation on CBS right now, which is a little bit…it steps into the sci-fi genre but isn’t fully. The second season should be pretty good.

Condon: And I do the voice of Friday on [Avengers: Infinity War], and that’s coming out a week before our movie. So you’ll be saturated with me and then Better Call Saul Season 4.

Olivero: Yeah then Step Up: High Water just came out January 31st and waiting on the second season. So and East Los High which is out as well. On Hulu.

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