Nicol Paone discusses her collaboration with Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson on ‘The Kill Room’
Following the release of her debut, Friendsgiving, in 2020, director Nicol Paone returns to feature filmmaking with the comedy thriller The Kill Room, a considerable step-up that pairs her with some of the greatest working actors. Starring Uma Thurman, Joe Manganiello, Maya Hawke and Samuel L. Jackson, The Kill Room tells of the starkly differing worlds of contemporary art and shady criminal dealings, colliding in intensity and hilarity.
Sitting down with the filmmaker, Paone discussed her unique path into the entertainment industry, the joy of working with such acclaimed actors like Thurman and Jackson, the difficulties the strikes have brought upon movie promotion and the directors and performers past and present that she most admires.
Starting her professional life as a currency trader on Wall Street, Paone’s fortunes switched when she walked into work one day to find her office covered in crime tape. “I worked for three companies in a row that were all owned by someone from China,” she said, “And they were laundering money.”
There was the chance to work as a junior trader, but the decision to move into entertainment was easy. Paone had begun taking acting classes whilst she had that “stable job” in finance but found that the creativity that the “hobby” provided sparked so much joy that she just “dove in further and further.” An initial trip to Los Angeles to collect a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) card soon turned into a lengthy stay, and she never returned to New York as she had once intended.
However, that initial experience on Wall Street proved pivotal in fostering the instinctive practice and confidence that’s so important in being a director. “I think, looking back, every experience I’ve had has led me to directing,” Paone said, mentioning her youthful days playing football/soccer for the Manchester United Supporters Club at a semi-pro level.
Reading the Wall Street Journal in the morning and waiting for the bell to signal the start of the trading day was admittedly “performance-based”, and Paone felt very comfortable in such an environment. Indeed, adding creativity to that kind of mindset was “the right avenue” for the young Paone, then fresh on the scene working for Adam McKay and Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die.
Eventually, a twist of fate gave Paone her first taste in the director’s chair. She noted: “When that finally happened – a director couldn’t show up for a video that I was working on the Hillary Clinton campaign, that’s when I started directing in 2016. And after that, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve always been a director’. It was obvious then.”
Following the success of 2020’s Friendsgiving, Paone has now been afforded the chance to work with two “titans of cinema”, Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson, and Thurman’s equally impressive daughter Maya Hawke. In Paone’s words, The Kill Room is “an exploration of the art world culminating with the underworld”, backgrounds with which she has admitted familiarity.
Of that scarce occasion of mother and daughter working together, Paone said, “It was professional, and it was wonderful to watch them work together. Kudos to them for making this their first film because it’s not some precious mother-daughter role. It’s an artist and a brilliant art dealer going toe to toe where Uma’s character gets nervous around Hawke’s.”
Hawke’s Grace is adamant that Thurman’s Patrice should be making more sales, and Paone notes that Hawke “played it to perfection” whilst still being able to enjoy the special moment of working with her mother on set. “They had fun,” Paone said, “Like when they were pulling up, the music was on in the car, and they were just having a great time.”
As for seeing Jackson and Thurman collaborating, the director continue: “It was like a rare cinematic event. For me, just seeing the back of their heads on the bench together at the end of the movie, I loved that scene. It just has a nostalgia to it that was important to me.” The script does “new things” for Paone by delivering a fun take on the art world and having a female lead that’s multi-dimensional and absent of love interest – a “careful decision, but one that was just the way it was.”
Ultimately, Paone just wants audiences to “have fun” with The Kill Room, especially considering that she more than understands the pressures of show business and that “movies have to do well and everything” but urges the audience to have fun, enjoy a bit of cinematic nostalgia and “see Maya and Uma play opposite one another in a really cool relationship.”
Paone was frustrated that The Kill Room has not had a premiere primarily due to the strikes in Hollywood (Friendsgiving was also premiere-less thanks to Covid) and that “Sam, Joe and Maya haven’t been on any talk shows”.
“Champagne problems,” she admits, whilst also noting that premieres are the time at which “people come together and enjoy the process of making a piece of art”, even if she wouldn’t enjoy watching the film “in a room with everyone.”
Looking forward, though, Paone is “looking for scripts with important relationships and well-rounded characters and a good story that [she] can add [her] own comedic lens to.” An ideal cast would include the likes of Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Colman Domingo, Billy Eichner and “pie in the sky” Cate Blanchett and Margot Robbie: “I would love to get together and do something fun with all of them.”
On Robbie, Paone also noted how impressed she was with “of the moment” Greta Gerwig and her box-office phenomenon, Barbie, which was “absolutely sensational. To write a movie based on a toy that was so controversial and to write a movie that is like an indie film yet is a larger blockbuster – that is no small feat. I’ve seen it twice, and I want to see it ten more times.”
The Kill Room was released on September 29th. Check out the trailer for Paone’s second feature film below
