[MUSIC PLAYING] Officially, I can't
put you on this, but if you were to
go out on your own-- I would need some help. [MUSIC PLAYING] MACE: We put
ourselves in danger-- Put your gun down. MACE: --so others aren't. We're the 355. Hello and welcome
to New York Comic Con. My name is Devan Coggan. I'm a writer at
Entertainment Weekly, and I am so excited
to be here moderating EW's panel with the
cast of the upcoming spy thriller "The 355." We are joined by Jessica
Chastain who plays Mace, Lupita Nyon
g'o who
plays Khadijah, Diane Kruger who
plays Marie, and Fan Bingbing who plays Mi Sheng. Thank you guys so
much for joining me. Hi. So I want to start
with you Jessica because you are a
producer on this film as well as a star of it. Give us a little
bit of background. Where did this idea for
like an all-female ensemble spy thriller first start? I was on the Jury at Cannes
and I was having a conversation with my agent, Hylda Queally
about how I was seeing all these films with male
action ensemb
les, but I had never really seen
a female action ensemble that took itself seriously. You know, that didn't make
like it's silly that girls were actually good at the job. And my experience on
making "Zero Dark Thirty," I discovered how many
women are in espionage and how often they're utilized. And so it kind of
started from there. And then it just went
with the wish list of who I thought were the
best actresses working today and we took off. Yeah. And I love that, you know, this
story centers o
n these five women, all of your characters
and Penélope Cruz's character, and each one of them is so
incredibly impressive with, you know, unique expertise and
skills in different fields. Let's talk about each one of
the characters in a minute. So Jessica, let's
start with you. What can you tell us about Mace? [MUSIC PLAYING] We'll take it from here. [DULL THUD] Mace is a CIA agent. She's exceptionally gifted
and talented CIA agent, but she can often
go off the books and follow her own code
and
sense of what's right. She has a great ally in
Lupita's character, Khadijah, and I think she's someone
who is in constant search of justice and fairness. Something that--
those are very strong traits that she looks for. And you mentioned Lupita's
character, Khadijah. Lupita, what can you
kind of tell us about her and what was it that drew you
to this character initially? She is a cyber
intelligence operator that used to work for the
MI6 and as Jessica said, she's an ally of hers so
she is extrem
ely smart, and I was attracted to that
and also the potential for it to, you know, influence
and inspire young girls. DEVAN COGGAN: Yes. She's this sort of brilliant
female mathematician and she's a tech expert. KHADIJAH: You'll have
cameras in your jewelry, comms in your earrings. You're the best in the
world at what you do. What were some of the
challenges of creating her as a character and what
were the parts of her that you found really
rewarding to play? Well, I wasn't very
good at computer
science. I was probably an E student. She's definitely a
lot smarter than I am. You always want to try
and understand as much of your character as possible. But a lot of Khadijah
goes over my head. And then Diane, you
play this, you know, very athletic kind of cryptic
German agent named Marie. What can you tell us about her? Marie is pretty-- you know, she's very bold. She's very on it. She is determined
to do a good job. She's very driven, very
smart and as you said, very athletic, which was
p
art of the fun for me to do a part like this. I'd never done action
scenes or, you know, been really this bad ass. So I really enjoyed that part. [MUSIC PLAYING] You mentioned the fight scenes
and you and Jessica have this incredible sort of like foot
chase and like hand-to-hand combat fight that,
you know, begins in like a London
fish market and then it spills out onto the docks. I mean, walk us
through the process of like preparing and then
shooting a massive action set piece like that. We reh
earsed quite a few
weeks for this sequence not with each other to not
kill each other beforehand. It was really fun. You know, like I
said, it's something different that I'd never done. Our two characters are really
at odds with each other. They really have a strong
dislike for each other in the beginning and
they come to appreciate each other's skills
and talents as we come together to work together. And you know, Jessica
is so fun and so-- you know, I admire her so
much as an actress, as a wom
an and so it felt really fun to
work with her, all the girls. You know, it was a
set of great comradery and female empowerment
and all the good things. Yeah. Jessica, what do you
remember about, you know, shooting that fight with Diane? I remember Diane
kicking my ass. [LAUGHTER] I remember just being
exhausted and tired and sore and it just felt like
it just was going on and on and on and on and on. I mean, we really trained
for weeks, you know, before we ever shot it. And there's the
interior
of the freezer and that was a full day for us. And I just remember
at the end of the day like barely being able
to walk out of there. Diane is an admirable foe. I'll give you that. You are really. It was phenomenal and it's
one of my favorite scenes. It's a great scene. Bingbing, your character
is sort of this mysti-- she's sort of
shrouded in mystery. What can you tell us about her? I don't want to
give too much away, but I can say she
is a secret agent. She's a beautiful
mysterious character w
ho uses her skills
with technology and also she knows Kung fu. Jessica, how did you and
Simon Kinberg join forces and how did you kind of
begin assembling this story and this amazing cast? Well, Simon's a
great friend of mine and he has so much experience
in putting things together and from a story point of view. And I told him this
idea that I had and, you know, my wish list
of people to work with. And immediately the second
I told him, he says, I want to do this with you. And that's kind
of ho
w it started and it was a lot of work. It was a great experience
and it was really, really exciting to work on. Yeah. I mean, we've seen films
before with this sort of all-female ensemble cast,
but this is sort of a new thing. They're very much a rarity
in the spy thriller genre. I mean, what do
you hope audiences and, you know, the
industry at large can take away from
a story like this? Well, a lot of the times
I've been looking at stuff that I've been acting
in and I've wanted to imagine what
would
happen if a 13-year-old girl was watching it. So like making "The
Martian," I love the idea that a girl sees
that image of a woman can be the commander
of a mission to Mars or "Interstellar," or these
ideas of women in career opportunities and in these
extraordinary circumstances that really succeed. Because we all know that
when you see examples of it, you know that it's possible. And I wanted to show how
important women are to society and especially how they are
in the international espi
onage field. Bingbing, tell us a little
bit about how you first met, you know, Jessica
and how it was that you got involved in this film. I met Jessica in Cannes
Film Festival in 2017. We worked together for about
two weeks on the jury panel. We quickly became friends. We both like the same kinds
of movies and our approach to acting is pretty similar. Jessica had the idea
for this project and then once she started
putting it together, she emailed me to ask if I was
interested in being an agent.
Well, I immediately said yes. I thought it would be
a great opportunity to work with such an
endearing friend again as well as for other
outstanding actresses from around the world. I've also never been
a secret agent before. So I was so pretty
excited about that. [CHUCKLES] Absolutely. That's a fun role to play. And we talked a little bit about
sort of all the great action set pieces and some of the
stunt choreography in this film, but I particularly wanted
to talk about-- there's a scene at an
art
auction where each of you are fighting in sort of
beautiful gowns and jumpsuits. I mean, Jessica, tell us a
little bit about, you know, the training you went through
to prepare for this film and what it was like to sort
of, you know, adapt your skills to fight with that wardrobe. [MUSIC PLAYING] JESSICA CHASTAIN: You know,
it was more difficult. We had some tricks. So we had like
different leveled shoes depending on what I was doing
and I'm not a secret agent. I'm just acting like one so
we
made it easier for me, but I will say what I loved
about that fight in particular is that Jimmy, our
stunt choreographer used the stuff that
I had to benefit me. The fact that he's choreographed
this whole sequence of Mace using the guy's tie
to like strangle him. I just love that, you know,
using found things in the room to make herself stronger. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] [THUD] [GROAN] I wanted to briefly ask you
about the title of the film. This number of 355 has
such a cool history about it behind i
t. What can you tell us
about sort of the meaning behind the number in the title? So the woman I played in "Zero
Dark Thirty" talked to me a lot about espionage, and I think
when I was preparing for that, she started talking about 355
and I asked her what it meant. And 355 was the secret code
name for the first female spy during the American
Revolution and her name still remains a mystery to this day. But, you know, she was
never even given a name or acknowledged for the
incredible work that she
did. So a lot of female
agents use the code 355 as like a badge of honor. And I loved that idea of looking
at women who have been doing the work behind the scenes
who haven't been knowledge for the incredible
sacrifices they've made and honoring all those
women with that moniker. That badge of honor. That's such a cool piece of
history that, like you said, a lot of people aren't
necessarily familiar with. And one of the things that
is so cool about this film that it is truly a global
cast and i
t's truly, you know, and it's a diverse cast. I mean, Diane,
what kind of impact do you hope a film
like this, you know, can have on the industry and
the kinds of films that get made starring women? Well, I just hope this movie
does what it's supposed to do, is show young girls first
and above all, you know, that we rock and
we can be strong. And it's not just
about, you know, movies, going
shopping and having romance love stories happening. So, I'm hoping the
movie will do well. I'm hoping that
the
industry will take notice that, you know, we
kick ass and that we can hold a movie in this genre. Yeah. Absolutely. And I mean, you all are
actresses, people who've spent your careers,
you know, playing really interesting complex,
you know, female characters. I'm curious, Lupita, you know,
when you were growing up, who were the female
characters on screen that really inspired you? I love Julie
Andrews and Whoopi Goldberg, Elizabeth Taylor. Yeah, and there was an elegance
to them that I real
ly admired. And Bingbing, you know, you
have been a part of these sort of big ensemble films
before like "X-Men: Days of Future Past." How is it different, you know,
working with an all-female cast on a film like this? Combining five kick-ass
women from different countries and
backgrounds is what makes this movie very special. So I'm still honored to be
part of this project with them. We all look up to each other
and this was a great opportunity to learn from each other. And I want to
talk a lit
tle bit about what it was like
for, you know, all of you to work together. You know, I underst-- I heard there was a
lot of dancing on set. [MUSIC PLAYING] DIANE KRUGER We were all
excited to be there, I think. We felt valued and, you know,
we got to hang out a lot. And it's just it felt like
we were in this together and we were having a great time. It's one of those
movies I remember really having a wonderful time and
it felt like a little family truly because we're all women. Most of us have c
hildren. We were allowed to bring
our children to set. So I don't know. It just felt really
fun and I was kind of sad when it was over. I felt like I made
friends you know. I also want to
briefly talk about a few of the male actors
in this movie. You have Sebastian Stan, who
plays a CIA agent named Nick. And you have Édgar Ramírez,
who plays Luis who is a Colombian agent
who has a connection to Penélope Cruz's character. Jessica, what can you
tell us a little bit about who these two guys play? J
ESSICA CHASTAIN:
Well, both of them play agents for their
respective country. I mean, Nick is a
colleague of Mace and her best friend
in the world, and he's kind of the guy
that like always knows how things should be done. He's always like
telling everyone what they should be doing. In the film, you see
his sense of loyalty is a bit tested by Mace. And then Édgar Ramírez plays
an agent who has a mysterious connection to Penélope and
you see the two of them work together in our film. I don't want
to
give too much away. So I'm just going
to leave it at that. Right. That's the thing
about this film. You have to walk
that line between, OK, you got to tease
it, but, you know, there's a lot of twists
and turns and secrets that you have to make sure
that you're, you know, keeping. So up next, I am told that
we have a fan question. So I think, is our
fan on the line? Are you there? Hi, guys. A huge fan here. I just, I have a question, a
quick question for Jessica. I'm very scared of this answe
r. Oh no. Please don't ask me. What was it like to
work with me again? [LAUGHTER] I thought this
was a fan question. But it is. This is a fan asking
a fan question. [INAUDIBLE] fan. And I personally,
yeah, I'd like to know how was it
shoot with me on Earth this time instead of space-- Right. --which is where we were? OK, so first of all,
first time we worked together, there was, you know,
the gravity of the situation was a lot different, right? It was more difficult to
move around, a lot of dust
because we were on Mars. And then we were up and, you
know, floating around in space. This time I would say it
was joyful and fun and-- you're just trying to
find a way of me giving you a compliment, Sebastian. No. I didn't pick this question. I swear to god.
- --for. It's just so I say
good things about you. [LAUGHS] No. I didn't pick this question. I also love how
you're like trying not to give anything away, so. No.
No. No.
I think it was a great answer. OK. Well, it was awesome. How's that?
[LAUGHS] It's perfect. [LAUGHTER] Sebastian, thank you
so much for joining us. While you're here, we do
have a question for you. You know, you're
obviously no stranger to these sort of, you know,
stunts and hand-to-hand combat. Could these five
women in "The 355," could they really kick
the Winter Soldier's ass? Yes, of course. I mean, come on. I know you said I'm familiar
with this sort of thing, but actually, there
was a lot of stuff here that was very
interesting that I didn't get to do befo
re action wise
as you might or might not see. And so I'm excited from that
point of view, but yeah. For sure they could. So, thank you so
much for joining us. We're going to have
you stay right there and we're going to take
another fan question. Is our next fan there? I'm here. [LAUGHTER] I'm here. I've been waiting for too long. Sebastian, how are my friend. Girls, I'm so happy to see you. Hi sweetheart. Jessica, Diane, Lupita, Fan. My god, I miss you. I miss you guys. Where are you? This is in
sane. [LAUGHTER] We should be together. We should be
together doing this. I have a question as a fan. I'm a huge fan of
everyone on this panel. For the women in the panel, if
you had a secret agent skill, what would it be and why? This is for each one of you. We'll start with you. Lupita. [LAUGHTER] I knew you were going
to do that, Édgar. [LAUGHTER] I don't know if you could see
it, but I have you right here. If I had a special
secret agent skill, I would like to be able to track
anybody I want
whenever I want. I think and I would
say good intuition. I think good secret
agents have a good sense of where the danger
lies, how to read people. I think that would be very
useful to remain calm, you know. That sort of thing. I think mine's
similar to that. I love the idea
of, you know, being able to tell when someone's
lying by whatever, like you see their pulse quicken
or the sweat on their brow. Or to understand
life in negotiations or how to manipulate
people to do the things you'd like t
hem to do. Just tell when they're
not being, but then also kind of get them in the
direction that you'd like. And because then you could use
your power for really good. There's a lot of people I'd
like to sit in front of right now and manipulate
them to the right way. What is yours? What's the guys' secret
thing that they want have? I mean, quite honestly
you covered it all. I mean, I'd love to be
able to bend people's will and definitely as Lupita
says, be able to track anyone. Especially, you
know, it's not
that difficult. So we kind of-- Just get Facebook
and you'll good. Exactly. Just own it. So, Sebastian and Édgar
while we have you here, Sebastian you talked
about this a little bit, but tell us a little bit about
what it was like to work with these four incredible women. What was the most, you know,
rewarding or memorable part of this filming
experience for you? I felt like I was on
vacation with friends. We were just playing. It really felt--
this is the thing. I mean, when you
act, I think
that the most, or at least in my opinion, the
most beautiful feeling is when you feel that
you're really playing. When all the structure
is ready, then you are open and free
to play and that's how I felt with you guys. It was incredible. And we were rehearsing
together and practicing all the different skills
that super agents have and it was it was
a beautiful time. They're all so talented
and sexy and tough and-- [LAUGHTER]
Yeah. You are. So it's-- you too Stan. You too. No. I-- li
sten, I-- no. Look, yeah, to kind of jump on
the back of what Édgar said, creatively, I feel like this
was one of the most freeing amazing experiences I had. I mean, you know,
you just don't-- certainly for me, I haven't
been in that environment where I felt like so included
in the process of developing character and just
finding the right story and you know, from
working with Simon. But just like it really
felt that we were all kind of contributing
to what we wanted to make and sometimes as an
actor,
you don't get that luxury. So just on a level
of going to work, it was sort of similar to
basically going to school. Like basically because
I knew I was going to get to see kind of
everybody's approach to their character
and to the story. And there's certain scenes
that I was lucky enough to be a witness to each one of
them kind of like seeing them kind of get there, you know. And that was a luxury
definitely and a lesson. It was a very gratifying
experience and one that I'll definitely n
ever forget. So we're going to wrap things
up here with our last question. So you know, Jessica this
is a film that, you know, follows in that super fun
genre of the spy thriller. You know, it follows in
the tradition of the Bond films and the Bourne films. You know, what do you think
it is about this genre that, you know, continues to appeal
to audiences around the world and how do you hope, you know, a
movie like "The 355," you know, kind of expands the genre
for the next generation? I mean, I
can
just tell you why I respond to films like this. Because I like to see people
doing extraordinary things. I like to see
characters being tested beyond what they thought
their capabilities were and perhaps they succeed. Perhaps they don't. But I like that tension
of seeing someone strive for something
beyond themselves. I love that about
the human experience. This genre absolutely
contains that. And my goal and
dream for "355" is that we just accept
the fact that women are awesome and tough a
nd badass. Women are using their
minds and their skills and you know, my character
at one point in the film says to Lupita's
character, you're the best in the world at what you do. It has nothing about
being male or female. It just has to do
with being the best. And so I'm excited for
society to start acknowledging what's happening in
our world and creating the spaces for everyone. Well, thank you all
so much for joining me. That is it from us. "The 355" opens in
theaters January 15th. Thank eve
rybody
here for joining me and thanks everyone
at home for watching. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] The old wars, Cold
War, War on Terror, we knew who we were fighting. (SINGING) Feeling
coming in the air. MACE: But now the
enemy is invisible. They can destabilize entire
countries from simple reach of their keyboard. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] [THUD] RIHANNA: (SINGING) Here the
screams from everywhere. Officially, I can't
put you on this, but if you were to
go out on your own-- I would need some help. I'm guessing this
isn't a social call. I'm putting together a
team and you're the best in the world at what you do. I thought this was done. I'll be back for
dinner tomorrow. RIHANNA: (SINGING) It's
a dangerous love affair. Hands. Put your gun down, please - Five.
- Four. - Three.
- Two One. Pull the trigger
or you can listen. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] KHADIJAH: We all work for
different intelligence agencies. American, British, German,
Columbian, Chinese, but now we have a common enemy and
if we don't stop them-- [EXPLO
SION SOUND] MACE: --they'll
start World War III. MI SHENG: [SPEAKING CHINESE] So we need to join forces. RIHANNA: (SINGING) So who
gon' run this town tonight. JAY-Z: What's up. We are, yeah I said it-- You'll have cameras
in your jewelry, comms in your earrings. RIHANNA: --run town tonight. This is like half
the CIA's most wanted. MARIE: You bump, I grab. [GASP] I like the new team. We'll take it from here. JAY-Z: All black
everything and our girls are blackbirds ridin' with-- I've got four more
agents out on the street. I counted six, but
thanks for the tip. [GUN SHOTS] Hola mummy. [SPEAKING SPANISH]
I have two children. I am a normal person. I cannot do this anymore. Bad guys are out
there right now. You go home, you
bring them with you. Are you under control? Are you? No. [DRAMATIC MUSIC] MACE: We put
ourselves in danger-- [THUD] [SCREECHING] --so others aren't. [GUN SHOTS] RIHANNA: (SINGING) Who
gon' run this town. We gon' run this town, town. MACE: We're The 355. RIHANNA: Hey. JAY
Z: What's up [DRAMATIC MUSIC]
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