@Courtesy of Netflix
Wake Up Dead Man : A Knives Out Mystery / Detective Benoit Blanc sifts through a series of suspects when a monsignor turns up dead.
Director : Rian Johnson
Producer : Rian Johnson, Ram Bergman
Screenwriter : Rian Johnson
Distributor : Netflix
Production Co : T-Street
Rating : PG-13 (Some Crude Sexual Material|Smoking|Bloody Images|Strong Language|Violent Content)
Genre : Mystery & Thriller, Comedy, Drama
Original Language : English
Release Date (Theaters) : Nov 26, 2025, Limited
Release Date (Streaming) : Dec 12, 2025
Runtime : 2h 24m
@Courtesy of Netflix
Press Conference With Actor Josh O’Connor and Director Rian Johnson
Q: This is your third Knives Out movie, is it safe to say that you had an easier time writing this one?
Rian Johnson: Absolutely not. This is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever written, actually. This one was tough. And that means I’m just even more proud of how it came out, and feel so good about it. It wasn’t necessarily because the mystery itself was more complex, although it was. It was more about the thematic elements of it. The movie’s about faith, something that is very personal to me. I grew up very religious. I was very personally Christian when I was younger, up through my early 20s. It was just a big part of my life. I am not a believer anymore, so it’s something that I have a lot of things inside about. The notion of looking at faith through this multifaceted lens, looking at all the different sides of it in a very honest way that didn’t feel like it was just trying not to offend anyone. Dialing that in, that was where all the elbow grease went into the script.
Q: Which is your main influence when you think about the Knives Out trilogy?
Rian Johnson: John Dickson Carr. We need to start the Carraissance [phonetic]. We need to begin the John Dickson Carr renaissance. I kept bookmarked that chapter from The Hollow Man of Gideon Fell breaking down the rules. I would refer back to it often, actually. Carr was such a great writer. The tone of his books, I drew a lot from it for this movie. He wrote in a gothic style, almost like he veered towards the supernatural with his books. He never went there and fully cheated, but he veered towards it and had almost an Edgar Allan Poe gift for evoking the eerie while still having humor and having engaging stories. Carr is somebody that I took a lot of influence from. Besides being a mystery fan, I grew up as a high school theater kid. I love Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim. Those are the two wolves inside me.
Q: You’re in every scene of this movie. What was it like for you to do something so fundamentally different from the work you’ve done before, but especially to work with a director like Rian Johnson?
Josh O’Connor: The actors that I aspired to growing up were Pete Postlethwaite, Gene Wilder. I was always orientated towards actors who seemingly could do everything. From a practical sense, this job is the greatest luxury and gift to be. As Rian Johnson alluded to, the earlier conversations about faith were a big get-in for me. That was something that, like Rian, has kind of been in my mind for a long time. I grew up Irish Catholic and church going, I have quite a strong faith. It doesn’t necessarily have a clear home. So all those questions that Rian was asking were ever-present in my life. You are able to do the comedy side if there’s this profound truth bubbling underneath that role. Rian is so good at bringing those moments out. You are able to dance that fine line between comedy and grief and tragedy, which is very often the way. All my favorite comic performances, you are very often on the edge of something quite profound and deep.
@Courtesy of Netflix
Q: Father Jud embodies a central conflict: the tension between having one’s hands closed from a fighting perspective, and then having their arms open from a welcoming perspective. How did that help guide you in showing his public persona as well as the private one?
Josh O’Connor: There’s a line in the film which I love so much: “God loves me when I’m guilty.” This closed-off character has found a way forward by opening up. That’s very moving. But the wider context of that is this sense of a loving God that is all forgiving and understands humanity as something flawed and powerful in that way.
Q: What is the best aspect of working with a new ensemble cast for each of your chapters, except Daniel Craig?
Rian Johnson: I love actors. That’s the best part of it. Oftentimes, the director is seen as someone who comes on and directs and instructs, kind of has the answers. The reality is, any movie is a learning experience for me. I’m learning from the collaborators that I’m working with. I’m learning from the artists, the crew, the craftsmen, and especially the actors. In these movies, I have learned so much. It’s been such a blessing from all three of the cast, and this one especially. Getting to show up every day and just watch Josh and Daniel. They’re very different, but they’re quite similar. They’ve both done theater. They’re both trained. They both are British actors. There’s something that clicked about the way that they worked. And Glenn Close! Getting to watch her work in the scenes, getting to watch how she would show up every single day to set with the energy of somebody who had just gotten their first job in the film business. She had a joy and a passion for the work that she would be giddy every day at the little decision she got to make, at the little things that we came up with on set. The youngest people in the cast, myself included, were inspired by that every day.
Q: You’ve had a banner year this year with Wake Up Dead Man, The History of Sound, The Mastermind and Rebuilding. How do you approach these characters and make them unique and different?
Josh O’Connor: The truth is the approach is always the same, which always starts off with, what is a character’s intention? What do they want? Then the question is, what’s the stumbling block? What’s in the way of them achieving that? And then the outcome, the conclusion, how do they overcome that hurdle? It’s always the same in that way. This is a filmmaker’s art, things change depending on who you’re working with. Rian’s like an actor’s director. The films he’s come from, when you walk on a Knives Out set, the sets are extraordinary. The craftspeople are the best, second to none. The scale of it is bigger than anything I’ve ever done before. And yet, the time that Rian gives his actors makes it feel no different to being on set with Kelly Reichardt and just figuring out those same questions. I still keep my scrapbooks, some of them are more weird than others. I’ve been a big fan of Daniel’s for a long time, we do have a similar background coming from theatre. Daniel has that talent, he knows the moment when he needs to give you space, and he knows when he can be banter and playful. Often it’s dependent on the scene. Doing scenes with Glenn Close, you wake up with a borderline anxiety attack, and then you realize on set that she’s the most gracious, playful, excitable actress, that’s her gift.
@Courtesy of Netflix
Q What did inspire you to write Cy’s character and his political aspect?
Rian Johnson: The murder mystery form, it’s just, because you’re building these suspects, you’re building this little power structure within the suspects. Someone at the top is gonna get killed. It’s a great way of creating a microcosm of society. It seemed like a very potent tool to talk about the present moment. Cy is an example of that. Part of the point for me is, this is the headspace that we’re all in. When Cy lists all those things, I feel like I’m so fucking exhausted by hearing all these things. All of us are to acknowledge that and to have that be in that moment in a murder mystery, which is usually set outside of time, that felt very powerful to me.
Q: You’ve worked with your cinematographer, Steve Yedlin, on all seven of your feature films going back to 2005. What are some things within Wake Up Dead Man, specifically, about Steve’s work that really had a lasting impression on you?
Rian Johnson: Steve and I have been best friends since we were 17. We met on a student film set. It’s similar to Nathan Johnson, who’s my composer, my cousin, who I’ve been making movies with since I was 10 years old. With Steve, I feel like we can attempt anything. I don’t feel like I’m hiring him to fit in a specific slot. He’s my lifetime collaborator. We challenge ourselves together as a team by trying to stretch with each film and seeing what we can do that we haven’t done before. With this one, the tone was a big defining element. We were going for gothic, it’s much more of a lighting movie than the previous two. The church, which was a beautiful set that our production designer Rick Heinrichs built, those light changes. That was the first conversation I had with Steve. I wanted the outside world to invade the inside. I wanted to feel that shift when the sun goes behind a cloud and suddenly the room changes tone for everybody. Steve did a ton of prep work, pre-lit the whole thing on this rig so that we could control it like playing music from his laptop. Anytime the sun breaks up behind somebody or the sun goes away, that’s all Steve controlling dozens and dozens of lights around the set.
Q: Do you have a new Knives Out movie every couple of years? Is there one point where you will let someone else direct it even if you’re still involved in that?
Rian Johnson: I’m writing my next film. It’s not one of these, it’s something original. It’s not tough because I’m burnt out on these. In fact, I’m energized after making this one and I really hope to come back. I’m already thinking. Daniel and I are already spit balling about what the next one could be down the line. If Daniel and I ever stop having fun and we both decide or he decides he doesn’t wanna do it anymore, then as far as I’m concerned, the series is over. This whole thing is me and him making these movies together. That’s the joy of it for me. People can make other mysteries all they want, but this is something that’s for him and me.
@Courtesy of Netflix
Q: How much fun was it to make this movie? Can you share a story of something which made you crack up?
Josh O’Connor: Before I even spoke to Rian about this, I was a great fan of the first two films. You hear murmurs from friends and people who’ve been involved in the films of this collaborative company of actors who stick together. It’s not like regular films. Rian creates this environment. It’s honestly extraordinary. I was at drama school in Bristol, in England, I did three years there and the second was my favorite year because we took a show, we built a set and traveled around England, putting up the set, doing a performance, taking down the set, going to the next place. It was my favorite time in my career, to be honest, of just having this company of actors.
In terms of the experience of making films, I think I’ve been chasing that in some ways. This is the closest thing to that I’ve ever had. We’re on the stage and we’re always together. No one was going back to their trailers, even though it’s the most extraordinary trailer I’ve ever seen. I don’t know Rian’s casting process, but there must be an element of like finding people who are open to that or want that in some ways. Daniel is a great leader and is all for that kind of company feeling, very humble and gracious about it. Every day was hilarious. The first week or so it was me, Mila and Daniel, and we would crack up every scene. It was a nightmare, trying to get through scenes without laughing. Just every day was a thrill.
Rian Johnson: It was a blast. We’ve had this experience that Josh O’Connor is saying in each one of the three movies. We’re doing something kind of unique with these where we’re going after movie stars who are usually number one on the call sheet on any other movie, and all carry their own films in order to play in a true ensemble and to play suspects in an ensemble. Anybody who’s saying yes to that doesn’t need to. The only reason for them to say yes is because that genuinely appeals to them. The only reason all these amazing movie stars are signing up for these is because they want to have the experience, they love their fellow actors and they want to take a couple of months and be part of this weird little company, not go back to the trailer and play backgammon on sets.
@Courtesy of Netflix
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