Actress Daniella Pineda talks about approach, stillness and the power of genre in regards to her new action thriller: “The Accountant 2” from MGM and Amazon.
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00:00With this character and a lot of characters you've played,
00:29there's always the context of identity, who they're becoming and who they used to be and what they're transforming into.
00:37Obviously, that keys in so much with this character.
00:40Without giving too much away, can you talk about that mindset, that psychology,
00:44especially in a genre film where you have to have the balance, but you also have the depth within this character?
00:51Well, Gavin O'Connor and Bill Dubuque, they write really interesting women.
00:57Bill Dubuque is one of the writers on Ozarks.
00:59And I always sort of, I always re-reference people, Ozark has like the scariest women in a series, in my opinion.
01:08And so he's really good at writing really terrifying, terrifying women.
01:13However, on paper, she reads like the T-1000.
01:17And so Gavin was like, Gavin stressed to me, please don't just make her a robot.
01:23There has to be something else.
01:25There has to be some inkling of humanity.
01:28Like she's maybe 99% machine, but 1% there's a person in there.
01:33And so that's what was written.
01:35But it was a departure for me and past work I've done to play someone so still and so predatory and menacing.
01:45That was different, but it was so much fun, but not as easy as I would have thought.
01:51It's actually harder to be so still.
01:53Mary Beth.
01:55Hello?
01:57Hello?
01:58Drop it.
01:59Drop it!
01:59Turn around.
02:07I'm a federal agent, big mistake.
02:11Only if your name is not Mary Beth Melina.
02:14But that stillness makes every detail come out.
02:17There's one shot that's right on your face towards the end of the movie that really,
02:21it makes the payoff of everything she's going through so worth it.
02:25Can you talk about finding sort of, you know, those moments in between?
02:29Because you don't have any lines either, so you have to convey so much without it.
02:34And yet it is an action movie.
02:36I get it.
02:36Yeah, yeah.
02:37On the one hand, I was kind of hyped.
02:38I was like, this is cool.
02:39I don't have to memorize anything for this movie.
02:41And then on the other hand, it was like everything is so intense.
02:46I think that without giving too much away, I think that this is a woman who has greatly suffered.
02:53And there's a lot of pain and a lot of rage.
02:57And she has, there's a reason why she's like stone cold, right?
03:04I don't think she was born into this world that way.
03:07I think that she became that for a myriad of reasons.
03:10And so I had empathy.
03:13I had empathy for, I had empathy for her.
03:17But also it was just, it was liberating to play because when, especially as a woman,
03:22you get to play a part that's like devoid of being self-conscious.
03:25It's not even confidence.
03:26It's like this stone cold assurance about what you're doing.
03:30Um, it was, uh, it was just a lot of fun.
03:33Is it freeing in a way because you don't have to look at sort of, if you will, moral choices
03:39or that morality of, of the situation?
03:42Yes.
03:42I mean, it, it is liberating to play because it's not necessarily a role that women get to
03:47play or one that I've gotten to, to play.
03:50And so in that instance, yes.
03:52However, I am in no way glorifying, uh, people who have, uh, uh, bad behavior.
03:57I think there's a lot of inspiration in the world right now, and I'd like to see a lot
04:01less of it, but for the sake of this fictionalized character, it was, um, it was a lot of fun.
04:06Yeah.
04:07It was cool.
04:07She's like the, she's the smartest, scariest person in the room.
04:11She's a predator.
04:14Hands.
04:17Down on your knees.
04:19Now.
04:24Ah!
04:25Ah!
04:25Ah!
04:27Ah!
04:27And yet the, uh, the aspect, I mean, I want to ask you this genre allows you to talk about
04:44so many different things, obviously underlying the accountant too, is, uh, some very serious
04:49thoughts of what's going on and what people are exposed to.
04:52I mean, could you talk about that?
04:54The power of genre to talk about these things while still wrapping it in this sort of entertainment
05:01wrapper, if you will, uh, and the importance of that, because Cowboy Bebop did similar elements
05:06in that, but not as deep and as dark as this gets.
05:09No, this one's intense.
05:10I mean, I think that, yes, it is an action film and yes, you're going to get all of that
05:15stuff, but Gavin and Bill Dubuque, there are, they're very sensitive people and they're
05:20story-driven people and I think that they tackle big issues like sex trafficking and also how,
05:26how devalued immigrant children are.
05:29And what does Christian Wolfe do?
05:31He sees that there's a bunch of Latino children in need and he goes to, to, to help them.
05:37Um, and so I, I feel like, uh, it is very, it is, it is poignant and it's contemporary and
05:44it is touching on, on a lot of themes, uh, right now.
05:48And I, I think that, um, I think they did it in a, in a, in a thoughtful way.
06:04Braxton, thank you.
06:08Are you ready?
06:09Yeah.
06:18Yeah.
06:18Yeah.
06:19Yeah.
06:23Yeah.