[This story contains spoilers for Rebel Ridge.]
Rebel Ridge star AnnaSophia Robb is keenly aware that no one could write a more storybook ending to the behind-the scenes saga of Jeremy Saulnier’s latest critically acclaimed film.
The thriller, which required multiple attempts at completing principal photography before finally wrapping in 2022, has reigned atop Netflix’s top ten and various other streaming originals charts in the two-and-a-half weeks it’s been available to stream. The pic chronicles Aaron Pierre’s Terry Richmond and Robb’s Summer McBride as they risk life and limb to put a stop to a corrupt small-town police department in Louisiana.
After the film’s scheduled production was shut down by the pandemic in 2020, Robb joined the cast ahead of 2021’s spring shoot, replacing another actor in the process. A month into filming, former lead actor, John Boyega, abruptly left the project due to “family reasons,” putting the mid-budget film in a precarious situation. Fortunately, Robb didn’t have to toss and turn for too long over whether she’d be able to portray what is now considered to be one of her finest roles to date.
“We waited for about a month down [in Louisiana]. We were in this holding pattern to figure out what was going to happen, and then, once that wait was over and everything had been figured out, that’s when I knew I’d be coming back the next year,” Robb tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So we started and then paused, and I was down there for about two months [in total]. We then started back up at the same time in 2022.”
By “figured out,” the Colorado native is referring to Pierre’s re-casting and now star-making turn as Terry Richmond. He was hired relatively soon after the second shutdown, but the cast and crew still had to wait until the spring of 2022 to tell their story. Naturally, with two strikes in the count already, there was a great deal of anxiety upon everyone’s return to set in 2022.
“People were like, ‘Okay, are we going to make this movie?’ And it became incredibly apparent very quickly that, yes, we were, and that this was the right version that needed to be told all along,” Robb says. “It was like I had a really long rehearsal process [that started in 2021].”
Robb’s character is an aspiring attorney who’s also working to regain custody of her child following a felony conviction. Summer’s painkiller addiction prompted her to pawn her former father-in-law’s lawnmower in vain, resulting in an uncontested divorce and custody loss. So she stands to lose everything for a second time by helping Richmond expose the civil asset forfeiture scam of the Shelby Springs PD.
But one piece of backstory didn’t make it into the film, thus explaining the root of Summer’s addiction.
“The backstory for Summer is that she had cancer and got hooked on [painkiller] lollipops,” Robb shares. “There aren’t a lot of plans in place to help people get off of painkillers, and so she started getting drugs off the street before pawning her father-in-law’s ride-on mower. That entire backstory is not in the movie, but I knew it and did a lot of research.”
Below, during a recent spoiler conversation with THR, Robb also discusses which scenes from the abbreviated 2021 shoot made it into the final cut of the film.
I noticed that Joey King has been a big cheerleader for Rebel Ridge, so it’s cool to see both of your new movies atop the Netflix charts at the same time.
I know! Joey is one of my closest friends, and I love her so much. When I saw that both of us were on the Netflix billboard, I was like, “Woohoo! This is a cool experience.” These moments are kind of unusual, and I just looked at it for a while and thought, “Wow, this is really special. I’m so proud of her.” It’s a special industry.
Jeremy Saulnier and I previously talked about Rebel Ridge’s production troubles and how everything has clearly worked out in the best possible way. You joined for round two of principal photography, which was shut down after a month or so in the middle of 2021. Were you on pins and needles for a long time regarding the fate of the movie?
We waited for about a month down [in Louisiana]. We were in this holding pattern to figure out what was going to happen, and then, once that wait was over and everything had been figured out, that’s when I knew I’d be coming back the next year. So we started and then paused, and I was down there for about two months [in total]. We then started back up at the same time in 2022.
Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond and AnnaSophia Robb as Summer McBride in Rebel Ridge
Allyson Riggs/Netflix
Terry and Summer are a dynamic duo, so did you and Aaron read together on Zoom as soon as he entered into the casting mix?
No, we didn’t. Jeremy told me about Aaron, and I was familiar with his work from The Underground Railroad. My acting coach, Miranda Harcourt, who had worked with him on Foe, also told me that he was absolutely lovely, so I was really excited to work with him. And as soon as I met Aaron, there was a real peace. I just knew that he was so capable of handling this role. He looked at it with this deep appreciation, and he saw all of the intricacies of Terry’s character. What’s really special about this film is that it is a thriller and an action movie, but as Aaron often says, it’s about an action hero with a lot of emotional intelligence.
What originally piqued your interest?
The strong dialogue was really the first thing that drew me to this project. When the audition came into my inbox, I saw Jeremy Saulnier’s name and was like, “Fucking cool. Love him.” And when I read the scenes, I just wanted to jump into it. I wanted to start saying the words and rehearsing because it’s really hard to get a great delicious scene. There’s so much information and transformation that transpires in one scene; it’s dense material, but the characters still feel like real people. So it was a pleasure to read, it was a pleasure to perform and it was a pleasure to watch the other actors chew those words.
Once you returned to set in the spring of 2022, could you sense that everyone was on edge at first after two unsuccessful attempts to make the movie already?
Yeah, people were like, “Okay, are we going to make this movie?” And it became incredibly apparent very quickly that, yes, we were, and that this was the right version that needed to be told all along. So everybody jumped right into it, and it was fun. It was like I had a really long rehearsal process [that started in 2021]. I remember getting back on set and being like, “Okay, I know what I’m doing now.”
It’s interesting being on a set. This was a particularly rigorous film because we were in Louisiana during hurricane season. It was hot, the days were long and there were a lot of takes, but there was such a love of this story. A lot of the crew members showed up for this movie once, twice or three times [from 2020 to 2022]. They just wanted to be a part of it, so however long the days were, they were pumped.
As you said, Aaron had caught people’s attention in supporting roles, such as Old and The Underground Railroad, but he was still widely unknown. Were the cast and crew abuzz after seeing the initial work he was doing? Being across from him for his “afterlife” line must’ve knocked you sideways.
I remember the scene that you’re speaking about, and I treasure that memory. One of our experienced camera guys came up to Aaron and I during that Chinese restaurant backroom scene to tell us how pumped he was to be there. So you could really feel the care that the crew members had for this story.
To your knowledge, did any of your round two footage from 2021 make it into the final cut of mostly 2022 footage?
Yes, I don’t know that anybody else would notice, but a couple scenes that I did [in 2021] with James Cromwell made it into the final cut. We had done some scenes up in his character’s office and at the school, and I will give credit to Jen [Jennifer Serio], the head of our hair department, because she had to match my [2021] haircut [in 2022]. If you see the back of my head and then the back of my head again, both shots were a full year apart, and she nailed it.
I know that it comes with the territory of being an actor, but if I left a movie like this for whatever reason and the final product turned out to be this great, I would be inconsolable. It worked out to your benefit in this case, but overall, do you always have to prepare yourself for either side of the coin? Financing, movie star commitments and scheduling are all so fragile.
I just show up and try to do my best work. At the end of the day, filmmaking is really a team sport. It’s about everybody bringing their best forward, and then it’s about the director taking pieces of everybody’s hard work and weaving the whole thing together. And Jeremy did that expertly. He had an exact vision of what he needed and wanted, and it was bigger than everybody else. As an actor, you recognize when a filmmaker is setting everybody up for success, and it was always abundantly clear that Jeremy was setting everybody up for success. He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly the story he was telling. He also edited it, so it’s exactly his vision. Ultimately, this was definitely the best version of the movie, and everybody put their best foot forward. So I’m just so proud of the movie, and I’m so proud of Jeremy, and grateful, that he was able to tell his story.
Given the risk that she’s taking in relation to the custody of her child, why do you think Summer offers Terry a helping hand in the first place? He asks her this question, as well, but is it mainly because she’s faced her own systemic injustice?
Yeah, Summer, for me, is all of us. She’s just trying to get her life back on track. She’s trying to take care of herself. But when she sees somebody in need, she goes, “Man, I know what it’s like to be wronged, and I know how important it is to get a second chance.” So she takes that one step out of line, and then that is when the decisions begin. At every turn, she is faced with questions of, “Do I do the right thing or do I look away?” And what I respect most about her — and what I hang onto to this day — is that choice to do the right thing. If you choose to be an ally and stand up for what is right, then hopefully other people come alongside you, but it’s a really risky thing that she does. By that Chinese restaurant scene, she doesn’t really have a choice any longer. She’s gone down that path of doing the virtuous thing to the point where she’s either going to run away or she’s going to dig in and get the facts so that she can defend herself and Terry in a real way. And with Terry on her side, she’s hedging her bets at that point.
Jeremy is big on research, so I’m guessing there’s a lot of authenticity to how you had to portray the heroin injections that the cops subjected her to?
Jeremy really trusted me there. I watched a lot of very disturbing footage, and I feel very close to the opioid epidemic. The backstory for Summer is that she had cancer and got hooked on [painkiller] lollipops. There also aren’t a lot of plans in place to help people get off of painkillers, and so she started getting drugs off the street before pawning her father-in-law’s ride-on mower. That entire backstory is not in the movie, but I knew it and did a lot of research. I watched different documentaries on the science of what opioids do to your body and how it feels, and it is really upsetting. So the film feels so grounded and real, and I also wanted Summer to feel that way on camera.
AnnaSophia Robb as Summer McBride in Rebel Ridge
Patti Perret/Netflix
When I first saw her haircut, it read as a very common Southern look, but now that I know about her cancer battle, she’s clearly on the other side of chemotherapy.
Yeah, I was filming a Mary Harron-directed series [The Expecting] where I had to shave my head, and when I taped for Rebel Ridge, I had a shaved head. So Jeremy ended up loving my audition, and he asked if I would shave my head again. And I was like, “Nobody in the South would have a shaved head. They would stick out like a sore thumb.” So we went with the mom haircut that doesn’t stick out so much, but yes, the idea was that she went through chemo.
Your friendship with Joey King makes even more sense now. You’ve both had to shave your heads for characters.
(Laughs.) Yeah, I called Joey before I shaved my head. I was like, “Girl, you’ve done this a couple times. Do I do it?” And she was like, “Yes!”
I love the final scene so much because most heroes would get their friend to the hospital and then rest easy. But Terry’s mistrust of the system runs so deep that he doesn’t take any chances. He immediately finds the nearest ax to remove the cop’s harddrive from the trunk, and then he holds on to it for dear life.
Yeah, he finishes the job. I remember reading the script and feeling so satisfied that he gets that information, but what’s really powerful is that it’s a win with so much loss and devastation. Aaron did a beautiful job portraying that Terry is not fully safe yet. He still has to advocate for his cousin. David Gallego, our cinematographer, is a wonderful, joyous and brilliant man, and he did a beautiful job with that tracking shot. It was wonderful watching Jeremy and David collaborate together to find these images, but I’m pretty sure that’s one Steadicam shot that we rehearsed. You still have this pulsating energy and tension. It’s all still moving, and it feels like it could go somewhere else. Terry is taking a beat, and then he’s going to take action to make something happen and get justice.
The Internet enjoyed your recent Letterboxd anecdote regarding Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love and smoking your first pack of cigarettes in response. Did Aaron actually download Letterboxd after your pitch?
I’ll text him, but I can see him doing it. Man, I love Letterboxd. I wish they would include television, as well. I know it’s contested, but there’s a lot of good stuff and I want to be able to go to one place.
Yeah, they make exceptions for the “8 to 10-hour movie,” but I agree with you overall.
Yeah, they have limited series. So I’m probably going to get some hate for that take, but it’s 2024. We have to accept media as it is. (Laughs.)
Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond and AnnaSophia Robb as Summer McBride on the set of Rebel Ridge
Patti Perret/Netflix
Lastly, what day best sums up Rebel Ridge for you? What day will you be thinking about decades from now?
It all feels like one long day, but it would be our first day on set with Aaron. I had already filmed some of the scenes before, but it was just a tracking scene in this court hallway late at night. It was a [working] courthouse, so we had to film in the evenings, and there’s this strange peace when you’re filming late at night. Everybody was really engaged and really on, and it was just this beautiful tracking shot that had a real power to it. You not only felt a sinister energy to the town, but you also felt Terry coming into the frame with this strength and then a spark between our characters. I watched playback to see what Jeremy was doing, and the energy was just so good. Even though it was super late at night, it felt exciting that we were all there and ready to finally tell this story. I’ll never forget how yummy that whole thing felt.
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Rebel Ridge is now available on Netflix.