Audrey Plaza, like critics of her latest film Emily the Criminal, is taking note of how her film is subverting the thriller genre.
The White Lotus actress, who is set to host Saturday Night Live on Jan. 21, stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, to promote her new film and her appearance on the NBC sketch comedy show.
As the host and actress were discussing her latest movie, Fallon broached how critics caught that the Plaza-led film didn’t feature any guns, going against the big screen genre grain in its decision.
“I think that’s a really cool kind of weird thing about the film because most thrillers introduced guns immediately,” the Emily the Criminal actress said.
In the film, Plaza stars as Emily, a woman struggling to pay off student loans after her felony conviction keeps preventing her from securing a well-paying job. When a friend introduces her to a “dummy shopper” service — which is actually a credit card fraud ring — that will help her make cash fast, she spirals further into the fraud industry. Plaza’s character faces several physical confrontations and is seen using a box cutter and taser, but never a gun.
Fallon noted that the absence of guns wasn’t something he immediately noticed and had only picked up on after seeing the film and reading critics’ responses to it.
“It’s an unconscious thing, I think, for the audience to watch that movie and not even realize like, ‘Oh, there’s no guns,’” Plaza responded. “But I think it actually makes it more anxiety-inducing because you’re like, ‘How is she going to take these guys down without a weapon like that?’”
For the actress, the lack of firearms in the film is ultimately something that she appreciates. “I was kind of proud of that because I don’t think you need guns,” she told Fallon. “We don’t need guns.”
You can watch her Tonight Show interview in its entirety below.