Alden Ehrenreich and Josh Brolin can’t believe the kind of story writer-director Zach Cregger came up with for Weapons.

The two stars of the film sat down with Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor Trey Mangum to discuss the film. Ehrenreich said that he was “amazed” when he first read the script.

“ I thought it was one of the best scripts I’ve ever read, and I thought Zach did such an amazing job of creating so much story in each one of these people’s stories,” he said. “You know, there’s six different stories or seven different stories going on, and in each one, there’s more drama and action and things happening than there is sometimes in a full feature film. Every single piece of it is just so heightened and impactful and also feels so personal and interesting. So I always just thought it was such a beautifully crafted piece of writing.”

Alden Ehrenreich on Paul in ‘Weapons’

Ehrenreich, who plays Paul in the film, said that his character struggles with feeling guilt around his behavior as the neighborhood’s children mysteriously run away.

“I think he’s so wrapped up in his own [stuff], and I think that’s true of everybody in some ways, that every character [is] wrapped up obsessively in our own internal drama about whatever’s happening to go on with us on this particular day that we’re missing being able to see what’s actually happening in front of us or going on around us. And I think all of these characters are struggling with that. And Paul in particular is kind of white-knuckling it.”

Josh Brolin on how Archer changes in ‘Weapons’

Brolin’s character, Archer, desperately wants to find out what happened to the kids, including his son. Archer’s characterization changes over the course of the film because of that, Brolin said.

”I just love his trajectory of like, coming across as kind of a staunch, super masculine guy who’s emotionally unavailable, and it sets him up as a kind of…the most typical man. And then he loses the thing that’s most valuable to him, yet you wouldn’t necessarily know it because his connection with his son is not necessarily there; it starts to break him down,” he said. “The longer he goes without being able to control the return of his son, the more he breaks, the more obsessed he becomes. And by the time you get toward the end, he’s kind of redeemed himself as a human being. Not as a man, but as a human being.”

He also praised Cregger for knowing how to balance the horror with humor.

“He understands that there’s breath and pause in humor,” said Brolin. “And you can be way more effective when you redirect somebody with humor and then surprise them. And he does that very, very well. He just uses the absurdity of the human condition and tongue-in-cheek humor to do that.”

Weapons follows a community as they try to figure out why all but one of a classroom full of children mysteriously disappeared from their homes in the middle of the night. The film also stars Alden Ehrenreich, Josh Brolin, Austin Abrams and Cary Christopher, with Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan.

Check out the full interviews, which include Cregger, below.

Weapons is now playing in theaters.

Alden Ehrenreich

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