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When Kathryn Bigelow<\/strong> calls, actors tend to answer.<\/p>\n So even though A House of Dynamite has no lead roles, the film\u2019s cast is stacked with names that might otherwise be used to far more significant screen time. Witness Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Greta Lee, Gabriel Basso, Moses Ingram, Tracy Letts, Jared Harris, Anthony Ramos, Jason Clarke, Ren\u00e9e Elise Goldsberry, <\/strong>and Kaitlyn Dever<\/strong>… among many others.<\/p>\n More from Gold Derby<\/strong><\/p>\n Paging the SAG nominating committee.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always a team effort, but this is truly an ensemble piece,\u201d says Ramos, who plays an army major in charge of a military base in Fort Greely, one of the first to realize a rogue nuclear missile is heading toward the U.S. \u201cEvery character is important, from the character with no lines to the character with the most lines. Every character is pivotal to the story.\u201d<\/p>\n Take Elba, who plays as the otherwise unnamed POTUS. We only hear his voice (in an American accent, no less) for the film\u2019s first two acts \u2014 he only gets revealed in the final act. He calls the role a \u201cbucket list\u201d moment, especially when Bigelow insisted no one could play the role but him.<\/p>\n As the script made the rounds, no one said no, casting director Susanne Scheel <\/strong>tells Gold Derby. As she pitched the film to potential actors, she told them, \u201cThere’s not maybe the amount of dialogue you’re used to having, but it’s incredibly impactful,\u201d she recounts. \u201cIt’s such a large cast, but everyone really does have at least a moment or two.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, while the film opens with Ramos\u2019 team detecting the missile and launching a tactical response, the action then spreads to the White House situation room, to military strategic command, and to the President himself, over three intertwining, overlapping acts. Though the crisis itself plays out over just 18 minutes, we experience it through each character\u2019s perspective as they come to terms with the impending doom \u2014 and their own potential role in averting disaster.<\/p>\n Ramos calls it \u201cone of the greatest scripts\u201d he\u2019s ever read \u2014 a sentiment echoed by the rest of the cast.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother Kathryn Bigelow film, here we go,\u201d Ferguson tells Gold Derby of her reaction to the script. Ferguson plays the Situation Room station chief faced with figuring out why the missile has been launched. \u201cFor me, the fact that I was offered be on a set with someone like Kathryn was the most incredible moment in my life, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, please,\u201d says Harris, of his response when the offer came his way to play the Secretary of Defense. \u00a0\u201cAs soon as I knew Kathryn Bigelow was making a movie again and she was interested in finding out if I wanted to be a part of it, the answer was yes before I read the script.\u201d<\/p>\n Echoes Letts, who plays the general in charge of the military\u2019s strategic command (STRATCOM), \u201cAnd then you read the script, and it was really good, really tight, really well-researched \u2014 and really terrifying.\u201d Credit screenwriter Noah Oppenheim <\/strong>(Zero Day), whose years at the helm of NBC News informed the political thriller. <\/p>\n As Scheel promised, each role also offered something deeper: a chance to show some humanity below the surface. For while the characters are all at their professional best, doing what they\u2019ve been trained to do, they\u2019re also very human, dealing with real personal issues \u2014\u00a0a pending proposal, a sick child, a day off touring a Civil War reenactment.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, I\u2019ve never been offered a role that is as very natural, realistic to my own character,\u201d says Ferguson. \u201cI\u2019m talking about her as a mother and the humanity that I could bring to her.\u201d<\/p>\n For Letts, that\u2019s what sets the film apart from the usual Hollywood fare. \u201cThe gig was to try to find just those little bits of human life around the edges of the procedures that we were performing,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a very smart thing about this piece that not only does it give you as an audience the opportunity to step into the shoes of these people and ask yourself the question, what would I do? It also calls into question, is this the system we should have in place?\u201d<\/p>\n Clarke, who plays Admiral Miller, who runs point between the Situation Room and the President, says while the characters all have very different roles to play in the crisis, \u201cthe common thread is what it is to be human, to be up against the wall, and we truly find out what we are and who we are.\u201d And while they each react differently to the stress of the moment, \u201cit opens it up to the audience so that they’re part of it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say the work wasn\u2019t without its challenges. For Clarke, the enormity of what Bigelow was undertaking was \u201chard to grasp,\u201d especially given the overlapping three-part structure. \u201cI just saw the technical issues for the editor to get the stories to intertwine,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the film does take your breath away. You rarely get that in the cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n And with filming wrapped, the cast is effusive with praise for their director.<\/p>\n \u201cKathryn is so creative and fluid,\u201d says Ramos. \u201cThe ideas just come on the spot for her. If the shot behind the actor\u2019s head is better because that wide shot captures what\u2019s going on on those screens, she\u2019ll use that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019ve worked with a lot of people, you truly realize who brings out the best in you,\u201d echoes Clarke. \u201cAnd Kathryn\u2019s as good as I\u2019ve ever had. I\u2019d put her up there with the best. I\u2019d do the rest of my career with her.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Gold Derby<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Gold Derby’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n