When taking on various roles, actors are often required to learn different skills and habits in order to best embody the characters that they play -- and this even extends to silly comedies. Take, for example, the cast of the new movie Game Night. Prior to the making of the film, most of the stars didn't really know each other, but they found a way to bond, and as you might have guessed, their chosen method was game nights. As I learned during the Los Angeles press day for the film,
Kylie Bunbury: We did. We actually had game nights. So one time we went to Billy's; we would do it in the trailers. We would play Clue. Billy has the greatest Clue board. It's like a 3D Clue.Lamorne Morris: It's massive, and it's like glass topped, and metal and gold and different levels.Kylie Bunbury: But yeah, we definitely did it.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with the stars of Game Night earlier this month, and one question that I asked everybody was in regard to the games that the cast actually played together during the making of the film. It turns out that there wasn't any kind of regular thing going with the full ensemble, but some of them did get together to play the murder mystery game Clue. Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury, who play couple Kevin and Michelle in the film, were the ones who told me about the cast events, and they made it sound like they had a great time.
Unfortunately, not everybody was always available during these sessions, as I learned during my interviews. For example, the owner of the special Clue board, Billy Magnusson, was excited to talk about the get-togethers, but sadly his partner in the film, Sharon Hogan, was never around to play:
Billy Magnusson: Yeah, we did. We absolutely did. Clue. She didn't come - obviously. It's been killing her all day.Sharon Hogan: Don't say obviously! I didn't go, but now I feel like I wish I had, because I feel like I missed out.Billy Magnusson: I never remember a point where I was like, 'Oh, Sharon's not here.' Sharon was always there! There's points where I was like, 'I wish Sharon wasn't here.' [laughs] I never felt that way!Sharon Hogan: You never felt what way?Billy Magnusson: You were always hanging out!Sharon Hogan: Yeah, I just didn't play Clue.Billy Magnusson: Yeah, I guess you didn't.
The same kind of split was featured in the room when I sat down with stars Jesse Plemons and Kyle Chandler. Plemons, who plays the creepy neighbor Gary in Game Night, was a part of the Clue games, but Chandler, who plays Jason Bateman's outsider brother, Brooks, never made it. They told me,
Kyle Chandler: No. Not that I was invited to.Jesse Plemons: You weren't invite. Sometimes it takes quite a long time to finish a scene, so we would play... Billy Magnusson... The really funny blond guy. He would organize some games in his trailer. We played Clue one night and some other stuff.
From my interviews, I gleaned that Billy Magnusson, Larmorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, and Jesse Plemons were all in on the Clue games -- but who won the most? Magnusson told me that there were no consistent winners, but Bunbury and Morris disagreed:
Kylie Bunbury: I think Billy was the best.Lamorne Morris: Because he knew...Kylie Bunbury: It was his game. I mean, whatever.Lamorne Morris: Home court advantage. That's all that was.
Obviously those game nights happened behind closed doors, but audiences will soon be able to see all of the stars gather together for some murder mystery action on the big screen. Game Night, directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein and also starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, is arriving in theaters this Friday, February 23rd.
