'The Life of Chuck' star Matthew Lillard on joining the 'Flanafam': 'Hollywood is such a lonely journey'
After receiving the People's Choice Award at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Mike Flanagan's movie The Life of Chuck, based on the Stephen King story, has finally hit theatres. With an impressive cast that includes Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, David Dastmalchian, Jacob Tremblay and Matthew Lillard, it's a striking film that brings up particularly poignant existential questions as we follow the life of Charles "Chuck" Krantz.
There's always been a through line of humanity in much of King's work and Flanagan is the perfect person to really lean into those elements for The Life of Chuck. A story told in three acting, in reverse chronological order, we get a glimpse of Hiddleston's Krantz through a billboard that reads, "39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck!" amid environmental disasters, including a part California falling into the ocean.
Marty (Ejiofor) is a teacher who sees the billboard. He doesn't know who Chuck is, but there's a curiosity about who he might be as everyone's approaching the end of the world.
Lillard plays Gus, who only a appears for a short conversation with Marty, but it's easily one of the more impactful moments of the whole film.
"I couldn't be more thrilled," Lillard told Yahoo Canada about working with Flanagan and joining the "Flanafam," the group the makes up the filmmaker's regular collaborators. "Hollywood is such a lonely journey and having somebody that's like, not only do I want you in this movie, I want you in all my movies, it's like a love letter. So I feel very lucky to have found him on this journey."
"And collaborating with him is fantastic. ... He's got this spirit of generosity that's ... unparalleled in terms of my experiences over the last 30 years. I think he's generous, he's funny, he's charming, he's very clear with what he wants, ... and there's freedom within that form. And he does work that I am proud to be a part of."
As Gus talks to Marty about the end of the world, the blue-collar working has this beautiful epiphany about life that's incredibly moving.
"Going into it I was like, I have a lot of information to deliver in a really small amount of time," Lillard said. "The reality is, I didn't know Mike very well, we had just become friends. I had a very small part. I didn't want to come in and suck on behalf of the film. So it was a little nerve-wracking going in."
"At the end of the day, you just want to be good. And so this particular moment and this particular film, I accomplished that goal. I'm really proud of the work."
But in a world that feel particularly divisive right now, amid escalating tensions in many places around the world, The Life of Chuck may just be coming out at the perfect time, when we really need nuanced stories about humanity, that can still give us joy.
"Everyone wanted to be in last year's Academy Awards sort of cycle, and the reality is that it got pushed, for whatever reason. ... We didn't get to Toronto for a while because we missed that window, and so there's a lot of waiting," Lillard said. "I do think, in a weird way, that the movie is built to be delivered to the people in this moment."
"The timing of this, in terms of where the world is now, especially in America, feels like it's a gift. And so I do think the world works in mysterious ways, and hopefully that holds true for people who find it."
While The Life of Chuck is particularly great journey to go on, the impact of Lillard's character does also come down to the fact that he is such a beloved actor, whether you watched him in Scooby-Doo, She's All That, the Scream films, Good Girls, or his other work. But as Lillard admitted, sometimes he's just auditioning to get a job, he ultimately wants to be "charmed" by a project."
"A lot of times in Hollywood, people ... are constantly trying to make as much money as they possibly can, which is to increase their margins, which is to not pay people a lot of money," Lillard said. "That's [something] that people don't understand, just because you're in a movie doesn't mean you're making a lot of money."
"To be motivated, I want to be charmed by the part. I want to find something that I can hold on to and I want to be able to do something really great with the part that's exciting. ... Walking on a Life of Chuck and on the set, ... my job is just to bring me to this role, which is to bring my own humanity and my own take. And so luckily for me, that's what happened. I have a little part in a beautiful film that makes a tiny impact. So I'm really lucky, I feel really lucky."
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