Summary
Awkwafina’s shot at a major lottery victory may only be short-lived in the action-comedyJackpot!. The Golden Globe-winning actor stars in the upcoming movie as Katie, a young woman and former child actor who comes to near-future California in the hopes of restarting her acting career following the death of her mother. As she tries to regain ground in the industry, Katie finds herself the winner of the California lottery, though quickly learns that it comes with the danger of being hunted, as whoever kills her before sundown gets her winnings.
In the midst of her fight to survive, Katie meets John Cena’s Noel, a lottery protector down on his luck who is trying to gain a better foothold in the industry. With few other options, Katie elects to enlist Noel’s services, putting them in a race through town to survive, all while she considers forfeiting her winnings entirely by leaving town. With the lottery jackpot being the highest in history, she will not only have to consider her options carefully but also rise to the occasion to fight for her life.
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Alongside Awkwafina and Cena, the ensembleJackpot!cast reunites the former with herShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ringsco-star Simu Liu, Seann William Scott, Ayden Mayeri, Dolly de Leon, Donald Elise Watkins, and Machine Gun Kelly. Helmed byA Simple Favor’s Paul Feig, the movie is a fast-paced, hilarious, and energetic ride with a unique premise and vision of the future.
Ahead of the movie’s release,Screen Rantinterviewed Awkwafina and Paul Feig to discussJackpot!, how she went about finding her comic chemistry with Cena, visualizing and capturing the movie’s epic fight sequences, and flipping her dynamic of friendship inShang-Chito one of fighting in the new film.
Building Trust With John Cena Was An “Easy” Process For Awkwafina
Much like her2023 hit comedyQuiz Lady, Prime Video’sJackpot!is very much a two-hander between Awkwafina and Cena, showcasing their skills in a buddy comedy format. In reflecting on building this dynamic, the Golden Globe winner found it to be a very “easy” process:
Awkwafina: Oh, wow, great question. John is so funny, also, he’s very interesting in a way. He comes up with it out of nowhere. It was easy to build trust with him.
Feig Worked Hand-In-Hand With Second Unit Director James Young For The Movie’s Action
Prior to makingJackpot!, Feig has certainly dipped his toes in the world of action filmmaking before, whether it was the buddy comedyThe Heat, the Melissa McCarthy-ledSpy,or the2016 female-ledGhostbustersreboot. With his latest project, though, he finds himself delivering some of his slickest and most intricately choreographed fights to date, which the director credits largely to working closely with second unit director James Young:
Paul Feig: Yeah, we brought on James Young and his team, who’ve done a lot of Marvel movies and Captain Americas and all that. They were so excited to get to do comedy, because we’re all Jackie Chan fans. So, it was really sitting down, talking through the general feel for it, and, for me, it was just like, “Let’s go for it. I just want this to be as insane as it can, as long as it doesn’t feel like it’s not realistic in the way that the physics are working, in the way that the characters are facing it.” Then, James goes off with his stunt team, they come up with stuff, they film it in their little studio, and then they bring me back an edited kind of version of it from their iPhone.
Then, I get to go, “Oh, let’s add a gag here. Can this happen?” Then, go into the room with them, and we just keep building it and building it. The whole thing with Nora being tied on to John’s back just came from us going, “I just wish she could stay closer with him.” And I was like, “What if we tie her on his back?,” and he’s like, “Yeah, okay, we can do that.” So, you just kind of build it and grow it organically, and then when you get to the set, it’s all choreographed, so then you can just start having fun with the lines and attitudes and changing things in the moment.
Simu Liu’s Villain Was A “Bizarro Switch Up” For Awkwafina
While the movie may primarily focus on Cena and Awkwafina’s dynamic,Jackpot!also sees the latter reuniting withherShang-Chico-star Simu Liu, a rival lottery protector to Cena’s Noel with a darker motive for supposedly helping Katie. For Awkwafina, seeing this flipped dynamic was a “bizarro switch up” for her, while also celebrating getting to “team up with him again”:
Awkwafina: It was really interesting. It was great to reunite with him. Simu’s a great guy, but I think there were definitely some moments where my mind would go back, and I’d just forget, and it was like, “This is such a bizarro switch up.” Because he really is the villain in it, but yeah, it was really great to team up with him again.
AboutJackpot!
In the near future, a ‘Grand Lottery’ has been newly established in California - the catch: kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion dollar jackpot. When Katie Kim (Awkwafina) moves to Los Angeles, she mistakenly finds herself with the winning ticket. Desperate to survive the hordes of jackpot hunters, she reluctantly joins forces with amateur lottery protection agent Noel Cassidy (John Cena), who will do everything in his power to get her to sundown in exchange for a piece of her prize. However, Noel must face off with his slick rival Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), who also seeks to collect Katie’s commission at all costs. JACKPOT! is directed by Paul Feig and written by Rob Yescombe.
Jackpot!
Cast
In a near-future California, the state introduces a high-stakes “Grand Lottery” with a deadly twist: to claim the prize, the winner must survive until sundown without being killed by other participants. The action-comedy follows Katie, a recent Los Angeles transplant played by Awkwafina, who finds herself with a winning ticket.
