Isaiah Mustafa and Andrew Koji are absolutely hilarious in the insanely violent Boy Kills World. The feature debut from German director Moritz Mohr has the deaf-mute Boy (Bill Skarsgård) avenging his family’s murder against tyrannical oppressors in a post-apocalyptic city. Mustafa and Koji become his wise-cracking, ass-kicking allies along the way. A running joke has Boy, who reads lips to understand people, being able to comprehend Koji, but he never understands a word Mustafa is saying. His dialogue is entirely composed of gibberish. This laugh riot never gets old. Please read below or watch above for our complete interview with Isaiah Mustafa and Andrew Koji.
Movieweb: You guys are absolutely hilarious in this film. You kick a lot of ass, but your humor is so funny. So my first question is, what did Moritz [Mohr] tell you when [Andrew] has all the dialogue and [Isaiah] is saying gibberish?
Andrew Koji: I said, very good, the less we hear (points to Isaiah), I need all of the dialogue (laughs).
Isaiah Mustafa: Yeah, I wanted to retort, but then he told me I couldn’t say anything (laughs).
Andrew Koji: He actually had dialogue that made sense. And I said, let’s change it up in another way.
Isaiah Mustafa: Yeah, he had this brilliant idea that I speak gibberish. And because of Andrew, you have what you have in the film (laughs).
Andrew Koji: No, it’s not true (laughs). It’s all written.
Isaiah Mustafa: Yeah, but we’ll completely take the credit.
Alex Lebovici of Hammerstone Studios discussed Jon Benjamin voicing Bill Skarsgård in Boy Kills World and Sam Raimi’s contributions.
MW: Bill [Skarsgård] is tremendous here, but he’s completely silent. It’s all facial inflection. You guys are interacting with him. You’re doing all the talking and the action pretty much as far as physical features. Did you ever crack up? Was there ever a point where you just couldn’t keep it together?
Isaiah Mustafa: Yeah, we do the cracking up. Bill is a serious guy. He looked at us like, come on you guys.
Andrew Koji: Disappointed (laughs).
Isaiah Mustafa: Yeah, there was a lot of, would you guys stop grab-assing in the back there? We were like, okay, sorry.
MW: I think Moritz’s action scenes are incredible. Stuff we hadn’t seen before. It really blew me away. The climactic scene where you guys are on stage with that ridiculously crazy fight, talk about filming that? What were the difficulties? What was the process like?
Andrew Koji: Ooph, Isaiah, I say take it away (laughs).
Isaiah Mustafa: What was it, like, four days? No, it was like a couple of weeks, right? How many were we in that auditorium?
Andrew Koji: Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe a week or two?
Isaiah Mustafa: It was a long process.
Andrew Koji: Very hot because I’m in a goat costume.
Isaiah Mustafa: He was a goat.
Andrew Koji: Yeah, I’m a goat. They used all the drones, the drone guys as well.
Isaiah Mustafa: That’s right, drone shots. Did they go between your legs? Whose legs did they go between?
Andrew Koji: Someone…(laughs).
Isaiah Mustafa: They flew between somebody’s legs with a drone. I don’t know if you saw it? Of course, you saw it. Where it dips down and kind of goes over his face. Yeah, that was all the drone shot. This tiny drone that can carry a camera, and do flips and stuff.
Andrew Koji: That’s all Dawid’s [Szatarski, the action director/stunt coordinator] stuff. He’s in the film as well. He’s the crazy guy that doesn’t die.
Isaiah Mustafa: The guy…Dave…
Andrew Koji: (laughs) Yeah, I call him Dave.
The deaf and mute Boy (Bill Skarsgård) swears vengeance against ruthless oppressors after his family’s murder.
MW: You guys carry a lot of the humor in the film. But obviously, when you’re doing a movie this intense and physical, it’s a lot of grinding. Was there ever a point where you were overcome by the physical nature of having to do all this stuff?
Andrew Koji: Yeah, he was a lot (points to Isaiah)…
Isaiah Mustafa: The heavy lifting…
Andrew Koji: Yeah, I’d say just keep it going…
Isaiah Mustafa: Just very method with that…
Andrew Koji: (laughs) I’d say just to be yourself and never give up.
Isaiah Mustafa: That was his mantra to me (laughs).
4:51
Famke Janssen and Brett Gelman portray tyrannical siblings who slaughter innocents in a post-apocalyptic city.
MW: [Andrew’s] got the fake foot and that seat in the factory where you’re kind of lumbering around. That’s got to be a pain. What was that like?
Andrew Koji: Yeah, that was fun. Anytime you can put on something that makes you walk different. You just change it up.
Isaiah Mustafa: I just remember hearing the foot all the time. You could hear…(makes dragging noise).
Andrew Koji: I kept it on between takes…commitment.
MW: Let’s give Moritz some credit here because this is his first feature. It’s a hell of an introduction. He does a spectacular job. Talk about working with him. Obviously, you guys have been around for a while and have some experience. What was he like on set as a director?
Andrew Koji: He’s great. He’s a collaborator. Yeah, I like that. We like that very much about him. He can stay in this business (laughs).
Isaiah Mustafa: You would never know it was his first film. He’s very easy to talk to, very easy to get along with. Just a nice person. And he’s a big fan of yours, too. I heard him say that.
Andrew Koji: Really? What?
Isaiah Mustafa: He did say that. He was gushing over you.
Andrew Koji: Oh, yeah, obviously (laughs).
Isaiah Mustafa: He was bringing up Warrior a lot.
Andrew Koji: He’s a genius. He’s got a great vision to sort it through all the way to the end. As a director should, I guess.
Boy Kills World is currently in theatrical release from Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate.
Play | Cover | Release Label |
Track Title Track Authors |
---|