For his latest film, Joe Lynch kicks things into overdrive with his stellar action thriller Everly. Starring Salma Hayek as the titular character, she must fight of waves of assassins and hit men sent by her former lover, a cruel mob boss, who wants her dead after he learns she no longer is loyal to him.

While at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with both Lynch and Hayek about their involvement in the wildly thrilling actioner, the challenges they both faced while collaborating on the project and how Everly even has a bit of an unintentional homage to Desperado (one of this writer’s favorite films of all time) in there as well.

Earlier this year, Everly scored distribution with the fine folks over at Radius-TWC and Dimension so look for the film to be released sometime later this year.

Salma, you do this thing in Everly with your shoes that I mentioned to Joe earlier today. I really loved it and was wondering if that was an homage to your character in Desperado?

Salma Hayek: Ahhhh, a little bit, yes.  But it was also because it her surroundings were so bare, there was nothing but girly things around her.  So, we thought it would be cool that if I go to the closet and grab the first thing I can find to put on my feet, it’s the most impractical pair of shoes ever.  Because her boss doesn’t want her to ever get out, what do you think he wants her in all the time?  High heels (laughs).

Also, they kept getting in the way so it just seemed like because Everly was practical that she would just keep taking them off and putting them on again. Plus, we also have a producer that has a foot and shoe fetish too (laughs).

Joe Lynch: There was (laughs)! He always kept pushing those shots, where he was like, “Did you guys get the insert of the feet? That’s really integral to the film, right? Just make sure you get those feet!” It became a thing (laughs).

Salma Hayek:  But yet, it did remind me of Desperado.

Joe Lynch: And what’s funny is that I didn’t even realize that until you mentioned it earlier today.

Salma Hayek: I did- and they’re even red, too.

Joe, how was it to work with someone as seasoned at Salma and how did you keep coming up with new ways to torture her?

Joe Lynch: Believe me, everything in the movie was all on the page already before I did anything with it. I didn’t really have to coax anything out of Salma though.  It was just like, “Oh, we’re doing this or that today.” And honestly, the amount of heart that got installed into the movie because of Salma was monumental.  Every day, and this is to Salma’s credit, she challenged me as a filmmaker by saying, “Where’s the truth in this moment?  I like that you think that going from A to B to C is cool, but is there truth in it?” So it really made me evaluate every single beat in the film.

Salma Hayek: I wanted to know where Everly was at each moment, both emotionally and psychologically. Joe put me through torture, but I put him through torture too. Plus, girls think differently, so I wanted to know the why to everything she does in the film.  It was mutual, in that way, but I think that’s what makes the film interesting.

Joe Lynch: It really helped, always having that perspective on set too. For me, it was always about what was going to look cool because I had lived with the script for so long. But Salma could come in and be totally fresh and objective about everything and say, “Wait, you might have had that cool shot in your head for five years, but is it resonating with the truth of the moment?” And I went, “Oh, shit, you’re right!”

So we would literally throw everything out and go, “Let’s focus on how we get the most emotional impact into the moment while still making the film engaging for viewers,” because it all takes place in one room.  So, it was definitely a mutual masochism between us, I guess you could say (laughs).

Being limited to that one room, did you find that there was a claustrophobic shooting this way?

Salma Hayek: I am actually claustrophobic in real life. And even though this was the same room, there were so many different things happening in the room it wasn’t bad at all.  What was very claustrophobic was being inside the cage.

Joe Lynch: There’s one thing that happens to Everly later on in the movie where she gets put in a cage, and, originally, the scene was a little different. When it was presented to me by the Masochist (the guy who puts her in the cage), he was like, “You could put her on the bed (like in the script), but what if we put her in the cage instead?” So I was like, “I don’t think Salma is going to go for that” but then we talked about it in the morning and she was like, “Yes!” so I knew this was going to be an interesting day on set.

Salma Hayek: I was also tied up during that scene and we had some technical problems that day so it was tough. We were building up everything emotionally, but then I had to hold it because we couldn’t [shoot the scene]. So then, at some point, we were finally done and I just went off and I cried for another half an hour or something like that. It was intense and I remember they were all freaking out too.

But it’s just that you build up all this stuff and you keep building it up so when the take was short, it didn’t all get a chance to come out during the take. And you don’t know what it took for me not to freak out about being tied down.  It might look like nothing, but for me, it was very challenging.

Joe Lynch: And it was all on screen.  You feel it.

Salma, you really are put through the ringer in this movie and there’s so much physicality to this role. Was there something about your character that you found most satisfying?  

Salma Hayek: I hated working with all those guns and I had to go train. They were all excited about the gun training, and I detested it. Every time we had to shoot them, the noise just got to me.  But then, at one point, Everly is very strong, and maybe it had to do with the character and the madness of the character in that scene, but I remember one shot where the chair is pulled over, towards the end, where  I was shooting this huge gun and I wasn’t even blinking anymore.

Joe Lynch: Yeah, it was really something scary, but cool to watch happen.

Salma Hayek: And the character was supposed to be like that and I was just so in control of my body and in control of the gun at that moment in time. In the beginning of the movie, I was supposed to be good, but a little hesitant with them but by the end, Everly was a different person. So maybe it all had to do a little bit with the character too.

Joe Lynch: That was one of the biggest benefits of shooting this chronologically, too.

Salma Hayek: Yes, that was amazing; I have to say that was my favorite part of making this, in fact.

Joe Lynch: We really got to work on all the emotional beats, every step of the way so by the end, you really feel like Everly is the phoenix, rising out of the ashes.  There was never a moment where we went, “Now you have to revert back to you not using the gun so well” and I think it helped Salma.

Salma Hayek: Yeah, that was great.

  • Heather Wixson
    About the Author - Heather Wixson

    Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.