SXSW 2016 Interview: Co-Stars Dylan Minnette and Daniel Zovatto Talk DON’T BREATHE

Last week at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival, Daily Dead had the chance to catch up with Dylan Minnette and Daniel Zovatto, two of the co-stars from Don’t Breathe, the latest project from Fede Alvarez that made its world premiere at the fest. During our time with the duo, they discussed their complicated characters in the film, Fede’s approach as a director, the chemistry they shared between themselves and with fellow co-star Jane Levy, and the force of nature that is Stephen Lang.

Look for Don’t Breathe in theaters everywhere on August 26th courtesy of Ghost House Pictures and Screen Gems.

What is really interesting about your characters is that, obviously, they're motivated by less than moral reasons, but yet the story never judges them, which I think is important. You still have to be invested in Alex, Money, and Rocky to want them to survive. Were you conscientious of showing that these guys are more than criminals, that they’re real human beings with very real stakes?

Dylan Minnette: Well, I definitely wanted that to hit, because the last thing you want is for the audience to not care about you and want you to die. For our characters, when we filmed this, there were a lot of scenes that didn't make the movie that help explain the motivations of these characters. There's even a little more to it, so I understood exactly why Alex was doing this. You can see why Money's doing this. Money wants the money, but there’s a bit more to him as well. I hope that audiences recognize that, too.

Daniel Zovatto: Yeah. For my character, I had to be really careful, because I didn't want anyone to hate me, but I want some people to hate me and want me to die, so for me it's just a balance of, “Try and like me, but hate me too, audiences.” That was a cool thing for me to play out. That's what I was going for.

Dylan Minnette: I'm not rooting for them to get the money. I don't approve of that. I don't want them to do that. I'm not saying, "Yeah, get the money. You're criminals." Once they get five minutes into the situation, I want them to get out because things have changed. That's the nice balance. You understand them enough to want them to live and get out of there, but you don't have to morally agree with what they're doing.

Daniel Zovatto: Because it's us three here and there's a house here. When we're outside, the audience is like, "Those fucking assholes.” We’re doing something bad. But when we go into the house and they're like, "Oh, whoa. These fucking assholes are in trouble. I want to root for them, because no one should have to deal with this." That's the whole track. It just switches once they're in that house and that's a great thing Fede did.

Did Fede give you guys time to build camaraderie or was that a natural occurrence?

Dylan Minnette: It was just natural.

Daniel Zovatto: We've all known each other for a few years, so that helped, but it’s not like Dylan’s character and my character are friends in the movie, so that was fun.

Dylan Minnette: Right, but it definitely gave a sense of comfort to the scene. Jane's great, but going into it I knew that I didn't know her or Stephen, but I knew that I could trust Danny. That was cool. Specifically here, it was good to have Danny going into it, because it made it a lot more exciting.

Daniel Zovatto: To answer that question, it's something that we did talk about. It’s not like we just jumped into it. We did talk about the relationships and the backstory. We all wanted to be on the same page with why we're friends and what is my interest, what is your interest as Dylan and Danny and Jane? That gave us a good spine or structure to do what we needed to do. It was a little bit of prep, we had three or four days in Budapest when we rehearsed and read the script and talked about it.

I want to ask about working with Stephen, because he's such a force in this movie, and he's completely terrifying. How was his presence on set? Did you guys separate yourselves from him to keep that up?

Daniel Zovatto: Fede did that.

Dylan Minnette: Yeah, I remember that.

Daniel Zovatto: Fede didn't really want us to meet him or talk to him much before we started shooting.

Dylan Minnette: At least until we worked with him. Because at that point, when you're around each other all day, you're going to talk.

Daniel Zovatto: The pre-production itself, that week that we were in Budapest talking, we never met him. He said hello. He is what you saw in the film. He's a fucking animal on every level. He's massive, first of all. His energy, his presence, he's just a fucking animal. He would never hurt you in real life, but when he was inside that house, I was scared.

Dylan Minnette: I was scared, too [laughs].

So here you are in Austin for SXSW. How cool is it to come into the fest with a movie that nobody really had any idea about and experience it for the first time with an audience?

Dylan Minnette: I had never been a part of anything like this, where there's just this complete blanket of mystery that was about to be lifted once people saw it. That was so exciting for me. Going into it, I knew what was coming, but once the movie started, I forgot about all of it. It was the first time I've ever watched myself as a character in a movie and was actually questioning things. Because even though I knew certain things were coming, I was still figuring it out along as I went.

It was very exciting, because I knew that nobody knew anything about it. They were extremely shocked, so it's not only this experience where you think you know it halfway through, but then it takes even more departures that are still surprising even after you've started watching it.

Daniel Zovatto: Yeah, I agree. It's been a really rad experience. I've never been to this festival and I've always wanted to come. It's the perfect way to come. With Fede being the champion and bringing us all home, it's a good feeling. People are liking it too, so it’s been even better. Like Dylan said, I've never been a part of something that's so out of nowhere; there wasn't even a picture released or a title.

But the way Fede presented the film was genius. He's like, "I'm so happy you guys don't know shit about this. You might hate it. You might love it." That was also for us, too. We just saw it yesterday for the first time, so I've seen the same things you saw in the same amount of time. I’m still trying to take it in. It’s been great.