Comedy is the Lead Character: Exclusive Interview with 'Emergency' Stars Donald Elise Watkins, RJ Cyler, and Sebastian Chacon on Dissecting Difficult Topics With Comedy
Emergency is a comedy-drama-thriller that tells a gripping, hilarious, and important story.
It is senior year of college. Emergency, at the beginning, looks as if it is going to be the excitingly hilarious, party filled, end of the educational road comedy that we have all come to know and love.
However, it goes so much deeper than that. The comedy and the whimsical setting are used as vehicles through which to dissect important issues concerning racism and police brutality. It is a powerful film, one that strikes the balance with beautifully exacting precision.
In establishing the comedic foreground of this movie, we see a friend group, like we might see in many comedies. It is a core group of three each of whom fits in an archetypal friend group role: the wild friend, the dad friend, and the nerd friend.
We got a chance to sit down and talk with the three actors behind these roles, Donald Elise Watkins, RJ Cyler, and Sebastian Chacon, and the first thing we wanted to know was which archetype they felt they fit into within their personal friend groups. The general consensus was that they are all a little bit of everything.
Cyler, who played the role of Sean, spoke first, saying:
"I'm all three of them at once, to be honest. But I know I'm like the uncle."
He went on to explian that he will never be the friend to hold anyone back from doing what they want to do:
"'Oh I want to jump off of this.' 'Go for it.' I'm not gonna tell you what not to do...I'm like uncle everything."
Watkins, who played Kunle, similarly expressed that, situation depending, he can be seen as any of them.
"They're are people who are like, 'Oh, he's a monster,' 'Oh, he's a dad,' 'Oh, he's a nerd,' and they're all right."
(Although, as Chacon laughed and Cyler quietly interjected, "party animal," he likely used to err more on the side of the wild friend.)
Watkins even conceded laughingly, "I like to think I'm more responsible these days."
Sebastian Chacon, who took on the role of Carlos, mentioned that this ability to see a bit of yourself in everyone is what makes Emergency such an effective film.
"I think the benefit of having the different archetypal characters and how they deal with everything in their very different ways is that at different points of the movie you can see yourself in each one of them. Like, 'Oh, right now I'm definitely on Carlos's side' 'actually Kunle is completely right,' 'Actually Sean,' and you kind of go between them that's really great. Explore all three people's experiences at once."
The personable and relatable characters are a major aspect of what allows the film to dive into topics of racism and police brutality.
Another major factor in that? Comedy.
"It's like the lead character, to be honest," Cyler remarked. "Comedy is the lead character in most trauma I feel. You know? And it's only to make it ingestible to the human mind...So you can continue to be and exist."
"Some of the most potent emotional movies are also like very simultaneously funny," Chacon reflected, "because everyone is always just trying to find their joy. Everyone is trying to have the greatest day of their life, and all these things get in the way of it until its impossible, you know?"
Emergency comes to theaters on May 20th, and Amazon Prime on May 27th - we can't wait for you to see it.
