alice braga hypnotic interview

Alfred Hitchcock gets a sci-fi twist with Hypnotic. The film revolves around a detective investigating the case of his missing daughter, only to find a local bank robbery that has seeming ties to her disappearance. This leads him down a rabbit hole involving a group of people known as Hypnotics, powerful hypnotists who have the ability to control the minds of those around them.

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Ben Affleck leads the cast of Hypnotic alongside Alice Braga, William Fichtner, J.D. Pardo, Dayo Okeniyi, Jeff Fahey, Jackie Earle Haley, and Hala Finley. Blending the multi-layered twists of a classic Hitchcock story with the large-scale concepts of modern sci-fi blockbusters, the film is an interesting new direction for filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.

Related: Hypnotic: Everything We Know About Ben Affleck’s Mind-Bending Sci-FI

Ahead of the film’s release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with star Alice Braga to discuss Hypnotic, the group imagination sessions required to dive into the mind-bending world of the movie, her reunion with director Robert Rodriguez after he produced Predators, and more.


Alice Braga on Hypnotic, Rodriguez Reunion & Potential Predators Sequel

Alice Braga in Hypnotic

Screen Rant: I am very excited to talk about Hypnotic with you,. It was such a mind-bending ride. You worked with Robert Rodriguez before, but what about this project in particular really sparked your interest to want to be a part of it?

Alice Braga: Well, first of all, I have always wanted to work with Robert as a director, because I worked with him as a producer on Predators, but I’ve never experienced him as a director, and I’ve follow his career and his films for many years, since El Mariachi, I think. As a director, he was always passionate and an advocate for independent filmmaking and storytelling, and I always had a curiosity to work with him. So, when he called me to start with, I was like, “Robert, I’ll do anything with you, it doesn’t even matter.”

But once he sent me the script, I was really curious to know how he would bring that to life, because by reading the script, it’s like reading a book, you can imagine that world, can recreate that environment, the twists and turns, and everything that happens, you can imagine in your mind and heart, but once you put it in film, once you put it in on his feet, it’s a completely different thing. I was very curious to know how he would do that vision of a script that had been with him for such a long time, so it was a wonderful experience.

What would you then say was one of the biggest takeaways that you had from those conversations with Robert going into filming that really helped you embrace the world around you?

Alice Braga: I mean, first of all, I was curious about hypnosis, so I was like, “Okay, if he’s curious about it, let me try to understand a little bit.” I’m a little bit of a nerd, I went out, I read about it, I was like, “Okay, what is this?” and understand a little bit of this world that he’s creating, and finding interesting things about it, but without going too deep, because basically on this film, I really wanted to be very open and free for Robert to guide me to whatever he was envisioning, because it’s a character within a character, without giving too many spoilers. There’s so much in it that I wanted to understand how he wanted, for example, the hypnosis to be done.

I tried a lot to follow his lead on that, and he wanted it to be very subtle, so kind of to be in sync with what William Fichtner was doing, what the other actors were doing, that was something important for myself. But also, the character twists and turns how he really wanted the differences between the versions of this character being the same core, how to create that in a in a subtle way, but a powerful way, but he really wanted completely different. So, it was a really wonderful, challenging experience, I think, to understand the theme that he wanted, being more of a film noir and having Hitchcock references to then do a film that has, I don’t know how many twists and turns. [Laughs]

I lost count by the end, but not in a bad way!

Alice Braga: It’s hard to talk about it without giving spoilers, right?! It’s like, “Oh, can I say this? No, I can’t.”

Ben Affleck and Alice Braga in Hypnotic

With creating two totally different characters, performance-wise, how does that affect building your dynamics and rapport with Ben and William?

Alice Braga: It was a lot of fun, because it’s kind of like a group imagination session. [Laughs] It’s like you’re basically having almost to play out two different films. I mean, less with Ben, without giving too much away, but more with this sub world, this different world that she lives in. But also how it’s figuring out and finding out the journey, because even Robert really wanted [them to be] super different, one more cold and harsh and very corporate driven and very strong and like a very cold woman, and the other one to be more free, more hippie, more alive, more warm.

But I also wanted to not only create the differences of them, completely separate, but have something that connected both of them on a deeper level that leads to where the film goes, which is like, “Oh, it’s always the same person.” But there’s a certain level of unity between them that I think the way that I tried to do it was to bring warmth and empathy, because at the end it explains why. So I kind of tried to do that, but it was fun. Like with the other actors, especially with William, he was wonderful, because it was always imagining together what would have been this other world, and then this other world. People are gonna think we’re talking about the multiverse. [Laughs]

The visuals obviously come into play, especially with something like the chase through the city sequence. You’ve worked with VFX-heavy productions before, but Robert obviously loves going smaller with his productions while still aiming for a big scale. What is that like, finding that happy medium as an actor?

Alice Braga: It’s a very Robert thing, like you said, because it’s very hard to achieve sometimes, and because he knows so much about filmmaking, and he knows so much how to film, and he knows so much on storytelling, from the script, to filming, to editing, to actually filming — he’s one of the DPs on this film, he was operating thecamera a bunch of times. So he knows how to create that sensation of it’s big, it’s explosive, but at the same time, the bank vault was like two walls together, it was super simple. I remember walking in, I’m like, “This is where you guys filmed, really?” He was like, “Yeah,” I was like, “Oh, my God, how can you do that?” [Chuckles]

But you need to have so much knowledge and preparation and exactly knowing what you’re going to shoot and what you’re going to need, so that you’re not in the editing room needing more, and I think that’s why he’s able to make it [feel epic]. I think you really need to know how to sell that. It’s different than having a green screen, we had a green screen there for a few things, but it’s not as massive as a massive battle chase, or something else.

Adrien Brody and Alice Braga in Predators

He sells it very well, as do all of you. Finally, I was a big fan of Predators when it came out. Since Robert was a producer on it, and there were plans at one point for a Predators sequel, did you have any talks with Robert on this about trying to get that going?

Alice Braga: I would love to do it with him directing, it would be fun! [Chuckles] No, we talked a lot about the time that we did Predators, but we didn’t talk about the future of, “Let’s do something together.” But it was funny, because we shot Predators at Troublemaker Studios on a bunch of locations that we actually filmed a few things of Hypnotic for, so it was very nostalgic to come back many years later to the same set, to a bunch of the same crew that did Predators, because Robert’s family is in Austin, Texas, it’s his gang, and his crew. So it was really special to be back there with Predators memories. But yeah, if he’s back doing and wants me, I would love it.

About Hypnotic

Hypnotic Full Poster Ben Affleck Exclusive

Determined to find his missing daughter, Austin detective Danny Rourke instead finds himself spiraling down a rabbit hole while investigating a series of reality-bending bank robberies where he will ultimately call into question his most basic assumptions about everything and everyone in his world. Aided by Diana Cruz, an unnervingly gifted psychic, Rourke simultaneously pursues and is pursued by a lethal specter – the one man he believes holds the key to finding the missing girl – only to discover more than he ever bargained for.

Check out our other Hypnotic interviews here:

Hypnotic is currently playing in theaters.

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  • Ben Affleck Hypnotic Movie Poster

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