Jessica Henwick is the heart and soul of ‘How to Make a Killing’

For Henwick, perhaps best known for the genre work she’s done, she’s the heart and soul of the film, a truth-teller who has her head on straight. It’s refreshing to see Henwick apply her steeliness and vulnerability in the straitjacket of a romantic lead; “She’s probably the most enlightened character that I've played,” she shared. 

JoySauce spoke with Henwick about How to Make a Killing, where she spoke about its heartbreaking ending, the relevance of a project like this and other “kill the rich” stories, and how she sees the film in conversation with other roles where her characters are striving for agency.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length, and contains mild spoilers for How to Make a Killing.

Zachary Lee: One aspect of your character I found striking was how she remained internally consistent, even if the circumstances around her shifted. It was striking to notice this change manifest in Ruth’s wardrobe shift, from a more relaxed streetwear style to the high-end ball gowns by the end. What were conversations like with costume designer Jo Katsaras to help keep that continuity of Ruth’s personality, even as her clothing shifted?
Jessica Henwick: Jo is so talented and has quite a deep way of working. She’s really into chakra colors, which helped inform some of the character choices. Since the heart chakra is red, when we first meet Ruth—or rather when she first goes on the date—she’s in this bright red top. Obviously, she's from the world of fashion, so she does have an edgier style, but she has since progressed beyond that to pursue her teaching career. When we meet her, she stops posturing as much and has become a bit more at ease, which is expressed through her clothing.

ZL: Compared to Becket, whose attire often acts as protection or some form of a disguise. Since watching the short you directed, Bus Girl, I’ve paid more attention to the role of food in film. I’m curious how post working on Bus Girl, if your approach to food scenes as an actor has shifted in any way. Particularly with something like this, where food is tied so much with wealth and class.
JH: Yeah, I love finding out that there are food scenes in the projects I’m working on. I always want to know what’s being cooked and what’s being eaten says about a character. For example, when Becket takes Ruth on a date, they’re at a place that’s serving sushi, but it has Chinese artwork on the walls. I could see the chef, and he was a Vietnamese man. Acting out that sequence made me giggle because it spoke to where both of our characters were in their lives; right before that scene, Becket suggested taking Ruth to a Michelin-style restaurant. But for Ruth, she doesn’t really care as long as the food is good. She doesn’t care about the façade. 

ZL: Even earlier, Ruth talks about how she’s so hungry that she could “literally eat Sbarro.”
JH: [Laughs] I’m very much like, “Where’s the street food? Where do the locals eat?” When I'm traveling, I always want to find the sort of hidden gems. I relate to Ruth’s palette because she’s happy in a canteen. It’s all about the quality to me over the sort of aesthetic. 

ZL: It also wasn’t lost on me that in a lot of these food scenes, you had the opportunity to flex your chopstick skills.
JH: They did bring out a fork for us, but I was like, “I’m Asian … I can’t eat noodles with a fork right now.” I gotta have the chopsticks. 

ZL: Your character speaks what I think is my favorite line in the film, which is “It’s just scary to dream small. Nobody teaches us how to do that.” I’m curious what that line means to you: What does dreaming small look like?
JH: I think that the reason I've gotten to where I have in my career is that I did dream big for a really long time. There's nothing wrong with dreaming big, but I think that it's really easy to forget why you were dreaming big in the first place and what you were actually attracted to.

There’s a lot of noise in this industry, and it can get really loud, and you can't hear your voice anymore. I think that's really what Ruth is about. There’s nothing wrong with a big dream, but in the pursuit of more, you can forget to get rid of that noise and boil it down to the essentials. It’s so easy to forget to ask ourselves: Why do you want to do that? Do you have a reason, or are you just doing it for the sake of doing it?

ZL: It recalls a line from Bus Girl: “It takes work to make something so simple and so beautiful … it takes love.” Sometimes I wonder if we forget that doing simple things beautifully is significant in and of itself. Across projects like The Royal Hotel, Cuckoo, Glass Onion, and even On the Rocks, you’ve played characters who struggle to maintain autonomy and agency while being surrounded by the entitled and/or wealthy. What draws you to these characters, or rather, what’s the gift of revisiting similar themes but with different directors?
JH: That is an interesting through line. I think that speaks less to my intentions and more to perhaps my typecasting and how I come across. I don't think I particularly read as someone who's “lost” or someone who has a lack of drive or purpose. I think it's possibly a little hard to believe me being in those roles, and so I think that's what ends up happening, is that I just naturally sort of work better for roles where people have agency, or they're trying to get agency.

ZL: Prior, you had shared how much you love sci-fi and genre films; your earlier work consisted of roles in those types of movies because they had the best roles for women. It’s encouraging, then, that you can hopefully take your resolve and place them in these unconventional romance films, like How to Make a Killing or Everybody Wants to Fuck Me.
JH: Oh my God, I’m so excited for people to see Everybody Wants to Fuck Me. It's some of the most fun I've had with a character; she's so multifaceted, and I think that you'll be able to pick out the through line quite clearly with some of those other roles you mentioned. She’s really fun, and I think she's very different from anyone I played before.

ZL: How do you think working on this film has made you think about this line between contentment and ambition?
JH: I’ve had a lot of conversations with Glen about this, actually. Looking at the person next to you, looking at their homework is the key to unhappiness, because what you are enticed by is a façade. They're looking at someone else, and they're unhappy, and the cycle just keeps on repeating. I do think that gratitude is so important and can act as an antidote to that mindset, and Ruth has kind of cracked the code. She’s probably the most enlightened character that I've played. 

ZL: I like how she’s the only one who really challenges the characters about what drives them. She’s the only one who essentially asks, “What happens when what you dreamed of pays off?”
JH: The pursuit of more … it is kind of intoxicating, and it's hard to get out of that hustle culture. But I do think that Ruth sort of speaks to a larger movement happening right now that does seem to be interested in slow living and more eco-friendly sustainability. I think people are going to relate to Ruth. 

ZL: To get into a bit more of the ending, you communicate so much without speaking, particularly in how you hand the locket over. I’m curious how that scene evolved, whether you had lines of dialogue or how you approached such an emotionally charged moment knowing you wouldn’t be speaking.
JH: John and I actually talked about it at length. When it's a heightened emotional scene, I don’t really know what’s going to feel right in the moment or what’s going to happen until we start shooting. But I remember saying to John: “Do you think Glen would be okay if I slapped him?” He told me to go for it. When we got to filming, what I didn't know was that Glen had been forewarned that I would slap him. 

He was prepared, but at that moment, it didn’t feel right to commit to that. It didn’t feel right for Ruth to resort to violence because that's what everyone else has been doing. To do that would have felt like it was coming from an outsider's perspective of what the audience wanted, but what Ruth would realistically do is exactly what she does: she's disappointed and heartbroken, and that's just way worse than her being angry, vicious, or vindictive. 

We did think a little bit about dialogue, but we never really landed on anything that felt right. I think some actors that I love are big champions of scaling back to try and say things without dialogue and just communicate things with a look. That’s generally the approach I try to take, and this ending scene seemed like the perfect opportunity to do it.

ZL: Equally tragic is that both of them say “I love you” to each other, but it never gets properly reciprocated.
JH: I think in another life they probably would've been really happy together, but he can’t see the forest for the trees. He’s hung up on his mother’s issues and generational trauma, but I do think that fundamentally, they do really get along with each other.

ZL: This is very much a film about the narratives we inherit and whether we live into them or deconstruct them. To your point, Becket is very much fueled by what his mother said: “Promise me you won’t quit until you have the right kind of life.” Has the film made you rethink some of the narratives you may have grown up with and what you’re choosing to accept or deconstruct?
JH: I definitely have thought about it a lot before this film, and since this film wrapped, I’ve thought about it more extensively. Being the daughter of two immigrants, I had this pressure to fulfill their immigrant dreams and give up everything so I could succeed. It does put a lot of pressure on you as a child, but I think I’ve been able to get so far because I have that hunger and that I need to do right by them. My striving for success is bigger than myself. But similarly with Ruth, I have been going through a transition period of going, “Okay, but what do I actually like about what I'm doing? What turns me on? What makes me happy? Forget the noise, forget the pressure from my parents, and forget that sort of story. What's the story that I want to tell?” 

ZL: I find it fascinating that this project is coming out in light of various other “kill the rich” type projects. I’m not sure if you’ve had the chance yet to see No Other Choice?
JH: Isn’t it crazy that both of these films not only have come out in the same year, but they both have the same sort of weird, slightly kooky point of view where you go: “Am I rooting for them? Am I not rooting for them?” I do think it speaks to a particular moment where we’re at in time. 

ZL: It was also making me think about Luigi Mangione. I’m curious how filmmaking, whether you’re an actor, director, etc., has been a way to hold and process rage.
JH: Back to what we talked about, what turns you on and what tickles you, I personally don’t want to be fueled by rage and I really resist it, but it feels like all of the messaging in our media and the sort of movement happening right now does lean towards rage because it's maddening what's happening in the world right now. 

ZL: You’re very much a sponge when you’re on a film set, and you’ve cited how some of your favorite days on set are when you can simply observe and watch co-stars or other people behind the camera do their work. What will you be taking with you into the next project?
JH: I've worked with some big stars, but working with Glen Powell was the first time I felt like, “Oh, this is a movie star. This is someone who lives for the audience's creative experience.” Glen doesn't care about awards, and he doesn't care about fame. All he cares about is making sure that the audience, if they're spending their cash at the cinema, are having the time of their life. He is so devoted to that experience. 

I remember when we got to South Africa and was feeling jet lagged, and when I said that to him, within five minutes I got a call saying, “So Glen booked you for a massage, here’s an IV, where would you like your meal package sent to you, etc.” That’s what he is like for everyone. He's so generous, and he really wants everyone to be at their best. He doesn't want anyone to get sick because then the film shuts down. He really dedicates his life to the process; that’s something I hope to take with me.