Chase Infinity: “My parents were more scared than me when I said I was starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio” | Battle after battle

You couldn’t ask for a better cinematic debut than Chase Infiniti in One Battle After Another, even if the 24-year-old actor was thrown in at the deep end. As Willa, the teenage daughter of former revolutionaries, she’s called upon to do shootouts, car chases, karate, and hold her own against heavyweights like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, and Regina King. “My whole life has literally changed in the last six months,” she says.

Tell us How did you get this role? Was there a giant karate tournament where you had to defeat all your competitors?
No, thank God. I auditioned for the film for six months while I was working on my first project, Presumed Innocence. So I was in California when I sent out my first audio tape. And about a month after that, the casting director called me and said, “Hey, Paul Thomas Anderson would like to do a personal call, and it’s going to be a chemistry read with Leonardo DiCaprio and Regina Hall.” After that, I had a personal test, call-outs, chemistry readings, camera tests, and then had four days of intense karate training, private lessons and group lessons. Paul came to watch the final part, and afterwards he told me I got the part.

Were you bothered at all about acting opposite such well-known names?
I was definitely scared the first time they told me. And I called my parents right away and said, “Mom, I’m about to meet Leo DiCaprio and Regina Hall tomorrow.” So they were terrified too, even more than me. As soon as I got there, that day, I said, “Okay, I came here to do my job, and I’m going to make sure I do my job right for myself and my scene partners.” When standing in front of DiCaprio, the facade kind of fades away in the moment they call “action.” He’s also a really nice and funny person. So, even the first time I met him, he was very easy to talk to from the beginning.

Lots of The men in this story are dysfunctional, and many of the women are incredibly powerful. an act Are they looking for you?
Even before we started filming, Regina was like, “If you need anyone here, let me know.” I took it up on it. She’s just a special person and a real human being, and I love her so much.

You get to do a lot in this movie – shooting, car chases – what’s your favorite part?
Doing all these sequences has been one of my dreams for a long time because I love action films. So I was very excited about racing cars and doing little fight sequences and using firearms on camera. But one of the scenes I was most excited about when I first read the script was when he was Lockjaw [Sean Penn] He meets Willa for the first time in that church at the Sisters of the Brave Beaver. I was so excited to do that scene, and then when I saw it on the big screen, I felt nothing but pride.

The story deals with themes of racism and racial hatred. Was it difficult to negotiate as a mixed-race person??
Unfortunately, they are not very foreign topics to me, given the state of the world – who I am, where I am, what I look like. But thanks to Paul, as well as Sean and the whole crew, I was given a space where I could feel comfortable facing it head on without feeling afraid. I bring from my personal experience, a lot of it, [Anderson] He was like: Just bring what you think about Willa, because it’s you We are Woe. He entrusted her completely to me, and I am so grateful for her now.

She’s very brave for a 16 year old girl. How were you at that age?
I am 16 years old? I was afraid. I had a lot of trouble knowing where I fit in. But the only place I felt like I truly belonged was theater and performance. This was a place where I could completely lose myself and feel at home and at peace in a way I had never felt before. I went to musical theater school [in Indianapolis]. Here I began to learn the importance of the group, and working as a team, because there is no individual performance.

You should be asked to explain your name often.
I love explaining that! I love my parents very much, and they spend a lot of time in my name. My first name comes from Batman Forever – named after the character Chase Meridian played by Nicole Kidman. Then my middle name, because Infinity is my middle name [her surname is Payne]which comes from Toy Story, when Buzz Lightyear says: “To infinity and beyond.” My parents sure love movies.

What’s next for you?
I just finished filming the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale called The Covenants [she plays Agnes, daughter of Elisabeth Moss’s character June]. So I got to delve into Gilead, which is really cool, but you see a new angle of it.

What was it? for you Favorite movie of the year – apart from Battle after battle?
I absolutely loved sinners. I’m going to rewatch it around Christmas. I think this movie is so special, that you can see people who look like you on screen with such an amazing story, and feel how much love and effort Ryan Coogler put into it.