Thomas Mann plays Harrison in Chariot, a young man tormented by a recurring dream. In an effort to resolve his torment, he seeks help from Dr. Karn (John Malkovich) and simultaneously moves into a new building called the Lafayette. The building is strange and while doing laundry, he’s encountered by Maria (Rosa Salazar). He continues to see the doctor, he becomes closer with Maria, all while a cavalcade of surreal characters walks into his life.

It's eventually revealed that Dr. Karn is helping Harrison through the process of reincarnation and that Harrison loved Maria in a past life, considered a ‘glitch’ in the system. Dr. Karn is faced with needing to fix the glitch before Harrison’s future goes completely off the rails.

Mann recently spoke with Movieweb about the film, working with Malkovich, Salazar, and Shane West.

On Working With John Malkovich

“It was a dream come true, to be honest.” Said Mann. “It was the kind of thing where I was meeting with Adam [Sigal] when he told me who was going to play Dr. Karn and I was like, man, John Malkovich, like the real John Malkovich? Not like someone with the same name, you know… it seemed too good to be true. And then I was maybe slightly intimidated to meet him. But then once we got working together, he was so kind and really playful. And just so, so fun. We had like a dream three days when it was just us sitting in his office and doing our back-and-forth scenes, and it was incredible to watch and work.”

Dr. Karn is not all that meets the eye, explained Mann. This is something that Malkovich wanted to physically portray in his character. He does so by wearing a wig for the most part of the film, only taking it off after certain revelations take place.

“That was actually Malkovich’s idea, I believe because he wanted a difference… Adam told me that he was going to wear the wig… No one's ever seen John Malkovich in a red wig before.”

 John Malkovich as Dr. Karn and Thomas Mann as Harrison Hardy in the thriller , CHARIOT , a Saban Films release.
Saban Films

Grounding Characters in a Surreal World

Viewers have seen Mann in many genres now. Party-thrillers like Project X, comedy-dramas like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, or horror like Halloween Kills. Chariot is a bit more cerebral than what we're used to seeing Mann in, nonetheless, he serves as an excellent anchor.

"The main thing to remember for Harrison is where he's at in his life at this point. He's had this recurring dream 5000 or so times, and he just can't figure out what is going on, and it's affecting his life, and it's affecting his relationships. He sort of is at this place where he can't really move on, he can't grow up. He's in a very stagnant place, and he's just sort of lost, and I think very depressed. So that's when he decides to go to Dr. Karn... He's moved into this apartment building downtown, so he can be close to the doctor, and that's where he meets all these, you know, larger-than-life characters." Explained Mann, elaborating on the context before how he grounded the character. "It was remembering that he is sort of this lost guy and these forces are playing against him. And so it was also a way to make an arc to make him, and a little bit more of a man by the end. And to make him sort of overcome these confusing things that he'd been facing for years and years. And so without giving too much away, he sort of takes things into his own hands and becomes not as much of a pushover in his life."

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Yet the world of the film remains larger than life, commented Mann.

"Especially with Scout Tiller-Compton's character, where she's got the challenge of playing two roles. You know, but it's better just to sort of find a middle ground to treat them as realistic and create a grounded character as much as possible, while still creating this kind of larger-than-life surreal world."

Working With Rosa Salazar and Shane West

ChariotRosa
Saban Films

Harrison and Maria have a magnetic bond in the film, coated in several bizarre, yet charming encounters that hold a mirror to their 'glitch' of love that transcends merely one lifetime. Mann previously worked with Salazar on Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, but in Chariot, he was excited to work with her in a larger capacity. He also had kind things to say about West who plays Rory Calhoun in the film.

"Rosa is someone that I had worked with once before. And I was really excited to get to work with her in a bigger capacity in this movie. She's super talented. And I was just so in awe of her... she has this monologue scene that just floored me getting to watch it, and the consistency of it. The emotion that she was able to give every single time was really impressive. And then Shane West was also a super nice guy. Someone that I grew up seeing in movies... he was just everything we could have asked for. Just super easy to work with, and a really nice dude."

Scarlett Pictures and Skipstone Pictures produced Chariot, directed by Adam Sigal. It is available on April 15, 2022, in Theaters, Digital, and On-Demand.