The Spy Who Dumped Me, action-comedy from Lionsgate, is directed by Susanna Fogel, who also co-wrote with David Iserson. Starring Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, and Sam Heughan, the film will be released August 3.
Female Camaraderie and Fun
Mila Kunis: I don’t know if anything necessarily surprised me. I was a fan of Kate McKinnon‘s going into it, I thought that she was brilliant and funny and smart and I really wanted to work with her. The added bonus was that as she ended up becoming a really good friend of mine, but because she was a good person. So you meet people you admire and some of them aren’t always necessarily what you want them to be. And Kate exceeds all expectations. So I don’t know if that’s a surprise, but it’s been a nice getaway.
Improvisation
Kate McKinnon doesn’t know how not to improv. (laughter) Regardless of what she says in here, for the rest of her life, that woman only knows how to improv. And if you’re lucky you will get something that’s written on the page. Maybe. So if you work with Kate, you just have to pay attention nonstop and it’s great. It’s so much fun. And yeah, she’s great. Does she improv? Yeah, she improvs.
Message for Young Girls
Well given that we don’t play professional spies, (laughter) that’s one thing. We don’t know how it ends, we’re still like circumstantial spies. It’s more of like a very grounded aspirational spice movie. It’s more like if I or my best friend were thrown into a situation in real life, this is how it would go down. We don’t have a magical cave full of magical toys, so there’s a version of it that’s realistic, So I think that that’s what makes it a little bit different and a little bit more fun, is it’s spy minus the magical realism of Jason Bourne or 007, and we don’t have a magical watch that pops up and turns into a parachute.
Trust
MK: I’m sure a little bit throughout life. I think sometimes people have a tendency and you also set expectations for people, so the let downs only as high as expectations that preceded them. So yeah, I would say sometimes if you set up a really high expectation for someone and they don’t meet it, you get let down, but whose fault is that, the person’s or your own?
Vacations
MK: I’ve never had a vacation that resembled this. I am spontaneous, yes, I do like to like backpack so to speak. So yeah, I have no problem getting on a train and going and seeing where I end up, minus the spy chasing me.
I have children so this word spontaneity goes out the window now. Ash and I joke about it now, but we used to be able to travel with a backpack and a t shirt and now we have a pack and play and a suitcase full of diapers. So it doesn’t quite happen that way.
Female James Bond
There’s plenty of things that haven’t been done yet, but it doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. I don’t know, we can have a female James Bond or we can have a version of it, I don’t know. Wasn’t there a rumor that Charlize Theron was going to be James Bond?
Daughter Named Wyatt
MK: It was a name that we both liked. It is not a family name of any kind, her middle name is after my grandfather who passed away. But her first name was just a name that we both loved and for us, it felt like it was the right name. And then when we did meet her we were like yeah, that’s our Wyatt, so no great story past that point.
I would say probably not very common. I mean, it’s a name that we liked the sound of. We just thought the name was a pretty name. Regardless of a boy Wyatt, girl Wyatt, whatever, we’re inclusive.
Work and Family
Ashton does a show called “The Ranch,” and when we got together we said to start a family and we don’t want to separate the family. So because he shoots a show in LA, I have a very limited time that I can do a film outside of Los Angeles, which limits me. And we travel as a tribe, so it limits me to the amount of time that I can do a film because he comes with me and the whole family comes with me, we don’t separate the family at any given point. So probably I’ll do one movie a year at best.
Desirable Roles
MK: I think a lot of the things that I’ve done, I think you always try to look for a character that is realistic and aspirational, unless justifiably a damsel in distress, unless she’s literally kidnapped. I don’t know. Yeah, sure, I liked the script, I thought it was fun and I thought it was cool to play two bad ass women.
Driving Stick Shift
No. I mean I can maybe get you to the hospital, like if you were dying right now and the only option was for me to drive a stick shift, maybe. I can’t promise you, but maybe. But do I find fight or flight to be a concept of like I can do anything for my kids, yeah, for sure. Could magically be able to drive a stick shift? Great thing called Uber, everybody drives Uber instead of stick.
Susanna as Director
Susanna was great. I met her for a second because I was tentative about doing a film, because it was taking me away from my family for an extended period of time. So I met with her and the producer and we talked about scheduling and the logistics of the movie. And she was super sweet and nice and respectful of the fact that I had a newborn at the time. And I was like I can’t because I was doing “Bad Moms 2” and this would end up butting into it, so it would take me away from LA for six months and I was like, it makes me really nervous, I had a baby. And she was like, we’ll try to make this as easy of a transition as possible and she was just awesome and understanding and great to work with.
