Severance star Zach Cherry hit the Deadline Studio at SXSW London this week with director Jason James to discuss genre-mashing romcom-thriller-noir All Night Wrong which premiered at the festival.
Cherry plays Gary, a hapless, low-key type of guy who goes on a blind date, to avenge infidelity in his jaded long-term relationship, with the much younger, devil-may-care Ell, played by Borat breakout Maria Bakalova.
The date does not go to plan after a move to take things further in a remote out-of-town motel lands them in the crosshairs of a bloody and intricate murder plot.
It is the 13th feature from Canadian director James whose eclectic filmography ranges from quirky romcom That Burning Feeling to psychological thriller Exile and family Christmas movie Deck The Halls.
Based on a screenplay by long-time collaborator Jason Filiatrault, All Night Wrong smashes a number of these genres together.
“I love romcoms. It’s where I started. I’m always trying to play with the genre and subvert the genre. My very first film was a romantic comedy about the least romantic thing possible. I made another romantic comedy about suicide and depression,” said James. “To have a movie that’s like a neonoir and an indie romcom kind of mashed together was really exciting to me.”
James said he had been drawn to Cherry for the role of Gary on the basis of his work in Succession and performance as Dylan George in Severance.
“I’m really interested in sensitive people. Putting a sensitive person in this sort of harsh, deceptive world was kind of really interesting to me,” he said. “Wanting to do an odd couple kind of movie. Maria Bakalova is just this wild card. She’s unpredictable, she’s bold and fierce. Putting the two of them in this kind of scenario is just so watchable.”
Cherry said he was also drawn to the genre-mashing aspect of the movie.
“I’ve gotten to work in a lot of things that are genre bending, like Severance and Succession… the first regular show I did was called You which is a really dark spin on a romance stalker story, but it’s also very funny,” he said.
Cherry admitted to being a big fan of Bakalova prior to joining her on set and described the experience of working with her as “awesome”.
“Speaking about that same thing of being able to blend these genres, I think that’s something she’s so good at… her performances are always so real feeling, but she also is so bold and fearless that when you’re doing the comedy beat, she’s willing to go there and try anything. And that was very exciting to me to get to work with someone like that,”
The pair also recounted the “gruelling” shoot in Canada’s Columbia Valley region of British Columbia in the winter of 2024-2025.
“Never develop a movie that takes place over one evening because now you have to go full vampire mode for an entire month and a half or two months. So we shot every day from 7pm Till 7am. We switched our clocks,” said James
“We shot in a small, tiny town… in the mountains last, last winter. It was minus 10 degrees. We embraced the snow and the cold… it was like going to war, it was like going to battle. It was hard, but that sense of cold, isolation, small town, kind of liminal space to me, that’s where dark things happen and that’s where these characters ended up.”
Following its premiere at SXSW London this week, All Night Wrong is due to hit the festival circuit over the summer.
Cherry will also soon be seen on the big screen in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil and Cannes Un Certain Regard title Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. He is also gearing up for the shoot of the third season of Severance but told the Deadline Studion he was unable to give any update on his character’s trajectory.
“One thing I love about working on Severance is people always want to ask me questions, and they think I’m keeping stuff from them, but I just don’t know…That’s beautiful… I really don’t.”
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