- I wanna inspire studio executives to hire women, right?
Like, I wanna just be like, "I did the job,
"the job can be done by a woman."
If anything, that's the legacy that I wanna start to leave
with this movie and hopefully in general with my career.
Just trust us.
- Just trust us.
(laughing)
- It's so sad, - Yeah.
- of a statement but more than 80% of all movies
are still directed by men, so. - Yes.
- I am just like begging people to trust us.
- [Josh] Is first and foremost on your mind
like, what this will mean to people,
particularly to young women,
I mean this is a property that does mean a lot.
- Honestly, I don't wanna say I took that for granted
but I felt pressure as a first time action director
who's a lady
to really up my game when it came to the action set pieces
and really make sure that I delivered a great action movie.
I knew it'd be funny and I knew I had the most amazing cast
and that it would feel fresh for a new generation.
And that we were imbuing it with sort of themes
of comradery, sisterhood, sorority,
teamwork that like, I love in things.
- [Josh] Right.
- I felt like we sort of had that stuff
and it was really about, how do I make the action in
this movie really specific to a 'Charlie's Angels' movie.
Like, you can't see this in 'John Wick,' right.
- Right, right.
- Right? Like, you can't see this--
In 'Mission: Impossible,'
they don't hug, you know?
(laughing)
Like, things like that-- They might hug actually.
I feel like Ethan Hunt has--
- Ethan Hunt and Ving Rhames have probably--
- Yeah, they've probably hugged, they bro'd it out.
- Yeah.
- They bro'd out, yeah, so we bro'd out.
(laughing)
- Here's something I did find curious,
I mean, I dunno what this says about
where we are generally in filmmaking,
I think what, you have like half the budget basically,
of like the last 'Charlie's Angels' movie?
- Yeah.
- And, you still have to like live up to--
- Yeah, I still have to make an amazing action movie.
(laughing)
- So, I don't know, what does, I don't know--
- You know I, sometimes when you get parameters
they make you really creative. - Sure.
- Right, and I wanted to ground this movie.
I really felt like we needed to distinguish ourselves
from the sort of superhero action genre stuff
that's out right now.
You know you have to remember that 'Charlie's Angels'
has always been revolutionary in its moments.
So, in the 70s it was about women doing detective work
which was almost solely done by men.
And, so that was really revolutionary.
When Drew Barrymore made the movies in the early 2000s,
you know, pre-9/11 the first one by the way.
Everything was sort of John Woo
and 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'.
- [Josh] Super-stylized.
- Super-stylized, slow-mo was kind of just starting out.
So you know, it was about that.
They were kind of superheroes.
Because, Angelina Jolie had not happened yet.
'Captain Marvel,' 'Wonder Woman,' even 'Elektra,'
even Halle Berry's 'Catwoman' had not happened yet.
Like, they were literally at the forefront
of women in action movies.
So, we've had all of that now, so I had to figure out
how do I kind of back up, reground it,
and make these woman feel relatable.
- [Josh] Yeah.
- And like, you wanna go on a journey with them
and like you could be an Angel.
Of course I would have loved to have
a huge budget, everyone would.
But, it meant that, the fight sequences were more real.
I did not have a lot of wire work.
Everyone did their own stunts, which is really incredible.
And, the danger and the stakes of the movie
kind of just feel more real.
- We have to talk about casting,
I mean you've assembled a really great ensemble
in this one and it started with Kristen.
- Yeah. - Which is an inspired choice.
We've seen her do virtually every kind of a role,
but not this, clearly. - Yeah.
- [Josh] Like, what gave you the confidence
to know that this was even in her?
- Well first of all, she is one of the best actresses
of any generation. And second of all,
exactly what you just said.
I wanted to surprise the audience.
I knew that in her I had a real opportunity
to showcase a side of Kristen Stewart
that you have never seen before.
And, I think she is so funny in this film, so at ease,
her character is the real sort
of grounding force of the entire endeavor.
And, she's Kristen Stewart, she's a global superstar.
- You know it's important for every,
particularly young woman to see themselves
in some aspect of these women. - Mm-hm.
- And, there's like a, the fun like,
little nod to her sexuality in the gym scene.
At what stage did that come in
and was that something that was important to you
and to Kristen in the development of this?
- Honestly, we didn't wanna label anyone in the movie.
We're so happy to have a queer Angel,
but we also really didn't wanna label anybody
and by the way we didn't wanna put limits
on Naomi's character of Elena
or on Jane's character either, like--
- Where was Noah Centineo when you cast him,
had he already started to explode a little bit?
- Noah had, he'd done a couple of,
he'd done two of the Netflix movies.
- [Josh] Yeah.
- We were looking for like just charm, you know
and again like a fresh face and he really took me
by surprise and sort of charmed me.
And I thought, "Well then let's go, he's gonna,
he'll charm the audience as well."
- You've obviously directed before and directed big
ensembles before, but this is a big jump,
do you want this to lead to bigger franchise opportunities?
Like, is there a genre
or a property in particular that you love?
- There's many things that I'm interested in, Josh.
- Okay, okay. (laughs)
- I would like to, I would also like to not be pigeon-holed
into only being able to direct women.
- Fair enough.
- That would be, that would be nice, too
for women to be able to direct like anybody.
- We should also mention, I mentioned some of your cast
but the cat's outta the bag a little bit,
you've revealed some of the cameos of some of the
- Yeah. - additional Angels.
- That's right.
- So, can you tell me a little bit about Hailee and Lili?
- You know Hailee's one of my favorite actresses
and we had such a great experience on 'Pitch Perfect.'
Partly what I wanted to do was put the idea into the world
that like, this is bigger than these three women.
- Yeah.
- That the universe that they live in
is bigger than these three women.
And, that we are everywhere and we're coming for you.
(laughing)
- Felt like a threat for a second.
- It is a little bit.
(laughing)
- Is the idea that,
if you get the opportunity to do a sequel,
would you wanna see Hailee and
Lili for instance be full on Angels?
- Yeah, absolutely, all those women.
I would love to bring back anyone
that we've introduced in this film.
- Amazing.
- And anyone from the entire canon.
- I do wanna mention one sequence in particular,
the dance sequence.
- [Elizabeth] Yes.
- Was kind of like, "Okay we gotta do this,
we gotta make this work in a day."
- They came to set like two hours early,
four days in a row to learn that dance sequence.
I mean, they had no time to learn that sequence.
We were shooting a giant fight at the same time
that they were learning that choreography.
And, for me it was,
I need to get a, fly a choreographer from London.
He needs to hire dancers, he needs to choreograph the thing,
I need to see it, we need to make sure the music can clear.
- Oh my god.
- And, and we're shooting this all
in one night on a Friday night
after we've done night shoots four nights in a row.
- Well, last thing I wanna hit is "Don't Call Me Angel".
- [Elizabeth] Yeah.
- [Josh] Which has this amazing group of women as well.
- But, so many other great songs on the soundtrack too,
which is out now.
- Of course. (laughing)
But, I'm curious how that trio came about?
- That was all Ariana.
- Yeah.
- She got involved really early on.
She, I think she was inspired
by the 'Black Panther' soundtrack.
And I think, really excited about being able
to take risks musically on something
that was not gonna be a solo album for her, right.
- [Josh] Right.
- And that she could collab with really cool people
which is exactly what happened.
She's good friends with Miley,
that came together really quickly.
And then, that third part, there were
a few names being thrown around
and Savan Kotecha who wrote the song,
he was like, "What if I did it like this?"
And, it was Lana. And it was like, "Yes!"
- That'll work.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- Congratulations on this achievement.
Trust this lady, guys. First, see the movie
- Thank you.
- And then her make even like
a bigger, badder, crazier movie.
- Yeah.
- Throw 200 million dollars her way.
- Sure.
- What's the worst that could happen?
- I mean I'd, it will lose a lot of money.
- No that's-- I'm trying to help you!
(laughing)