New York Comic Con brought some of the biggest stars to the Javits Center this year, including the cast of The Running Man! With scenes, a brand new trailer, and a fun panel discussion, there was a lot to unpack. And I was lucky enough to talk with the cast and Edgar Wright on the press line afterwards!
The Stephen King novel was published under the penname of Richard Bachman and tells the story of Ben Richards (Glen Powell). Ben is a man who, in an effort to get enough money for his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) to take care of their daughter, Cathy, joins a game show called “The Running Man,” where he will be hunted down for a month. If he survives, his family will be set for life.
Part of the issue with the story though is that Ben feels angry with the system and the world at large and it does, in turn, feel like he doesn’t really care enough about his family to make this worth it. At least that was my experience while reading it until I got to “…Minus 056 And COUNTING…”
It is the chapter of The Running Man that completely changed how I view Ben Richards and his relationship to Sheila and Cathy. He unpacks the love that the two have for each other and how that led to Cathy and it really impacts how the reader interacts with Ben asa character. But in a movie, you can’t really have an introspective chapter two thirds of the way in about love and marriage.
Which, for an actor, means figuring out how chapters like that filter into their performance throughout an entire film. “I think the reality is that when you read Stephen King’s book, you can’t take all of it, right? Like, there’s a lot of things that you have to kind of go on your own journey with and go, ‘Okay, what works? Let’s take the spirit of this book and like the spirit of Ben Richards and what’s gonna work within the story that we’re telling in the two hours we get to tell it,'” Powell told me on the press line.
He went on to dive into Ben’s relationship with his wife and daughter in their take on the King novel. “One of the most crucial elements though, is Sheila and Cathy, his wife and daughter. And the fact that for him, Cathy, his daughter, really is a gift. He didn’t know if he was able, he’s working in these environments in which most of the people around him are not able to have children.”
It is a story about showing up for the ones you love
Ben Richards throws himself into the game because he thinks that it means his daughter can get the help she needs and so he therefore is a man just trying to show up for the people who need him. Powell pointed out that even when the system is working against Ben and Sheila, it is Ben’s resilience that makes him a character many can empathize with.
“The fact that he was able to have this little miracle and it’s everything to him. It’s the only thing that he really loves in this world. And he was able to have that miracle and everyone else, that was taken away from them because there’s an oppressive system that doesn’t care. And that’s determined to take beautiful things away from hardworking people,” Powell said. “And I think for me, injustice is a big fuel in this movie, love and injustice and protecting those people that you love. And I think that chapters like that are indicative. It’s honestly one of the things that you hold onto. The emotional core of a movie is pretty much if you can distill a movie down to that. And, for me, that is the journey of Ben. It’s about his wife and his daughter. He’s just trying to get back to them. Really, really show up for a family in a world that’s very hard to show up for your family in.”
The Running Man is in theaters on November 14.
(featured image: John Nacion/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
