Netflix’s Uglies is set in a futuristic world where mandatory cosmetic surgery is set for the age of sixteen so that everyone will look beautiful. The idea is that this will put a cease to war and fighting, because everyone is living on an even playing field. Tally Youngblood (Joey King) is eager for her turn to join the rest of society, but when a friend runs away, she embarks on a journey to save her that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Uglies is a sci-fi movie based on Scott Westerfield’s novel of the same name. It is the first of four books, leaving the door wide open to make this a franchise rather than just a standalone film. Something that Netflix would surely love to see happen. Uglies starts streaming on Netflix on September 13th.
Screen Rant sat down with Laverne Cox to talk about Netflix’s Uglies. She reveals the advice she would give to younger audiences who are dealing with the thoughts that they are less than or not enough. Laverne also details the inspirations she looked to when embracing her villainous side and what it was like working alongside the young cast.
Laverne Cox Wants Viewers Of All Ages To Take Away “Critical Questioning” From Uglies
Screen Rant: What would you say to kids that are watching this movie? Because it definitely has a message that will resonate with them.
Laverne Cox: It’s interesting. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos of people who read [Uglies] as a kid, and now they’ve reread it, and they have a different take as an adult than they did as a kid. And, for me, what I love about Tally versus Shay, if we will, is that Tally has fully bought into this system of this is the way I’m supposed to be, and doesn’t really question. Shay is like, “Maybe there’s another way?” I’ve always been the person [that asks] maybe there’s another way, right? The system never really worked for me growing up. I didn’t feel pretty. I didn’t feel like I belonged or fit in, so I had to question that system to survive.
And I think there’s something really healthy about that. Someone earlier asked me what I remember reading as a kid and [I remember] reading Walt Whitman. I was obsessed with Whitman in high school. I don’t remember what poem it was, it was somewhere in leave the grass. He was like, question everything and never just make a blind assumption about things. So fostering this sort of critical lens to the world. Basically that metaphorical, getting on a hoverboard and going to the smoke, to this other world, that encourages you to question everything you’ve been taught. I think having critical thinking really, but critical questioning, is what I want people to take away. People of all ages, don’t be afraid to question the system.
Laverne Took Inspiration From Wolves When Creating Dr. Cable
“When there is food and prey, the way that they lurk and wait for their moment…”
Screen Rant: That ideal is a little bit of the opposite of your character’s way of thinking.
Laverne Cox: Yes indeed. Laverne and Dr. Cable are not the same person, but I had so much fun being this woman who ultimately wants what I want. She wants everybody to be treated equally and not be discriminated against because. Her methods are ethically questionable. And the way she squashes the scent is also morally questionable, but it’s also so much fun to play. Just deliciousness. The process of preparing to do it – any role for me is always excruciating.
I’ve been working with this acting coach, Kimberly Harris, for seven or eight years now. We always do character private moments, and we started doing animal work with a role I did on The Blacklist. We will often pick an animal for a character, not always. But in the book, Scott writes she has eyes like a wolf. So it just made sense that she would be a wolf. And so Kimberly compiled all these videos, and I found other videos myself. There are probably hundreds of hours of wolf videos. It’s amazing that you can find them, because people go, there’s all these National Geographic and other things, where people have gone to the woods and put cameras there, and watch wolves in the Arctic or wherever.
Just watching them be aware that there’s a camera there and that their environment has been disturbed. When there is food and prey, the way that they lurk and wait for their moment… They’re predators, but then they have, when they have cubs, they’re so nurturing and so just beautiful to them. That sort of dichotomy is really interesting. And then just the physicality and the vocalizing. Kimberly sent me these beautiful recordings of wolves howling that just reminded me of Diamanda Galás. All of that process was a lot of fun.
Then you virtually humanize the animal and find ways to incorporate her into the physicality. So embodying an animal, and then combining that with your wants and needs, gives you, hopefully, an idea of who the character is, and helps you to live in the character in your body and lift it into your imagination and all that good factory stuff.
Laverne Says The Young Actors On Uglies Are “So Talented And Professional”
Screen Rant: You’re absolutely phenomenal in this movie. I was going to ask you what inspirations you took, but clearly wolves were an inspiration.
Laverne Cox: I love that it comes from the text. It’s not always the case, but often, there is, I found, if you really read the source material, it’s in the script, it’s in the text, and you can glean a lot. And that is really gratifying. Hopefully you’ve done so much work, and you’re so prepared, that when you get to set, you can just live. You can just live. The other actors will do things that inspire you, the director will say things, and you’re still in character and operating as the character, but something else has occurred to you, or there’s a new approach to something, so you do all the preparation so you can be free on set.
McG was just such a joy to work with. And all the young actors in this are just so talented and professional. I just was blown away, because sometimes… I’ve been on projects with younger actors who were just a little bratty and a little whatever, and these actors were so dialed in. So professional and prepared. Hitting marks, hitting emotional notes, take after take. Just so prepared. It’s the commitment, I guess, because I take this very seriously, and it’s just wonderful to be on a set where everyone is really hardcore and serious about the work. It’s inspiring.
Could Uglies Have More Movies To Follow Future Books?
“If enough people watch, then maybe there will be a sequel.”
Screen Rant: This is not the end in the books, so is there more to come?
Laverne Cox: People have to tune in to Netflix. If enough people watch, then maybe there will be a sequel. So we’ll see.
More About Netflix’s Uglies (2024)
In a futuristic world that imposes a cosmetic surgery at 16, Tally is eager for her turn to join the rest of society. But when a friend runs away, Tally embarks on a journey to save her that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Check out our other Uglies interviews here:
Uglies comes to Netflix on September 13.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
