Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega’s awkward weekend with a wealthier family becomes all the stranger inDeath of a Unicorn. While the movie continues Ortega’s run in horror-skewing media after everything from Ti West’sXto Netflix’sWednesday, the A24 movie marks Rudd’s first major return to the horror genre in 30 years after his turn as Tommy Doyle in the infamousHalloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers. Joining the two inDeath of a Unicorn’s castis an all-star group including Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant, Emmy nominees Will Poulter and Anthony Carrigan, and Téa Leoni.
Rudd and Ortega leadDeath of a Unicornas Elliot and Ridley Kintner, an estranged father and teenage daughter who venture to the remote mansion of Elliot’s boss, Odell Leopold, and his family, with the intent of passing control of their conglomerate corporation to him. On the way, however, Elliot and Ridley incidentally run over a unicorn, with the Leopolds' scientists discovering parts of its body have mystical healing abilities, which they use to cure Odell’s cancer and intend to exploit further. Their plans are hampered, however, when the unicorn’s parents go on a rampage looking for their child.
On the heels of the movie’s SXSW premiere,ScreenRantinterviewed stars Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni and Richard E. Grant to discussDeath of a Unicorn. The former duo reflected on how their first scene together — the drive that results in the titular killing — helped them find who their characters were to each other, as well as praising the practical effects used to create the unicorns. The latter trio went on to share how they grounded their absurd characters in a sense of reality to avoid feeling like caricatures of the rich.
Death Of A Unicorn Is Far More Practical Than You Think (& Rudd And Ortega Love It)
“Your Mind Can Go To Crazy Places…”
While the film may be a bloody creature feature,Death of a Unicornis just as muchabout Elliot and Ridley’s strained relationship as the two find themselves still struggling to process the loss of Elliot’s wife and Ridley’s mom the year before. From this point,the film revels in the duo’s dynamic, particularly as Elliot tries to get in the Leopolds' good graces, while Ridley becomes uniquely attached to the dead unicorn and tries to warn them all of the dangers to come.
When it came to creating their banter and easy rapport, Rudd and Ortega both recall that “it clicked for us pretty quickly” during filming, withthe movie’s opening scene being where they immediately found themselves developing that creative trust in one another. Rudd, describing the scene as having “really set the tone” for their relationship, recalled them feeling as though they “were kind of getting to know each other” through filming it, while Ortega, after praising Rudd as “such a natural and incredibly experienced”, found the scene helped to ease “any doubt or tension” right away.
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When the chaos does ensue and the group finds themselves hunted by the young unicorn’s parents,Death of a Unicornseemingly leans on CGI to bring the terrifying mythical creatures to life. However,Rudd and Ortega both praise the practical effects that went into creating the unicorns in the movie, with the former calling it “a luxury” and the latter praising it as a “geek-out experience” to get to see the practical creations of the creatures.
Ortega also noted how important it was for her to get to see them ahead of time, as writer/director Alex Scharfman “made it very clear that I should play everything as grounded and real as possible.” Though acknowledging that the movie had “a very outrageous script”, and that she had fears that she “never knew if, tonally, I was in the right place”,the unicorn puppets were “very helpful for what I was trying to do” with Ridley’s journey, particularly when compared to some of her past experiences with CGI:
You hear unicorn, you have no idea what that’s going to look like. Your mind can go to crazy places, and what a luxury to have had those designs, and had those puppets, and to have been able to work alongside those, I think, was very helpful for what I was trying to do, which was take everything as seriously as possible.
It was great that I didn’t [need to] go too far in my head, or I didn’t [need] to create something. Sometimes, you see yourself react to something, and then you see the cut of the film, or that scene, and you’re thinking, “What the hell was I doing? That makes no sense.” [Chuckles] But, you didn’t really have to worry about that with this one.
She and Rudd also felt that the focus on practical effects is something that would be “so much more satisfying for the audience”,as viewers can “see the imperfection” or “see that it’s handmade, and it’s built"rather than another CGI effect, for which they both opined can be “quite boring” and “weird” rather than immersive for a film likeDeath of a Unicorn.
Source:Screen Rant Plus
“…It Wasn’t A Stretch, Really…”
In stark contrast to the caring heart at the base of Elliot and Ridley’srelationship is the dysfunctional Leopold family,comprised of the dying patriarch Odell, the self-aggrandizing matriarch Belinda, and the partying son Shep. Much like recentacclaimed hitsThe MenuandTriangle of Sadness, among others,Death of a Unicornstrives for an “eat the rich” satirical approach to the Leopolds, as they all display the disconnect of the upper class from the society below them in their interactions with Rudd and Ortega’s characters.
Though certainly the more humorous of the bunch, Leoni, Poulter and Grant all had surprisingly grounded means to get to the heart of their Leopold characters. For Leoni, she pointed to our introduction to Belinda in the film, in which she concludes a deal to provide relief to children in a third-world country,though is unsure whether this means vaccinating them or evacuating them from the region.
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After humorously opining that Belinda is “really passionate” about her philanthropic work,Leoni goes on to explain that her approach to playing the character was that of “that little girl that just tried way, way too hard”. This, in turn, led to her growing up into the Leopold matriarch we see, who is mostly focused on “just grabbing little accolades, like mites” and not recognizing that “there’s nothing” underneath it all. “Gosh, she thinks she’s just doing great healing the world, one child at a time, because we’ve got time.”
For Odell and Shep,both Grant and Poulter actually found themselves pulling from real-world inspiration to portray their characters. The former lamented that, because he is in what many consider an older age range, he has “so many people that I’ve lost in my life recently”, and that Odell’s desire to find a cure for cancer was “a great motivator” for his performance. He particularly noted the scene in which his character is rejuvenated by the unicorn, which he called a “giftas an actor” to begin a scene from a physically disabled perspective to “turn[ing] into Superman.”
Poulter would go on to compare Shep’s place in the Leopold familyto that of his own place in his family, humorously noting “it wasn’t a stretch” to play the son of medical conglomerate owners, given “my family are all medics, and I’m an actor.” He did, though, explain that he tried to ground Shep’s personality from the place in which “he’s a great disappointment to the family, but he has zero self-awareness of that”, but yet still “burdens him deep” to not have the respect of his parents, even as he tries to “appear successful and valuable in the eyes of his mom and dad.”
More About Death Of A Unicorn (2025)
A father (Paul Rudd) and daughter (Jenna Ortega) accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where his billionaire boss (Richard E. Grant) seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties.
Death of a Unicornhits theaters on March 28.
Stay tuned for our otherDeath of a Unicorninterview with writer/director Alex Scharfman!
Death of a Unicorn
Cast
Death of a Unicorn: Released in 2025, this fantasy drama follows a father and daughter who accidentally kill a unicorn on their way to a weekend retreat. Their discovery leads to a series of events involving the father’s billionaire boss, who aims to exploit the unicorn’s extraordinary healing abilities.
