Minor spoilers for Army of Thieves ahead.
Nathalie Emmanuel doesn’t know much about cracking safes (“Like, literally not at all,” she confesses), but it’s the central skill in her new film, Army of Thieves, now streaming on Netflix.
A prequel to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, the heist flick follows Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) before his zombie encounters, when he was recruited by a band of crooks to unlock a set of legendary and nearly impossible safes created by the fictitious designer Hans Vagner and, of course, steal the money inside them. Their schemes take them from Paris to Prague to St. Moritz, all while evading the clutches of Interpol.
While the premise was “a whole new thing” to Emmanuel, who plays jewelry thief Gwendoline and love interest to Ludwig (then known as Sebastian), she was drawn to the script and the mythology behind the storied locks. Their extremely detailed clues are found in Richard Wagner’s operas and Norse epics. “These stories are timeless and the kind of epicness of them are so amazing and so enticing,” Emmanuel gushes.
The actress has a penchant for epic stories. She’s starred in Game of Thrones and the Fast & Furious franchise and, for the romantics, the Four Weddings and a Funeral reboot. With Army of Thieves, she enters the Zack Snyder cinematic universe for yet another large-scale project with a major fanbase. She’s also set to star in a modern adaptation of Dracula, called The Bride, which she’s filming now in Budapest. Could a superhero movie be next? “I’m happy just to do it one time,” she says.
The funny thing about making Army of Thieves was that it was filmed months before Army of the Dead even came out. Emmanuel didn’t get to watch it for context. But Schweighöfer, who both starred and directed, fed her the highlights during production. They were also shooting during the COVID surge last fall, before vaccinations were widely distributed and people still refrained from large public gatherings. The cast was encouraged to avoid crowds and there was a strict mask mandate on set, but that also meant the actors couldn’t really bond outside of filming.
“We would just go back to our accommodations and we weren’t really allowed to socialize outside of the set,” Emmanuel says. “That was sort of the way we did it. And so we had to find new ways to connect with each other, but the dynamic was pretty great. Everyone was very warm and welcoming and generous with each other and supportive of each other.”
Here, Emmanuel delves into Army of Thieves and how her family supported her through her lowest moments.
It’s interesting that you were making a prequel to something that had not come out yet. What did you know about Army of the Dead and this universe?
I just knew that it was a Zack Snyder movie expanding on the Army of the Dead movie that was coming out, and basically it was the origin story. That’s all I’ve been told. I was not expecting a heist movie; I was expecting another zombie movie. And it was not. And I thought, Oh, wow, this is a really interesting thing. My manager represents Matthias as well, so he was like, Oh, you should check this out the script. It was really cool. I thought Gwen was just such a badass. It’s kind of funny, but also very heartfelt and [had] action. It was a [mix].
But to read a film that was something that hadn’t come out yet… just being a part of any kind of Zack Snyder universe is just really cool, and he’s so great at creating worlds. It was exciting to be able to be a part of expanding that new thing that he was doing. What I thought was equally as exciting was that we had our lead actor be the director, and I hadn’t really worked in that environment before. He was just evidently so talented.
What was it like on set with Matthias as a co-star and director? How’d you guys work together in each capacity?
I think we worked pretty well together. I think him being a director and also the lead actor just meant that when he was directing, he had so much understanding. ‘Cause he’s an actor, he just has so much understanding of what we go through every day as actors on set. The kind of dialogue between director and actor… I think it’s much easier because he understands some of the shorthand that you have. And he’s a ball of energy of a guy, so enthusiastic and so excited and it’s infectious—you can’t help but be excited and galvanized by that.
He really was so generous with his energy, with his time, and with giving us space to have ideas and to try them and play. It was funny because, obviously he’s directing all of us and he’s even said, “Oh, I want you guys to have as many opportunities to get it right and to be the best.” And I was like, “Yeah, but Matthias, you too, because you’re also acting with me as well.” [Laughs.] He was so excellent. It just goes to show his preparation, because he really just nailed it in both roles. I have to just kind of take my hat off to him really, because I’m in awe.
There’s a line that sticks out to me where Gwen says, for her, cracking safes is more about the “myth of the quest” than the money.
She grew up with money. Money isn’t something that she holds in high regard because she had it; that’s part of her privilege. She’s like, “It’s not about the money for me; it’s about the mission.” It’s about doing the impossible or what feels like the impossible and saying, “Did it.” But also, it’s a little bit of an “F you” to some of those institutions, because we hear her talk about her father being someone who actively stole and benefited from the housing crisis, and she, being so disillusioned, is just like, “Fuck you!” She was just going to create havoc wherever she goes and steal from people just because she can. My idea of Gwen is that, [to] rich people who just think they can have everything, she’s like, Actually that’s not always true, because I might take it from you.
Stanislav Honzik/ Netflix
Gwen is mysterious at first. She talks about how she didn’t really feel like she belonged in her family, but felt a kinship with her crew. Did any part of the character resonate with you, whether it was feeling like an outsider or cherishing the friendships that you create?
Oh my God. I probably have the opposite for me. In the sense that I always just felt so connected and just empowered and appreciated and nurtured by my family. And actually I struggled quite a lot with friends. I was just bullied so much growing up that I, for a long time, just struggled with making friends or trusting people to be friends with them. So now, as an adult, I definitely have my tribe, but they’re individuals that I’ve come across on my journey and I’m like, You, you specific human there. In that respect, I can actually really relate to Gwen because she’s found very specific people that she has connected with but also needs as well. You can’t survive what they do if you don’t have a connection with them.
I can also understand being an outsider. As a Black, mixed woman growing up in a predominantly white area, I often felt like the outsider. Luckily, [I had] an amazing family who often gave me the truthful narrative aside from what I was hearing outside of our family, that I was able to have certain confidence and self-worth and things like that.
The ending is bittersweet, because we know how Sebastian’s story ends after watching Army of the Dead. If things had ended differently and they could wind up happily ever after, what do you imagine that would look like?
Well, I was a bit jealous I didn’t get to go on that speed boat, not gonna lie. Obviously it feels weird to say because of lovely Jonathan Cohen [who plays Delacroix, the Interpol agent who catches them], but it would be kind of cool if she’d managed to have a successful shoot-out, maimed not killed him, and then they [Gwen and Sebastian] rode off into the sunset together. On the beautiful Fjord. That would have been kind of fun.
I also wanted to ask about your upcoming role for The Bride. I saw you posted recently about how impactful this role was for you and what it means for your journey as an actor.
I can’t really talk too much about the movie itself. It is a kind of modern Dracula telling, so we’re sort of using that backdrop. And we have a lot of very modern themes and we interrogate them through this genre, which is really, really cool. Our director, Jessica Thompson, is just so amazing and talented, and we’re definitely highlighting some of the kind of old fashioned ideas through the guise of this story. And it’s really, really fun.
But in terms of what this part means, as I said in my post, there’s something just really important about just taking a moment to acknowledge the journey and everything that you have been doing for the last, I dunno, like 20 years in my case—building and nurturing your talent and trying to develop yourself and making mistakes and getting knocked down and picking yourself back up, and that leading to a moment where someone’s like, “We want you to lead our movie.”
It’s just so profound and you can’t help but think about all the people, all the ones that held your hand or wiped your tears away or cheered you on or opened that door for you. It just got really big for me and kind of got overwhelming, and the day before filming, I just spent all day just like in floods of tears. It wasn’t because I was sad. I was just feeling so much. I felt really excited, happy, terrified, like, Can I do this? All of the things that happen when you’re moving through life and as you face that next challenge. It just means so much to me, I feel so proud of what we’ve done so far.
We’re still in the midst [of production], we’re about halfway through now… I don’t know about anyone else, but I spent so many years just with my head down, just grafting and just hustling for the next thing, for the next thing, for the next thing. And sometimes you just forget to look up and look around and see what you’ve achieved. It’s just such a beautiful thing.
I was actually having a conversation about this recently, about how we usually forget to celebrate even our small wins. It can be hard to remember those.
When at first something really great happens like this, I always think about those times where I nearly gave up and I think, “Oh my gosh, thank goodness I didn’t,” because that moment of really just not believing in yourself, had you believed the lie your brain was telling you, we wouldn’t be doing this thing that we’re so overjoyed, so excited for.
I really do actually give that credit to my family for really going, “No, no, this is what you’re meant to be doing.” My mom is especially instrumental in that because I had no money, I had no jobs. I had bills to pay. I had very little going for me. I was going to go back to school and I was doing all of this. And my mom was like, “No, you’re going to take that money. And you’re going to go to L.A. And you’re going to meet people and just try, we’ll figure it out. Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out. And then you can just go and just try.” I mean, it was the best advice ever because it changed my life. Momma Debs just knew better, as she always does.
In an interview last year, you said you’d love to play a superhero or a vigilante. Is that still on your bucket list?
Yeah, absolutely! I’m happy just to do it one time. When you see what we can do on screen now, and the stunt teams are so incredible—I find all that stuff so fun. I find fight choreography really fun, wire [work] stunts. It’s just exciting. And the idea of playing a superhero just makes me really happy. I do’’t know what my power would be or what superhero would be.
Do you have any dream superhero roles?
There are so many. They have epic outfits; I love this idea that superheroes just have this one outfit all the time, or they’re just living in their sweats and then they’re like, “Oh no, it’s time to be a superhero—let me just go put on my outfit.” I would love to do that, because I love the action space, but also what goes into making somebody a superhero behind the camera is kind of amazing.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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