‘The Life of Chuck’ cast reveal their favorite Stephen King works, including Mark Hamill’s love of the ‘terrifying’ ‘Pet Sematary’
Filmmaker Mike Flanagan and all of the main cast members from The Life of Chuck spoke with Gold Derby about their movie adaptation of Stephen King's novella from his 2020 book If It Bleeds. The film won the 2024 People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was later acquired by Neon. It's due in theaters on Friday.
Tom Hiddleston, Jacob Tremblay, and Benjamin Pajak play the adult, teenage, and child versions of Charles "Chuck" Krantz, a modest accountant who grew up his dream to be a dancer. He's the central figure in the bittersweet story that's told in reverse over three acts. Flanagan wrote, directed, and produced the film that matches the tone of other non-horror adaptations from King, including Stand by Me (1986), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and The Green Mile (1999).
The stellar cast is rounded out by Chiwetel Ejiofor as Marty Anderson, Karen Gillan as Felicia Gordon, Mark Hamill as Albie Krantz, Annalise Basso as Janice Halliday, Mia Sara as Sarah Krantz, Matthew Lillard as Gus Wilfong, and Kate Siegel as Miss Richards.
The cast and director share their favorite Stephen King books and/or movie adaptations — not counting The Life of Chuck, of course.
Mike Flanagan: What a question! I will say, I think my favorite movie adaptation is The Shawshank Redemption. My favorite book is impossible to answer. The Dark Tower series for me is something that connects them all — I think that's his magnum opus. My favorite story to read though is The Life of Chuck, which is way up there. Hearts in Atlantis makes me cry tears of joy. The Green Mile novel is astonishing.
Tom Hiddleston: For movies, it's The Shawshank Redemption. It made a big impact on my whole life. It changed how I think about life, actually, when I watched it. It hit me at a very formative time, when I was a teenager. The compassion in the film, and the way it lands, and what redemption really is. The last 20 minutes of that film are some of the most moving from a motion picture I've ever seen.
Mark Hamill: There are so many different types of Stephen King novels. The most terrifying novel to me was Pet Sematary. I saw The Shining and walked straight from the theater to a bookstore to buy the book, so I could figure out what the hell I just saw. But I also like his books that aren't about supernatural or horror. The Body comes to mind, The Green Mile, and Shawshank Redemption. It's an embarrassment of riches.
Benjamin Pajak: I love If It Bleeds. I'm kind of biased, but I just love the stories in it. Every story in there has a place in my heart. I read it when I got cast, and I hadn't really known Stephen King before I found out I'd be in the movie. I immediately just felt connected to his writing when I read the book.
Chiwetel Ejiofor: There are very few films that I genuinely feel envious of people if they haven't seen them, 'cause I envy that first time that they watch it. I still have that feeling about The Shawshank Redemption. It's one of those films that you just want to watch somebody's face in the third act.
Karen Gillan: The Shining is probably my favorite film of all time. I love that film. I'm a Stanley Kubrick fan. It's just so terrifying and brilliant, with its exploration into this man's descent into madness. I know that Stephen King wasn't the biggest fan of the movie adaptation, but I am!
Annalise Basso: The Green Mile.
Mia Sara: Probably Stand by Me, because it's great.
Matthew Lillard: I'd go with Shawshank. The Shawshank Redemption is one of the best movies ever made. And then, the first book I ever read for my own pleasure was Christine. So, it's a toss-up between those two.
Kate Siegel: I love The Shawshank Redemption. I love it when Stephen King is singing about hope, and all of the ways hope can grow in the grossest of places. And The Green Mile is beautiful.
During a pivotal moment in the film, Chuck does a spontaneous dance performance in public. What would everyone's go-to song be, if they were in Chuck's dancin' shoes?
Flanagan: I'd probably go with Bobby Darin, "Mack The Knife." And I don't think it's because it expresses me — I'm not a serial killer. But that song, for whatever reason, just always gets me moving.
Hiddleston: I can think of two off the top of my head. It's not possible to listen to this song without smiling: "Volare" by the Gipsy Kings. It makes people want to dance. And the other one is an old dance track from the late '90s called "Lady" by Modjo.
Hamill: I only did one Broadway musical, and I learned, these people are the hardest working people in show business. They act, they sing, they dance. They sent me to dance class six weeks before rehearsal for a turn-of-the-century musical where I had to learn clog dancing and so forth. I was very proud of myself. I would have to pick something from The Music Man. I love "Ya Got Trouble (In River City)" — I thought that was a fantastic number. It'd have to be something that a layman could learn in an afternoon.
Pajak: I'd probably say "Stayin' Alive." That's the first thing that comes into my head. I feel like that just has so much energy, and people would recognize that song and start dancing with me. If I'm the only one dancing, I would completely be embarrassed in 10 seconds.
Ejiofor: I'd probably go for some sort of early song, like "All Night Long." Just give me Lionel Richie and just go for it.
Gillan: Go-to song of expression? "No Regrets" by Édith Piaf, and I'm going to be dancing hard to that. Hard.
Basso: I'm so overwhelmed, I'm short-circuiting! Dance for me is so in the moment, that when I dance it feels like the music is a character. Although you can dance on your own, this is why I love flamenco so much, because the shoes are an instrument and you can carry that wherever you go and you can make your own music.
Sara: Prince, "Kiss." That's my favorite song! My husband and I had just been to a huge family wedding, and that's the song we like to dance to.
Lillard: "Give It to Me Baby" by Rick James. I did a movie called She's All That, and "Give It to Me Baby" was the song, so I'd probably just pull it back from the classic.
Siegel: Oh, what a great question! The one that comes to mind is "High Hopes" by Panic! At the Disco. A lot of my heart is maudlin, so I might do "Moon River" and just hobble about.
What did the cast think of the bittersweet ending the first time they read Flanagan's script?
Ejiofor: I thought it was just so richly conceived. It's sometimes difficult when you don't know when a story is going, and then you do, and you think, "How did that plane land for me? How did that all work?" Because it's kind of a big concept. And I just felt like there was just a real ease to this, it fit it into place, and it made sense. It felt profound in exactly the right way, and satisfying narratively.
Gillan: I just found it so profound and moving, and it really made me go away and question how I'm living my own life and spending the precious time that I have. And those are really valuable questions to ask yourself. I really wanted to be a part of something that can maybe spark that conversation.
Basso: I always ask myself at the end of a script, or at the end of completing a project, what did I learn from this? That's what my dad taught me. He's like, "Learn as much from your wins as you do from your losses." With this, at the end of reading the script, I was like, "What brings me joy?" And it just brought me closer to that.
Sara: I cried, and then I called Mike, and I cried on the phone with Mike, and I said, "That's so beautiful."
Lillard: The funny thing is, as you were reading it, 'cause it's backwards, it doesn't really have the impact, which really speaks to the power of Mike Flanagan. We were in Toronto and won the Audience Award — a hugely prestigious award, and we were very honored to win it — but sitting in that theater with 2,000 people, I'll never forget it goes to black to transition to the second act, and you could hear a pin drop in that theater. The power of that beat was such that it took everyone's breath away, and that was really the first time I knew we were in for something special.
Siegel: It made me feel human. Right now, it's very hard to feel your humanity, because we're being inundated with a lot of information all the time that is in extremes. It's very overwhelming, and there was something about this script that allowed everything to feel like it's people. And yes, there are rights and wrongs, and there is good and bad in the world, but also there's you, and you get to be a person, too. You deserve that.
The Life of Chuck arrives in theaters on June 6. It will be eligible at the 2026 Oscars.
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