DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:
In "The Life Of Chuck," the end of the world is signaled by epic environmental disasters and - brace yourself - the disappearance of the internet. The movie, based on a Stephen King novella of the same name, tells this dystopian story through a divorced couple and the life of the mysterious Charles Krantz, who we first encounter as a meme. "The Life Of Chuck" is directed by Mike Flanagan, and stars Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Matthew Lillard, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan, who joins us now from New York. Welcome to WEEKEND EDITION.
KAREN GILLAN: Thank you so much for having me.
ELLIOTT: Why don't you tell us a little bit about your character, Felicia?
GILLAN: So I play Felicia, who is a nurse, and she's in the first chapter of the story. And so she's dealing with the end of everything, which is sort of resulting in a lot of suicides. And so she's completely overrun at the hospital, trying to help people. She's desperately trying to hold on to a sense of optimism while everything is sort of crumbling around her. And then she reconnects with her ex-husband, Marty, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, and they kind of have a beautiful few moments together before the end of everything actually comes their way.
ELLIOTT: As you mentioned, you're in one chapter of this story. It's told in three acts, but it's not in chronological order. What do you think audiences gain from a movie told in that fashion?
GILLAN: I mean, I think it is quite interesting to see where it all ends, and then you get to see how you end up there and sort of connect all of those dots. And also what's interesting is our lead character, Chuck, is a real mystery in the first chapter. And everyone sees him all around - billboards with his face on everything, saying thanks, Chuck. And no one knows what it means. And then, throughout each chapter, you're going to understand what that means.
ELLIOTT: No spoilers here, but who is Charles Krantz?
GILLAN: Well, I guess, in a way, Charles Krantz is everyone. He is a really ordinary guy who essentially didn't do the thing that he wanted to do with his life. This is the story of him finding those moments of joy and reliving those moments of joy.
ELLIOTT: He also seems to somehow have this power to bring people together during the worst of times, right? We don't get to know him during the first part of the movie, but his presence certainly affects Felicia's life, in a way, right?
GILLAN: Yeah. Well, as the story unfolds, we'll see that the first chapter is a bit of a metaphor for something that I won't give away right now, but it'll all come together by the end.
ELLIOTT: I want to ask you about one of the themes in this movie. But first, let's play a clip of a moment between the young Chuck, who's played by Benjamin Pajak, and his teacher, played by Kate Siegel, who has her hands placed on his temples.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LIFE OF CHUCK")
KATE SIEGEL: (As Miss Richards) What's in there, right between my hands right now?
BENJAMIN PAJAK: (As Young Chuck) I don't know.
SIEGEL: (As Miss Richards) All the people you know?
PAJAK: (As Young Chuck) I guess.
SIEGEL: (As Miss Richards) Just the people you know? Everything you see, everything you know, the world, Chuck - planes in the sky, manhole covers in the street. Every year that you live, that world inside your head will get bigger and brighter and more detailed and complex.
ELLIOTT: That's his teacher's way of explaining a Walt Whitman line from the poem "Song Of Myself." I contain multitudes - that's a theme that really resonates throughout the movie, doesn't it?
GILLAN: Yeah, it really explores this idea of in each and all of our minds is a whole universe, and we're all special and unique, and there's a whole life to explore.
ELLIOTT: Another thread that I found interesting was mathematics and the universal order of things. That actually was the topic of the first meaningful conversation we see Felicia have with her ex-husband, as the world is seemingly falling apart around them. Let's hear a bit of that phone call.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LIFE OF CHUCK")
CHIWETEL EJIOFOR: (As Marty Anderson) Well, the universe is 15 billion years old. And if you took all of that, all 15 billion years and compress them into a single calendar year, then the big bang happens in the first second, January 1. And today, right now, we're in the final millisecond of the last minute of the last day, December 31. But if you go back to the start, if the big bang happens at midnight, January 1, then each month of this calendar is 1.25 billion years long.
GILLAN: (As Felicia) Hey, nobody told me there was math on this exam.
ELLIOTT: What do you think he's trying to do there?
GILLAN: Those characters have such an interesting backstory, but I think he really enjoys talking about this. He's a teacher. It's something that he's really passionate about. And I think from my character's perspective, she was enjoying the comfort of listening to him almost ramble on about that, even though it was very interesting. That's a very typical thing for his character to do. And there was some comfort in hearing that when she knew that the end was near.
ELLIOTT: Now, you've worked with director Mike Flanagan before on a horror film, the genre that he's mostly known for. What was it like to work with him on this movie? It's a little bit more genre-defining, I would say.
GILLAN: I mean, I'm so grateful to Mike Flanagan. He's the whole reason I moved over from Scotland to America in the first place. He brought me over for his - one of his first films, "Oculus." So my first experience of America for an extended period of time was Alabama, and that was really fascinating and cool to explore. So I worked on that horror film, and then, you know, I said to him, we have to work together again. And we finally did on this. And it's not a horror film, which is unexpected from Mike Flanagan and written by Stephen King, or based on a story by Stephen King. But no, this is about existential questions, and it's a character study and not horror.
ELLIOTT: Yeah, like, "Life Of Chuck" taps into these big, universal feelings we all have, right? There's despair but also, somehow, hope. There's gratitude. What do you hope that audiences will take away after watching these three acts?
GILLAN: I guess I hope they take away the same things that I took away when I first read the script. I mean, I put it down, and I just started naturally asking myself these questions of, like, am I spending my life the way I want to be spending it? 'Cause we only get one go at this, and our time is precious. And it really just made me look at my life and my choices in a great way. And I think it's really beneficial to do that every so often in your life. And I hope people do that when they watch it.
ELLIOTT: Take stock and appreciate the now.
GILLAN: Exactly.
ELLIOTT: That's Karen Gillan, who stars in "The Life Of Chuck" out in theaters now. Thank you so much.
GILLAN: Thank you very much.
ELLIOTT: And for anyone experiencing thoughts of self-harm, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline number is 988. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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