If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if your favourite ‘80s action hero had the pain tolerance of a brick wall but the emotional sensitivity of a golden retriever, then buckle up – Novocaine is here to answer that question with a punch (that our hero won’t even feel). Directed by best friends-turned-filmmaking duo Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, this action-packed, unexpectedly heartfelt film brings humour, heart, and a whole lot of chaos to the big screen. Featuring Jack Quaid as the hero getting his ass kicked and Amber Midthunder as the woman who shakes up his world, Novocaine is a fresh take on action-comedy that will have you laughing as much as you’ll be wincing.
When Dan Berk and Robert Olsen first came on board to direct Novocaine, they knew they had something special in Lars Jacobson’s script. “The original script was different from the movie that you see now,” Berk explains. “What we identified very early on was a core concept that was just crazy sticky, commercial, and that we couldn’t stop thinking about. So, we came on board, and thankfully, the producers took to our vision and allowed us to make some wholesale changes to the tone and to put our print on it.” One of the biggest changes from the initial script was that in the beginning, “There wasn’t a lot of humour in it, but Lars had a brilliant concept that still shines through.”
The balance between action and humour was crucial for the film. “You don’t want to make it a straight comedy, or else the stakes take a dip. We use films like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, and Midnight Run as examples of movies that are high-stakes action films, but funny,” Berk says. “And Jack [Quaid] is so good at handling the comedic moments – he’s a physical comedy genius – but he’s a capital ‘A’ actor as well, who can really handle the more emotional scenes. You try your best as a director to convey tone, but you can only get so far without great actors. We were so lucky to get to work with Jack, Amber [Midthunder], Jacob [Batalon], and a host of others who really understood what we were going for here.”
Casting Quaid in the lead role of Nathan ‘Nate’ Caine was a decision that felt natural from the start. “When Dan and I do a rewrite, we always try to keep a specific actor in mind because that way, we’re both writing with the same voice. We’d been watching The Boys at the time, and really, from the moment we read the script, we knew Jack Quaid was the perfect guy for this,” Olsen recalls. “It’s very rare that you end up with that person actually in your movie, but we got really lucky. It was this perfect storm of Jack having the clout to be able to star in a film like this, and also to be interested in doing it… I think he could almost tell how much the script had been written in his image, you know.”
Quaid himself was drawn to Caine’s unique qualities as an action hero. “I think the concept of an action hero in this unlikely way was really enticing. I’m not necessarily a person you look at and think, ‘Oh, this guy can kick a lot of ass’,” Quaid laughs. “I just love that with Nate, it’s about the hits he can take, and the fact he’ll keep getting back up. I thought that was incredibly cool.” At the same time, however, “we wanted to make sure this movie harked back to some of the more character-driven action movies of the ‘80s and ‘90s. The draw is the character, which is why we all really dialled in on Nate being the ultimate sweetheart. What sets him apart from any generic action hero is who he is, not necessarily his condition.”
The actor goes on to explain that, when we meet Nate, “He’s a very lonely guy. I think his condition isolates him, because he’s immune to pain, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still get hurt. He could step on a nail and not even know; he’s very much a fan of indoor activities, and all the corners in his apartment are baby-proofed so that he doesn’t accidentally hurt himself. He drinks his coffee with ice so he doesn’t scold himself. He has all these systems in place to ensure he doesn’t get hurt and so, for his own safety, he has to isolate himself and put a wall up between him and the outside world.” Quaid continues: “That doesn’t necessarily get him down, but when he finally meets Sherry, it motivates him to take risks. He goes out with her to a restaurant, which has a million things that could poke him, burn him, or choke him. But Sherry gets him out of his shell. I think he has a great arc in the movie because he starts off quite sheltered but grows more and more confident. I find his arc really inspiring.”
That’s a large part of why the directors knew that finding the right actress to play Sherry, Nate’s love interest, was key to making the film work. “We had loved Prey, which starred Amber Midthunder,” Berk explains. “Man, should that movie have come out in theatres! We met with her and she was so funny, charming, and magnetic. And from the jump, she and Jack had such wonderful chemistry. The whole movie falls apart if, ten minutes in, you aren’t already rooting with every fibre of your being for these people to end up together. Because otherwise, you just don’t care. Thankfully, they’re both such charismatic people and are such a dream to work with.”
For Midthunder, playing Sherry was a refreshing change of pace. “I’ve never gotten to play a girl who’s just a girl,” she jokes. “I also was interested in her because, where it could be easy to overlook her as just a damsel in distress, you still find a lot of humanity in her character. Another film might have had her be very one-dimensional, but that’s not what Dan and Bobby were interested in. It was great, and I felt safe in their hands.”
The chemistry between Quaid and Midthunder was further developed through two weeks of rehearsal before filming. “Jack is such a wonderful actor, and I couldn’t have asked for a better scene partner or a better Nathan Caine. That just made everything very easy, and getting to know him also meant we clicked on camera.” As much as she loves an action film (and the action is “incredible, and needs to be seen on a big screen”, Midthunder emphasises), “There’s something really beautiful about the fact that, at the heart of it, it’s about Nate fighting for love. It’s a very simple idea, but also one that everyone understands and can connect to.”
After all, “emotional pain is very real for Nate”, despite his condition, Quaid explains. “I wanted to make sure that it was clear in the movie that this is a man who feels emotions very intensely. I took a lot of inspiration from Nate. I think he’s an incredibly resilient character.”
Visually, Novocaine was crafted to reflect Nate’s personal journey. “We brought on a cinematographer who we were big fans of, Jacques Jouffret, who shot Gran Turismo,” Olsen explains. “We wanted to create something visually unique but grounded enough that it still felt commercial. We don’t have the budget that big Marvel movies do, but we hoped that, since this was going to be a theatrical release, the viewer wouldn’t feel like this was a small, indie project.”
Berk adds that the cinematography plays a huge part in the tonal progression of the film. “The first section of the movie really establishes this character as somebody who has to adhere to a very lonely way of living. Then, once he meets Sherry, the film kicks into an action movie and his whole life changes. And we wanted the visuals to highlight that.” The first half “is much more like a rom-com, with locked-off frames and more of a boxed-in feeling. Once the action kicks in, though, things get more handheld and chaotic. We’re actually using two different sets of lenses: anamorphic in the first part and then spherical for the action.” Berk goes on to explain that the viewer “is a little more unmoored visually, just as Nate is as he jumps into this new chapter.”
This being their first straight action movie, it may be surprising to hear that the directors fell into the genre very easily. “It was like wearing a pair of gloves that fit properly for the first time!” Berk exclaims. Not that it was all smooth sailing, and the directors admit that “the enormity of a movie like this was a little scary,” before praising the fantastic team of stunt actors and coordinators that made this movie possible.
For Quaid, one of the biggest challenges in playing Nate was learning how not to react. “It was so hard! I had to learn that, when someone punched me in the face, my face should move but I wasn’t allowed to wince. It’s ruined me for fight scenes on other projects, because now I’m just very locked into not showing pain,” he laughs. The physicality of the role also had to change as the film progressed. “In the beginning, he’s not super comfortable with the outside world, so I’m trying to be a little stiffer in my body. Then, by the end of it, Nate’s a lot looser and more confident in himself, so he moves with more certainty. The stunt team did such a great job of coordinating these fights that look really gnarly, but are also a lot of fun. Audiences are gonna have a really good time with this.”
Midthunder agrees that the action is a standout feature. “This movie is so big and so fun that everybody working on it wanted to give audiences something they hadn’t really seen before. You have these ridiculously fun, sometimes gory circumstances, but they’re balanced with this great big heart that lives inside the movie.”
Despite the intense production schedule, the cast and crew found ways to bond. “Jack taught me to play Backgammon. I, being an iPhone game queen, taught him about iPhone games. We had fun,” Midthunder laughs.
Quaid also fondly recalls filming in South Africa. “We were in Cape Town, all of us American transplants. The bonding was really intense, which was great. We were all more or less living in the same area and we’d all hang out together, go watch films, and it was absolutely incredible. The whole experience really did change my life.”
As for a potential sequel? The directors and cast are game. “I think exploring how Nate grew up with this condition would be so interesting,” Quaid says. “I also want to see where him and Sherry go from here, and where him and Jacob Batalon’s character go from here as well. Jacob is unbelievably funny, and I love how the characters’ dynamic really blossoms over the film.”
For Berk and Olsen, working together on Novocaine was the culmination of years of collaboration. “Neither of us are specialists. We’re both generalists, so we do everything 50/50. It’s been years of creating a process and an approach that works and, with this being our fifth feature, we’ve gotten pretty good at it,” Berk states. “It also helps that Bobby and I are best friends. We were randomly assigned roommates in our freshman year at NYU, so we were best friends for seven years before we ever started making movies together.”
And no production is complete without a little behind-the-scenes mischief! “The cast and producers were all like, let’s get a tattoo! So Bobby and I got them,” says Berk, showing off their cherry pie tattoos, “and then no one else went through with it!” “We’re putting them on blast, especially Jack,” Olsen quips.
In the end, Novocaine isn’t just an action flick – it’s a high-energy, laugh-out-loud, heartwarming ride that proves even the toughest guy in the room can still be a total sweetheart. With an intensely lovable cast, jaw-dropping action sequences, and just the right amount of absurdity, it’s a movie that reminds us why we love the genre in the first place. And who knows? If the sequel happens, maybe the directors will get their revenge on their tattoo-shy team.
NOVOCAINE is in cinemas on March 28th.
