The Glass Onion: how a murder mystery turned into a romp

The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was a huge hit, with Netflix subscribers having racked up more than 209-million hours of viewership in less than two weeks after its release last year during the holiday season. The modern day Agatha Christie romp set among the wealthy and indulged is still gaining viewers and rave reviews almost two months after its release.

Daniel Craig portrays Benoit Blanc, the detective with a strange accent — instead of Hercule Poirot’s Belgian accent, Craig’s is a most pronounced Southern-American drawl, referred to as the “Kentucky Fried Foghorn Leghorn” — which the former 007 admits he was “terrified” to execute.

The Netflix film surrounds Craig with a cast of character actors and movie stars: Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr, Jessica Henwick and Madelyn Cline — all of whom are suspects in the murder. Each one gets their moment of focus as the potential murderer.

Knives Out (2019) introduced us to the intrepid detective and garnered three Golden Globe nominations. The next instalment, The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, is a stand-alone film, retaining only Craig in a new adventure, as he races to reveal the murderer while the bodies pile up.

Asked about adapting to the new cast of characters, Craig let his dry British humor colour his reply. “TheKnives Out lot? F**k them,” he deadpanned. “These are the new people.” His bright eyes crinkle, before he embellishes: “I have one of the best jobs in the world. Rian Johnson writes these scripts and sends them to me. He talks about the cast, and I go: 'Yes, yes, yes.' That’s it. It’s simple and amazing. They’re genius. What a joy.”

Director/writer/producer Johnson (Looper), elaborates: “When we were making the first one, Daniel and I were having so much fun. We had a dream to keep making them, if the first was successful.”

Johnson, a Maryland native who lives in California, admits that the movies are inspired by his love of Christie. “I hope to do what she did with each one of her books,” he says. “Something different every time. New settings, new characters, new narrative gambits, tones and genres within genres. That’s what I hope to do. Give each film its own identity.” He gently teases that there are more to come.

Miles Bron, played by Norton, is a self-indulgent tech giant who invites a group of friends to his fabulous Greek island home, topped with a glass dome shaped like a onion — fans of the Beatles’ White Album might know that Glass Onion is the title of one of their songs. The planned entertainment is to create a pretend murder mystery. Of course, things go suddenly, horribly wrong. Norton is clearly having fun — as are the rest of the cast.

The three-time Academy Award nominee elaborates. “I portray a billionaire tech guy of the kind that we all love to hate. We've seen the documentaries on the tech Illuminati. They are everybody’s favourite target right now. We want to see them taken down — so I put all those (real-life) people in a blender and my character, Miles, was born.”

Bautista told the TIFF audience that the unlikability of his character was part of the appeal. “I love playing characters unlike myself, and Duke is such an a**hole.” The Guardians of the Galaxy star portrays a muscle-bound social media celeb.

A month later, Bautista again distanced himself from his character. “That ‘grab-the-limelight’ personality isn’t me,” he reassures the press at the BFI London Film Festival. “It makes me uncomfortable to do that. I was inspired by the internet, social media, alpha douche bags that I hate, and encapsulated them in my character, Duke.” He shrugs. “I guess I thrive when I play the guy everyone loves to hate.”

Hudson does a superb turn as Birdie, a do-gooder with a secret that could ruin her reputation — reminding one of the ditzier characters that her mother, Goldie Hawn, became famous playing. “People love a murder mystery and Rian Johnson gave me some delicious dialogue that was terrifying,” she said. “I knew I had to just go for it.”

Johnson jumps in: “The key to Kate’s character is that she understands every third word spoken. So she's often hilariously ‘off’.”

Among the high-profile stars, a special place is held for singer/actress Monáe, whose role requires a duality in delivery.

“I'd seen Looper and wanted to work with Rian,” she said.  “Then I read the script ... To be able to work with everybody? It’s bigger than I could have imagined. We bonded. It’s about experiences we get to have with each other. The moments we made outside of creating this movie I'll always hold dear to my heart. We played murder mystery games on our off days. We're in the middle of shooting a murder mystery, and we’re like: 'Yeah, let's get together and dress up and play a murder mystery.' I got an opportunity to collaborate with the group and nuance this character out. Everything I'd done up until now  prepared me to do a role this huge.”