Escape Room: Tournament of Champions Interview with Taylor Russell

Sequel to the box-office hit psychological thriller that terrified audiences around the world ESCAPE ROOM 2: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS is available to Download & Keep on October 4 and to Rent on Digital, Blu-ray ™ and DVD on October 18 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. To celebrate here is an interview with the movies star Taylor Russell.

ESCAPE ROOM 2: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS is directed by Adam Robitel (Escape Room, Insidious: The Last Key) and stars Taylor Russell (Escape Room, Waves), Logan Miller (Escape Room, Love Simon), Indya Moore (Queen & Slim), Holland Roden (Follow Me), Thomas Cocquerel (In Like Flynn) and Carlito Olivero (Bad Samaritan). In this installment, six people unwittingly find themselves locked in another series of escape rooms, slowly uncovering what they have in common to survive…and discovering they’ve all played the game before.

Q: Zoey is so focused on toppling the Minos corporation. Where is she at the beginning of this film?

Taylor Russell: She made it out of the first one alive, barely in a lot of ways and just wants justice and to defeat the whole game and make sure that no one else is hurt. I think that feeling of wanting things to be settled and for Minos to be held accountable for everything they did is the most important thing to her at the beginning of the movie, and that’s where we find her and Ben.

Q: Zoey’s personality is very different from the first film. What was it like to return to this character knowing all that she’s been through?

TR: I think a lot about what happened between the two films. She is in a very different place in her life. She really grew in a lot of ways. In this one, I wanted it to feel more primal and a little bit more about the senses than about perception. I think in the first one what I felt was important was to get across how Zoey views herself in the world. She is not the most outgoing, vivacious person. And in this one I didn’t want her to feel like that at all – I wanted it to feel like it was more tactile.

Q: What was it like to reunite with Logan Miller for this film?

TR: It was great. I love Logan, he is so talented. It’s really nice to have somebody, especially him, because it’s hard. The movie is crazy and there’s a lot of wild things that we do, so it’s always good to have a comrade, somebody in it with you who knows what it takes. And he is always so committed. He is a great scene partner, and a great friend.

Q: I think a lot of people don’t realize how physical these shoots can be. You’re practically an action hero!

TR: (Laughs) It’s so much! I had some experience doing a lot of physical work on Lost in Space. The whole show was very physical, and my character had a lot to do in that way. I shot that before I shot this and I kind of was getting climatized to that working environment.

For Escape Room, there’s a lot of stunts, and a lot of running, and a lot of panting, and yelling, and screaming. I think you have to find ways to pace yourself and to communicate how you are feeling, because you really want to make it feel real. But it takes stamina. Even as an actor, it’s really hard to know exactly what goes into it. If you read the script, you are kind of thinking about the imagination of it all and what it’s going to look like, and not exactly the practicality of how to get there. But it’s like a physical marathon and it’s cool to be challenged like that because you don’t really always get that in every single role. The demands are different, but it’s a good exercise.

Q: There’s a whole new group of people thrown into the escape room. What was this new cast like to work with?

TR: The new cast is so fantastic! I loved the first cast and I loved this cast. I love watching actors and I love seeing what people are bringing to the table. I think that the best part about acting is being able to see what the other actors have prepared on the day. It just feels like a very different vibe with this group, because of ages and their jobs and their personalities. This film just feels much wilder and freer, I suppose in a lot of ways. But everyone was so excellent and professional and wonderful to work with.

Q: The women in this film are very strong players. What was it like working with fellow females whose characters are just as strong as you and who really know how to play the game?

TR: I loved that. I love women. (laughs) And having Deborah (Ann Woll) on the first movie was such a big rock for me. I think art imitates life – she was important to Zoey in the film as Deborah was to me in real life. And having Indya (Moore) and Holland (Roden), who also bring that, is important and cool, and I hope it does feel like a sisterhood in some sense. And we all really care for each other. Holland and Indya are so excellent and they really did bring it in this film.

Q: When the first film came out, it became a global hit. Were you surprised at how popular the film was and what was your experience having that kind of response?

TR: Honestly, I am always surprised with any response with anything that I am a part of. Because it’s not that I don’t have any expectations for things, but I just feel it would be amazing if anybody saw it. I was really blown away and ecstatic by the response to the first movie and really happy that it clicked with people. I love horror films, so it’s been very cool. This is such a fun film and I think especially right now, it’s important to have this fun thing out in the world for people to escape in this way.

Q: Since fans now expect bigger puzzles, what was it like to enter a new space every couple of weeks during the shoot, but with even crazier traps?

TR: I think it’s two things. First, to see what the art department has done. It’s wild to see what you read come to life in front of you. Also, you are probably the last person to see it in the final stages because so much is happening months in advance, especially with these sets. They are very detailed and they take a lot of time. You are really in awe, and that is beautiful. I really feel like that going into a new environment or just seeing what they have done and thinking “this is maybe or maybe not what I envisioned in my head, but either way it’s wonderful because it’s so cool”. And then weirdly, psychologically, it feels like, “oh my God, I am going to be here for a little while and my character will not be in a peaceful situation. In fact, it’ll be very intense.”

Q: It must be so fun to be in these sets.

TR: Oh yeah. You do want to look at the nooks and crannies and see all the details. And you have the ability to do that because you are going to be there for a little while, and because there is so much to explore. Like the sand in the beach scene. I stepped onto that set and I just felt like my jaw dropped for our whole rehearsal, because I couldn’t believe it. It smelled like the beach. The sensory aspects of it were so wild. I loved working on that one because it felt so real.

Q: Which one was the toughest set to work in?

TR: Honestly, the beach one was also the hardest one. (laughs) Just because there was all the rigging we had to do and climbing. That one was really intense and at the end of it, I was excited to get out because there was sand everywhere and it’s so difficult and hard to run in the sand. I guess that one was the most complex room for all those reasons, I enjoyed it the most and it was the most painful.

Q: What was it like working with director Adam Robitel again?

TR: Adam loves this piece and he is so focused on what he needs to get for it. It’s cool for that reason. I love working with directors again and again because so much life happens in between and you see people grow. And so, it was cool to be able to reunite for this film.

Q: Because you shot the film in South Africa, did you bond with your co-stars during your time off?

TR: I worked a lot of the time, so I didn’t have crazy amounts of time off, but South Africa is across the world, and so far away from where I live in Brooklyn. It feels like a completely different universe. What I like about doing shoots where you’re not where you live is that everyone gets really close, really fast. And you just spend time together because they are the only people you know. I tried to join in as much as I could, going to dinners and just walking around, and trying to enjoy the country as much as possible too because you don’t always get to go to South Africa. And yeah, really just eating. When you asked me that question that’s all I can think about – we ate, and we talked, and we ate (laughs).

Q: What more can you tease about this round of Escape Room?

TR: Well, as always, it’s the Wild West meets Russian Roulette. Because Minos is in charge you don’t fully know to what extent that they are controlling everything around you. And for that reason, anything can happen, which is so wicked and wild and weird and even at the end we don’t know what happens fully. Because it’s kind of open ended, anybody can be next.

Escape Room 2 is out now to Download & Keep and will be available on Blu-ray, DVD and to Rent on Digital on 18th October.