‘Self Reliance’s Jake Johnson & Anna Kendrick On Finding Comedy In Loneliness – SXSW Studio

SELF RELIANCE

Section: Narrative Spotlight

Director-Screenwriter: Jake Johnson

Logline: When a man is offered a million dollars to play a game in which hunters try to kill him, he thinks he has found the perfect loophole: they can only attack when he’s alone. His only problem is that none of his friends or family believe the game is real.

Panelists: Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick

Premiered: March 11, 2023

Key Quotes: Johnson: “The original inspiration was Japanese reality shows, from 10 to 15 years ago. I started watching them and thinking they were really pushing the limit and starting to get really wild… And I wondered, how far can you push a show and people would still watch? And if you did something here you were hunting people, would people actually watch it?”

Kendrick: “It just feels like it’s about loneliness, and especially at the height of the pandemic, when I read it, the theme was so present for me and it really resonated and came through, and I think it still does, it’s really sweet.”

The Deadline Studio at SXSW runs March 10-13, where the cast and creatives behind the best and buzziest titles in this year’s lineup sit down with Deadline’s festival team to discuss their movies and the paths they took to get to Austin, Texas.