“Fuck, I Think I Need to Sit Down”: David Jonsson Takes Cailee Spaeny on His Long Walk

When the script for The Long Walk landed on David Jonsson’s desk, he had some concerns. But after bonding with director Francis Lawrence over their shared taste in film, particularly the 1986 coming-of-age classic Stand By Me, the 32-year-old actor knew he was all in. “I think that fear is where I should go,” he told his former Alien: Romulus co-star Cailee Spaeny, with whom he’s remained close friends. While Jonsson’s latest project takes him away from the extraterrestrial, it’s no less chilling. The Long Walk, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, follows a group of young men in a dystopian United States who enter an annual walking competition where the winner is only determined once all the other contestants are dead. Before its theatrical release this weekend, Jonsson and Spaeny reunited over Zoom to talk about step counts, playwriting, and their shared love for Cooper Hoffman.—ARY RUSSELL

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CAILEE SPAENY: Okay. I have to just laugh a little bit because—

DAVID JONSSON: Why are you laughing?

SPAENY: I haven’t seen you in so long. And I love that we’re two professionals here. “I may ask you about your craft, which I’m totally going to do.” I hope this isn’t a boring read because this is just going to be me getting down to how the hell you do what you do.

JONSSON: Wait, hang on. Am I not allowed to ask you anything?

SPAENY: No, no, no. This is about you. You can’t reflect like you usually do.

JONSSON: Jesus Christ.

SPAENY: I saw the film yesterday. It’s so good. You’re so brilliant and you and Cooper [Hoffman] are so good together. Your chemistry is amazing.

JONSSON: Thank you.

SPAENY: Genuinely so heartbreaking, funny, everything that you injected into that. I was just so impressed. I don’t know how you do it. How do you feel?

JONSSON: Well, I feel really nice and weird and fuzzy to hear you say that. All those things at once is actually quite strange. But Cooper is brilliant and it actually does really warm me to hear you say that because we really do love you. And a lot of the time on our breaks, we just talked about Cailee Spaeny. [Laughs]

SPAENY: Oh my god, I love that. I was part of The Long Walk in some way. [Laughs]

JONSSON: Oh yeah, you got us through.

SPAENY: Well, I know what it’s like when you have a scene partner who is really present for you, because that’s what you were for me. It’s such a relief, especially when it’s a long and grueling shoot. Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you’re like, “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do anything interesting. And we have to get something today that’s going to end up in the film and be immortalized forever.” And I would be walking with constant anxiety. But the thing that relieves that is having a really solid scene partner.

JONSSON: Totally. And Cooper was that for me. But Cailee—I’m sorry, I promise I will let you do what you’re meant to do—but you did do that for me as well. It wasn’t one way. That shoot wasn’t an easy shoot and we both really cared about it. 

SPAENY: Love you. Miss you.

JONSSON: Love you. Miss you. Anyway, Cailee, I’m sorry.

SPAENY: You’re a very mysterious man, so I don’t know how much you’re going to give me, but let’s start with real craft questions because I’m a nerd about this job and movies and the world. It makes my heart sing when I watch actors act, and I have a real love for them. But I also still find them mysterious and I’m like, “How does everyone else do this?” Because I feel like I’m always chasing. I don’t know if you feel the same way, but I’m curious how you approach this. When you read something, what were the things that were exciting to you and where did your brain shoot off to once that inspiration hit?

JONSSON: Well, I remember reading it and it was really bleak, so much so that I was like, “Oh, I don’t think this is for me.” And my agent was like, “Please, David, just take another look at it.” And funny enough, I remember reading it and them kindly considering me for another role and I was like, “I’m not really interested in that one, but I’m interested in this one.” And they were like, “We’d love to see you.” So I met with Francis [Lawrence] and had a chat with him about it and we somehow found a way of relating movies that we love to the movie that we were going to make. So we spoke about films like Stand By Me.

SPAENY: I wrote that down when I was watching it.

JONSSON: Yeah. And when I understood Francis’s movie taste, and that this was his passion project, I was like, “Okay, I think I want to do this.” But to try and answer your question about when I would know that I want to do something, I think it is when it kind of scares me. Do you know what I mean? I didn’t quite know this role because I thought, “Is this a horror? Is this a character study? Where are we going with this?” It’s quite similar again to ours [Alien: Romulus]. I think I’ve gone on record saying,  “Alien is Alien. You can only make an alien movie.” But we were like, “Fuck all that, we want to make a family drama.”[Laughs]

SPAENY: Yeah, like, what’s the movie inside the movie?

JONSSON: That’s right. It was really hard to see that and that scared me a bit. But I think that fear is where I should go. 

SPAENY: So in the beginning, the fear for you was being not exactly sure what the movie inside the movie was?

JONSSON: Yeah. And with all due respect, Francis Lawrence, who I love by the way, has made some really amazing movies. But when you think about films like The Hunger Games, all that kind of stuff, that’s awesome. But I don’t know if that’s really where I was trying to go next. You what I mean? But when you do watch those films, especially for me, Mockingjay‘s got it. The characters were going somewhere different and there was a movie within that movie. Those are the films we’re both interested in.

SPAENY: What was the anchor for you once you signed on to it and started unpacking it? 

JONSSON The first thing was finding out that Cooper got cast. I remember during a chemistry read with Cooper. We spent our first 30 minutes not even doing anything, just talking about the New York Knicks. He’s obsessed with the New York Knicks and he won’t hear me say a bad word about them. But I’m like, “I’m not sure the last time you guys won anything.”

SPAENY: [Laughs] 

JONSSON: [Laughs] So we spoke about that and then we delved into some scenes. And the anchor for me beyond him was his character who’s been through a rough past and desperately trying to find light. I thought that was really inspiring.

SPAENY: Well, I think the Stand By Me reference is interesting because it’s also such a dark film with dark themes, but those boys in it make you laugh and cry. And I feel like the conversations that you had with Cooper about the Knicks is why the movie works so well, because you guys didn’t need to try. It was just there.

JONSSON: That’s right.

SPAENY: I think you were really lucky that you two found each other because I don’t think the film would work without that dynamic. And also the rest of the boys are great, too.

JONSSON: I mean, Charlie [Plummer]—

SPAENY: Charlie is amazing.

JONSSON: But Cailee, I will say this, since we’re on the topic of “the magic of acting,” an anchor point for me in my tiny career is working with you. What I mean by that is you are just as bad at taking compliments as me. So I don’t know why you—

SPAENY: This is an interview about you, dude!

JONSSON: Sorry, sorry, sorry. We’ll come back, I promise. Just let me finish this point. I have that as a touch point in my mind for the work I’m trying to do now. I realized that the wonderful thing about making movies is this synergy that you get with people, and I hope that we get to work together again in various capacities. But it only comes around when it comes around. It’s like what Cillian Murphy always says about making movies—it’s like an impossible task. 

SPAENY: So much is out of your control. We’ve probably been in situations where things don’t click and you pray that you have a good editor. [Laughs] When things do click, it’s such a relief. When it does—not to be corny—it is a bit magical.

JONSSON: Yeah, it is.

SPAENY: You guys filmed in Winnipeg?

JONSSON: Yeah. We found that this one bar that we’d go to, we’d have a pint there after a really hard day. And then on the weekend, we would do martinis. That was our thing.

SPAENY: Classy.

JONSSON: [Laughs] Classy.

SPAENY: Filming in that area, how did that inject itself into the performance? 

JONSSON: It massively helped. Again, not to talk about Alien too much, but it was quite similar in the sense that we had the luxury of shooting chronologically.

SPAENY: Oh, great.

JONSSON: Francis gave us that. And especially when you’re walking the whole time…

SPAENY: You did your own stunts.

JONSSON: [Laughs] Yep. On a light day, we did 13 miles. On a big day, we did up to 26 miles. 

SPAENY: Oh my god.

JONSSON: Yeah, it was actually a lot. My character is meant to be a little bit tough in ways. I had lost weight for another role so I decided to gain weight for him. So I was relatively fit, but still nothing prepares you for walking that much. But Cooper in particular, god bless him. It was the first week and I remember him being like, “I don’t know if I can do this.” But the ability to film chronologically and have the scenery entirely legit meant that what we were feeling was exactly what we should have been feeling.

SPAENY: What a strange challenge to do a whole film walking. Is that a gift? Because I’m always like, “Where do I put my arms and legs in a scene?”

JONSSON: Yes, it is. It was like a once in a lifetime kind of thing. 

SPAENY: Okay, this is a question that I have for myself and I don’t have an answer. But you’ve been so busy recently and the films that have come out are insane. You’ve also had time to write and premiere a play at [The Edinburgh] Fringe. Do you go through periods where you feel like your creative bank is empty? And when that happens, where do you turn to fill back up? 

JONSSON: It’s funny because when I’m reminded of it, I genuinely start to feel exhausted. But when I’m doing it, you just carry on.

SPAENY: You just don’t stop.

JONSSON: Exactly. I had this period at the beginning of this year, right after the BAFTAs. It was wonderful and I had a really great time, but then I remember I had a project that I was meant to shoot directly after this project that I was shooting and I just couldn’t do it. I said, “I don’t think we can make it work.” And it was the first time really, where I was like, “Fuck, I think I need to sit down.”

SPAENY: Is it hard for you to say that?

JONSSON: Partly, because ultimately as an actor, all we have is yes or no. And I’m learning now to take great pride in saying no and take great pride in saying yes. So when I do say yes, I’m thinking about the director, the DP, everyone that we’re working with. I don’t want to let them down. I’m properly into it. So that responsibility drives me. I love the sense of teamwork. 

SPAENY: Yeah, it’s my favorite part.

JONSSON: It’s my favorite. Again, I think about us on set. We loved our crew. For me, acting can feel like a solo sport. If someone says that to me, I’m not going to think they’re being a dick because when the camera’s on and it’s looking at you,  you’ve got to find it somehow. But I think the wise actor, or at least the one that I’m trying to be, does there best to make it into a team sport.

SPAENY: Yeah, I get that. What’s the last movie you saw?

JONSSON: Actually, it was Maria with Angelina Jolie.

SPAENY: How was it?

JONSSON: There’s a reason why I had a real big crush on Angelina Jolie growing up, and I still do. 

SPAENY: Of course. What’s the last book you read?

JONSSON: The last book I read was… Well, you’re going to like this. I have this weird thing where I reread Brideshead Revisited.

SPAENY: Oh my god, you’re kidding me.

JONSSON: On my life.

SPAENY: I just bought the book and I just finished the 1970s series. I watched the whole thing with—

JONSSON: The one with Jeremy Irons!

SPAENY: Nuts!

JONSSON: I reread Catcher in the Rye and I reread The Alchemist. So those are the books.

SPAENY: Ugh! Those are my three favorites.

JONSSON: This is working out fine.

SPAENY: The Alchemist, I was 16 years old and it blew my mind.

JONSSON: You know what I’ve recently started reading for the first time? It’s because someone told me that you shouldn’t die and not read this book. And I do have this weird thing where I just always think, “What if I’m going to die?” So anyway, I quickly went and bought this book. And it’s fucking Moby-Dick. 

SPAENY: Dude, I was just talking about Moby Dick the other day. I’m just about to get into whalers history. We’re so aligned right now.

JONSSON: This is good.

SPAENY: Sometimes rabbit holes just come at you and you’re like, “I’ve got to follow this.”

JONSSON: I agree.

SPAENY: I love that we’ve gotten Moby-Dick in this interview. [Laughs] Are you going to go back on stage soon?

JONSSON: Oh, yeah. I’m desperate to. As you know, that’s where I kind of came from. 

SPAENY: Whenever I miss you, I just go to the Almeida [Theatre] and look at your photo.

JONSSON: Just for the record, Cailee does this thing where she’s really good at checking in. She’s doing her own thing and that’s fine. But very occasionally she’d send me a picture of myself at the Almeida with just her finger pointing at my face.

SPAENY: Because I haven’t talked to you in three months.

JONSSON: [Laughs] But yes, I’m desperate to get back on stage, but if I’m being brutally honest, it’s not for lack of options. Just more [waiting] for the right thing. 

SPAENY: I just really want to see you on stage.

JONSSON: I kind of want to see you on stage.

SPAENY: I want to do something on stage. It’s just so scary. But it’s like the thing you said, if it scares you, then go for it. Where are you?

JONSSON: I’m in my flat in East London.

SPAENY: You’re in London? I’m in London.

JONSSON: How long are you here for? Well, this is being recorded. Just text me. [Laughs] 

SPAENY: [Laughs] So I’m not going to ask you any questions about the thing I can’t ask questions about. But I’m just going to say it, because it’s just a fun thing to say out loud: you’re in Frank Ocean’s movie, which is just so trippy and wild. You don’t have to say anything. But I wanted to say it.

JONSSON: [Laughs] Thanks, Cailee.

SPAENY: Well, that leads to my last existential question. Why acting? What does it give you? 

JONSSON: Oh wow. Well, I’m not going to overthink it. I’m going to try and go for the simple answer that’s on top of my head because that’s a big question. It’s because I couldn’t live this life without doing it. This is what I’m meant to do.

SPAENY: You just have to follow it.

JONSSON: Yeah. Can I ask you the same question? 

SPAENY: A lot of it is the people. It’s such a strange thing to show up on day one with hundreds of people and try to get everyone on the same page. And it’s the funny circus of it all. A lot of the times when you start getting to know the cast and crew, we’re the weirdo outsiders who didn’t quite click in the life that we grew up in. I always feel like I’m with my weird, black sheep outsiders every time I’m on a set and we’re all trying to get to one goal. And it gives me faith in humans. [Laughs]

JONSSON: Totally. 

SPAENY: The industry scares me, the world and the machine around it. But the creatives like you push me and inspire me to ask the big questions and find the joy in the small things. I just love to learn, and I feel like I’m constantly learning.

JONSSON: Same.

SPAENY: And some of the most precious friendships and connections I’ve made in my life have been through this job. The weird part is when a camera goes in front of my face, the performing part is a big question mark for me. But the community around it is beautiful.

JONSSON: That’s really gorgeous and I think that’s absolutely an accurate thing about you. Thank you.