In How to Rob a Bank, gang of masked livestreaming bank robbers are turning the FBI on its head as the group’s fame makes them a larger and larger problem. In the middle of the investigation is special agent John West, played by John C. Reilly. He forms an unlikely partnership with a software engineer on house arrest, Reagan Gardner, played by Zoë Kravitz. Whether they like it or not, their combined skills may be just what it takes to take the viral criminals down.
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For Reilly, his character’s pursuit of the criminals becomes more than just an attempt to bring them to justice. “My character comes from an analog world,” Reilly says. “Younger people were born into this accelerated digital environment. Older generations are still trying to make sense of how quickly everything is changing. So, my character sees himself as the thin blue line between civilization and anarchy. It’s not that he disagrees with people being angry about healthcare, debt or corporations. It’s that he believes if everybody starts deciding which laws matter based on personal feelings, civilization collapses.”
The actor also loved working with Kravitz, and how their relationship becomes more complex the deeper they dive into the investigation. “At first, he just sees her as someone useful to the investigation, but eventually he realizes she’s not just some stoner hacker sitting in an apartment,” Reilly says. “She’s incredibly intelligent and genuinely interested in justice. The tension between them really comes down to their views on power – who has it, how it should be used, and whether systems deserve to be challenged.”
Kravitz was eager to take on the role of Reagan, and the compelling story was icing on the cake. “I like the way the story challenges the system and encourages people to ask questions,” she says. “It doesn’t necessarily take one side, which I think is really important in storytelling. Reagan is a coder, and she got in a little bit of trouble for creating an app that can track people through photographs – basically a kind of facial recognition technology. She’s definitely a fish-out-of-water character, and I always love playing people who are suddenly thrown into chaos and forced to adapt.”
Director David Leitch feels like Kravitz truly brought his character to life, bringing nuance to her role. “One of the things I loved about Zoë is that she brought both strength and complexity to Reagan,” Leitch says. “We weren’t interested in creating a conventional genre character. Reagan has her own perspective, her own frustrations and her own relationship to the ideas the film is exploring.”
How to Rob A Bank also stars Nicholas Hoult, Anna Sawai, Rhenzy Feliz, Christian Slater, and Pete Davidson. The film arrives in Philippine cinemas on November 11.