{"id":757246,"date":"2026-09-02T01:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T01:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/757246\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T01:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T01:40:16","slug":"adria-arjona-talks-onslaught-man-of-tomorrow-andor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/757246\/","title":{"rendered":"Adria Arjona Talks Onslaught, Man of Tomorrow, Andor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAdria Arjona<\/a>\u2019s career is all gas and no brakes \u2014 except for when she was driving her truck near the set of Onslaught<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe in-demand actor is currently juggling a bevy of projects, including the aforementioned gonzo horror-thriller from Adam Wingard, a top-secret role in James Gunn\u2019s Superman (2025) follow-up, Man of Tomorrow<\/a>, and Michael B. Jordan\u2019s The Thomas Crown Affair. Arjona also has several indie films in various stages of production, and her female lead role in Ed Brubaker\u2019s Criminal series, based on his own Marvel\/Image comic book, is finally nearing release.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Arjona first met with Wingard to discuss Onslaught and her character, Celeste, a traumatized former Army sniper, she arrived in a 1979 Ford F-150. She suspects the truck may have helped her clinch the role, as Wingard had already envisioned Celeste driving something similar. After landing the part, Arjona even tried to get her real-life truck into the movie, but its bright orange paint job created some lighting challenges.<\/p>\n

\n\tArjona still drove her pickup to the New Mexico set, and there were days when the transportation department had to come to her rescue.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would get stuck in the middle of the highway. It\u2019s a shitty truck. I bought it on cars.com. I shouldn\u2019t have. It was so cheap, and now half of my bank account has gone toward trying to fix this truck,\u201d Arjona tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Onslaught\u2019s Sept. 4 theatrical release.. \u201cIt finally runs, but when I was filming this movie, it didn\u2019t. So the transport department had to come pick me up in the middle of a highway a couple times so I wouldn\u2019t be late to set.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCeleste\u2019s PTSD has driven her into isolation at a remote trailer park, far from her seven-year-old daughter, Daisy (Blake Kennedy). But when a work emergency forces Daisy\u2019s father and Celeste\u2019s ex-husband (Jacob Scipio) to drop her off unexpectedly, their reunion coincides with a nearby military experiment going catastrophically awry. Suddenly, Celeste must protect her daughter from three super soldiers who are programmed to kill anyone in their path.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen trouble first arrives at the Windy Oasis mobile home community, Celeste goes to retrieve one of her assorted weapons. This leads to the moment in the trailer when she spins a handgun\u2019s cylinder in front of her cabinet or rack of guns.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat shot [of her spinning the gun cylinder in front of her arsenal] was one of the hardest shots I\u2019ve had to do. I had to nail it in maybe three takes because we were running out of time,\u201d Arjona recalls. \u201cOn the first take, the entire armory fell on top of me. It was a trailer packed with so many people. If somebody moves, everything moves. Adam probably still has the footage. We were like, \u2018Fuck! Shit! Put it back.\u2019 We then had time for one last shot, and [prop master\/armorer] Brett [Andrews] was like, \u2018Breathe, focus, you got it.\u2019 And that\u2019s the take that\u2019s in the trailer<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNext summer, Arjona will appear as a mystery character in Gunn\u2019s Man of Tomorrow. Consequently, many fans are wondering who she\u2019s playing, forcing her to choose her words very carefully throughout Onslaught\u2019s promotional campaign. In any event, Arjona felt right at home on set, particularly given her history with DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, who produced her first film, The Belko Experiment (2016), a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMan, it was so cool. It\u2019s just so easy to step back onto a set with people that you feel familiar with because there\u2019s already trust. That\u2019s how I felt coming [onto the Man of Tomorrow set] and stepping into this role,\u201d Arjona shares. \u201cJames Gunn and Peter Safran were right there, and I had all the trust. I have all the support. I was like, I\u2019m good because they\u2019ve got me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for Andor<\/a>, the Emmy-winning series left Arjona\u2019s Bix Caleen in a position where further adventures could be explored involving her and her child (Cassian Jr.? Cassie?) with Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). Arjona isn\u2019t ruling out the possibility, but she\u2019s also hesitant to do anything without series creator Tony Gilroy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cListen, I am the most loyal Gilroy there is. If Tony Gilroy is in, I\u2019m right there with him,\u201d Arjona says. \u201cI respect so much what he\u2019s created, and I love him so dearly that I don\u2019t want to put my fingerprints on it. It might be too soon. I don\u2019t want to say never, but I love the way he ended that show. I respect it, so I want to keep it like that for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPrior to Andor season two, Arjona collaborated with Richard Linklater and Glen Powell on the romantic crime comedy, Hit Man, and she was heavily, yet unofficially, involved in the scripting process. For example, she not only wrote the film\u2019s most memorable line of, \u201cWho the fuck is Gary!?\u201d but she also typed it into Linklater\u2019s computer per his insistence. Riding high on that experience, Arjona received a much different response when she tried to pitch Gilroy some Bix material for Andor\u2019s second go-round.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI did call Tony with a bunch of ideas, and he was like, \u2018No, no, no. Not this movie, baby.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Damnit. Okay,\u2019\u201d Arjona says. \u201cI was feeling very confident in my writing, but not with Tony Gilroy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, during a conversation with THR, Arjona also reveals the Onslaught character detail she brainstormed with her partner Jason Momoa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tOnslaught came your way as you were shooting Criminal and about to go shoot Splitsville a couple years ago. Considering Celeste is no walk in the park, what was your mindset at the time?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRight before I went to go meet [director] Adam Wingard, I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t know if I can do this one. This is going to be tough.\u201d Celeste is such a multi-layered character, and I was tired. I was a tired girl. Going from a heist show like Criminal and a comedy like Splitsville to this world, I was like, \u201cOh man.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut within 30 minutes of meeting Adam, I was like, I\u2019m in. I want to do it. It has to be mine. I\u2019m obsessed with this dude. I\u2019m obsessed with this script. He pitched me the opening 25 minutes of the film, and I was like, \u201cThat sounds bonkers. It sounds like the coolest movie ever.\u201d He already had a lot of the \u201880s-inspired soundtrack as well, and it just feels like a John Carpenter movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI love passionate directors who take swings, and I was like, \u201cI want to support you. I want to go into the trenches with you. Let\u2019s go.\u201d So there was no turning back after that, and I\u2019m so happy I did it. I\u2019m so honored.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAdria Arjona as Celeste in Onslaught.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRichard Foreman\/A24<\/p>\n

\n\tOnslaught is an indirect sequel to You\u2019re Next and The Guest. It completes a spiritual trilogy. Did Adam ask you to watch those films for a tonal reference? Or did he want you to dig more into the \u201880s?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAdam has no ego whatsoever, so he would never tell me to watch his own movies. He\u2019d be like, \u201cJust stick to the script. Let\u2019s focus on this one.\u201d But he did make me watch some \u201880s movies: Aliens and Terminator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFunnily enough, our main thing was music. We shared a lot of it. He had some songs that are all in German, and some choices for the opening sequence are just wild because it makes you question tonally where he\u2019s going with the movie. It can be really funny at times, and then suddenly, there\u2019s heavy action. It\u2019ll be really gory, and you\u2019ll be scared shitless, before it swings right back into comedy. So the songs he shared helped me understand where we were living, tonally.<\/p>\n

\n\tCeleste\u2019s relationship with her adorable seven-year-old daughter (Blake Kennedy\u2019s Daisy) is rather interesting. Daisy behaves more like a grown-up than Celeste does. She\u2019s highly organized with her rolling suitcase. She also does the dishes, waters the plants and has proper manners. It\u2019s Celeste who behaves more like the messy kid, and she tries to teach her daughter to follow suit. How did you and Adam land on that reversal?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a conversation Adam and I had at the beginning. We were both so tired of seeing the perfect mom, and we both wanted to deconstruct that a little bit. It meant finding a way for Celeste to have a little bit more tough love. She\u2019s like, \u201cDude, don\u2019t waste your time on manners. There\u2019s so much shit going on in the world. What are we doing?\u201d She\u2019s a vet; she doesn\u2019t have time for that. Every time she feels something, she just pushes it down. But her ex is teaching their daughter to express her feelings and meditate. That\u2019s not Celeste, and it doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s a bad mother. But because we made those choices at the beginning, Onslaught really becomes a mother\u2019s redemption story.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you come up with a backstory for what happened between Daisy\u2019s father and Celeste? Did her PTSD just make it impossible for her to lead a domestic life with them?<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, she lost a couple friends [during battle], and it traumatized her. To everybody else, Celeste is this weird conspiracy theorist who lives in this trailer park. She isolates herself because everybody thinks that she\u2019s crazy, and at the end of the day, she was right.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAdria Arjona as Celeste in Onslaught<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRichard Foreman\/A24<\/p>\n

\n\tAs you mentioned, Celeste is shell-shocked from her time as an Army sniper. Her PTSD affects her ability to pull the trigger sometimes, and so she grounds herself by digging her ring into her forearm. What did you make of that trauma response or release valve?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was my idea.<\/p>\n

\n\tI figured it was.<\/p>\n

\n\tReally?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI was the first journalist you told about the stick-and-poke tattoo<\/a> you received on the set of Andor season two \u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo I likely connected one form of skin trauma to another.<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Her tremor was in the script, and I was like, There has to be a release. There has to be something that counteracts it. What is it? I was actually discussing it with my partner [Jason Momoa], and we both came up with this idea. I then told Adam: \u201cYo, what do you think if we have this scab on her forearm? You can tell she\u2019s been doing this for a long time.\u201d And then, to be funny, I was like, \u201cCan the ring be her old engagement ring and can it be empty?\u201d That would mean she pawned the diamond and bought a rifle or a bunch of beer or something. So that\u2019s how she inflicts pain on herself, and it\u2019s the only feeling she\u2019s comfortable experiencing.<\/p>\n

\n\tI watched a lot of interviews of vets and soldiers who\u2019ve gone on deployment, and [pain] is sort of their comfort. It\u2019s where they feel at ease. That stayed with me, and it really traumatized me. I was like, Man, that\u2019s horrible. We need to showcase that pain is a big character. So I told Adam all of that, and he looked at me and said, \u201cYou\u2019re insane. Let\u2019s try it.\u201d And within two hours, he had a prosthetic made for us to try out.<\/p>\n

\n\tI read something that suggested Celeste\u2019s truck is actually your truck. Is that true?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFunnily enough, I drive a [1979] Ford F-150<\/a>, and to be fair, I think that\u2019s why Adam gave me the role. I drove it to our first meeting, and he was like, \u201cIs that your truck? That\u2019s what Celeste drives.\u201d And I was like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m like Celeste.\u201d So that might be one of the reasons why he cast me.<\/p>\n

\n\tI then brought my bright orange truck to New Mexico where we filmed, and no one wants to see a bright orange truck in a movie. Our cinematographer [Oren Soffer] was like, \u201cThat\u2019s going to be hard to pull off.\u201d So it ended up not being my truck in the movie, but I did have my truck on set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt became a whole thing with transport because I would get stuck in the middle of the highway. It\u2019s a shitty truck. I bought it on cars.com. I shouldn\u2019t have. It was so cheap, and now half of my bank account has gone toward trying to fix this truck. It finally runs, but when I was filming this movie, it didn\u2019t. So the transport department had to come pick me up in the middle of a highway a couple times so I wouldn\u2019t be late to set.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAdria Arjona as Celeste in Onslaught<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRichard Foreman\/A24<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019re introduced to Celeste\u2019s arsenal of weapons at the start of the movie, and Chekhov\u2019s gun makes us think she\u2019s going to wield them all at some point, especially the one her ex referenced. But then the movie puts her on her back foot the whole time and challenges her to defend her and her daughter in other ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, once you see her arsenal, you\u2019re like, Oh, she\u2019s going to save the day. But I love the fact that Reggie [VelJohnson] and Eric\u2019s [Wareheim] characters have a chance to redeem themselves as neighbors in the process. Celeste kicks some ass, for sure, but she has help as well. That was the whole point of her not getting to use her arsenal, which I think was really smart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat shot [of her spinning the gun cylinder in front of her arsenal] was one of the hardest shots I\u2019ve had to do. I had to nail it in maybe three takes because we were running out of time. And Brett Andrews, our armorer and prop master, is the reason I look cool in this movie. He came into my trailer [to teach me that move], and I practiced it nonstop the whole day. We knew we didn\u2019t have that much time for that shot, and it\u2019s so close-up that any tiny little mistake was going to show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the first take, the entire armory fell on top of me. It was a trailer packed with so many people. If somebody moves, everything moves. Adam probably still has the footage, but the whole thing just fell on top of me. We were like, \u201cFuck! Shit! Put it back.\u201d We then had time for one last shot, and Brett was like, \u201cBreathe, focus, you got it.\u201d And that\u2019s the take that\u2019s in the trailer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo this is the part of the interview where the publicists in the gallery start biting their nails \u2026<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.)<\/p>\n

\n\tTo play it safe, how was your reunion with James Gunn on the set of Man of Tomorrow? [Gunn wrote and produced her first movie, The Belko Experiment.]<\/p>\n

\n\tMan, it was so cool. I haven\u2019t had the opportunity to do sequels to a lot of things. Andor was the first time that I did a second season of something, and it felt so safe. So I understand why people [in franchises] are like, \u201cOh my God, we\u2019ve been together for ten years.\u201d It\u2019s just so easy to step back onto a set with people that you feel familiar with because there\u2019s already trust. You\u2019re not trying to gain anything on that first day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo that\u2019s how I felt coming [onto the Man of Tomorrow set] and stepping into this role. James Gunn and [co-DC Studios head] Peter Safran were right there, and I had all the trust. I have all the support. I was like, I\u2019m good because they\u2019ve got me. I\u2019ve only felt that once before on the second season of Andor, and it\u2019s a great feeling because the first days on set are always scary.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow that you\u2019re one of the most employed actors in town, have you pitched a Bix and Cassian Jr.\/Cassie show to Lucasfilm yet?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tListen, I am the most loyal Gilroy there is. If Tony Gilroy is in, I\u2019m right there with him. I respect so much what he\u2019s created, and I love him so dearly that I don\u2019t want to put my fingerprints on it. It might be too soon. I don\u2019t want to say never, but I love the way he ended that show. I respect it, so I want to keep it like that for now.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBix Caleen (Adria Arjona) in Tony Gilroy\u2019s Andor Season Two.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Lucasfilm<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this year, Tony and I had a long conversation<\/a> in which he welcomed my one quibble with season two. I wanted to see Bix go on a proper mission with Cassian (Diego Luna). When he went undercover on Ghorman as a fashion designer named Varian Skye, she could\u2019ve served as his muse or model. To see them both wearing high fashion for a change, I just can\u2019t get that image out of my head. Anyway, were you frustrated at all that Bix\u2019s missions were mostly off screen?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, because Tony challenged me in a different way. He instead gave me periods of time in Bix\u2019s life to jump into that were very complex and complicated. I knew that I was able to play an action piece, but those emotional beats were really strong for Bix and really challenging for me. So I wasn\u2019t necessarily frustrated because I respect Tony\u2019s writing. I was like, Hmm. Okay, cool. There\u2019s a reason and a rhythm to the way that he writes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI never want to get in Gilroy\u2019s way, even though I [pitched him some ideas] after writing the Hit Man script with Richard Linklater and Glen Powell. All three of us collaborated together. So I did call Tony with a bunch of ideas, and he was like, \u201cNo, no, no. Not this movie, baby.\u201d And I was like, \u201cDamnit. Okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, you literally wrote Hit Man\u2019s show-stopping \u201cWho the fuck is Gary!?\u201d line, so it sounds like you were feeling yourself after that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Yes, I was feeling very confident in my writing, but not with Tony Gilroy.<\/p>\n

\n\t***
Onslaught opens September 4 in movie theaters nationwide.<\/p>\n