Netflix Ugly is set in a futuristic world where mandatory cosmetic surgery is set for the age of sixteen so that everyone will look beautiful. The idea is that this will put an end to war and fighting, because everyone lives on a level playing field. Tally Youngblood (Joey King) is eager for her turn to join the rest of society, but when a friend runs away, she embarks on a journey to save her that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Ugly is a sci-fi movie based on Scott Westerfield’s novel of the same name. It is the first of four books, leaving the door wide open to make this a franchise rather than just a standalone film. Something Netflix would surely love to see happen. Ugly Starts streaming on Netflix on September 13.
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Screen Rant Sat down with Laverne Cox to talk about Netflix Ugly. She reveals the advice she would give to younger audiences dealing with the thoughts of being less than or not enough. Laverne also details the inspirations she looked to when embracing her villainous side and what it was like working alongside the young cast.
Laverne Cox wants viewers of all ages to take away “critical questions” from uglies
Screen Rant: What would you say to kids watching this movie? Because it definitely has a message that will resonate with them.
Laverne Cox: It’s interesting. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos of people who read [Uglies] As a child, and now they have reread it, and they have a different opinion as an adult than they did as a child. And, for me, what I love about Talley vs. Shay, if we will, is that Talley has completely bought into the system of this is how I’m supposed to be, and doesn’t really question. Shay is like, “Maybe there’s another way?” I have always been the man [that asks] Maybe there is another way, right? The system never really worked for me growing up. I did not feel beautiful. I didn’t feel like I belonged or fit in, so I had to question the system to survive.
And I think there is something really healthy here. Someone earlier asked me why I remember reading as a child and [I remember] Read Walt Whitman. I was obsessed with Whitman in high school. I don’t remember what song it was, it was somewhere in Leave the Grass. He was like, question everything and never just make a blind assumption about things. Thus fostering this sort of critical lens towards the world. Basically that metaphorical, get on a hoverboard and go to the smoke, to this other world, which encourages you to question everything you have learned. I think that critical thinking really, but critical questioning, is what I want people to take away. People of all ages, don’t be afraid to question the system.
Laverne took inspiration from wolves when creating Dr. Cable
“When there is food and prey, the way they lurk and wait for their moment…”
Screen Rant: The ideal is a bit of the opposite of your character’s way of thinking.
Laverne Cox: Yes indeed. Laverne and Dr. Cable are not the same person, but I have so much fun being the woman who finally wants what I want. She wants everyone to be treated equally and not discriminated against because. Her methods are ethically problematic. And the way she crushes the scent is also morally questionable, but it’s also so much fun to play. The process of preparing to do it – any role for me is always equipped.
I’ve been working with this acting coach, Kimberly Harris, for seven or eight years now. We always do character private moments, and we started doing animal work with a role I did on The Blacklist. We will often choose an animal for a character, not always. But in the book, Scott writes that she has eyes like a wolf. So it only made sense that she would be a wolf. And so Kimberly compiled all the videos, and I found other videos myself. There are probably hundreds of hours of wolf videos. It’s amazing that you can find them, because people go, there are all the National Geographic and other things, where people go to the forest and put cameras there, and watch wolves in the arctic or wherever.
Just watching them be aware that there is a camera there and that their surroundings are disturbed. When there is food and prey, the way they lurk and wait for their moment… They are predators, but then they have, when they have cubs, they are so nurturing and so just beautiful to them. This sort of dichotomy is really interesting. And then just the physical and the vocalizing. Kimberly sent me these beautiful recordings of wolves howling that just reminded me of Diamanda Galás. The whole process was a lot of fun.
Then you almost humanize the animal and find ways to incorporate it into the physical. So embodying an animal, and then combining that with your wants and needs, gives you, hopefully, an idea of who the character is, and helps you live in that character in your body and lift it in your imagination and all that good plant Stuff.
Laverne says the young actors on Ugly are “so talented and professional”
Screen Rant: You are absolutely phenomenal in this movie. I would have to ask you what inspirations you took, but clearly wolves are an inspiration.
Laverne Cox: I love that it comes from the text. It’s not always the case, but often, it is, I found, if you really read the source material, it’s in the script, it’s in the text, and you can pick up a lot. And that’s really enough. Hopefully you have done so much work, and you are so prepared, that when you get to set, you can just live. You can only live. The other actors will do things that inspire you, the director will say things, and you’re still in character and operating as the character, but something else has happened to you, or there’s a new approach to something, so you do all these Preparation so you can be free on set.
McG was just such a joy to work with. And all the young actors in it are just so talented and professional. I just suggested it, because once… I was on projects with younger actors who were just a little angry and a little whatever, and the actors were called that. So professional and prepared. Hit marks, hit emotional notes, name after name. Just so prepared. It’s the commitment, I guess, because I take it very seriously, and it’s just wonderful to be on a set where everyone is really hardcore and serious about the work. It’s inspiring.
Could Uglies have more movies to follow future books?
“If enough people watch, maybe there will be a sequel.”
Screen Rant: This isn’t the end in the books, so is there more to come?
Laverne Cox: People have to tune into Netflix. If enough people watch, maybe there will be a sequel. So we will see.
More about Netflix’s Uglys (2024)
In a futuristic world that imposes cosmetic surgery at 16, Tally is eager for her turn to join the rest of society. But when a friend runs away, Tally embarks on a journey to save her that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Check out our others Ugly Interview here:
Ugly Coming to Netflix on September 13th.
Source: Screen Rant Plus