ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with In the Blink of an Eye stars Rashida Jones and Daveed Diggs about their new film. They spoke about their characters, its beautiful themes, and getting to play older versions of their characters. Directed by Andrew Stanton, the sci-fi movie is now streaming on Hulu.
“Three storylines, spanning thousands of years, intersect and reflect on hope, connection, and the circle of life,” says the official synopsis for the film.
Tyler Treese: Rashida, I thought this film was really beautiful, and what resonated with me was how I explored the constant of the human experience. There’s always gonna be grief and a need for companionship, no matter what the time period is. What about this time-hopping script really appealed to you?
Rashida Jones: I mean, you said it, Tyler, there is an essence in this movie that I felt very deeply about being alive and the kind of like… there’s all these stories we can tell about the history of humanity and the wars that were won and the wars that were fought and the, you know, the things that were developed. And at the heart of all of that, it really only exists because people loved each other and took very big swings to be together or have a baby, or you’d be brave or take the next step, or protect their families. Whatever it is, that’s why we’re here. And that’s it. I think this movie is a reminder of that. It’s like a mirroring back to us now. Like, let’s not forget.
Daveed, Claire keeps her guard up in the film. So I wanted to ask you about working with Rashida because your two characters have to have a spark between them, but it can’t be igniting too bright. There’s a balancing act there, so how is it getting to that right middle ground?
Daveed Diggs: Yeah, Rashida and I, we’ve known each other for a long time, and on my side it was actually pretty easy because he’s so in love with her immediately. It was actually like the, the walls really all had to come from Rashida’s side. I was like, “I’m in, I’m here in this, and I’m waiting. I’m waiting it out, and this is where I am,” you know?
So, there’s a wonderful little turning point that happens on a Zoom call with them where she accidentally says that she loves him. I am obsessed with that scene. It’s such a wonderful moment in the script, but I think there’s so much in the construction of it that did a lot of the work for us. At least I felt that way in terms of the, yeah, being in love was not the hard part of the movie for me.
Rashida, there are a few time jumps for your characters. We get to see you really late in life, near the end. How was that process of seeing yourself old? You pulled off the gray hair pretty well.
Rashida Jones: Thank you. I really, I loved the way I looked old. I thought if I look like this, I’ll be very happy. I love the way I looked. It’s almost like a relief. We work in this really weird business where people really don’t want you to be yourself. Like they do kind of, but they don’t want you to age and they also want you to not point to it or talk about it. Everybody’s very uncomfortable around aging and the conversations about age.
By the way, I’m guilty of it. Like, you look at yourself, you think, “Oh, I don’t recognize the person I was 20 years ago,” you know? But as I approach the back half of my life, very squarely, I really love the idea of embracing the woman I’m gonna become because I also know what comes with that. I know how much more I’m gonna know. I know how much more comfortable I’m gonna be in my skin. So it was really cool. Cool to see that and visualize. The makeup was so beautiful, and it felt so real.
Thanks to Rashida Jones and Daveed Diggs for taking the time to speak about In the Blink of an Eye.
