“The atmosphere was amazing, and he and I had a great rapport,” Haas says of Travolta, who plays his older brother in the heist thriller. “We had real ease with each other, which made it even easier for that dynamic to exist.”
Lukas Haas has starred in almost every genre of film — horror, drama, you name it, but light-hearted heist thriller? That was one box he had yet to check … till now.
Haas spoke to TooFab ahead of the release of his latest film, Cash Out, where he shared why he wanted to step out of his comfort zone with this project, and the awesome experience he had working alongside co-star, John Travolta.
“I love doing different stuff… that’s kind of the spice of it all for me, is generally really challenging myself, doing something that I never expected myself to do or sort of trying to conquer, playing a role that I’m not even sure I can play,” explained Haas. “I love challenging myself, but I love diversity.”
“And in this case, I had made a movie with Randall [Emmett], where I played a serial killer, really, you know, serious, kind of intense role,” he added. “And then, he offered me this one, and I read it, and I’m like, ‘This isn’t the kind of movie I normally would do, but it looks like a lot of fun.'”
He continued, “And it’s just different for me, which is what I love to do. So, I was like, ‘Hell, let’s just have a great time.’ Maybe it’d be nice to do a movie where I’m not emotionally in knots. A lot of the movies I do, there’s like — they’re challenging in different ways… they can be taxing. So, it was sort of fun to just do something lighthearted where we all just had a blast making it. We had a great time. So I’m happy I got to do it.”
Working with Travolta was a selling point too, with Haas telling TooFab that he and the Grease star had a great relationship on set.
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“John is just amazing. Obviously, he’s an icon. He’s like a true professional, one of the great actors. So working with him is amazing. But he comes to set with a big smile on his face, and gives you a big hug every morning, and you get off to work. The atmosphere was amazing, and he and I had a great rapport, “Haas said of his relationship with Travolta, who plays his older brother in the film. “We had real ease with each other, which made it even easier for that dynamic to exist.”
Cash Out centers on the relationship between the two brothers. After hanging up his boots for good, professional thief Mason (Travolta) gets lured back into action by his younger brother, Shawn (Haas) with a heist that has the potential to be Mason’s biggest score yet.
“The writing was fun,” Haas gushed. “My character’s this guy who just thinks everything’s going to work out fine, you know, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it, you know, it’s all good.’ And he’s my big brother. He’s the mastermind behind our work. We’re a heist crew pulling off these heists and he’s the brains behind the whole thing.”
But Shawn has some ideas of his own too in the movie, some that get the crew in some serious trouble … like when the bank robbery he plans to set him and his brother up for life, goes awry, leaving the crew trapped inside the bank, surrounded by SWAT teams, the FBI and Interpol.
Things get all the more tense — and complicated — when Mason is forced to confront the lead negotiator, who turns out be his former lover, played by Sex and the City’s Kristin Davis.
As for pulling off some of those more intense scenes, Haas said they went through weeks of rehearsals to get everything just right, with most of the moments in and around the bank filmed in one spot.
“We went through a couple of weeks there, and we shot everything mostly in one spot. So, we were able to go from the teller area, the bank area, and the main bank area down to the vaults and everything. We could kind of do it all. And we had a lot of great people working on the film with us,” Haas shared. “So, we just got really into the rhythm of it and practiced. It was pretty easy in terms of preparation. We just kind of got in there and got it done.”
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Some of the film’s action scenes, however, were a little less seamless, with Haas recalling a moment that he and co-star, rapper Quavo, nearly got stuck in a swamp for real.
“I remember there’s a scene where me and Quavo were driving. We drive off a thing into the lake, into the swamp or whatever. And that was a little bit nerve-wracking because they have those water moccasins and stuff; we were down in the south of Georgia,” the Babylon actor recounted. “So everybody was a little paranoid about that. And the cars are sinking. I mean, they had it all worked out, but the car is sinking, and you have to get out in time and swim out.”
“That was a little bit of excitement,” he added. “But, you know, it worked out great, and it looked really cool.”
Get in on the action when Cash Out hits theaters, digital and on demand, April 26.
