Cast Shailene Woodley,Theo James, Octavia Spencer, Jai Courtney, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Mekhi Phifer, Daniel Dae Kim, Keiynan Lonsdale, Rosa Salazar, Suki Waterhouse, Jonny Weston, Ashley Judd, author Veronica Roth, and director Robert Schwentke all attended the Insurgent United States premiere in New York on Tuesday. Fervent fans lined 54th street to get a glimpse of their favorite actors walk the red carpet at the Ziegfeld Theatre.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent raises the stakes for Tris as she searches for allies and answers in the ruins of a futuristic Chicago. Tris (Woodley) and Four (James) are now fugitives on the run, hunted by Jeanine (Winslet), the leader of the power-hungry Erudite elite. Racing against time, they must find out what Tris’s family sacrificed their lives to protect, and why the Erudite leaders will do anything to stop them. Haunted by her past choices but desperate to protect the ones she loves, Tris, with Four at her side, faces one impossible challenge after another as they unlock the truth about the past and ultimately the future of their world.
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Check out what the cast told us exclusively on the red carpet:
Shailene: Robert is somebody who is very strong with his point of view and he knows exactly what he wants to convey to an audience, but he has zero ego attached, which is a rare quality to have.
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How amazing is it to play a woman who is so tough both mentally and physically?
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Shailene: It’s exciting. I think that women are incredibly strong and to have the ability to showcase a female’s strength and integrity because she is willing to wake up every single morning and be brave and honor her own intuition is a really beautiful act.
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What’s Tris’ relationship like with Four in this installment?
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Shailene: It’s a very realistic grounded, real relationship.
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Zoe Kravitz
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In this film, your character goes through a challenging emotional journey.
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Zoe: It’s actually very rare that you get to play another side of the same character in film, so it was really fun and challenging in a really good way to figure out how do I play this same character in a different situation, in a different emotional state, so it was an actor’s dream.
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Speak about working with the director Robert.
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Zoe: He’s wonderful. He’s such a cool guy. He sits on a bouncy ball and has really funny props around. He brought a very playful energy to the set and I think it comes through because the stunts and all the action is so playful and fun and young and he brought a lot of energy to it. He’s amazing.
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How has your character evolved since the last time we saw her?
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Zoe: In the first film I think Christina is a lot more the comic relief in a lot of ways and in this film because of what’s happened with her and Tris, she’s in mourning and she’s questioning everything and you see a much more reserved, darker side to her.
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Mekhi Phifer
What is Max up to in Insurgent?
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Mekhi: I play Max, the leader of Dauntless, and in the first film you see me more as a task master – someone whose doling out orders and making sure that people follow him and in this one we’re hunting. We’re going after these Divergents and trying to reign in control of society as we feel it being unraveled from our control.
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What makes this franchise different than anything you have done?
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Mekhi: For one, I have never been a part of a series like this, the books have been great. They come in with a built in fan base, and plus working with all these great talents and all these great people, no actor would turn that down and be of sound mind.
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Have you read the books?
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Mekhi: I haven’t yet, but that’s a conscious thing, I’m waiting until I finish this film series and then I’ll go back and compare the books to the movies. Yes, I will.
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Rosa Salazar
What has it been like to join this massive franchise?
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Rosa: Oh my god. Mindblowing. It’s crazy. It’s the biggest thing I had done when I got this movie and I felt weak in the knees when I got the call, I was like “really me?” It has been surreal at every level and this is the most surreal moment.
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Tell us about your character.
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Rosa: Lynn is a badass, she’s got a mohawk, she’s got tattoos, she just wants to be considered as tough as any man can be considered. I think that’s what makes her a really dynamic woman.
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Speak about working with Robert.
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Rosa: Robert is so funny. I love Robert. Robert is really easy to work with, really effortless, really knows what he wants and he had his kid come to set … It was the cutest thing I had ever seen and that’s just the kind of dad he is.
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Keiynan Lonsdale
How excited are you to join this franchise?
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Keiynan: It’s amazing. It’s definitely not something I was expecting to do with my year last year, but I’ve had such a great time and it’s overwhelming and daunting, but you just go with it and this is really fun.
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There is a lot of action in this film. Can you speak about that?
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Keiynan: My first scene was actually a fight sequence in the scene with Tris and I on the rooftop of Candor, so I was chucked in the deep end and had to go straight into stunt coordinating – the training for that with them, so it was difficult. I had a couple of bruises and I was like this is hard, but I like it.
Joseph Trapanese did the score for the Insurgent.
Tell us about the music for the film.
Joseph: I worked on two of the songs, I worked on the M83 song and the Ellie Goulding song at the end of the film.
What was it like working with Ellie?
Joseph: Well I never worked directly with Ellie Goulding, I worked with the film crew. They needed additional strings over the intro to Ellie’s song at the end. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Ellie, she’s an amazing artist.
What is it like to do music for film?
Joseph: It’s really intense. I like to think of music as the invisible actor in a film, because it’s so powerful that just by changing a few notes you could change the entire emotion that the audience is feeling. So I take my job very seriously, although here tonight I’m having a lot of fun, I’m trying to suck it all in and enjoy the premiere and step back a little bit. But I really love what I do. I love adding that extra emotion to films.
You’re also working on the music for Straight Outta Compton. How did you get involved?
Joseph: It’s like a homecoming for me. I worked with Universal Pictures on Oblivion. Universal Pictures is making Straight Outta Compton. When this film came up they thought that I might have the right skill set. They presented me to the director, the director liked my work and brought me aboard. I started talking about this movie right when I was wrapping up Insurgent, so I kind of wrapped up on Insurgent then immediately started working on Compton. I could use a vacation soon, but I’m happy to be working, I love what I do.
Can you speak about your passion for hip-hop?
Joseph: I grew up in Jersey City. I may not act like it, but I grew up on the streets of Jersey City, and hip hop was the first music that I fell in love with. So to work on a film about some of the earliest hip hop, some of the music that influenced those around me growing up is really and honor and very humbling to be a small part of it.
Also, check out what producers Barry H. Waldman, Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher and Todd Lieberman had to say about the film.
The film opens nationwide in 2D, Digital 3D, IMAX 3D and RealD 3D on Friday, March 20.
