The stars of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery make merry at EW's cover shoot

A Blanc Christmas

Daniel Craig is the only returning cast member of Rian Johnson's follow-up to his 2019 whodunnit, Knives Out, as enigmatic detective Benoit Blanc. But Craig says he'd follow Johnson just about anywhere. "His way of bringing the best out of people, I admire it so much," the former James Bond gushes. "It's a wonderful way of directing and everybody feels pleased to be there. Everybody feels confident. Everybody feels in a good mood. The mood is light and creative — he creates this atmosphere on set that feels like a wonderful cauldron of creativity. It's a joy to be around."

Where the Monáe is

Multi-hyphenate Janelle Monáe has a key role in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery as Cassandra Brand, the mysterious former business partner of Edward Norton's Miles Bron. But Monáe, who has only acted in a handful of films, says the greatest gift of the project was being able to learn from her fellow actors on set. "The experience, outside of filming was the real magic," she tells EW. "As an actor, I'm always studying, learning, trying to find new ways to think about approaching my work, and being able to [watch] Daniel's process, Edward's process, or Kate's or Kathryn's, all of that is something I definitely absorbed."

Kate called Birdie

Because of her love for the first film and Rian Johnson's work, the project was an easy yes for actress Kate Hudson, who stars as former model Birdie Jay. But she was also swayed by the story's jumping off point of an epic game night, given that she also has a reputation for hosting such occasions. " If I took Birdie out of the movie and put her at one of my game nights, she would be really entertaining," laughs Hudson. "For my game night, the rule is definitely a full bar."

Kathryn all along

Kathryn Hahn is no stranger to great ensembles, but she will always count the Glass Onion crew as a personal favorite. She stars as ambitious politician, Claire Debella, but any such cutthroat behavior was reserved for the screen only. "Theater is the root of it for me always," she says. "It's just that backstage feeling of playing cards, or in this case, playing chess, having inside jokes, doing stupid practical jokes on each other and pranks, and making that feeling of an ensemble. It did feel like we were a summer rep company. We had a backstage area where we'd play chess and listen to music. Edward was working on the guitar. Kate and I would do yoga. We'd have beach parties on the weekend. We really did become this little company. And if we're not all popping up in mustaches and wigs for the next one, we're going to be very sad."

Miles of ego

Edward Norton puts the mystery of Glass Onion in motion with his tech bro billionaire, Miles Bron, and the invitation to the Grecian island that kickstarts the events of the movie. He sees these films and Rian Johnson as a worthy successor to great mysteries writers. "He's a legitimate heir to the Agatha Christie mystery writer mantle," says Norton. "He's incredibly adept at imagining not only the mystery payoff but the comic payoff within that mystery payoff. The fact that he's able to let us all laugh at American life is what makes it not just a period piece homage. You're getting all the delights of the form of the murder mystery form, but not having to just experience it as a retread."

In the room where it happens...

For Glass Onion and his role as scientist Lionel Toussaint, Leslie Odom Jr. wanted to bring something very specific to the character, basing him on Dr. Lonnie Johnson. Dr. Johnson is a Black NASA scientist who inadvertently invented the Super Soaker. "I did a bunch of research on Dr. Johnson and I imagined him as Lionel's grandfather," says Odom. "That was my backstory. Because underneath all that fun, this film is really about integrity. Miles Bron pulls so many of our strings and keeps us continuously compromising our integrity. I wanted to complicate it for Lionel and make it personal in that he comes from this long line of really accomplished and successful scientists."

Put up your Dukes...

Dave Bautista joins the fun as Duke Cody, a narcissistic Twitch influencer. Bautista is one of a handful of stars to have made the transition from professional wrestler to actor, and he says he always judges his success by the collaborators he finds himself amidst. "I always gauge my career on who I am working with," he says. "I always say that I'm an on-the-job running actor. I'm giggling because I'm thinking about how lucky am I to be working with these people. I always put a little more pressure on myself because I want to fit in. I want to feel like everybody wants me there, and I don't want to be the weak link. But at the same time, I know I can gauge where I'm at with my career on the people I'm working with. And so when I sit around with these ensembles of amazing actors, it's surreal to me."

Take things down a Peg

Jessica Henwick gets to bring some dry humor to the beach as Peg, long-suffering assistant to Birdie Jay. Before she was an actress, Henwick went to film school — and she even wrote Glass Onion helmer Rian Johnson a fan letter. "The one piece of fan mail I've ever written in my life was to Rian after I studied Brick in my film studies class," she admits. "I basically wrote him an email professing how much I loved his storytelling and all the twists and turns, and how I hoped that I could work with him one day. When he offered me the role, he wrote me an email responding as if he was responding to my fan letter. He was like, 'Sorry, I'm a bit late. Thank you for your lovely letter about Brick. Yes, there are a lot of plot holes in it.' And when he emailed me, it came up as a recurring contact. My Gmail acknowledged that I had emailed him before."

A shot of Whiskey

As a young actress living in Los Angeles, Madelyn Cline had no trouble finding inspiration for her role as Duke Cody's girlfriend/fellow influencer, Whiskey. "I sometimes look at people and I'm like, 'You are a caricature. I want to bottle that up,'" she laughs. "It's one of those things where you watch people and what they do is so hilarious, and they don't even realize it. Not in a mean way, just in a way of, 'You are such a character.' Especially living in L.A. and being the age that I am, being able to tap into that was so exciting."

Mystery lover

Craig is himself a great fan of mystery fiction, whether it's the tales of Simeon Grist or the work of Agatha Christie. "Agatha Christie, I used to read a lot of, and I probably read one a year, especially when building up to this to get myself into it," he tells EW. "But there's so much great mystery writing out there. Christie is clearly incredibly important, but there's so much of it to tap into and hopefully take influences from. There were so many movie influences and things like that. Rian always manages to somehow make them relevant without being preachy, and that's such a wonderful thing."

Define your Brand

While making Glass Onion, Monáe was thrilled to find an empathetic partner in director Rian Johnson. "You felt this is a person that cares about you, as a human, not just what you can do for their film, work, or art," she says. "It was a real human-to-human connection. He wanted to make sure that the experience was enjoyable, and one that we would all hold dear to us. There's a turning point for my character. It required a lot of emotional strength for me. There were moments where Rian would allow me to take whatever time I needed to get into the climax of what my character needed to do. I don't know what he told the producers or the crew, but he always made me feel like there was time to find it and to make sure that it feels authentic."

Let me entertain you

Hudson is hoping everyone finds Glass Onion the perfect cinematic stocking stuffer this holiday season. "This is the kind of movie that if someone didn't enjoy it, I definitely don't want to go to a party with them," she admits. "It's probably not the person I'd be hanging out with very much. I very rarely feel that way. I'm very highly critical of my own performances, and I'm very critical of the movies that I'm in. But when I left the Toronto premiere, I had so much fun watching this film. We need more movies like this, and I'm just so grateful I get to be in this one."

Puncture wound

Norton sees this as the perfect moment to take a swing at entrepreneurs who have put themselves on a godlike pedestal, as he and the film do with Miles Bron. "There's a documentary where [WeWork founder] Adam Neumann is talking about software and education and changing the world, and then they cut to [NYU business professor] Scott Galloway saying, 'You're renting f--ing desks, man. What are you talking about?'" says Norton. "Rian took aim at that with Miles, and I love it. He took aim at a species and a personality type that we see in American life in this era of worshipping the entrepreneur, no matter how superficial their success may be or how much borrowed credit or stolen valor they may be poaching off of other people who really did the work."

Christie clear

Odom Jr. is the only member of this core cast to have the unique distinction of starring in both a Knives Out film and a recent Agatha Christie adaptation (2017's Murder on the Orient Express). But despite the fact that Johnson credits the grand dame of mystery as inspiration, Odom says the processes were exceedingly divergent. "Orient Express has more of a somber or a serious tone," he reflects. "This is a romp. It's not only the fact that we were shooting so much of the film in Greece in the summer, it's also that the plot of the thing is that we're invited to these few days on a private island to play games and have fun together. Those things lent itself to a very different tone and general vibe. The films don't feel the same. They didn't feel the same on the page, and they certainly don't feel the same in viewing."

The art of husbandry

Despite the fact that Hahn and Odom Jr. have played husband and wife over three seasons of Apple TV+'s animated musical Central Park, they had never worked together in the same room. But that didn't mean it was hard to find an easy rhythm playing longtime friends. "He's very easy to have chemistry with," Hahn says of Odom Jr. "We immediately fell into onscreen love together, like an onscreen friendship. I adore him and he is so good. We're not that precious about it, so we were able to have a really good time between the scenes. He's a gem, and he taught us all how to play chess." Adds Odom Jr.: "To experience Kathryn up close and personal is like nothing else. She really is so special. She's such an incredible talent. I call her a miracle. She was a big reason why the set felt so buoyant and wacky and ridiculous, and I can't thank her enough for that."

Falling all over herself

The entire cast describes Glass Onion as a set that was ripe for improvisation and invention. "Rian let us all engage in a level of physical comedy that was almost slapstick; it was a riot," says Norton. For Henwick, that was a major element to the humor of her character Peg, who is often aloof and sullen in her group scenes. "I was trying to find moments of physical comedy," she explains. "Peg is a bit of a klutz. There is a scene with all these glass statues, and I had an idea that made it in where I go to touch one and it immediately starts falling over. And then I'm grabbing it. And it's a glass statue of a nude woman. And I'm trying to grab at the butt to try and keep her in place."

Stars in her eyes

Cline also got into the spirit of camaraderie and play that pervaded the set, allowing moments to truly surprise her. "There was this one moment with Benoit [Daniel Craig] where he comes up to me and he says, 'Whiskey, you're a Taurus,'" she details. "Rian was like, 'Just play around, let's see what happens.' And I whispered, 'I am.' I was just shocked, 'How does he even know?' Of course he knows. That was us just playing around."

A killer pair

The heart of the Knives Out franchise is writer-director Rian Johnson and his star Daniel Craig, the actor behind detective Benoit Blanc. Get them talking about it each other and it's an absolute love fest. Johnson calls it a very collaborative process, but Craig is quick to demur. "I let Rian get on with it," he says. "He's an incredibly competent, amazing writer. He goes off and works and works and works and works. He doesn't really like to show anything to me until he is confident that he has got, if not the finished article, something very close." But Johnson has nothing but praise for his leading man. "He's got an incredible sense of humor, and he makes what is a role with a high degree of difficulty look very, very easy," gushes Johnson. "To do that level of storytelling and keep it engaging, fun, and to hold an audience's attention with what is essentially 20 minutes of exposition at the end of a long movie is extraordinary. He makes it feel like the most breezy, fun thing of all time. But he puts a hell of a lot of work into it."

Third time's the charm...

Johnson still has to get Glass Onion into theaters, but after that, it's off to the races again as he is contracted for a third film. One he hopes will be entirely its own beast. "This is the first time I'm writing a series of my own stuff," he says. "One of the traps you have to avoid is the notion of what you repeat or what you intentionally don't repeat. I'm already thinking about the third one — and what's genuinely fun about is thinking how to clear those cob webs out of my head. I have some story elements and a general It would be really interesting to do this thing. But I'm still not sure what the setting of it's going to be. I just want to do something that feels different than the first two."

Make sure to check out EW's Holiday Movie Preview cover story on Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.