Hit Man Stars Retta & Sanjay Rao Tease Countless Comedic Takes For The Perfect Delivery

Summary Hit Man is a hilarious romantic comedy based on a true story of a college professor turned fake hitman for the police department.

Richard Linklater's direction shines in this film about love, duplicity, and deception with a stellar cast including Glen Powell and Retta.

Improvisation plays a key role in the dynamic between the actors, creating a comedic masterpiece praised by all involved in the project.

In Hit Man, Gary Johnson is a college professor who takes on a side gig as tech support for the New Orleans Police Department. When at the last minute the usual undercover officer isn't available Gary is thrown into the sting operation to impersonate a hitman. Shocking the police with his ability as an undercover investigator he becomes their main fake hitman for undercover operations. However, everything when he meets a young woman, Maddison, during one operation and decides to set her down a different path instead of following through on the arrest which pulls him into a twisted adventure full of love, duplicity, deception, and death.

Hit Man is based on an article of the same name written by Skip Hollandsworth in Texas Monthly about the real Gary Johnson and his undercover operations as a fake contract killer. Richard Linklater served as director, producer, and co-writer along with star Glen Powell. The romantic comedy features a powerhouse cast of comedy with Powell leading Adria Arjona, Retta, Austin Amelio, and Sanjay Rao.

Related The True Story Behind Hit Man, Glen Powell & Richard Linklater's Netflix Movie Richard Linklater's upcoming movie Hit Man is set to become one of his best works yet and is based on the life of a real undercover agent.

Screen Rant interviewed Retta and Sanjay Rao about Netflix's new action romantic comedy, Hit Man. Retta recalled the rehearsal time that the duos used to improvise their lines and find the right fit for the peak comedic delivery and praised Linklater's calm demeanor as a director. Rao explained how Linklater is an inspiring director and praised Powell as an actor a collaborator.

Retta & Sanjay Rao On Finding The Perfect Dynamic For Their Improvisation

Retta and Rao are a hilarious duo bringing fantastic commentary and comedic relief to many of the police-centric scenes. There is an especially notable moment where they are talking about Powell's character thinking he had hung up the phone. Retta explained how they found their hilarious dynamic and the improvisation that went into that scene.

Retta: Rick tends to have a lot of rehearsal time, and that's when we really get to do it. The scene where we don't hang up the phone and Gary hears us talking. We went on forever with the back and forth and when we finally got to a point where we were just tired of talking, that's when Rick, I think, was noting which lines he liked the best and that they were going to go work into the script when we got back to set. Sanjay Rao: I said this earlier, but it's like a samurai sword. He just makes it sharper and sharper and sharper as we go on because we're really just throwing all sorts of stuff at the wall and whatever sticks. That's what he takes.

They also broke down how the improvisation rhythm and chemistry work. They credited each other noting that they feel more comfortable lobbying back and forth versus leading the improvisation.

Retta: I think when Sanjay and I got to do our improving, I do well with someone who's really good at it. I feel like that is not my strongest suit, so when somebody's kind of in it, I kind of get locked into what it is they're doing. So Sanjay is great at that and so I kind of just followed along. I was like, you lead, I'm following. I'm a come back with a response. I'm doing my best to kill it. Sanjay Rao: It's so funny. I felt the same way on my end. I was like, I'm good at responding. I'm not always good at driving. And I thought that you were really good at driving and I was trying to just keep up with my responses. And so with that, we just had a great dynamic. Retta: So perfect.

While there weren't any cut scenes Retta did reveal that they probably did hundreds of takes especially with the scene where they are talking about Gary Johnson thinking he couldn't hear them.

Retta: No, I don't know that there were any scenes that didn't make it in, but like I said, we put out thousands of lines back and forth. I say thousands, it wasn't thousands, hundreds back and forth, so it was just getting things cut down. I'm sure there's stuff that we're like, Wow, I wish that could have gotten in. But it's like we would have to add these other five lines and they don't have that kind of time in this movie. Sanjay Rao: Yeah, because by the time we were finished with the rehearsal and we had that shooting script, I think pretty much everything that was in that script and everything that we did on set was in the movie. It was great. I was always worried about being cut out.

Sanjay "Wanted To Do A Good Job" For Richard Linklater

Retta praised Linklater for being a calm presence as the director and his ability to lead and communicate without yelling. Rao talked about how Linklater inspired the cast and his desire to do a good job, with this being his first movie, for Linklater.

Retta: [Richard Linklater is] very calm. He doesn't yell. I don't know that I've ever seen Rick angry at anything. A light could have fallen and he'd be like, Oh, well that just happened, and he would've just leaned on a wall until it was fixed. He's unbothered, if you will. Sanjay Rao: With that. I don't know, maybe it's because it's my first movie, but I wanted to do a good job for him. I wanted to really give him what he needed to make this movie really great. So I think he's just really good at inspiring that and that's why he has an Oscar.

Retta and Rao discuss working with Powell. Retta loved his Texan sensibility and charm, while Rao praised his flexibility as an actor and his ability to follow Linklater's directions.

Retta: He's lovely. Whatever you think it might be like to work with Glen, that's what it's like to work with Glen. He's lovely. He's a Texan boy like yourself [points at Sanjay Rao] and so polite, charming, chivalrous, if you will, all of the things. He's great. Sanjay Rao: And he's always ready to go. He's very flexible or facile, so it's like if Rick wants him to go left, he'll go left. If Rick wants him to go right, he'll go right. He'll put all of himself into left or right or up or down or whatever. Yeah. What is this analogy that I'm doing? But he's very direct. We're getting into a metaphysical space here. What is time? What is space? What is Glen? Who is a hit man?

About Hit Man

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Inspired by an unbelievable true story, a strait-laced professor discovers his hidden talent as a fake hit man. He meets his match in a client who steals his heart and ignites a powder keg of deception, delight, and mixed-up identities.

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Hit Man will have a limited theatrical release on May 24 before debuting on Netflix on June 7.

Source: Screen Rant Plus