The Instigators' Hong Chau On Reuniting With Matt Damon, Compassionate Character & Casey Affleck Dynamic

Summary Hong Chau and Matt Damon reunite in the heist movie, The Instigators, with deep character development and humor.

Chau's therapist character has a surprising backstory and dynamic with Casey Affleck, including improv moments.

Chau really worked with director Doug Liman to find a unique way to build a closer compassionate relationship with Damon's character.

Hong Chau and Matt Damon are reuniting after seven years in The Instigators. Chau previously found her breakout role in the 2017 sci-fi dramedy Downsizing, which also landed the star her first Golden Globe nomination. The years since have seen Chau garner further acclaim for the likes of HBO's Watchmen adaptation, Netflix's The Night Agent and the Brendan Fraser-led The Whale, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

In The Instigators, Chau stars as Dr. Donna Rivera, the therapist to Damon's Rory who is trying to keep him on the straight and narrow as he finds himself at an emotionally turbulent point in his life, particularly with the separation from his son. When Rory elects to take part in a heist to make enough money to see his son, the job goes awry, with Rory turning to Dr. Rivera for help in patching up his reluctant partner, Casey Affleck's Cobby. Dr. Rivera ultimately joins them in their efforts to escape town before they're captured by the law or local criminal bosses.

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Alongside Damon, Affleck and Chau, the ensemble Instigators cast includes Paul Walter Hauser, Michael Stuhlbarg, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, Jack Harlow and Ron Perlman. Offering a character-driven approach to the buddy comedy and heist genres, the movie is a funny, charming and intriguing spin on the formula thanks to its performances and script from Affleck and Chuck Maclean.

Ahead of the movie's release, Screen Rant interviewed Hong Chau to discuss The Instigators, getting to reunite with Damon after Downsizing, finding the heart of her compassionate character, and building the love-hate dynamic between Dr. Rivera and Affleck's Cobby.

Dr. Rivera Has Far More Under The Surface Than Being A Therapist

Image via Apple TV+

Though many of her scenes revolve around her trying to break through Rory's tough exterior, Chau's Dr. Rivera has deeper layers to her as The Instigators progresses, gradually showing a unique resilience and sense of humor. Chau reveals this came through discussions with director Doug Liman, with the Oscar nominee wanting to find ways to "layer in" a backstory that would fit with Rory and Cobby's story:

Hong Chau: I think that was sort of the easy and obvious thing on the page. What Doug and I kind of talked about was that we wanted to layer in there — or at least, I definitely wanted to layer in there — that she's from Lynn, which is kind of a rough town, and a rough part of Boston. So, who Dr. Rivera is outside of the office might not be who we see when she's in her therapy sessions. [Chuckles] I wanted to kind of layer in there how she grew up, she's probably from a working class background, and to bring that in there, so maybe that's the reason, or part of the reason, why she does hop into the car, as well. But the overarching reason is that she doesn't want anybody to get hurt, and she sees these are probably two guys who could use a little help. And I think that's her motivation there.

Chau Was Thrilled To Reunite With Damon & Build The "Love-Hate" Relationship With Affleck (Including The Improv)

Image via Apple TV+

Part of this backstory ultimately plays into her dynamic with Affleck's Cobby, with the two frequently "ribbing each other" and developing a "love-hate thing". Chau recalls pulling from a variety of sources for inspiration for this dynamic, including His Girl Friday, wanting to find the "fun, funny energy" of their characters:

Hong Chau: Obviously, I knew Matt from working with him from Downsizing. I had never met Casey before, but I kind of had a feeling that I would like him just because I knew that he was like a little brother to Matt. So then, when I met him, he's just really laid back and easygoing, and just kind of sweet. So, in working on that relationship between Rivera and Cobby, I kind of used His Girl Friday as my guide, even though it's not the entirety of the movie, but I wanted to get that sort of fast rhythm, because we are talking over each other, and kind of ribbing each other. There's a little bit of a love-hate thing going on, oddly. [Chuckles] So, even though it's not the entirety of the movie, I wanted to bring in a little bit of that back and forth, and that's sort of fun, funny energy in there.

Chau also found herself surprised by "how much improvisation" she got to do throughout the movie, particularly in her scenes with Affleck, humorously recalling how Affleck was "just tossing out lines left and right", despite being the co-writer of the movie:

Hong Chau: I was surprised, I was shocked by how much improvisation was being done. I love writers and respect them so much, so for me, I usually stick to the script and, if it were up to me, I would not veer from it. But Casey was a co-writer of the script, and he was just tossing out lines left and right. [Laughs] So, that's what I had to play with, and it was like, "All right, game on, let's just do it, try it all different ways." And it was really fun and so unexpected, because I just thought, especially with an action movie, you have to be so precise — or, at least, I thought you had to be so precise, and just kind of stick to the script, so that they could use this take or that take and just kind of keep everything same, same, same, same, same, and it was about the action sequences. That was not my experience on this movie, and I guess that's what makes Doug's movies so special and so unique to him is the tone and the characters. When I spoke with Doug, he said that he wanted it to be a character-driven movie, and not the action driving the movie, and we just had a lot of fun figuring out the relationships, their backstories, what they wanted, and just kind of what we wanted to leave the audience with. So that was really, really fun as an actor to get to chew on.

About The Instigators

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Rory (Matt Damon) and Cobby (Casey Affleck) are reluctant partners: a desperate father and an ex-con thrown together to pull off a robbery of the ill-gained earnings of a corrupt politician. But when the heist goes wrong, the two find themselves engulfed in a whirlwind of chaos, pursued not only by police, but also backwards bureaucrats and vengeful crime bosses. Completely out of their depth, they convince Rory’s therapist (Hong Chau) to join their riotous getaway through the city, where they must put aside their differences and work together to evade capture — or worse. Directed by Doug Liman and written by Chuck MacLean and Casey Affleck, “The Instigators” also stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, and Toby Jones, with Jack Harlow and Ron Perlman.

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Stay tuned for our other Instigators interviews with:

Matt Damon & Casey Affleck

Matt Damon (red-carpet premiere)

Casey Affleck (red-carpet premiere)

Hong Chau (red-carpet premiere)

The Instigators is now in theaters and hits Apple TV+ on August 9.

Source: Screen Rant Plus