The director and “Prey” lead turned to surprising pop culture staples for inspiration while making the film, which became Hulu’s most successful premiere to date (breaking a record). compiled by “The Kardashians”). Amber Midthunder, who stars in the franchise’s prequel “Predator” — which follows the seminal alien’s arrival on Earth — tells POPSUGAR “Billie Eilish’s music was actually ‘a really big part of that movie for me. .
Midthunder plays Naru, a young Comanche warrior who ends up hunting the hunter. She says she’s “a huge fan of Billie Eilish. Her music, at the time, really became one of my gateways.” Her process, she explains, involved “everything from studying the Comanches, to physical preparation, to listening to ‘All the Good Girls Go to Hell,'” a song from Eilish’s debut album. in 2019 “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”
Director Dan Trachtenberg also drew inspiration from another notable figure in the pop culture zeitgeist – Walter White, the title character of “Breaking Bad.” “Today he said something about the fact that he was thinking a lot about ‘Breaking Bad’ when he was making this movie,” Midthunder said, noting that the director explained “some kind of connection between my character and Walter White. I was like, ‘I’ve never heard that before,'” she laughs.
While Naru is quite a far cry from a science teacher-turned-drug kingpin, she begins the film understated and looking to prove herself – and things are a little different at the end, to say the least. we can say.
“Prey” was praised for Midthunder’s star-making performance and gripping action sequences, as well as having an all-Comanche dub, becoming the first film to offer such an option. For Midthunder, an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Sioux Tribe, the film was also an “opportunity to break stereotypes” about Indigenous people. “I’ll find a lot of people don’t know it like, ‘Oh, the natives are actually very well-kept or actually very smart, or very skilled, or very strategic’ – not the things you normally see, which is either hyperspiritual or extremely violent,” she says. “We have characters who are whole people with emotions and desires and a variety of personalities and relationships.”
“Prey” is now streaming on Hulu.