A Quiet Place: Day One director talks casting Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn as the perfect mid-apocalyptic duo

A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski says working with Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn was not only easy, but that they completely nailed their complex characters.

“I am so thrilled that she did it. I think initially, she was top of our list. We sent the script to her and I sort of assumed we would get a ’thanks, but no thanks’. I mean, it’s Lupita Nyong’o. But she just really responded to the character and the script and just saw so much in that character and was able to bring so much out and it’s a really hard character to play,” Sarnoski tells GamesRadar+.

Nyong’o plays Sam, a woman whose trip to New York City turns into the first day of an oncoming apocalypse. During the madness, Sam encounters a man named Eric (Quinn) and the two – with Sam’s cat Frodo in tow – struggle to survive an invasion of murderous creatures with ultrasonic hearing. The Academy Award winner is no stranger to starring in films where lives are at stake, with her most recent being Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

“I mean, there’s sort of a physical demand both from what that character is going through on a personal level and for the scope of the movie, and she managed to do this. You know, at times [this is] a big action movie, but then at times it’s this extremely intimate drama where she’s dealing with stuff that is really harrowing, and she threaded that needle quickly.”

The film marks the third installment in the A Quiet Place franchise, with John Krasinski directing the first two pics. Sarnoski writes and directs Day One, which marks his second-ever feature film. Though Quinn is newer to the Hollywood blockbuster world, Day One marks his fourth feature film ahead of Gladiator II and The Fantastic Four.

“I mean, Joe is one of the easiest people I’ve ever had to work with. He’s so kind and so smart and so hard working and we really put him through the wringer. I mean, He’s soaking wet and freezing cold half the time in this movie. There’s not a lot of dialogue in this movie, so he doesn’t have that much to work with as far as speaking,” Sarnoski says. As the world crumbles around them, Sam and Eric become each other’s only hope.

“He has to carry a lot of that emotional weight, and a lot of that character through silence. And he did a beautiful job with that. And then Thankfully, he and Lupita just had a really interesting chemistry and dynamic that came across really well on screen even when they weren’t talking. So I don’t think we could have ended up with a better demo there.”

A Quiet Place: Day One hits theaters on June 28. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2024 and beyond.