‘Run’ Exclusive Interview: Marques Houston

In addition to Houston, the film also stars Annie Ilonzeh (‘Peppermint’), Drew Sidora (‘Step Up’), Erica Mena (‘The Stepmother 3’), Claudia Jordan (‘Middle Men’), Erica Pinkett (‘Secret Society 3: ‘Til Death’), Jensen Atwood (‘Velvet Jesus’), Ken Lawson (‘Malibu’s Most Wanted’), and Obba Babatunde (‘Black Dynamite’).

Moviefone recently has the pleasure of speaking with co-writer, producer and actor Marques Houston about his work on ‘Run’, developing the screenplay, his character’s motivations, designing the look of the aliens, collaborating on the set with the cast, and his close working relationship with director Chris Stokes.

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‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.

Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about developing the screenplay with Chris Stokes and the themes you wanted to explore as a writer?

Marques Houston: Well, as you know, my business partner, Chris Stokes, who’s also co-writer and director, he came up with the story idea. He gave me a call and pitched it to me over the phone and I was really thrilled by the idea. I felt like it was a great idea. I felt like it was something that hadn’t been done before, and it was very original. So, in writing the screenplay, his thing was that he wanted to do a sci-fi movie where it had all the energy and running and all that sci-fi stuff, but he wanted to make it a love story. So, I said, “Let’s really home in on the love story,” because he’s a huge fan of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, and how their movies always have a great love story, something that you just root for the characters and you want them to win. So, we wanted to go with a great love story. We put in the love story of my character and Annie’s character as a couple in turmoil that we’re getting engaged and I get left at the altar. Then her girls take her on this girls’ trip because she’s so depressed. In the interim of all of that, now here we have this alien invasion. But it’s specified to where they are. So, it’s kind of like it’s happening all over the world, but we really wanted to center it on their story, on the girl’s story with myself included and everything like that. So, we did a great love story first and then we put the action on top of that love story. That’s how we were able to attack the screenplay. That’s what we really were going with, centering in on the camaraderie between the girls, the love story between myself and Annie’s character, and really the ultimate idea of a story of survival and how these friends must work together to survive. The thing is, you don’t see any movies like this with an urban cast, like with a high sci-fi twist. That was a challenge, making a story like that with believable sci-fi, so it’s not corny or like a comedy. We really wanted to make a serious movie, but this situational high concept idea that these aliens are taking over.

MF: Can you talk about how your character Andre, deals with being left at the alter by his fiancé, and does his feelings change after the alien invasion?

MH: Well, being left at the altar is not fun for anybody, of course. I’ve never experienced that before, but I can only imagine the hurt and just the heartfelt crushing that that can deliver, especially to a man’s ego. He’s like, “I got left at the altar. What are you talking about?” So, that was the story point for me, it was like, how do I really get into that feeling of being abandoned? Then going to the hills to try to save the one person that abandoned you, and then you realize that all that stuff that’s downstairs is just not important. It’s like, “What are we even fighting about? Now we’re trying to survive.” Then it becomes a test of loyalty and love, and how do we let all the nonsense go that we were fighting about? How do we really get together and show that true love and that true bond, and how do we survive together?

‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.

MF: From a producer’s standpoint, can you talk about designing the look of the aliens and using both practical and visual effects?

MH: That was Chris. He had all these concept aliens in his brain, and he went to paper with it. It took him a couple of months to fine tune and really get what he wanted, and how he wanted to see the alien’s attack. These aliens, I mean, we all think about aliens as the little head with the big eyes. So, we wanted to go with aliens that kind of reminded us of the aliens that we get scared of, that we’re used to seeing. A lot of movies nowadays portray aliens more as monsters. They have all these legs, and it’s like this monster, you know? ‘Alien’ was such a huge hit, and it changed the whole dynamic of how people seen aliens as more like monsters. We wanted to see these aliens as more of like higher beings, human kind of things, that move like humans, they do everything like humans, but they’re still, higher than us. So, that was the concept behind it. It took almost a year to get everything done with the CG and producing this. It was very expensive to put it on the screen. It wasn’t AI, we didn’t want to use AI, we really wanted to have it be realistic. We also brought in like a stunt actor to become the alien so that we can get that realistic feel as well as, versus the CGI. We did a lot of creative things in creating and putting this movie together. Just to see it all done was amazing for me. I’m so happy and thrilled that it’s done, and I can’t wait for people to see it.

MF: What was it like working with the rest of the cast and was there room for improvisation on set?

MH: So, we put the cast together with a group of people that we’ve worked with before and we’re familiar with including Annie Ilonzeh, Erica Mena, Erica Pinkett. It was our first time working with Claudia Jordan. We worked with Drew Sidora before, and Obba Babatunde, who’s just a veteran, we worked with him before. So, we really wanted to have a family feel of a cast because we needed the camaraderie of the girls and that bond to really pour through on the screen. We wanted it to be believable. So, we didn’t want to have a whole bunch of strangers just meet each other for the first time. We wanted that charismatic element to this cast so that when you’re in there and you’re watching the movie, you don’t want anybody to die. You’re trying to root for everybody. You’re just so excited about everybody living. We want somebody to be like, “Oh, no, I didn’t want that to happen.” So, that’s what was important with the cast for us and for me as a character, I know that I love to be funny in real life. So, when I was doing Andre, and I was kind of just thinking about what kind of character I was going to be. I really loved Will Smith in ‘Independence Day’. I loved the fact that he was serious, and he saved the world, but he was also funny. He had moments where he could be funny and he could be charismatic, and he could still give you a laugh and then still give you some toughness. So, I really did pull from that experience for myself, as an actor, and I just wanted to come off well and I hope it did.

‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.

MF: Finally, can you talk about your close friendship with Chris Stokes and what it’s like to work with him on set?

MH: I’ve known Chris since I was eight years old. He was my manager when I was younger. We’re business partners now. We’ve worked together for so long. We kind of mirror each other’s thoughts and we know what each other’s going to do and what each other’s going to think. I know him as a director, he knows me as an actor and as a writer. It’s great to be able to work with somebody that you’ve known for so long and that you can bounce ideas off each other and creatively. It really is a bond that that we have together because we’ve done so many movies together. It’s like working with your best friend, and it’s great.

‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.

What is the plot of ‘Run’?

When Melissa (Annie Ilonzeh) leaves her fiancé Andre (Marques Houston) at the altar, her best friends convince her to go to a Cabin in the woods on a much needed “Girls Trip” to get her mind off things. But things take a huge turn when their friend Jenny (Claudia Jordan) is found mutilated in the middle of the woods. When the news announces an all-out Alien attack on the Nation, the girls will now have to try their best to survive.

Who is in the cast of ‘Run’?

• Annie Ilonzeh as Melissa
• Marques Houston as Andre Pierce
• Drew Sidora as Britney Sidora
• Erica Mena as Donnie Mena
• Claudia Jordan as Jennifer Jordan
• Erica Pinkett as Brandy Pickett
• Jensen Atwood as Avery
• Ken Lawson as Ronald
• Obba Babatunde as the President of the United States

‘Run’, directed by Chris Stokes, opens in theaters on August 29th.

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