NEED TO KNOW
Rebecca Ferguson balances an impossibly suspenseful situation in A House of Dynamite.
As Olivia Walker in the Netflix thriller, the actress captains the White House’s Situation Room with the world on the brink of nuclear war. PEOPLE has an exclusive clip from the film, which comes at a “moment in the film where the tension was quite high,” teases Ferguson.
“I learned from the former senior director of the real-life Situation Room, Larry Pfeiffer, who was on set every day,” says Ferguson, 42. “He taught us to never lose your cool in the Situation Room. If you need a break, you leave, you walk out, because you have to maintain calm in every situation.”
She adds, “This scene is one of those moments of humanity. These people and teams train over once or twice a day, 400 times a year for events like this. But they are also human. They cook, they put their children to bed.”
Netflix
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The ensemble drama, which had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September, explores what would happen if a “single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, [and] a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond,” per a synopsis.
Says Ferguson, “Through the film you are shown different perspectives and sediments of information. It’s a gut-punch every time. It is the domino effect of decision-making and what the repercussions are of that for humanity. It’s one of my favorite films that I’ve ever been in.”
Eros Hoagland/Netflix
Directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty), A House of Dynamite also stars Idris Elba, Gabriel Basso, Anthony Ramos, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee, Willa Fitzgerald, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Kaitlyn Dever.
A House of Dynamite is on Netflix Oct. 24.
