You could hardly ask for a better movie debut than Chase Infiniti’s in One Battle After Another, even if the 24-year-old actor was very much thrown in at the deep end. As Willa, the teenage daughter of former revolutionaries, she was called on to do shoot-outs, car chases, karate, and to hold her own against heavyweights like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Regina King. “My whole life has literally changed in the last six months,” she says.
Tell us how you got this role? Was there a giant karate tournament where you had to defeat all your rivals?
No, thank God. I did six months of auditioning for the film while I was working on my first project, Presumed Innocent. So I was in California when I sent in my first self-tape. And about a month after that, the casting director called me and was like: “Hey, Paul Thomas Anderson would love to do an in-person callback, and it’s going to be a chemistry read with Leonardo DiCaprio and Regina Hall.” And so after that, I had in-person auditioning, callbacks, chemistry reads and camera tests, and then I had four days of intensive karate training, private lessons and group classes. Paul came to watch the final one, and then after that, he told me I’d got the part.
Were you fazed at all to be acting opposite such established names?
I was definitely freaking out the first time that they told me. And I called my parents right away, and I was like: “Mom, I’m about to meet Leo DiCaprio and Regina Hall tomorrow.” So they were freaking out too, even more than me. Once I got there, on the day, I was like: “OK, I came here to do my job, and I’m gonna make sure that I’m doing right by myself and my scene partners.” Standing in front of DiCaprio, the facade kind of fades the second that they call “Action”. Also he’s such a kind person, and really funny. So even the first time I met him, it was really easy to drop in from the start.
A lot of the men in this story are pretty dysfunctional, and a lot of the women are incredibly powerful. Did they look out for you?
Even before we started filming, Regina was like: “If you ever need anybody here, let me know.” I took her up on that. She’s just such a special person and such a genuine human being, and I love her very much.
You get to do so much in this movie – shoot-outs, car chases – what was your favourite bit?
Getting to do all those sequences has been one of my dreams for so long because I love action films. So I was so excited to race a car and to do a little fight sequence and to use firearms on camera. But one of the scenes I was the most excited to do reading the script for the first time was when Lockjaw [Sean Penn] and Willa first meet in that church at the Sisterhood of the Brave Beaver. I was so excited to do that scene, and then getting to see it on the big screen, I felt nothing but pride.
The story deals with themes of racism and racial hatred. Was that difficult to negotiate, as a mixed race person?
Unfortunately, they’re not themes that are so strange to me, given the state of the world – who I am, where I am, and how I look. But thanks to Paul, and also to Sean and the entire crew, I was given a space where I could feel comfortable to face it head-on and not be fearful. I was bringing from my personal experience, and a lot of it, [Anderson] was like: just bring what you think of Willa, because you are Willa. He completely entrusted her over to me, which I’m so grateful for now.
She’s pretty fearless for a 16-year-old. What were you like at that age?
Me at 16? I was scared. I had a really hard time figuring out where I fitted in. But the only place I really felt like I belonged was in theatre and performing. That was one place where I could completely lose myself and feel at home and at peace in a way that I never had felt before. I went to a school for musical theatre [in Indianapolis]. That’s where I really started to learn the importance of an ensemble, and working as a team, because no performance is individual.
You must get asked to explain your name a lot.
I love explaining it! I love my parents very much, and they spent a lot of time on my name. My first name comes from Batman Forever – I’m named after Nicole Kidman’s character Chase Meridian. And then my middle name, because Infiniti is my middle name [her surname is Payne], that comes from Toy Story, when Buzz Lightyear says: “To infinity and beyond.” My parents definitely love the movies.
What’s next for you?
I just finished filming the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale called The Testaments [she plays Agnes, daughter of Elisabeth Moss’s character June]. So I got to dive into Gilead, which is really cool, but you’re seeing a new corner of it.
What was your favourite film of the year – apart from One Battle After Another?
I absolutely loved Sinners. I am going to go rewatch it around Christmas. I think that movie is so special, getting to see people that look like you on the screen with an incredible story like that, and you just feel how much love and effort Ryan Coogler put into it.
