Summary

Collider’s Steve Weintraub talks with Abel Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, Barry Keoghan, and director Trey Edward Shults for Hurry Up Tomorrow.

The movie stars co-writer Tesfaye, executive producer Ortega, and Keoghan in a psychological thriller about identity and introspection.

The crew shares favorite theaters, discusses Kubrick movies, and highlights the importance of open-ended storytelling in the film.

On May 16, Grammy-winning, Academy Award-nominated artist Abel Tesfaye, professionally known as The Weeknd, is taking fans and audiences backstage for a visual, sonic trip in his psychological thriller, Hurry Up Tomorrow. It’s an odyssey of self-discovery that Tesfaye tells Collider’s Steve Weintraub is “experimental” and “subjective,” allowing the viewers to experience a story that refuses to spell everything out until the very end.
In the movie, Tesfaye plays a fictional version of himself — a chart-topping pop icon reeling from the effects of insomnia — in an alternate universe, where he meets a stranger (Jenna Ortega), who starts unraveling him at his core. The film is co-written by Tesfaye, director Trey Edward Shults (It Comes at Night), and Reza Fahim (The Idol), and co-stars Wednesday’s Ortega and Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin).
Check out the video above or the full transcript below for our sit-down with Tesfaye, Ortega, Keoghan, and Shults, where they discuss the behind-the-scenes of Hurry Up Tomorrow. Multi-award-winning Tesfaye talks about penning the tracks throughout production that would go on to inspire his most recent studio album, Ortega and Keoghan discuss their scenework together, and Shults explains his approach to the movie’s ambiguity, saying, “everything’s not tied up in a beautiful bow.” They also share their favorite movie theaters and Stanley Kubrick movies.
The ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ Crew Share Their Favorite Theaters

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COLLIDER: This is the kind of movie you want to see in a movie theater. I’m obsessed with seeing movies in movie theaters. Fuck iPhones and whatever. Do you have a favorite movie theater?
JENNA ORTEGA: I love the Los Feliz Theater. I really do. I like the Vista, too, now that it’s reopened and back. I remember I saw Zone of Interest there. That was my first movie at the Vista, actually. The sound design and everything were incredible. Those are just nice, comfortable favorites. Staples. The Nuart, as well.
BARRY KEOGHAN: The New Beverly Cinema.
ABEL TESFAYE: The New Beverly’s good.
KEOGHAN: I saw Bullet there. That was amazing.
TESFAYE: I saw The Brutalist there. It was incredible.
KEOGHAN: They play everything on 35, the originals.
TESFAYE: Right now, I want to say the IMAX on Del Rey. I love going there. IMAX is…
It’s my favorite format.
TREY EDWARD SHULTS: It’s amazing.
TESFAYE: It’s pretty incredible. But I gotta give a shout-out to the original Cineplex in Scarborough back home. That’s my favorite theater.
SHULTS: I grew up in Texas, so there were theaters in Austin. The Drafthouse was starting out, and the Paramount Theater. Now I live in Orlando, and there’s a Regal right down the street from me. It sounds incredible.

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I’m just going to say, if you are in L.A., the IMAX theater at the AMC Burbank 16 is also really, really good. I’m going to recommend that one.
TESFAYE: Oh, yeah, I think I’ve been there. That one’s great. Huge.
It’s a fantastic screen. James Cameron, not to name drop, said that was his favorite digital IMAX theater.
TESFAYE: To show the new Avatar or just in general?
Just in general. He loves it. But if you’re seeing something in film, maybe a different place.
What’s Your Favorite Stanley Kubrick Movie?

“That’s an evil question.”

Custom Image by Nimesh Perera 

I’m wearing my Kubrick shirt. The last time I did this, I was interviewing Ridley Scott and Denzel Washington. For each of you, do you have a favorite Stanley Kubrick film?
KEOGHAN: A Clockwork Orange.
TESFAYE: I remember Denzel gave a great answer to that.
SHULTS: I think Clockwork, too.
ORTEGA: I feel like Barry Lyndon.
SHULTS: Barry Lyndon’s amazing.
ORTEGA: Oh god, that’s an evil question.
It actually is.
KEOGHAN: Especially when he’s staring at you.
TESFAYE: I’m gonna say Full Metal Jacket.
SHULTS: Clockwork was the most influential to me. When I saw Clockwork at a young age, it literally blew my mind and opened up what cinema could be. But Clockwork, 2001, The Shining.
KEOGHAN: That’s hard.
TESFAYE: I mean, greatest Christmas movie ever: Eyes Wide Shut.
ORTEGA: Literally. Yes.
Listen, I’m going to say maybe Die Hard could be higher as a Christmas movie.
TESFAYE: I would love to have seen his A.I. He was working on A.I. before Spielberg.
Yeah, 100%.
Barry Keoghan Is a Wolf on Set

A “big, huge wolf.”

Image via Lionsgate

Jenna, you said, “Something I shot with Barry was one of my favorite days on set…”
KEOGHAN: You said that?
ORTEGA: Yeah, I did. Thanks for reading it to him.
KEOGHAN: No, read it! Keep going. [Laughs] Can you send me that?
Yes, I can. “We just put a lot of trust in each other, and he’s just incredible to play off of.” What scene was this?
ORTEGA: It’s pretty much the one where we interact. All I’m going to say is it’s in the hotel room, and it’s quite urgent.
TESFAYE: It’s intense.

Image via Lionsgate

ORTEGA: It’s very intense. On paper, you read something like that, and you’re very curious about the way that it’s going to be shot. You don’t know other people’s comfortability. But you’re very spontaneous, [Barry]. You like to play. You kind of feel like…
KEOGHAN: A wolf, right?
ORTEGA: You’re just very unknown.
KEOGHAN: She said wolf. She put that in there, as well, right?
ORTEGA: I said “big, huge wolf.”
KEOGHAN: Stop! [Laughs] I’m gonna touch on that, as well. Just before you came in, I was saying that as soon as I saw the movie, one of the first things I said was, “I wish I had more days,” because we only shot together for one day. Was that the last day?
TESFAYE: With you, yeah.
KEOGHAN: I was hoping to do more with Jenna, so it kind of goes back to that.
SHULTS: And when people see the movie, they’ll know what scene it is. It’s their one pinnacle scene together.
I’m obsessed with the editing process, and I talk about editing with every director. I’m so curious about this one because the music and the visuals have to be a perfect marriage. What was the editing process like for the two of you, and how did the film change in the editing room in ways you both didn’t expect?
SHULTS: Good question. From my perspective, it was extremely smooth, especially with music, because he had sent me a bunch of demos and stuff even before we shot, which could kind of be, “Are they songs? Are they score?” Who knows? Be inspired.
TESFAYE: References.
SHULTS: Exactly. I would add stuff in the edit. Honestly, the movie, editorially, didn’t change that drastically. From the first cut to the last, we cut, like, 30 minutes just trimming it up and tightening it up.
TESFAYE: I will say Johnnie Burn was a big, big help.

Image via Lionsgate

SHULTS: Our sound designer. He was huge with everything.
TESFAYE: Huge because we were doing a lot of changes for post with the music, with score. I was writing music on set. The music felt like it was another character in the film. We were giving notes to the music, we were trying to adjust it to the scene. So, it wasn’t too much of a nightmare, but I think the music was probably the longest process out of everything, scoring a picture.
SHULTS: For sure.
I can’t even imagine.
The Weeknd Compares ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ to What It’s Really Like Backstage

“It’s always different in real life.”

There is a scene in the film where you’re backstage getting ready to go on stage. You’re pumping up.
KEOGHAN: Like a wolf.
Exactly. Then you’re filming on stage. I know you’re playing a version of yourself, but how much is that exactly the way it is, and how much is that fictitious, like, “We’re just filming a movie?”
TESFAYE: Well, I will say that it isn’t too lonely back there. There are moments right before I go on stage where I like to be by myself and just kind of be in my own head for a bit, but I think we really wanted to amp up the abandonment in the opening. For example, I’m not doing vocal warm-ups by myself. I’m doing that with a teacher. But I think the environment was pretty much the same. We built the entire backstage.
SHULTS: We kind of modeled the green rooms and the backstage after his real stuff.
TESFAYE: We did it at the Rose Bowl as well.
SHULTS: Everything you’re doing in there, you kind of do, more or less. I wouldn’t say it’s that compressed right before you go to stage. I don’t know.
TESFAYE: It’s always different in real life.
Your DP, Chayse [Irvin], said, “Hurry Up Tomorrow isn’t interested in spelling things out or tidying things up. It’s built to provoke reflection, to hold ambiguity without getting lost in it, and to explore the quiet collapse of identity.”
SHULTS: Beautiful.
TESFAYE: Wow.
SHULTS: Chayse said this? [Laughs]
KEOGHAN: Can you send me that, as well?
I thought it was a great quote.
TESFAYE: That’s a great talking point right there.
Could each of you touch on that? That the film isn’t looking to spell everything out and sort of let the audience pull things away from it?
TESFAYE: Well, my favorite thing about the original idea going into it, we wanted it to really feel subjective from the jump. The whole gotcha moment of it being subjective, or is it real or is it not, we wanted to dead that at the beginning. It’s going to feel experimental.
SHULTS: For sure. I love movies that have an openness about them, where everything’s not tied up in a beautiful bow, and hopefully, your relationship to them can change over the years, and what you take from it. If they’re open enough, you can have your own interpretations, and you can change your relationship with that movie. Everything I try to do is designed that way, but especially this movie. We have our own clear interpretation of what the movie’s about, what it’s saying, where it’s going, but there’s no correct answer to me. I think everyone can draw their own conclusions, ideally.

Image via Lionsgate

ORTEGA: My favorite movies are the ones that create conversation, and I think that this is one of those films that does that. It also invokes a very specific feeling that is somewhat relatable, even if you haven’t experienced anything like it yourself. It’s this kind of universal feeling, so I just keep saying, “It’s a feeling, it’s a feeling.” It’s more about the tone and the environment. Obviously, what everyone takes from that is going to be different and personal to them.
TESFAYE: Yeah, definitely a conversation after.
SHULTS: I hope so.
KEOGHAN: I agree.
Hurry Up Tomorrow is in theaters May 16.

Hurry Up Tomorrow

Release Date

May 16, 2025

Runtime

116 minutes

Director

Trey Edward Shults

Writers

Reza Fahim, Trey Edward Shults, The Weeknd

Producers

Kevin Turen, Harrison Huffman, Jenna Ortega, The Weeknd, Michael Rapino, Harrison Kreiss, Ryan Kroft

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