It takes a certain type to sign up for ‘The Running Man’. In the world imagined by Stephen King – first brought to the screen in a 1987 Arnie vehicle, now more faithfully adapted by Edgar Wright – cruel and deadly gameshows rule the airwaves, offering entertainment to the masses, and much-needed cash to contestants. The biggest one? ‘The Running Man’, a no-holds-barred human hunt, where if you survive 30 days, you leave with your life, and mega moolah to boot. At the heart of Wright’s The Running Man is Glen Powell’s Ben Richards, desperately needing money to save his child – but he’s not the game’s only contestant. Also in the mix is Laughlin, played by Katy O’Brian. And if you’ve seen her in Love Lies Bleeding – or The Mandalorian, or this summer’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – you’ll know she’s not one to cross.
With her distinctive cowboy-meets-Vegas getup, Laughlin is something of a wildcard. “I played it as, it’s rock’n’roll,” O’Brian tells Empire. “In this world where you’re given so few opportunities to exist if you weren’t born in the right place, you can have a certain type of mindset. You can give up, put your head down. You can be a rebel. You can go with the flow.” Laughlin’s approach is very much to do things her own way. “I play a lot of Dungeons & Dragons, so I was thinking ‘chaotic neutral’, going on to ‘chaotic evil’,” O’Brian explains. “I just wanted it to be a person who is going to live on their own terms.”
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With Wright’s version staying faithful to the ‘Richard Bachman’ novel (King wrote it under a pseudonym), the contestants here are sprung into the wider world – rather than confined to a studio set, like in the Arnie film. “I went back and watched it after we filmed, and I was like, ‘This is totally different’,” says O’Brian of the previous adaptation. “It feels very contained, comparatively to this, which feels so vast.” Sending Richards and Laughlin out into the open makes for a different kind of ride. “There's definitely something about being trapped and contained that's thrilling and nerve wracking, but then something about being in the open – and being a target in the open, which we feel a lot more in this version – is horrific,” she says. “I love seeing that difference in dynamic, but I tend to think that this version is a little more amped up.” Ready. Set. GO!