Exclusive: RJ Cyler, Sebastian Chacon, and Donald Elise Watkins talk dark dramedy ‘Emergency’
Hitting theaters on May 20 and on Prime Video on May 27 is the Sundance award winning film Emergency, directed by Carey Williams and based on his Sundance award winning short of the same name, the script was written by Academy Award nominee KD Davila and stars RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins, Sebastian Chacon, Sabrina Carpenter, Maddie Nichols, Madison Thompson, and Diego Abraham.
Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and his best friend, Sean (RJ Cyler), are both seniors in college about to embark on an epic night of Spring Break parties. Sean has the whole night planned out, including every party they will hit on their “legendary tour.” Kunle is down, yet mostly concerned with finishing up his mold experiment in his lab, as his acceptance to Princeton is hinging on the results. They return to their apartment to pre-game, yet find that their roommate, Carlos (Sebastian Chacon), left the door open. As they enter with trepidation, Sean and Kunle discover a drunk, semi-conscious White female they don’t know on the floor and an oblivious Carlos, who didn’t hear her come in over the videogame blaring in his ears. Kunle wants to call the cops but Sean vehemently opposes the idea concerned how it will look when the cops show up (two Black men, one Latino man and a passed out White woman).
Together, Carlos, Sean and Kunle load the girl - who they nickname Goldilocks, but whose real name is Emma (Maddie Nichols) - into Sean’s van, with the intention of taking her somewhere safe rather than calling the police. Meanwhile, Emma’s sister, Maddy (Sabrina Carpenter), has realized that Emma left the party they were at, and begins to search for her in a drunk panic using Emma’s phone’s location. What ensues is a chaotic, hilarious, and tension- filled chase all over town as our trio grapples with their differences while attempting to bring Emma to safety.
Cyler was most recently seen opposite Idris Elba and Regina King in the Netflix western drama The Harder They Fall as well as in Williams’ R#J, a modern-day retelling of Romeo and Juliet that premiered at the Sundance. His other acting credits include the CW’s Black Lightning, Sierra Burgess Is a Loser on Netflix, and Sony’s White Boy Rick.
Chacon has appeared in Pose, Mr. Robot, and The Get Down and was will next be seen in Amazon’s forthcoming original series, Daisy Jones & The Six.
Watkins was last seen in Barry Jenkins’ Amazon series The Underground Railroad. His other acting credits include the Roots remake, and Free State of Jones.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke with the trio about their roles and they relate to the characters.