Summary

• Breathe is a thriller with a realistic portrayal of a world without oxygen.
• The film explores mother-daughter dynamics and motivations in a harsh environment with limited ways for survival.
• Quvenzhané Wallis shares insights on working with Jennifer Hudson, forming bonds on set, and potential future musical aspirations.

Breathe is a new post-apocalyptic thriller that follows a Brooklyn family in a world without oxygen. Surviving in an underground bunker after the above ground has become uninhabitable, a mother and daughter's sanctuary is shaken up by mysterious visitors who may not be who they claim. Jennifer Hudson, Common, and Quvenzhané Wallis as a family alongside Milla Jovovich and Sam Worthington.

As far as the genre goes, Breathe presents its apocalyptic world quite realistically, with pollution presumably being at the root of the nonexistent oxygen levels on Earth. After scientist Darius (Common) leaves on a mission above ground and doesn't return, his wife Maya (Hudson) and daughter Zora (Wallis) assume he's perished, and strive to continue his work of oxygen generation and plant life rehabilitation in his absence. When a group of mysterious strangers show up at their underground bunker claiming to know Darius and asking for help, the mother and daughter must decide if they can be trusted.

Screen Rant interviewed Quvenzhané Wallis to discuss the behind-the-scenes moments of Breathe, forming a mother-daughter dynamic with Jennifer Hudson, and her previous work with Beyonce.

Quvenzhané Wallis On Examining Motivations & Mother-Daughter Relationships In Breathe

Screen Rant: What was it like forming a mother-daughter dynamic with Hudson, and what were the biggest lessons you took away from that experience?

Quvenzhané Wallis: When I first started talking to Jennifer, it was just over the phone and over Zoom. I thought I had got past my starstruck energy. Then I met her in real life on set, and I was like, "Yeah, no, I'm not over it. I'm not over it." But filming and being on set with her often, almost every day, we started to begin to learn or get to know each other. We're both Virgos. We both have two cats. We both have these things that we like or have in common. I would even try the humming or singing on set, but I felt intimidated to sing in front of Jennifer Hudson. I tried not to, but I sing a lot when I'm on set, just randomly.

Over time we started to build this connection where it gave mother-daughter, we spent so much time together. We spent so much time off set. We spent time - because she also had her nephews and cousins and her son come to set too, so we were all chilling together. We were just all chilling in the tent and cooling off. It was hot outside. We were bonding over the heat and sweating in the masks, and just bonding over being at set and Virgos and cats and things that we like and love together.

How would you compare your character's situation to what the actual youth is going through today, where they're living in this planet that's increasingly inhospitable?

Quvenzhané Wallis: For Zora, I think it's also mentioned in the movie as well that this isn't something that she was born into. This happened to her in her teenage years, and I feel like that's how COVID was. It just happened. There was no - we saw the progress of it. We saw that it had started somewhere, but we were like, "It's not going to make it over here. We have nothing to worry about."

I feel like that's where I guess you say our generation, my generation, the younger generation are in right now because we're like, "We see it. We see the global warming. We see the pollution. We see everything happening, but it's not going to get to that point. We're not going to let it get that bad." I feel like this movie is showing that it can get that bad. It can get to the point where it's too late to fix it, and we have to do whatever we can to make it better now before it gets to that point.

The world in this film is so harsh. What do you feel like helps your character and motivates them the most to keep going in this really wasteland-ish environment?

Quvenzhané Wallis: I would say the chores that Zora has gives her a reason to go outside and do something. But I think also because she is a teenager, doing chores and having responsibilities to do can be draining. Like, "I don't want to do this now. It's a chore. It's not fun to do anymore. I don't want to go outside and do this. It's boring me."

But I think she also partly looks forward to it because there is nothing else to do. She used to play softball, can't do that, so she throws ball against the wall. There's books, but we've read all the books. There's a little mini herb garden, but it's just watching them grow, it's like watching paint dry. There's nothing really to do. I think that's definitely something that's hard for Zora, but she works through it and finds her way around it.

You mentioned stuff about her life before everything occurred in the movie, she used to play softball. Did you guys spend a lot of time diving into what life and the dynamic was like for this family before everything happened?

Quvenzhané Wallis: We spent a little time, yes, because it was important to know what their relationship - their being Maya and Zora's relationship - was before all of this happened. Even with Common's character, it was important to see where we started and that we were good. We were outside. We were breathing. We were having little family moments together and enjoying being together.

I think that that's very important for us to talk about and also for us to see in the movie, because it'll give you the sense of: that's where we are right now. We are in the sense of like everything's good, we're outside, we're chilling. Then two years later down the line, this is where we are. It's just us, it's just the few people in the cast. There's few people in the world.

Was there one particular scene that was especially difficult to get through for one reason or the other?

Quvenzhané Wallis: I have two answers to that. Overall answer is the masks when we were outside, because it was like 100 degrees outside sometimes, and we were in long sleeves and long pants and layers. That was challenging. But I have another scene that I did with Sam [Worthington] that was really emotional, and it wasn't exactly challenging because I was already having a rough day that day, so I was emotional already.

But it was challenging to separate my personal life from what Zora was emotionally going through, because the emotions were completely different - she's scared crying, I was just having a bad day crying. There was still work that had to be done. I couldn't just use my emotion and be like, "All right, I'm crying." No, I had to convey that I was scared. I had to convey the discomfort in the situation. It was hard for me that day to separate the two, because I felt so - I was really down that day, but it worked out and I could use it. But that was definitely challenging to separate the two, and also to be in those masks and it being hot as hell outside.

Yeah. I was thinking about that when I was watching. I was like, "Man, it must get humid and sweaty in that mask."

Quvenzhané Wallis: It did.

Quvenzhané Wallis On Her Beyoncé Aspirations & Musical Hesitations

I remember that you were also in the "All Night" music video. How are you liking Cowboy Carter, and how you would feel about reuniting and working with Beyoncé again in the future?

Quvenzhané Wallis: How would I feel? I feel like the obvious answer is please, yes, make it happen. I need that to happen. My best friend has been on my ass about it because I haven't listened to the whole album all the way through. I've heard her songs obviously on social media and over and over again just playing the little snippets.

But I haven't had the time, because this is the thing with me: if I'm listening to an album, I don't want to be interrupted at all. Not for one second. I don't want to get in the car and start the album and then have to pause it, walk inside. No, I want to be where I am for the next two hours so I can listen to it. If I want to repeat it, I can repeat something. I need to be not disturbed at all, and I haven't had the time recently to do that.

You mentioned how you sing a lot on set, and obviously, you were in Annie. Do you find yourself wanting to return to more musically-minded roles in the future?

Quvenzhané Wallis: I have this conflict with myself, and Jennifer even told me that I need to get over it and so did my mom. But I have this conflict with myself because now that I'm 20, I don't sound like how I did when I was 10 when I did Annie. I feel like I have this barrier, this wall that I'm trying to fight through of feeling like people struggle with knowing that I look different now, that I grew up. They would struggle with hearing my voice and it not sound the same. Or people would be like, "That was not you singing in Annie." It's like, "Well, I'm 20 now, so don't really sound the same." I've just been struggling with that, and also I don't do singing lessons anymore. I just sing for fun.

About Breathe

Breathe is a heart-pounding thriller set in the future. After Earth is left uninhabitable due to lack of oxygen, a mother Maya (Hudson) and her daughter Zora (Wallis) are forced to live underground, with short trips to the surface only made possible by a coveted state of the art oxygen suit made by Maya’s husband, Darius, whom she presumes to be dead. When a mysterious couple arrives claiming to know Darius and his fate, Maya tentatively agrees to let them into their bunker but these visitors are not who they claim to be ensuing in mother and daughter fighting for survival.

Breathe is in theaters and available digitally now.

Source: Screen Rant Plus