'Killer Heat' Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt And Shailene Woodley Talk ...

Shailene Woodley and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "Killer Heat."

While Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley both admit they’re not big fans of the true crime podcasts or shows—more on that later—they were both happy to explore the intricacies of the murder mystery genre in their new film Killer Heat.

Directed by Philippe Lacôte, the new Prime Video original movie debuts on the streaming service Thursday.

Gordon-Levitt stars in Killer Heat as Nick Bali, a private eye who travels to the Greek island of Crete to investigate the death of shipping magnate Leo Vardakis (Richard Madden), who plunged to his death during a free solo rock climb. Since the wealthy Vardakis family owns the police, authorities insist Leo’s death was an accident, but his sister-in-law, Penelope (Woodley)—who is married to Leo’s idential twin, Elias (Madden)—is convinced he was murdered.

As Nick digs into the case, he think’s nailed down potential suspects. However, as the PI soon discovers, there’s much more to the case than meets the eye on the island—which is ruled by violence and extortion by the Vardakis family.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Richard Madden in "Killer Heat."

In a recent Zoom conversation with Gordon-Levitt and Woodley, Gordon-Levitt said signing on to star in Killer Heat was easy since he’s such a big fan of movie murder mysteries.

“Mysteries are fun. There's something kind of undeniable about it. You know, we've been making these types of movies for a hundred years in Hollywood and these stories were being told before the invention of movies,” Gordon-Levitt said. “Then, if you can take a murder mystery and put it in a beautiful setting—we got to go to the island of Crete—I feel so lucky that we got to do that … [It’s a] fun movie-watching experience.”

While Woodley loved the movie’s script and her trip to Crete, the thing she was most excited about working 0n Killer Heat was the opportunity to reunite with Gordon-Levitt after they first teamed on film in 2016’s fact-based drama Snowden.

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“That project was much more serious and it was a very different beast in and of itself,” Woodley said. “So, [I liked] the idea of getting to go to Greece and have fun while working on a murder mystery.”

One thing Woodley particularly loved was the opportunity to “volley back and forth” with Gordon-Levitt on Killer Heat because “there is a fun rhythm to film noir that you don't get to always explore with other films.”

Perhaps the best part of their exchanges, Woodley added, was seeing how Gordon-Levitt constructed Nick right before her eyes.

“Watching him create that character—I think he’s so brilliant,” Woodley enthused. “He’s being honest and real, but also elevated in a way that's entertaining and fun and relatable.”

While Joseph Gordon-Levitt was impressed by the way the plot was constructed for Killer Heat, he noted that the most exciting aspect of the film was watching the way the characters develop as the story unfolds.

In fact, Gordon-Levitt said, great character development is a hallmark of many of his favorite murder mystery films—including recent entries in the genre from his longtime friend and collaborator Rian Johnson.

“What I love watching about detective movies is not usually the plot, believe it or not, it's always the characters. The ones that really stand out, whether it's The Maltese Falcon or even Knives Out. I love the plotting of that. Rian Johnson is a genius with the clockwork of his plots,” Gordon-Levitt explained. “But to me, what makes those movies so special is the characters. Rian comes up with unique, very human and heightened characters. Those movies have their own kind of unique tone and take on the genre.”

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As for the uniqueness of Killer Heat, Gordon-Levitt said his favorite part of the experience was watching Shailene Woodley redefine the role of the femme fatale in the film.

“She hit all of the marks of what classic performances deliver, but she also brought something I think is honest,” the actor said of Woodley. “The femme fatale comes from a chauvinistic tradition, and she managed to take what's fun about it and then turn it on its head and say, ‘Here’s a real human being and not your stereotypical femme fatale.’ You see that especially toward the end of the movie when you get to see underneath the surface of her character.”

As for their feelings about the true-crime genre, Gordon-Levitt and Woodley said Killer Heat is as close to the subject of murder as they’d like to get.

“I love listening to podcasts but and I'm well-aware of the whole like true crime genre … I feel sad listening to those,” Gordon-Levitt said. “[I don’t like hearing about] the horrible things that have happened to people … I certainly no judgment of anybody that does enjoy those but I like my murder mysteries fictitious.”

“It's not my cup of tea,” Woodley added. “Fictionally I think there’s something fun in [murder mysteries] because it's fictionalized. It’s generally not as gruesome, awful, tragic and terrible.”

Rated R, Killer Heat is streaming exclusively on Prime Video.

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Note: Some quotes in this interview feature were edited or condensed for clarity.