LAVALLETTE – Hollywood stars Uma Thurman and Joe Manganiello enjoyed local summer as they filmed the final scenes of 2023’s “The Kill Room” at the Jersey shore on October 7.
The description on IMDB.com summarizes: “A hitman, his boss, an art dealer and a money-laundering scheme that accidentally turns the assassin into an overnight avant-garde sensation, one that forces her to play the art world against the underworld.”
The film, which also stars Thurman’s daughter Maya Hawke (best known as Robin on Stranger Things) and Samuel L. Jackson (best known for being in practically everything), will be out next year, but it’s unknown when the release date will be.
The director, Nicol Paone, grew up in Lyndhurst, although she now lives in L.A. Her proud parents, Dominick and Elizabeth, live in the Green Island section of Toms River. They invited The Toms River Times to the set to watch the fun.
“She’s a hard worker, like her mom,” Dominick said.
“She never gives up,” Elizabeth said, noting that this was a trait instilled in her from her own mother.
That tenacity was on display when things didn’t work according to plan.
The last few shots needed to be done in Florida in June but the weather didn’t work out. So, months later, Lavallette became the understudy for Florida. They blocked off entrances to a park off Bay Boulevard for some filming, drawing the interest of a few pedestrians. They brought in palm trees to complete the look.
Then they went to the West Point Island home of James and Sharon Maida. It had become a makeshift movie studio for the day. Techs set up equipment, make up and hair were done. Their boat, License To Chill, will also make it into the movie. There’s a chance that the Seaside bridge, off in the distance, will stand in for the bridge on the Florida Keys.
Sharon Maida said they live in Bucks County, but summer here. In a strange coincidence, their son Nick was having dinner with his fiance in Hoboken when Paone was filming in that restaurant.
Thurman had her studio in a spare bedroom. Manganiello and his dog, Bubbles, worked out of a side room leading to the deck. (Bubbles does not appear in the movie, but was likely off camera during any time her dad was on camera.)
A local limo service brought in a white limo for a shot of Thurman going into it. The Maidas’ garage became a location where Manganiello opens up a roll of caution tape and interacts with a dead body. Some local restaurants benefitted from the need for catering.
James Enright, a chiropractor in Lavallette, graduated with Nicol Paone. James Maida is his client.
When she needed a waterfront location, Paone said “I know just the place – the Jersey shore.” New Jersey is a microcosm of the entire country, from farmland to the beaches, cities and more. The script originally called for the locations to be in Brooklyn but she changed it. New Jersey has an incredible tax credit for filmmaking. She’ll definitely film in this state again.
“My chiropractor, Jim Enright, asked my dad ‘who do we know?’” Then Jim asked James. “That’s Jersey for you,” she said.
When you’re in the audience, you get lost in the movie. You don’t see the myriad of tiny decisions that are made that lead up to the finished product. Watching from the sidelines, you can see creative problem solving at work. There are a million moving parts, from cast, crew, weather, lighting, props and more. Paone referred to it as a $10.5 million company that was created in a few weeks. When things line up, it’s a mixture of kismet, hard work, talent, experience, and quick thinking.
During a few minutes when she wasn’t needed, she took the time to sit down with a reporter about working locally.
“I love it,” she said. “It feels like full circle.”
The writer and comedian made her directorial feature debut with Friendsgiving (2020), which she also wrote.
“Everything’s different on every movie,” she said. You just have to listen to your own voice. She said Ben Stiller told her to follow her instincts: feel it out. “You can’t listen to anyone else.”
Next year, in addition to this film coming out, she has a script ready called “Bulldog Barb” with Edi Patterson from the Righteous Gemstones attached.
They also filmed in Jersey City, Hoboken, New York and Florida. As an example of another interesting coincidence, she was talking to a police officer working the set in Hoboken. It turns out he bought her childhood home.
One of the union workers on set in Lavallette has an uncle that was Dominick Paone’s coworker.
William Rosenfeld, the producer, took a brief step in front of the camera to portray the body on the floor of the Maidas’ garage.
Nicol knew one of his business partners from her Wall Street days. He sent Rosenfeld the script.
He grew up in Philadelphia but his family summered in Barnegat Light since the early 1980s. Even now, he’ll take his kids down there.
When they were driving south on the Garden State Parkway from New York to Lavallette, they got off at the Toms River exit, but a little piece of him longed to go down to the LBI exit.
“It’s a little dream,” he said, “to be able to come back to childhood places, with people you love – it doesn’t feel like work.”
When he was a kid, he dreamed of making movies. So, everything he saw was a potential location. Now, to actually make a movie at the Jersey shore is amazing.
“I can’t stop my brain from thinking what to make,” he said.
The previous four days had rained, so the cast and crew were worried that weather would sink the day’s shooting as well. Instead, the sun came out and it was perfect.
“We caught the best weather,” Manganiello told The Toms River Times during a break. “I’m having a great time.”
“I’m from Pittsburgh. My parents are from Boston. I’ve got a bit of that East Coast edge. When the cameras are off, and they’re barbecuing with the Jersey Teamsters, I feel right at home,” he said.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity for me. ‘Pulp Fiction’ was one of the seminal movies of the 90s. I must have seen it eight times in the movie theater. That changed my life and it’s one of the reasons I want to do film,” he said.
“The Kill Room” marks the first time Thurman and Jackson will share a movie since ‘Pulp Fiction.’”
“It’s so much fun to act with them. They’re so professional. Nicol is such a great director. She’s really actor friendly,” Manganiello shared.
“Bubbles has gotten to know some of the parks in the area,” he joked. The chihuahua mix was well known by the entire cast and crew by the end.
Manganiello will be directing and producing a documentary marking the 50th anniversary of the tabletop role playing game Dungeons & Dragons. He has more than 400 archival hours of footage that’s never been seen. This will be the fifth movie with the production company he formed with his brother Nick.
He is also going to be working on adapting one his favorite fantasy book series for streaming, but he was not allowed to share details on that yet.
He’s also filming “Moonhaven” in Ireland, which is in its second season for AMC. And he’s also playing someone on Apple’s “Mythic Quest” who is “very important character to their canon.”
He offered advice to creatives seeking to start their career: “When it comes to creating you just have to do it. If you want to write, direct, you have to do it. Figure it out. Run up your credit card. If you’re talented, someone will find it.”
At the beginning of every shot, crew members would say “Quiet” a few times before the cameras rolled. At the end of the shot, Nicol would watch the playback and either make a suggestion of something new to do or say something like “Nice! That was it!”
Following a list of shots needed for the movie, the cast and crew finished up the final day of shooting for the movie, here in Lavallette.
