Exclusive: Filmmaker Seth McTigue And Actor Roy Huang Discuss Take The Night

Twenty-five is a great age, but for some reason Robert Chang isn’t feeling the vibe. No worries. Savvy brother William can perk things up. Why not stage a fake birthday kidnapping for his younger sibling? Ah, what money can buy. But that’s not the icing on top of the creative birthday cake in Take The Night. The faux kidnappers are innovative, too. If an insanely rich guy is paying them upfront anyway, why not go through with a real kidnapping?

And so it goes in writer-director-producer Seth McTigue’s wildly ambitious and edgy debut thriller, starring Roy Huang (William), Sam Li (Robert), Brennan Keel Cook, Antonio Aaron, and even McTigue, who takes on a role as one of the crafty kidnappers. But here’s a film where the stakes were already high before the filmmaker dove in. Sure, it would be McTigue’s first big film, but he’d have to be innovative and knock it out of a playing field filled with major competition.

“As a filmmaker, you’re fighting against everything, especially time,” McTigue says. “And I came from making short films, which is very different. But when you have a vision, and you execute your vision in something this big, you have 100 different people helping you make sure your vision shines through. There’s a lot more going on in this drama than just some rich guy staging his brother’s kidnapping. It’s not a super surface-level film. It’s a thriller, and it can be pretty dark, and I think people will be surprised by that.”

McTigue’s Road To Filmmaking

Take The Night is certainly fiery. But it’s also an intelligent thriller that delves into the connection — and expectations — siblings have toward one another, and the inner motivations of wanting more than you’re given. McTigue took on four roles in the project, fronting the film on the creative end as writer-director-producer, then actor. “Doing anything on a film is really difficult,” he admits. “And doing four different things on a film is really, really difficult. There are things that come more naturally to me, like producing and directing. I’m also a business owner, so I’m used to managing a reasonable amount of people, and I’m all about quality. So making sure I get the best quality out of all my personnel is important to me. For me, acting was most difficult. And I think anyone who meets me and then sees the film, will be like, ‘Whoa, it’s like you’re a different person.’”

Curiously, being a filmmaker wasn’t a big drive early on. Born and raised in New York City, McTigue looked to his biggest idol, Michael Jordan, and suddenly wanted to be in the NBA. “I was lucky to grow up watching Jordan and honestly, it might sound funny, but when no one else was holding me accountable, I would just think, ‘Man, Michael Jordan wouldn’t give up. I’m not gonna give up now.’” He’d just turned 17 and was living in Philadelphia when he saw Christopher Nolan’s film, Memento. “I was blown away. I didn’t know I wanted to make movies because it’s such a big thing. And I’m one of eight kids in my family. I didn’t even have the financial capacity to even think that big. So, I never knew I wanted to do it. But that film… My brother Chad, who unfortunately passed away, always wanted to make movies, and he always talked about it. He was very good at telling stories. So, in some way, he’s still here with me in this project, and I hope I make him proud.”

McTigue’s depth extended to the actors working alongside him, too. Huang, for instance, notes how enriching it was to be part of the director’s vision. “Seth is a first-time director, and I was surprised by how open he was to feedback from the cast,” the actor recalls. “He was constantly asking us, ‘Hey, how am I doing? What do you guys think about this or that?’ That, to me, was really refreshing — to be able to contribute in that way.”

Related: Exclusive: Stephen Mangan Discusses How The Split Became a TV Hit

Behind The Scenes of Take The Knight

Huang was one of the last actors to be cast in the film. He remembers doing a Zoom call with McTigue to hash things out—the director had to cast the ideal William and needed an actor who showed range and intensity. But Cook, Li, Aaron, and Shomari Love and Grace Serrano each brought their own unique skills to the project, creating an endeavor that starts on a slow simmer and immediately begins to boil.

“One of the most challenging things about the shoot was that nearly everything was shot outside the timeline of the script,” Huang notes. “We had to keep in mind all the little details, and it had to be right. The watch I was wearing was important in the script — I’d be wearing a watch in one scene, and in the next scene, the watch had to be gone. There was a lot to keep track of.” Other interesting filmmaking components stand out. The relationship dynamic between co-star Kim, who plays Huang’s brother in the film, also had to be on the mark. “I think he really captured that younger brother trying to do everything right really well — being perfect and living up to a family standard,” Huang adds. “My character wants to do things his way and I felt Seth really helped us with that brother dynamic. We played very well opposite each other.”

Like McTigue, Huang never really set out to be in films. He spent three years at Georgia Tech, until one day, he “felt” it just wasn’t for him. Flash forward to him at the Sheraton Hotel in Atlanta trying to figure out what to do, and an opportunity just “randomly” came along to do a commercial. “I got a big national commercial, and I started getting the checks,” he says. “I was like, ‘Maybe I should look at this acting thing.’ I fell in love with it after that and really started pursuing it, eventually moving to L.A.”

Taking chances was part of the process for both filmmaker and actor — and the characters in Take The Night for that matter — but when asked what he hopes people take away from McTigue’s thriller, Huang says: “Mostly, I hope everyone has fun. That’s why we go to movies, right? But with this, maybe too, to experience a unique relationship between two brothers—well, four, if you count Brennan’s character, who plays Seth’s brother in the film. There are all these things going on between them and I hope audiences experience a memorable ride into those relationships, and the struggles we all have between each other.”

Take The Night opens July 8 in theaters and is available On Demand and digital July 12.