Samara Weaving Reveals She and Kyle Gallner Want to Star in a 'Princess Bride'-Style Fantasy

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Kyle Gallner and Samara Weaving in Carolina Caroline

Published Jun 5, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

Summary

Collider's Perri Nemiroff chats with the creatives behind Carolina Caroline.
Stars Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner discuss their on-screen chemistry and the next genre they're ready to tackle together, plus Gallner teases a "dad phase" in JT Mollner's Skeletons.
Director Adam Rehmeir also shares how the movie and the ending completely changed from the original script, and Kyra Sedgwick discusses her scene-stealing moment.

Carolina Caroline is a special movie for genre fans to see in theaters. Directed by Dinner in America’s Adam Rehmeier, this steamy romantic heist story takes audiences on a perilous journey unlike what we’ve seen from the filmmaker before. It’s not an entirely new premise, but what makes it so exciting is Rehmeier’s approach to a new genre and its leading duo’s — horror’s scream queen and king, Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner — command of the screen in a whole new way.

In the movie, stars cross when the charismatic con man Oliver (Gallner) meets sweet, small-town girl Caroline (Weaving). Oliver is charmed by her playfulness and curiosity, and Caroline is dazzled by his whirlwind freedom, and inevitably, the pair team up for a road trip of crime and passion.

With Carolina Caroline hitting theaters this weekend, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff spoke with Weaving and Gallner about their electric on-screen chemistry, why Weaving had to pull out her inner diva to get Gallner as her leading man, and what genre this dynamic duo is anxious to tackle next together. Gallner also teases his career’s next phase when he reunites with Strange Darling’s JT Mollner in Skeletons, and Nemiroff talks with Rehmeier and Kyra Sedgwick, who plays Caroline’s mom, in the video below.

Samara Weaving Says She Went Full "Diva" to Get Kyle Gallner Cast

"I would just pull the diva thing."

PERRI NEMIROFF: Kyle, I wanted to bring back something we were talking about at TIFF because I feel like we can talk a little more about A Bobby Thing now. Can you tell me something about Adam [Rehmeirer]'s sets that stays consistent from film to film, but then also specify something about Dinner in America, this, and A Bobby Thing that felt uniquely creatively fulfilling for you?

KYLE GALLNER: Holy crap, way to just start this off. I mean, look, I love Adam. He's very, very special. The thing that I love about Adam is he has always just trusted me. He lets me do roles and parts that other people would never let me do, and he's always fought for me and pushed for me. This movie is 100% no exception. He fought tooth and nail, him and Sam [Weaving], to get me this role.

He trusts his people, and he keeps it loose. He doesn't really come up and talk to you unless he has to, and when he does, the notes are always very easy to understand and thoughtful. Or he really just lets you do your thing. He's, like, unstoppable, that guy. He's my hero. I love that guy.

SAMARA WEAVING: Cute!

GALLNER: Every movie is so different. Dinner in America, to Carolina Caroline to A Bobby Thing, they're three completely different films. You have one that's like a punk rock love story, you have this one that's like a bank heist on the road, and then this other one that's just — I don't know if I can say too much — so whacked out that to see somebody who can wear so many different hats, I really think he can do anything.

That's why I follow him from film to film. He keeps me on my toes!

GALLNER: He’s the best. 100%.

I want to follow up on what Kyle just said, because I can't quite compute this. What did fighting for him to be in the movie look like? I don't understand why anyone would have to fight for him to be in a movie.

WEAVING: I know. We just kept going, “You guys, come on. Have you seen this kid? He’s got what it takes!” [Laughs] I don't know. I would just pull the diva thing, being like, “I'm walking if it’s not him. That other guy is terrible!” And just made it difficult for them to land on anyone else.

If you dip into diva territory, I will accept it if it’s for that reason.

WEAVING: Threatened them, stalked them, egged their house.

The duo also discuss how they knew the other was perfect for Carolina Caroline.

I love the projects you both choose. Every single movie is different for me, and they seem like different acting challenges for you, so what would you say is guiding your project-choosing compass the most right now?

WEAVING: I think if it's not a fuck yes, it's a fuck no. I'm really trying to live by that.

GALLNER: That's kind of where I'm at, too.

WEAVING: But you have so much PTSD from, like, not ever working, and will you ever work again? That it's really hard. But I'm really trying to live by that.

GALLNER: It's tough. There’s some times when you hit that point where you’re like, “I gotta eat, man.” Sometimes it’s things like that, but I am really trying to do the same thing. Like, if my gut’s not telling me… Like, I used to do this thing where I would talk myself into things that I knew I didn't even want just because I'm like, “Well, you know, it’s work.”

WEAVING: “Maybe a miracle happens and it’ll be cool.”

GALLNER: “It’ll be great.” But no, I'm at the point now where I’m trying to really put my work-life balance in check, as well. It has to really just be exciting and feel like the right thing. Then also, I am a huge fan of horror films, and I will continue to do them, but also finding stuff like this to really try to branch out and do other things, especially now, in the second half of the career kind of, just trying to play in all different sandboxes. That's really what it's about.

I’m here for it all. Play in all the sandboxes and swing for the fences in each and every one of them, please!

GALLNER: Exactly.

Zeroing in on your characters here, the success of this movie hinges on your chemistry together. Can each of you tell me the very first thing you saw the other do, either in prep or on set, that made you look at them and go, “Yep, that right there is definitely the Oliver to my Caroline," and vice versa?

WEAVING: I remember me and my sister over Christmas, watching Dinner in America, we were both going, “Umm, are we both in love? Who is this dude?” I just love that you played this punk rock psychopath, but you're also going, “Aww! Love him! I love him. I want to give him a cuddle.” That's when me and my sister were going, “Um, excuse me, who's this woofie-woof?”

GALLNER: We get along really, really well. We sat down before we shot, and we were able to talk, and we talked about scenes, and we prepare very similarly. But I vividly remember the first take, we were outside at the car. I think we had shot a little bit before that, but there was this one thing. We were outside of the car, and it's the scene where we meet each other, and she kind of busts me, and we start talking. She walked up, and it was the combination of the accent, and then she did this thing with their arms. I made fun of her the whole time. I was like, “You do this penguin thing.” Like she would flap her arms like a penguin. I don't know what it was about that, but it just felt like, “Oh, there she is. This is so real. This is Caroline, right there.” All the mannerisms, plus the accent and everything that she was doing, it was all of a sudden very, very alive, and we were kind of just off to the races after that.

Kyle Gallner Wants to Do a Fantasy Movie With Samara Weaving

"Give me a sword and let's go!"

carolina-caroline-samara-weaving-kyle-gallner

You two are so good together in this movie that I can't help but want more movies that feature the two of you as a big screen duo.

WEAVING: I agree.

If you could fan-cast yourselves together in another movie, what type of duo would you want to play next?

WEAVING: Okay. Wait. I think maybe a Western.

GALLNER: I would love a Western.

WEAVING: Could we both ride horses and go, like, “Yee-haw?”

GALLNER: A Western, or I would love a real adventure film.

WEAVING: Yes!

GALLNER: Like, a jet-setting adventure film. That’s, like, my dream.

WEAVING: Like The Princess Bride?

GALLNER: Well, maybe not. Fuck, dude, I'll do that! That would be amazing. A fantasy film?

WEAVING: Come on! Let’s go!

GALLNER: Bucket list shit for me. I would do all that. But yeah, a fantasy film would be cool, or a big adventure film, or a Western would be rad.

Am I forgetting something obvious? Have either of you done a fantasy film?

GALLNER: No. I would kill.

I think we've just manifested the highest priority right now.

GALLNER: I would kill to be in a fantasy.

Now I need to see it happen.

GALLNER: Give me a sword and let's go!

WEAVING: I just did, but I can't say anything. You know.

GALLNER: Do I? It happened?

WEAVING: No, no, no, no. Fantasy. Shut up.

Kyle Gallner Is Officially Entering His Dad Phase

He reunites with Strange Darling director JT Mollner for Skeletons, opposite Brie Larson.

I have to end on one upcoming project question for you, Kyle, because you can't work with JT [Mollner] again, also with a Brian Duffield script, and not have me ask about it. So, for Skeletons, can you maybe tell me something about that story and that character that you think will challenge you in a new way as an actor?

GALLNER: I mean, I'm definitely stepping into a different phase. It's very interesting starting to play like dads.

WEAVING: Getting old! Nice

GALLNER: Having to work with kids.

WEAVING: Did Brian write it? Ah, my fave.

Sincerely, the best combo right there.

WEAVING: So good.

[Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Carolina Caroline]

'Carolina Caroline' Almost Had a Much Darker Ending

"The original script was not a love story."

Nemiroff also had the opportunity to chat with Rehmeier and Sedgwick, who plays Caroline’s scene-stealing mother in the movie. During their discussion, which you can watch in full in the video above, Sedgwick explains how Carolina Caroline offered the Emmy Award winner a “fat and juicy” role that she’d never been offered before and how she tackled this part with a “lot of gravitas.”

Rehmeir, when asked which scene changed the most from script to screen, reveals that the entire movie actually changed, and that’s due in large part to Weaving and Gallner’s performances. “The original script was not a love story. Not at all,” Rehmeier admits. “It was a crime thriller…Oliver turns on her at the end and tries to kill her.” He explains:

"So much of it changed. When I read the script, there was one spot in particular that I was super drawn to. It's where you see in the movie where they're in the rock quarry, and they jump in the water, and they're floating, and she's like, ‘What do you do?’ ‘You know what I do,’ and he goes underwater, and you can't hear what he says. I thought, ‘Man, this wants to be a ‘70s-type of movie. It's playing like that. So, why doesn't this whole thing feel like that?’ Because it's sort of morphed into this, like, crime thing.

I told Tim [White] and Trevor [White] at Star Thrower, I said, ‘I feel like this is a love story, not a bank-robbing heist crime movie.’ And so part of that for me was let's reshape this and redesign it so it could facilitate that, and that's the route that we took with it. So, really, the first act is pretty much intact. There are some differences, but acts two and three are radically different."

Upon hearing this, Nemiroff highlights the strength of the movie’s final scene, which shows Caroline and Oliver dancing in the bar. Rehmeier goes on to share how finding that final shot was a challenge in and of itself. The director says that as they struggled with balancing the tone after making the switch to a romance, it came down to Weaving and Gallner’s understandings of the characters:

"For that, too, because we had shot it in a certain way, and as we were progressively going down the rabbit hole, that scene in particular, the last scene, the big roadhouse scene, Sam and Kyle had more input into that because we'd already shot the movie a certain way, and to be honest, things weren't lining up with the way it was on the page as we got closer and closer to that. It was scary because it's like, ‘Oh shit, tonally, is this going to feel correct as we get there?’

So, we were working on the script and making modifications throughout the whole process, but Kyle and Sam had input in that last roadhouse scene, because things felt so different than what we had been shooting and what was on the page. So we worked on it together and modified it in the week, the lead-up to it. Actually, we had lunch somewhere, and we spent, like, two hours just going over it. So it was changed dramatically, even up until the very last minute of us shooting it because the movie felt different."

Given what we know now, Carolina Caroline makes for a rewarding and heartbreaking rewatch!

Carolina Caroline is in theaters now.