Ethan Coen and wife Tricia Cooke tapped Margaret Qualley to star in their 2024 movie Drive-Away Dolls. The film was the first of a loose “lesbian B-movie trilogy,” as Cooke described it, and now the second installment is on the way with Honey Don’t!. Qualley is staking her claim in this mini cinematic universe as she stars in the upcoming movie, too.
Early returns are positive so far: At the Cannes festival back in May, the film received a 6-and-a-half-minute ovation. The cast is certainly crowd-pleasing, as it’s also led by Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans.
Ahead of the movie’s release, keep reading for everything you need to know before it lands in theaters.
Plot
The film is described as “a dark comedy about Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator, who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church.”
Ethan Coen told Reuters of crafting the movie’s violence:
“It’s a challenge because we got a lot of good minds out there thinking about it all the time. So it’s hard to come up with new ways. It sounds strange to say, but you want to make the violence fun, not just some like weird sadistic thing for some reason. Somehow I think it kind of transcends sadism by virtue of its inventiveness.”
Cast
The movie is led by Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, Billy Eichner, Lera Abova, Jacnier, Gabby Beans, Talia Ryder, Kristen Connolly, Lena Hall, Don Swayze, Josh Pafchek, Kale Browne, Alexander Carstoiu, and Christian Antidormi.
Coen said of casting Qualley, “We thought after we met her, well, she’ll be good for Drive-Away Dolls, but she’ll be great for this other script we had written even then.”
Qualley told i-D that she had to suppress her “natural Scooby-Doo” inclinations “to be a little more suave than I am, more mysterious” while portraying the character. She continued, “I tend to want to diffuse things before they even happen. [Whereas] Honey, she’s like honey — she’s skillful, she’s smooth, she is slipping in and out undetected.” She also said of working with Coen and Cooke, “[It’s] unlike anything else I’ve ever known. They respect and love each other so much. I love the world that they’re living in.”
Release Date
The film is set to hit theaters on August 22.
Trailer
Check out the Honey Don’t! trailer below.