The Toronto International Film Festival gave fans of Rian Johnson’s Benoit Blanc ‘Knives Out’ mysteries a closer look at the franchise’s next chapter with a Dialogue Series session featuring Johnson and Glenn Close. The conversation, staged at the Glenn Gould Studio, followed the world premiere of “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” and offered an inside view of how Johnson and Close approached the third installment of the whodunit saga.

Coming Home

Johnson, who has premiered each ‘Knives Out’ film at TIFF, called the return to Toronto a full-circle moment. “Last night, we showed the movie for the first time, and Glenn saw it for the first time, actually, in front of a crowd at the Princess of Wales Theater,” he said. “We premiered each one of the films here in that same slot on Saturday night, and there’s something so special about a Toronto crowd. It feels like coming home to be showing these movies here.”

Close, who plays Martha in the new mystery, admitted that seeing the finished film with an audience was a thrill. “To see it in that context and to see what people laughed at and what people found moving – it was thrilling,” she said. “And I have to say, I really can’t wait to see it again.”

Commitment on Set

The Oscar-nominated actor spoke at length about the details that helped her lock into character, noting that costume choices shaped her performance. She revealed that Martha wears a crucifix from her personal collection, the same one Close wore decades ago in “The House of the Spirits.” “What she wears says so much about who she is,” Close said.

Johnson praised Close for her collaborative spirit, recalling how she stayed on set to watch her co-stars even after wrapping for the day. “She just genuinely loves the work,” Johnson said. “That’s the sort of thing you see, and you’re just like, oh, you love making movies.”

The director dismissed the idea that he reinvented the murder-mystery form. “I don’t know about reinventing,” Johnson said. “To me, it’s just trying to do them well, trying to do them justice. I think if you do something well, it will always feel new.”

Finding the Humanity

That philosophy carries into “Wake Up Dead Man,” which centers on a church congregation and uses questions of belief and doubt to drive its narrative. “I grew up in a very religious household, and even though my own beliefs have shifted over the years, those influences are still rattling around inside me,” Johnson said. “I think that’s why stories about faith and doubt keep bubbling up in my work.” 

Close noted that her career has taught her to find empathy in every role. For “Wake Up Dead Man,” Close said she had to find a way to give into Martha, to not hold back. “If you judge a character, you’re not playing that character,” she said. 

Similarly she pointed to her character in “Fatal Attraction,” a “tragic figure” that ended up a villain and somebody to be feared. “Why does she do this? Why does she do that? Because there’s always a reason, and it usually brings you back to what makes that person human,” Close said. “When you can find where the humanity in that character is, that’s what really resonates with an audience.”

The Boo Boo Box

The session ended on a lighter note, with Close recalling her brief cameo in Steven Spielberg’s “Hook.” Disguised as a pirate, she wound up screaming from the “boo boo box” countless times where she lost her voice for several days, a memory she relayed with relish.

At TIFF, the dialogue made clear why Johnson’s whodunits keep drawing crowds: his tight grip on the genre and Close’s meticulous touch create a mix Netflix will roll out with “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” on Dec. 12.

See more TIFF coverage from mixyplix here.