The movie Emily the Criminal managed to be a compelling thriller without the lead character using firearms to blast her way through the story. In the film, released last year by director John Patton Ford, Aubrey Plaza stars as a young woman who launches a new career in crime when she finds herself deeply in debt with student loans. While many others in her position would be packing heat due to the dangers of the job, Plaza’s Emily goes in without guns, making for some rather tense scenes.
Speaking about the film in a new interview for The Tonight Show (via IndieWire), Plaza touched on Emily’s gun-less approach to her crimes in Emily the Criminal. The actress says she’s “proud” to play this character who is able to get by without them, and better yet, Plaza also feels that keeping the guns out of Emily’s hands also made for a much better story. As Plaza told Jimmy Fallon:
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Emily the Criminal Taught Aubrey Plaza a Thing or Two About Crime
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Along with co-star Theo Rossi, Plaza previously addressed the film in an exclusive interview with MovieWeb. She explained how, in preparation for her rule, she had to learn exactly how to pull off the scams that her character does. She noted how learning that process alone “felt very kind of criminal,” and jokes how that knowledge will stay with her forever, perhaps one day coming in handy.
This isn’t to say we’ll never see Plaza brandishing a firearm on the big screen one day. She previously shared the story of when director Edgar Wright congratulated her on landing the role of Lara Croft in a Tomb Raider movie after mistaking her to be that character from an Emily the Criminal photo. Plaza told Newsweek last year that while Emily and Lara are very different characters, she’d be just as keen to play the latter as well. From that interview:
