Jurnee Smollett stars as FBI agent Joanne Carney in Vertical’s The Order. The movie is now playing in theaters.
For over a year, a series of bold daylight bank robberies and armored car heists leaves law enforcement baffled and the public panicked throughout the Pacific Northwest. As the attacks become increasingly violent, FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law) becomes convinced that the robberies are the work of domestic terrorists that plan to use the loot to finance an armed uprising against the U.S. government. Based on a true story, The Order follows Husk and his team into the tangled world of white supremacists as they try to head off a violent uprising that could shatter the nation. As the militia builds a war chest of over $4 million, Husk pursues the malevolent racist Bob Mathews to a final bloody standoff that will go down in U.S. history.
“I interviewed a few former special agents, women of color of all kinds and it is one of the things they said about working certain cases, that it became so personal. You think about it, we’re all human beings, regardless of what our profession is, it’s gonna affect us and affect our lives, right? And so, that moment when my character, Carney, is, you know, we’ve stormed into the bunker and I talked with Justin, our filmmaker, a lot about what is it that she sees? What is the level of bigotry and how can we visually communicate that without there being any words,” she explained. “Unfortunately, we have to look at it. We have to face it. We can’t look away. And so, I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m drawn to stories like this, that kind of pull the rug up from underneath the foundation of our nation and demand that we all take a look at what is really in the roots.”
I caught up with the actress to discuss the importance of showing how this case affected everyone involved, her first time watching the film with an audience, and more.
Watch my interview below:
