Get ready to go on the ultimate globe-trotting heist with Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot in the newly-released teaser for Red Notice, premiering 12 November 2021 on Netflix.

When an Interpol-issued Red Notice — the highest level warrant to hunt and capture the world’s most wanted— goes out, the FBI’s top profiler John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) is on the case. His global pursuit finds him smack dab in the middle of a daring heist where he’s forced to partner with the world’s greatest art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds) in order to catch the world’s most wanted art thief, “The Bishop” (Gal Gadot).

Courtesy of Netflix Malaysia, we were lucky enough to participate in a press conference with the stars of the movie, including Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot. This interview has been edited for clarity.

You can also head on over here for our review of Red Notice.

What attracted you to starring in Red Notice?

Ryan Reynolds: Honestly, this is the cheapest answer. I was most interested in working with my friends. A lot of the movies that I do, I produced and write so there’s a lot more responsibility. For this one, I just got to kind of jump in the sandbox with some friends I’ve known for a long time and have fun. It’s not every day that you get to do that and sometimes you forget that this job is fun and I never forgot it for a second on the set of Red Notice.

Gal Gadot: To be honest, Rawson Marshall Thurber is a wonderful director and writer. When he first pitched me the idea of the movie, I was blown away by the ambition and how surprising the story is. I was also intrigued to be able to play a character than I usually use to do.

Dwayne Johnson: I echo the same thing my co-star (Gal Gadot) just said. I loved the idea of Gal being who Rawson had in mind. The moment he said her name, I said, “I love her. She’s one of my favourite human beings. She’d be amazing in this.” The idea that she plays the most wanted art thief in the world and that automatically is intriguing to me as a movie fan.

Gal Gadot: He did the movie because of me but to be fair, he was attached to the movie before I ever heard the pitch. (laughs) He has the vision. The man with the vision.

How did you prepare for your role?

Ryan Reynolds: You know, mostly stretching. That was kind of it. There wasn’t a ton to do in terms of deep-seated character work. What Netflix really wanted to put together was, Dwayne, Gal and I have an off-screen friendship and camaraderie that is the same exact thing you’re seeing on-screen. That’s what they were paying for; they wanted that on the big screen and they wanted that to transfer into Red Notice and to be a part of the DNA and fabric of the storytelling. If you come to dinner with Dwayne and I, you’d see that we quite literally talk to each other the way we talk to each other in Red Notice. It’s pretty funny to be around and it’s just kind of the way it’s always been for us. Putting that on the screen was a real pleasure.

Gal Gadot: We (Gal Gadot and Dwayne Johnson) had a dancing scene that was new for me, at least. We rehearsed for the dance and it was such a delightful thing to be able to work on with an amazing partner as DJ (Dwayne Johnson). I was a bit nervous at the beginning, for my poor feet.

Dwayne Johnson: She thought she’d be dancing with a velociraptor.

Gal Gadot: (laughs) It turns out that DJ is a ballerina with the lightest feet and it was amazing.

RED NOTICE – (L-R) Dwayne Johnson is the FBI’s top profiler John Hartley, Ryan Reynolds is the world’s greatest art thief Nolan Booth, and Gal Gadot is the world’s most wanted art thief “The Bishop” in Netflix’s RED NOTICE. Directed and written by Rawson Marshall Thurber; RED NOTICE is releasing November 12, 2021. Cr: Frank Masi / Netflix © 2021

How was the experience of working with your co-stars?

Ryan Reynolds: It’s always interesting working with larger-than-life personalities like this and you never know how it’s going to go. Thankfully, we all knew each other so there wasn’t any of that concern. I’m also a fan of film and movie stars. People don’t realise that just because I work in this industry, where I’ve been for 30 years now, I still get excited and geeked out when Dwayne or Gal walks into the room. My first instinct isn’t “oh, there’s my buddy, Dwayne or Gal”, my first instinct is “oh my god, that’s Gal Gadot and Dwayne The Rock Johnson just walking into a room right now. So, I get a little starstruck just like everybody else.

Dwayne Johnson: We wanted to make a great movie and I think a lot of times with something like this, the content in the script dictates what the set is going to feel like and so, the movie is big. It’s fun, it’s ambitious, with some twists and turns and surprises. We had a great time and we also had to buckle down because we shot it during COVID-19. Everyone rallied together, including our crew, about a thousand crew members and we made the best movie we could.

What was your favourite scene in the movie?

Ryan Reynolds: There’s a sequence in a chapel in a prison where we meet Gal’s character, the Bishop, for the first time. And that, I would say, was the most interesting scene to shoot for me because it was the first time all three of us shot together in one room. That was exciting and a lot of fun for us. The whole kind of scene was like a chess game, everybody was sort of sizing each other up and Gal was so gifted at being so charming and funny and easy in the scene. I usually notice her, when we watch Wonder Woman or some of her other roles, she’s usually playing characters that are real authoritative, so to see her be kind of a Cary Grant in this moment was really fun for me.

Gal Gadot: There are so many delightful moments and scenes that we got to work on in the film. One of the most memorable ones for me was the first time I got to shoot with the boys, with DJ and Ryan. It was in the Russian prison and it was such a funny day. We were breaking so many takes. I have to say that I feel super grateful and lucky that I got to work with such an amazing talent like DJ and Ryan, and enjoy the process throughout, and I think it always shows throughout.

Dwayne Johnson: One scene in particular, without spoiling it for the audience, there’s a scene at the end where after this long crazy adventure around the world, we finally see Gal’s character and my character in the middle of the ocean on a beautiful yacht, and the scene starts off with Gal coming out of the ocean. It is a gorgeous, iconic and cinematic history shot because the boat is so (laughs).

RED NOTICE – (L-R) Dwayne Johnson is the FBI’s top profiler John Hartley; Ryan Reynolds is the world’s greatest art thief Nolan Booth; and Gal Gadot is the world’s most wanted art thief “The Bishop” in Netflix’s RED NOTICE. Directed and written by Rawson Marshall Thurber; RED NOTICE is releasing November 12; 2021. Cr: Frank Masi / Netflix © 2021

If you were a real thief (like the characters in Red Notice), what would you like to steal and why?

Ryan Reynolds: One of the pieces of art I find the most beautiful, I wouldn’t want to steal it but if I had to steal it, it would be The Woman In Gold, the Gustav Klimt painting. I did a movie about that exact painting years ago with Helen Mirren called Woman In Gold. That’s a beautiful piece of art. If I had to steal one, even if I don’t believe in stealing, it’s already been stolen in the past. Thankfully, it was returned to its rightful owners.

Gal Gadot: If I could steal one thing from Dwayne Johnson, it would be his (laughs)…

Dwayne Johnson: Let me give this a shot. This isn’t an easy question. There’s so much to steal. I would steal Gal’s heart because it’s a heart of gold.

Gal Gadot: I’ll go cheesy as well. If I could steal anything, I would steal his smile.

How did you build your bond with each other?

Ryan Reynolds: Weirdly, Dwayne and I have a lot more in common than you’d imagine. Certainly not body mass, but we each have three daughters and we have extracurricular businesses that we care deeply about. We both feel very much in service of the audience and they’re the boss. We have very similar outlooks on everything, so the camaraderie you see on-screen is a very natural by=product of two guys who have known each other for a long time and have similar work ethics and outlooks on life.

RED NOTICE – (L-R) Dwayne Johnson is John Hartley and Ryan Reynolds is Nolan Booth in Netflix’s RED NOTICE. Directed and written by Rawson Marshall Thurber; RED NOTICE is releasing November 12, 2021. Cr: Frank Masi / Netflix © 2021

How similar are you to your on-screen personas in real life?

Ryan Reynolds: My off-screen persona is actually vastly different. As a kid and as an adult, I have struggled with anxiety and the fast-talking hyper-verbal ironic kind of personality that I’ve manufactured for film really started as a defence mechanism when I was younger to get through situations where I felt I was ill-equipped to deal with something, I would have my personality take over and kind of run the show for me. That’s something I’m grateful for but it’s also something at a young age I wish I didn’t need. The real me is much, much different than that. I’m a lot more sensitive, I probably listen a lot better than the characters I play as well.

Do you improvise your jokes or are most of them in the script?

Ryan Reynolds: I improvise a lot of the jokes, yeah. That’s kind of my job. I think it’s a little bit of a stretch to say improv or improvise because I write most of the jokes. I write 8 or 9 options for each joke and I leave it to the editor and the director to decide which ones are suitable for the movie. I like to give them a whole bunch of options, so yeah, a lot of them are throwaways that you kind of think of in the moment. Even right now, I don’t even know what joke you’re talking about. I can imagine I made a hair joke or two about Dwayne’s beautiful baldy locks.

RED NOTICE – Gal Gadot is the world’s most wanted art thief “The Bishop” in Netflix’s RED NOTICE. Directed and written by Rawson Marshall Thurber, RED NOTICE is releasing November 12, 2021. Cr: Frank Masi / Netflix © 2021

What was it like taking on a villainous role?

Gal Gadot: It’s actually a lot of fun. As an actor, you want to be able to explore different colours and different qualities in the characters that you play and this one certainly gave me this opportunity and I super enjoyed playing the Bishop.

Dwayne Johnson: Can we take a moment and talk about the evil queen in Snow White? Because that’s what she’s going to play next and how exciting that is.

Gal Gadot: Red Notice really opened up my appetite to play a villain. That’s the truth.

What do you think of Squid Game and Korean content in general?

Ryan Reynolds: Korean culture is one of the richest and deepest in the world. The contributions that Korea has made to the pop culture lexicon and so much of the entertainment that we enjoy from music to film to television as well and even some of the game shows. I mean, when I visited Korea years ago, I got to do the Masked Singer before it became a big thing here in the United States and it was so much fun and terrifying and interesting. I’m a huge fan of Korea and it’s always a stop I want to make on a global press tour. Unfortunately, this year our global press tour has changed to this digital format, but Korea will always be in my heart.

Gal Gadot: I never watched Squid Game, to be fair, so it’s hard for me to answer this question. However, 15 years ago, I don’t remember the title of the movie, but I watched an amazing Korean movie. I don’t remember the name but it was about a couple and they hardly spoke. It was like a super intense film with very little words, so I think that the content in Korea is very sophisticated and obviously universal and doing really well.

Dwayne Johnson: I always love when something hits the zeitgeist and hits pop culture and really disrupts it. With Squid Game, what a phenomenon to sit, watch and witness!

Gal Gadot: Did you watch it?

Dwayne Johnson: I haven’t. But it’s still amazing to see when you turn on your phone, it’s in everything. It’s crazy.

Gal Gadot: During Halloween, everyone was dressed like the characters from there. It’s crazy.

Dwayne Johnson: I guess LeBron James commented on Squid Game and it was the founder or the creator of Squid Game who clapped back at LeBron. That shit was so funny. As she was saying, there’s a lot of sophistication too to the material that’s come out of Korea and I’ve been there before.