The 3 Killer Performances Behind "The Little Things" Movie

Washington, Malek and Leto bring The Little Things to light.

John Lee Hancock’s The Little Things which premiered on January 29th feels like the throwback cop drama we've been waiting for, we rarely see films like this made anymore, set back before facial recognition and fingerprint analysis became a whole lot easier. Set in 1990s Los Angeles the story follows Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon as he joins forces Detective Jim Baxter to search for a serial killer who's terrorizing Los Angeles. As they track the culprit, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke's past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.

This is a real back to basics, gritty, entertaining psychological thriller. A crime drama that highlights both the investigative police aspect and the thrilling mystery aspect, it is gripping right until the very end, and the best part, you get to decide how it ends.

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This slick serial killer flick stars a trio of Oscar winners whose performances really bring this film together. It was the great script along with their brilliant performances that really gives it its something special and made The Little Things a big success.

Denzel Washington as Deputy Joe Deacon

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Once again the iconic actor riddled with talent, Denzel Washington (Best Actor, Training Day 2002) gave this performance all he's got. The two-time Oscar winner whose career spans across over 40 decades in film and TV. Denzel put a lot of hard work and preparation into this role, work which included gaining weight to get the look of Deputy John Deacon just right, in order to give him that knocked down by the world look.

"There was a Joe Deacon diet. The sacrifices I make for my character. Gaining the weight, that’s a piece of cake. Literally a piece of cake. Eating big late. It’s not healthy, but it works. Milkshakes were my friend. Ice cream was my very good friend."

Another more elaborate and definitely original technique that lets face it only Denzel Washington would do was when he took his detective work off screen with Jared Leto, by spying on his co-star. Which only made the tension in the film that much greater.

"I’d follow him around. I was outside of his apartment sometimes and he didn’t know, I won’t say anything more about it. I’ll put it this way, he didn’t know."

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Denzel Washington fully enjoyed working with his two young Oscar winning co stars, who are part of the upcoming generation of great American acrors.

"There’s a whole crop of these younger actors, and it's fascinating to watch them coming up behind me. Unfortunately, we lost one with Chad Boseman, but Jared is one, obviously, and Rami is doing great work. It’s inspiring and like a wake-up call. It’s like, I have to get my act together here. These guys ain’t playing."

Rami Malek as Detective Jim Baxter

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Rami Malek (Best Actor 2019, Bohemian Rhapsody) did a brilliant job as Jim Baxter, and as a Detective in general. He played every little detail from his body language to the dialogue to perfection. Right down to an incredibly intense performance at the end. Rami's character is a detective who is consumed by his case, this obsession is one of the things that drew Rami to the role. He may seem like an arrogant detective at first, but you soon see there are more layers to this character and this performance.

“It was the whole idea of when obsession starts to overtake so many other aspects of your life. I think it's a good thing to be reminded of. We get so focused on certain things, get so narrow-minded and have a certain tunnel vision about what has to be achieved in life and what we have to do, that we start to neglect the most important things and perhaps Jim gave me a little bit of that.”

Rami Malek even spoke to a few real detectives in order to get a better idea of how they work in order to perfect his role. It was in fact after one detective called and cancelled on him that he was given the mentality he needed to play Jim Baxter.

“He told me he couldn’t make it to an appointment we had set to do some research and talk about my character because he’d just come across ‘a fresh one.’ Those words stuck with me and haunted me. At some point it becomes commonplace for them that this is the job. There must be some type of numbing effect that happens for them, because I can’t imagine ever getting used to seeing what they see on a daily basis.”

This film also gave Malek the chance to work alongside and learn from Denzel Washington, and the two work incredibly well together in this film. Both with their different styles of acting and their characters, working together was a great thing to watch. Jim Baxter seeks out Joe Deacon's help with a case he's struggling with, knowing he's been there before, we see this happen in real life as well with Rami and Denzel as he took any opportunity he could to learn from the experienced actor.

“Personally, if I see wisdom and great instincts and experience in front of me, I lean on that. I think that was also inherent in the script. For someone who is struggling in a case, with so much building up, so much responsibility, to have the ability to lean on someone who had clearly been there before and seen something quite dark — there was almost a need to bring that person into your life and seek counsel from them. I think Baxter knew, in a sense, it could get him down a harmful road. But there was something advantageous to working with this man that could help him solve this very difficult puzzle.”

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Another thing that drew Malek to this story was it's unique ending. This film has an ending that will keep you guessing, and make you question everything. A fitting end for a psychological thriller about a game of cat and mouse between 2 cops and a criminal.

“One of the reasons I gravitated to this story is because it doesn’t have your usual Hollywood ending. It leaves you questioning your idea of how we look at people — criminals, even ourselves.”

You would find it hard to believe that this is that same actor who played Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. This was one of Rami Malek's best roles yet hands down.

Jared Leto as Albert Sparma

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Jared Leto (Best Supporting Actor, Dallas Buyers Club 2014) who is best known for his fully transformative roles and his method acting did not hold back with his on brand eeriness when it comes to this murder suspect. A complicated one to say the least, but smart enough to outsmart two cops. So in true Jared Leto fashion, he went all out with this character.

"I wasn't sure about playing a murder suspect or potential villain again. But after talking to John, there seemed to be an amazing opportunity. If we could make this heavy on character and make this a really transformative role, I could be interested in having this be the last walk on the dark side of the moon, but only if we could really push it as far as possible. He was open to that and excited. So I just went to town."

Albert Sparma is a charater with a dark and twisted side, but who is not at all who he seems to be, and who better to play that than Jared Leto. Throughout the movies you see the 2 cops John and Jimmy try to uncover the mystery behind him, while he simply acts like its just another walk in the park, almost making a fool of the two cops.

"Albert Sparma could be a villain, he could be a red herring. He could even be a sort of saviour. He is definitely an outcast who doesn’t really fit into society and probably feels a little under-appreciated, but he is highly intelligent. He sees the world in a different way and the world-the police especially-see him as different, which I liked. He probably gets under the skin of everybody he interacts with, especially the police"

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Jared Leto went full method for this role, he really did his research when preparing for this role and it really paid off.

"The voice was a big key into the character, developing the walk, the research and conversations with criminology experts. I examined FBI transcripts and interrogations. It was quite intense, quite heavy, but really fascinating. For a bit — it starts to take its toll after a while."

Sparma is a really complex character as we see in the film but Jared plays him flawlessly.

The Little Things is now in theatres and streaming on HBO MAX