Dennis Haysbert on ‘No Exit’ Hulu original: ‘It was one of the best times I had shooting a film’

The actor opened up to theGrio about shooting the thriller that dropped on Hulu this week

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Just in time for the weekend, No Exit has dropped on Hulu.

A suspenseful thriller, the Hulu Original film from 20th Century Studios follows a young woman (played by Havana Rose Liu) who finds herself stranded at a highway rest area during a major blizzard. While trapped with a group of strangers, a mystery unfolds when the woman discovers an abducted girl in a van in the parking lot, leading her try and figure out who among the group of strangers is the kidnapper.

Dennis Haysbert, known from his impressive filmography including Waiting to Exhale, and of course recognized today from the Allstate commercials, plays one of the strangers at the rest stop. The actor sat down with theGrio and broke down his experience shooting No Exit, and why he is excited for audiences to go on the nail-biting adventure when they stream it on Hulu.

Dennis Haysbert thegrio.com
Dennis Haysbert attends the Premiere of Hulu’s “No Exit” at Westwood iPic Theaters on February 23, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

The film is an adaptation of the popular novel of the same name, and while Haysbert was certainly aware of this, he decided to focus on the script when going into the project. He told us, “I did not read the novel beforehand. I try not to read books beforehand, the only book I want to read is the script that the lines are on, you know? Everything you need is in that script.”

Speaking to what drew him to the project in the first place, Haysbert explained it was the “mental and emotional dilemma” at the center of the piece. He went on to tease, “I’m sorry to have to be so generic about that, but a lot of this movie is, you know, the audience being surprised, so I’m gonna hold it there.”

While he could not tease too much about the suspenseful film, he did open up about the process of shooting the movie, and how close he got with his fellow actors.

“It was a lot like doing a play, you know? That particular part of the film that was in the visitors center was shot in sequence, so we really got a chance to get a build and a flow going,” he said.

No Exit thegrio.com
(Credit: Hulu)

He added, “We helped each other out in any way we could. Even going off-book on their close ups in order to bring out the performances that they needed to bring out.” He added, “We worked each other over pretty good.”

While the story is certainly an intense one, Haysbert insisted to us that they all “loved each other” on the set. “It’s hard to tell that everybody in that cast loved each other…you know, you won’t get that from the story, but we do.”

He added, “It was a great time. It was one of the best times I’ve had shooting a film.”

No Exit is available to stream now on Hulu.

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