Opening nationwide today, Bad Times at the El Royale has been called everything from a “twistily kitsch hard-boiled thriller” to “B-movie pulp, with A-list stars.”
Those A-listers include leading men like Chris Hemsworth, Jon Hamm, and Jeff Bridges playing the southern-sounding characters of Billy Lee, Laramie Seymour Sullivan, and Father Daniel Flynn.
The list of As also includes leading lady Dakota Johnson, although she’s not the only actress you’ll wanna familiarize yourself with before going to see the new-age noir set inside a mysterious motel perched along the Nevada/California border in the late ’60s.
Since you probably don’t feel like poring through IMDB, we did it for you and collected information on, as well as Instagram photos of, five of the top actresses in the film, Johnson included.
Here’s the trailer for the film and then let’s check in with Johnson and her four castmates.
Name: Dakota Johnson
Role: Emily Summerspring
What you could potentially know her from: The Social Network, The Fifty Shades series, and being the spawn of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith as well as dating Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.
Name: Katharine Isabelle
Role: Auntie Ruth
What you could potentially know her from: Playing Margot Verger in the second and third seasons of the NBC series Hannibal, Insomnia, and being a modern-day “Scream Queen” thanks to films like Ginger Snaps, Freddy vs. Jason, and Spooky House.
Name: Cailee Spaeny
Role: Ruth Summerspring
What you could potentially know her from: Pacific Rim: Uprising, portraying the young version of Dick Cheney’s wife Lynne in the upcoming film Vice, and being so devout in her church-going ways that she turns down parts that have “demonic or spiritual” storylines.
Name: Sarah Smyth
Role: Ginger
What you could potentially know her from: The film 50/50, the Hallmark channel series Cedar Cove, and starring in three seasons of the Canadian show Naked Josh, which makes sense because she was raised in Ottawa and now splits her time between Los Angeles and Vancouver.
Name: Cynthia Erivo
Role: Darlene Sweet
What you could potentially know her from: Starring in director Steve McQueen’s film Step, on the stage in and winning a Tony Award for The Color Purple, and being cast as Harriet Tubman in the upcoming film Harriet.
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