ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Cash Out star Lukas Haas about the intense action thriller movie. The actor discussed filming the movie and its sequel back-to-back and working with icons like John Travolta and Harrison Ford. The film is set to release in theaters, digitally, and through video-on-demand platforms on April 26, 2024.
“In the tense thriller Cash Out, John Travolta is Mason, leader of a high-end crew of thieves that hang it up for good after a double-cross spells a near miss with the law,” reads the movie‘s synopsis. “But when he’s thrust into his younger brother Shawn’s hare-brained scheme to rob a bank – and tempted by what could be his biggest score ever – Mason jumps right back into his old ways. Then the heist goes awry, and the thieves are trapped inside the bank with hostages while surrounded by SWAT teams, the FBI, and Interpol. Included among the authorities waiting to nab the crew is someone Mason knows well: lead negotiator Decker (Kristin Davis) — Mason’s former lover.”
Tyler Treese: Heist movies have such a long history in cinema. To be a central figure in one of these big heist movies in such a really fun role, too, must be a blast. What really grabbed your interest with Cash Out?
Lukas Haas: I mean, everything you just said is totally spot on. Throughout my career, I’ve always really loved diversity — doing different completely different kinds of roles and different kinds of movies. When I do the same thing too much, I get kind of bored, and I don’t feel like I’m being creative anymore. That kind of takes the whole point of it out for me. But in this case, I got the script and it was with John Travolta, who’s an incredible icon and an amazing actor. The role was so fun and sort of silly, and I get to be this oblivious guy who just thinks everything’s going to work out and he can just do anything and has no real idea of the consequences or how this thing should actually work.
So it was something that I … it was the kind of thing I’d never done before. It was sort of like comic relief to some degree, you know? Which was just exciting. The movie, as a whole, was just a really fun movie. A lot of fun energy, and John’s amazing. Everybody on the film was amazing. So we’re just laughing the whole time, enjoying ourselves, having a great time, which is rare on a film, honestly. I mean, you have a lot of great experiences on movies, but [with] a lot of the characters I’ve played, anyway, there’s a lot of emotions involved and you’ve got to have a lot of concentration. That can be taxing and it can be sort of heavy, you know?
You can tell that you guys are having, having fun filming this. You talked about the lighthearted nature and it really shows through with you and John because there’s some brotherly ribbing throughout the film — it’s a very fun chemistry between you two. What stood out about John as a scene partner? Obviously, he’s such a pro.
He’s such a pro, and he comes to set every day with a big smile on his face and comes and gives you a really nice hug, and it just starts the day off great, you know? Yeah, we just had a really nice rapport with each other off the bat. He is a super easygoing, fun-loving guy. And he’s obviously an incredible pro at what he’s doing. So yeah, we would just run through the scenes together and that dynamic that we’re supposed to have kind of came easy to us. We did that back-and-forth, which was just fun, to keep it light, and, like you said, he’s ribbing me, and I’m sort of like, “Whatever, bro.” Like, “Come on, let’s just do this. We’re going to kill it.”
So it was fun to play that. We had a lot of fun. We’re laughing as we’re doing the scenes and stuff. And I’m glad, because it’s true when you do a movie where everybody’s enjoying themselves and really connecting and having a good time, you can see it on screen and then you’re having a good time because you’re watching something and that sort of permeates off the screen and makes the whole thing more fun.
One person that really impressed me was Quavo. He’s done a few movies, and though he’s more known for his music, he’s just naturally charismatic. You guys have some fun scenes, like the car chase. How is it working with him? It’s really cool to see him branch out into other realms.
Yeah, I agree, I agree. I don’t know what he had done — like a movie or two — but this is one of his first things, and you’re right. He’s just kind of a natural, honestly. He knows tempo and timing, and he just has a natural feel for what he is doing. Yeah, we just had a blast. We’re just going crazy in that car being chased by the cops or whatever it was. We land in the river, and we just had a bunch of physical stuff to do together, and we’re kind of like partners in crime. It was just a whole lot of fun getting to hang out with him. He’s rad.
I saw that a sequel was already filmed. Will we be seeing you return for that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We already made the sequel, which is funny. I’d never done that before. But it was cool. And by the way, I think the second one’s even better and more fun and more put together than the first one, so I’m even more excited about the second one.
You’re a 40-year vet at this, and one of your first films was Witness. How surreal was it starring opposite Harrison Ford as a young kid when he was just coming off of Star Wars and Indiana Jones? That had to be mind-boggling.
It was very heady. I don’t think I understood the context of it quite as well, because at that age, I didn’t really know Star Wars. I didn’t really know who he was exactly. I knew he was somebody and, especially when you’re around him, when I was there with him, there are people waiting outside of his trailer and waiting for him and yelling for him. He was obviously important. Then I also got the chance — what a really cool moment — but as we were making Witness, I think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was about to come out. So he got a screening in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where we were working on Witness. They did a private screening for him.
And he invited me, so I got to go sit next to him and watch Indiana Jones 2 for the first time together. Honestly, that we were already working together … at that point, we had been to working together for a month or two, whatever it was. But that’s the first time I understood. I was like, “Oh, now I know who this guy is, he’s this … wow.” You know? That was pretty cool, because you’re like, “Oh.” But at the same time, I felt like it was all meant to be. You don’t have a lot of that self-consciousness at that age at all. So I just was like, “Okay, cool. This is awesome. I’m really lucky.” It’s funny how you experience those kinds of things as a little kid. It’s a very different experience than it would be as someone a little older.
