[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Omni Loop.]
The Big Picture
- In the sci-fi drama ‘Omni Loop,’ a physicist named Zoya is stuck in a time loop due to a black hole in her chest.
- Co-stars Mary-Louise Parker and Ayo Edebiri discuss the attraction to a high-concept story with deep human elements and the brilliance of director Bernardo Britto.
- The film explores complex character dynamics and the cyclical nature of life, with themes of time travel and self-discovery.
From writer/director Bernardo Britto, the sci-fi drama Omni Loop follows Zoya Lowe (Mary-Louise Parker), a quantum physicist with a black hole growing in the middle of her chest that will kill her in a week. But after getting this news, Zoya finds herself in a loop where she’s reliving that week, over and over again. When she meets Paula (Ayo Edebiri), a student in the physics department of the university she attended, the two attempt to unlock the mysteries of time travel, so that Zoya can go back even further in time to have a more lasing effect.
During this interview with Collider, the co-stars talked about why they were attracted to this small human story with a high concept, making sense of life by making sense of death, the deep humanity of Britto, how quick and easy their chemistry was, and why Edebiri says Parker is on the Mt. Rushmore of acting. Edebiri also shared how impactful the experience of directing an episode of Season 2 of The Bear was for her.
Co-Stars Mary-Louise Parker and Ayo Edebiri Loved the Human Story in ‘Omni Loop’s High Concept
Collider: I was completely drawn in by this film. It seems like it’s a quiet human story, but this big concept of time travel to avoid death makes it very tricky and quite an emotional journey. When this came your way, what did you guys most connect with? Was it something in particular about the story? Was it something specific about the characters you were playing? What was it that really grabbed you with this?
AYO EDIBIRI: For me, there was the high concept, but what drew me in and connected me was the small human story and this woman who was trying to make sense of life by making sense of death. I found that really moving and universal in its specificity. And I was just really moved by the writing, and then getting to meet (writer/director) Bernardo [Britto], and then getting to know Mary-Louise [Parker]. Knowing that would all be a part of the process was just icing on the beautiful cake that was the script.
MARY-LOUISE PARKER: In some ways, the script is so representative of who Bernardo is. It’s so layered and it has these really oddly placed hilarious moments that you’re not expecting, but it’s mostly so soulful and so searching and so profound, in ways where you think it’s one layer, and it’s actually so many more. The script just kept unfolding for me. He’s so brilliant and he’s so kind. He also had to re-explain it to me several times because his intellect is on some other level, the way he understood the story and the way he was trying to tell it.
It feels like a very personal story for him, in a way that makes me want to understand where it came from.
PARKER: He’s everything you want him to be, especially for a man of that age. He’s really unusual. You should meet him. He’s great. He’s really so smart. I saw his animated movies first, and I was so knocked out by them. He narrated the first one that I saw, and I found his voice so compelling. You could tell that this is just a person who has some other level of deep humanity.
Ayo Edebiri Explains the Magic of Working With Her ‘Omni Loop’ Co-Stars Mary-Louise Parker
Because Zoya continues to repeat the same five days, you guys both had to relive a lot of the same moments, just in different ways. What was that like to do and to continue to find? How did you find the experience of having your characters continue to meet while only one of them remembers it? It’s an unusual character exercise.
EDIBIRI: Yeah, it’s stuff Meisner would have dreamed of. It was fun, though. Mary-Louise is on the Mt. Rushmore of acting. She’s fucking great. You just discover new moments, all the time. That’s part of [her] magic. It’s always new and fresh and thrilling. I was like, “Oh, this is boot camp on how to be present.”
PARKER: Oh, God!
EDIBIRI: It’s true! That’s what the movie’s about. I feel like you brought that out of me. I’m not just saying that. From the very first time [Bernando] said, “Let’s get Ayo on Zoom,” I was so nervous because I admired [Mary-Louise] a lot. He was like, “No, she’s really funny.” And she was so hilarious. But then, he was like, “Okay, we’re gonna say bye.” And I was like, “Does she have to go?” It was almost the same, in a way, as the story.
PARKER: It was the kind of symbiosis that was really easy and really unexplainable.
EDIBIRI: It was like, “Have we done this before?” As far as we know, no. But I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe there’s another universe and another life.
PARKER: On the first day, I gave [Ayo] a tiny script. Because I’m not smart enough, I wasn’t even thinking that what I was writing mirrored the story. I gave her this tiny script and I predicted what was gonna happen. I said, “You’re gonna see mine when I whip it out, you’re gonna want one, and I’m gonna be the genie that hands you your own.” I wasn’t thinking, “Wow, that’s what the story is.” I was like, “I’m gonna tell you what’s gonna happen.” That would happen, and I wasn’t really absorbing that it was the story and not just the actual chemistry.
Ayo Edibiri’s Experience Directing a Season 3 Episode of ‘The Bear’ Was Deeply Impactful
Ayo, you did such beautiful work as a director on The Bear for Season 3. What did you learn about yourself, as a director, from actually making that leap and doing it? Do you feel like you can self-reflect enough to learn from that experience, or do you learn more from working with someone like Bernardo Britto on a film like this?
EDIBIRI: I don’t believe in learning more or less. If you’re open to it, it’s all gonna be deeply impactful. I’ve just been really fortunate, in the past few years, to work with people who are so beyond talented, but also good human beings. That’s also a situation where I’m like, “Well, if I’m sleepwalking through that, I’m just wasting the one life I’ve got.” I think it gave me a bit of gratification that the amount of questions I ask and my general nosiness doesn’t just come from nowhere. It can be useful in certain situations. I also just gained a lot of appreciation. Sometimes when you are acting, you can be so in character with the other person that you can get in a little bubble. It was a chance to zoom out and see, “Wow, this whole operation is amazing and insane. What our crew does is amazing and insane.”
I would sometimes ask Liza [Colón-Zayas] to do something where I’d be like, “I don’t know if I could do this, but I think you can.” And she would and would exceed my expectations and just blow my mind. It really just gave me such a massive appreciation of that miracle and the machine that is making work with other people. Everybody is an individual with their own thoughts and their own ideas and questions and experiences, and we can all come together and make one vision. You all reach it together, which is a really special thing. It’s crazy that it happens over and over again. Sometimes it doesn’t. So, when it does, it just makes you really grateful for it.
I loved watching the two of you together in this. So now, Ayo, you should write and direct something that you can orchestrate to be in together again.
EDEBIRI: Listen, your lips to God’s ears. I want it.
Omni Loop is in theaters and on digital. Check out the trailer:
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