"Fired Up for his Final Destination!"

Nicholas D’Agosto is best known for his roles in the movies Psycho Beach Party and Fired Up!, as well as recurring roles in TV series like The Office and Heroes. Now the 31 year-old is chef Sam Lawton in the film Final Destination 5.

The films each involve the killing of people who have managed to escape death the first time out. D’Agosto talks about why he thinks audiences of the films tend to react to the kills with unusual amounts of laughter.

“I think the thing about the Final Destination which is great is that it’s not something that kind of lives in this is that sometimes the reality of some of the horror films that are out there, some of the torturous ones where it’s a human doing something truly nasty to another human, some people really enjoy that,” he believes.”

“I think what’s genuinely different and nice about this franchise and this movie is that because there is this otherworldly, this supernatural element, it allows the audience to go, OK, this is something that wouldn’t happen,” Nicholas adds, “We don’t see the worst of each other doing something that you could imagine something horrifying, a person doing to another person. So you’re not kind of relishing in the mistreatment of another person. You’re like laughing at crazy circumstances presented to you.”

Nicholas was asked how the films’ fairly tongue-in-cheek nature keeps itself from crossing the line into overt comedy.

“I think that’s a great question,” D’Agosto replies, “Actually, I think this movie has gone back and forth over that line in the franchise at different times. I think it has embraced some of its kitschier elements and some of the more fantastic deaths for the sake of trying to be funny. And I think they were very intent on coming back in this one and the important thing is that, I think we do, we have a very special cast, It’s great, you have Tony [Todd],

"Fired Up for his Final Destination!"

who really grounds the film in the reality and the setting of what this world is and keeps the through-line throughout the films.”

“And then, you have a great talented cast of people around, whom we all really enjoy each other, and you just really have to get behind the people,” he continues, “You have to believe in the arcs and through-lines of the relationships. And when you stop doing that, people will laugh and people will not take it seriously. But if you actually believe you are with the people that are going through that, you are willing to kind of suspend your disbelief.”

D’Agosto says his first impulse reading the script was finding out when and how his character dies, only to discover that he lives the longest in the film.

“Yeah. I think that is the greedy impulse at the beginning,” Nicholas says, “I knew though, but I knew it right up front because I had the premonition that I was going to live the longest. And then, of course, you don’t know what happens to me in the end. But, in that way, I was pretty pleased. I was like, I got to sit back and relax and be kind of leisurely. It was a game of, ‘Top this.’”

Nicholas was asked how he felt about his and co-star Emma Bell’s characters, who are boyfriend/girlfriend, constantly cheating death as the film progresses and whether or not that led to a possible real relationship between the two.

“Don’t you come digging for anything,” D’Agosto says, “We’re not giving you any ideas. What we lacked in genuine care for each other, we made up in fake care for each other. We had an amazing time working together. I had a great time working with Emma. It was a wonderful experience.”

D’Agosto reveals the difficulties of keeping Final Destination 5’s twists, turns, and death scenes under wraps.

“Well, I think it’s important that there are a couple of things that

"Fired Up for his Final Destination!"

have leaked about the film that people know about,” he says, “And I’m not going to comment on any of those either because the less that people know, it’s a franchise that people understand what they are getting into. People understand what’s going to come. They understand how it’s going to be delivered generally.”

“But there are a couple of twists about this movie, some that are revealed in the trailer and some that have just been heard,” Nicholas continues, “I think there are some protagonists that have lived. Ali Larter lived into the second film, so you want to try and keep that guessing. There are a lot of fans that don’t know that they are going to get to hold onto their protagonists or not from one or the next. And so, I guess in that way, that’s why I’m being elusive.”

Nicholas was asked what death scenes he felt jumped out of the page the most when he read the script.

“That’s an interesting question,” he says, “Of course, the things that are going to jump out are the most are what I’m in, that’s going to jump out to me. I’ll tell you, I guess the final scene where Emma [Bell] and I and Miles [Fisher]’s character are sitting in the restaurant is one that I thought was such a fascinating scene, because it starts in this really kind of charming and like loving place and Miles’ character comes in and the mood so palpably changes.”

“I thought that was such an interesting scene,” D’Agosto adds, “I thought that was the thing that was most exciting about this film, that that element is added, this interpersonal conflict of the characters is added and I think it really plays out there, that’s something I was really excited about.”

D’Agosto talked about working with the film’s first-time director Steven Quale, who has previously worked second unit with James Cameron on all his enormously successful films since The Abyss.

"Fired Up for his Final Destination!"

“Yeah, I’m young in my career,” Nicholas says, “ I’ve been with a lot of first-time directors. And as I learned, I had to go through my own growing experience, so there’s a lot of reciprocal learning that happens in that type of thing. I think Steve settled in more. At the beginning, he had such a large amount of work to do to create his version technically and I think that everyone has their own experience working with Steve.”

“I had a great experience working with Steve,” he continues, “And for me, he was great. He was great and the thing that was most impressive is that he knew what he wanted. And that’s what you want in a director, you just want somebody who knows what they want. And in that way, he put us all where we needed to be and we did our job. And in that way, that is the greatest credit you can give him.”

Nicholas was asked what he did to psychologically decompress after working on such a continuously suspenseful environment for the film.

“We all just did the Quija when we went home after work, totally went the Quija board,” D’Agosto replies.