Revealed by ‘Bone Temple’ by Jimmy Crystal

When After 28 years in theaters last summer, audiences weren’t just mesmerized Danny Boylea new vision of zombie horror, but also with the curious presentation of Jimmy Crystal.

Played by sinners’ Jack O’Connell, Jimmy immediately attracted the audience, who were eager to see more of him After 28 years direct succession I Temple of Bones. But can you handle that director Niya DaCosta What’s in store for him now that he’s taking over the reins for the second film in this budding trilogy?

Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko welcomed O’Connell and DaCosta to our Say More couch to catch up on all things Temple of Bones. When it comes to Jimmy Crystal, the two share how they make sense of the super-influential lunatic The TeletubbiesJimmy Savile, and his horrific childhood trauma.

Temple of BonesJimmy ‘s was shaped by tragedy and TV.

Jimmy makes a reservation After 28 years, starting as a boy running away from his family’s home – which is being attacked by a virus – in search of a place in a nearby church where his father is a pastor. But before you can say “Amen,” Jimmy’s father surrenders to the sick crowd while preaching what God wanted.

This poignant introduction leaves Jimmy alone and terrified, clutching the necklace his father just gave him. Then Alex Garland’s screenplay dives into the coming-of-age story of a young man named Spike (Alfie Williams), who is alone 28 years after first seeing Jimmy. The two paths cross in the film’s finale, where Spike is chased by the infected but rescued by Jimmy and his “Fingers,” a group of seven teenagers who all dress up as their “king.”

At the time of After 28 yearsReleased by Mashable, Mashable revealed how the costumes and sounds of this zombie-slaying sequence are depicted i The Teletubbies the show that was playing on TV as Jimmy’s sisters were killed. We also noted how Jimmy’s blonde Lancelot haircut and penchant for tracksuits with flashy gold chains echoed the British TV personality’s look. Jimmy Savilewho would later be outed as a child predator.

Where the audience might have seen Savile’s signatures as a warning that Jimmy might not be trusted, we thought that Jimmy would not have known that this was the sign he was rejecting, because he would not have known the ugly truth about Savile.

DaCosta confirmed our suspicions. “He perverts a lot of things,” he said of Jimmy, but noted that in the world After 28 years again Temple of Bones“Rituals ended in 2001.” Significantly, Savile was not publicly exposed as a rapist until after his death in 2011. So, for Jimmy, Savile was to be admired, as much as he loved the Teletubbies. And his focus on these aspects of the 2001 culture extends to his fingers, like Jimmima (Emma Laird), who devotedly does the “Dipsy dance” since. The Teletubbies while wearing jelly sandals and carrying a long-dead Tamagotchi.

O’Connell said he could relate to Jimmy on this level, saying, “I found myself excited, because I was naive at the time.”

In addition, O’Connell talked about how Jimmy was “traumatized by seeing his family killed in front of his eyes.” However, O’Connell is happy that Garland’s script and DaCosta’s vision did not allow Jimmy to get away with the violence he does because of his trauma. Instead, he gave the foil to Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes). “What I love – again – about the film is that we see the unstoppable depravity of Jimmy,” he said, “and Dr. Kelson, with his advances in medicine and his inquisitive mind, wanting to know what it was about the virus – and if it can be cured. You have these two paths unfolding at the same time and then they come together … You’ve got the darkness of the last hope of meeting.”

Nia DaCosta digs into Jimmy Crystal’s twisted faith.

Credit: Miya Mizuno / Sony

Some of the worst moments in between Temple of Bones It’s not when the virus attacks, but when Jimmy and his fingers do. Attacking a farmhouse, they kidnap four people, then give them “offerings” – a word Jimmy twists to mean torture, like peeling the skin off their bodies. When he doesn’t giggle because of violence or regret The Teletubbies episodes from his funny apostles, he twists his own story that he did when he was the son of Satan, Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, born to raise hell.

“Jimmy ruins everything,” DaCosta said, “Even, like The Teletubbieshe calls them ‘Teletummies.’ It’s about how he remembers something. His whole teaching is built on this unremembered death of his father. You know, like, ‘Oh yeah, my dad is Satan, because he thinks that’s what he sees [when his dad was mobbed by the infected in the church].”

Speaking of Jimmy’s preaching, the director said, “Those scenes in particular were really fun, because for me, that’s when, when I read the script, I thought, ‘OK, I know this character now.’

Nia DaCosta reveals what Jimmy and Samson have in common.

Credit: Miya Mizuno / Sony

When shooting scenes involving Jimmy’s dark teachings and his violent habits, DaCosta had a clear idea of ​​how it would look. “It was important for me to hold on to love, we will sit in these characters and watch them,” he explained, “Because that’s where we as the audience see a person for who they are, not just a monster. Because every monster has a person in it, who is also like an infection.”

He added that Jimmy was like an Alpha, an infected Samson, saying, “It’s like they’re infected – they’re not really monsters. They’re sick. So, that was very important to me.”

Tying this back to Jimmy and Kelson, a satanic dictator and an “atheist doctor,” DaCosta said, “It’s really cool to watch Kelson quip — kind of like a mental thing — ‘So you’re talking to your father in your head?’ But you also realize, like, Jimmy actually thought he could see his dad [at the Bone Temple]and lonely, you know? That’s how you feel in the scene,” he concluded, turning to O’Connell to add, “I thought you played that well.”

How is that?

28 years later: Temple of Bones opens in theaters Jan. 16.