Dave Bautista My Spy

He's A Pro. She's A Natural.

Cast: Dave Bautista, Ken Jeong, Kristen Schaal, Chloe Coleman, Parisa Fitz-Henley
Director: Peter Segal
Genre: Action, Comedy

Synopsis: Dave Bautista plays a hardened covert operative who finds himself outmaneuvered by a precocious youngster in My Spy. When CIA field agent Jason Jones – JJ to his friends – is demoted to a light surveillance detail, he finds himself at the mercy of a sweet but determined 9-year-old girl, Sophie (Chloe Coleman), who uses her tech savviness and street smarts to find JJ's undercover hideout near the apartment she shares with her mother. In exchange for not blowing JJ's cover, Sophie convinces him to spend time with her and teach her to be a spy. Despite his reluctance, JJ finds he is no match for Sophie's disarming charm, intelligence and aptitude for espionage.

Blending action, humor and an unexpected friendship between a mega-tough superspy and a fatherless child, My Spy, says its star and producer Dave Bautista, "is really about heart. You have an emotional investment in these characters and their story."

Bautista compares My Spy's surprising genre-blending to the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers films, in which he played fan favorite Drax. "The Guardians films are about family, but are disguised as superhero films, just as this one is a heartfelt relationship story, disguised as an action-comedy."

My Spy
Release Date: January 9th, 2020

About The Production

Internal use only We meet Bautista's JJ - flashing his piercing eyes and wearing a suit that barely contains his formidable physique – in a faraway desert, where he's demonstrating his cowboy heroics and expertise in kicking butt, as he wipes out a band of bad guys carrying a plutonium pit. "JJ is ex-Special Forces, so action and heroics are what he's good at," confirms Bautista.

JJ's natural badassery is offset by his challenges with the covert spy stuff, which requires subtlety, finesse and emotional intelligence. None of which JJ possesses. When he returns to CIA headquarters, JJ's boss David Kim (Ken Jeong) dresses him down for botching the mission, the goal of which was to discover what the terrorists knew. But that's going to be a little difficult, given that JJ has killed them all.

Kim gives JJ one last shot to succeed as an agent: a seemingly lightweight surveillance assignment. Grunt work. Moreover, JJ's been saddled with a new partner, Roberta "Bobbi" Ulf (Kristen Schaal), a tech specialist and aspiring field agent with messy hair, unkempt clothes, and an acerbic manner. "This is all a punishment for JJ, so he's not thrilled about it," says Bautista. "Now, he and his pet fish, Blueberry, are stuck in this apartment with a partner who's been forced on JJ. Even worse, he's running surveillance - to him, it's really babysitting –and he thinks it's a really embarrassing situation."

Segal notes, "As our story begins, we see Dave in his element, playing a megatough professional who dispatches the villains with ease. But now he's going into a more nuanced world that demands a different, more subtle skillset, as opposed to a guy with a machine gun in the desert. Getting information, instead of breaking necks, doesn't come so easily to JJ."

Adds producer Chris Bender: "Dave brings a pathos to his roles, including Drax and, now, JJ. There's a history in that face!"

As if JJ's mickey-mouse gig weren't bad enough, things get even more uncomfortable for the beleaguered agent. He and Bobbi have planted high-techonly cameras in a neighboring apartment occupied by a nine-year-old girl, Sophie, and her mother, Kate (Parisa Fitz-Henley), whose deceased husband was connected to the terrorists JJ had eliminated earlier. But the ingenious young lady, with the assistance of her dog, discovers one of the cameras and tracks down JJ and Bobbi to their once "covert" lair. Lonely and friendless, Sophie blackmails JJ to be her new best friend – and teach her everything he knows about being a spy.

Desperate not to have his cover blown … by a child, no less … JJ reluctantly promises (actually, Chloe makes him pinky-swear) that he'll go ice skating with her, be her guest at her school's Special Friends Day, humor the other kids with a ride on a teeter-totter and a game of dodgeball, and teach Chloe the finer points of spycraft. Not only does Sophie have JJ wrapped around her little finger, she quickly becomes adept at beating a lie detector test, outsmarts JJ in a training move, and learns some of the "fun" spy stuff, like how to walk away from an explosion without looking back, or figuring out pithy statements to make before taking out a bad guy.

As Bobbi fumes – she was supposed to be training with JJ! – Chloe and her new pal grow closer, as the youngster attempts her biggest mission: set up her mom, Kate, with JJ. Romance begins to blossom, but first, JJ must deal with villains who are closing in on him and his new family – as Chloe puts her new skills to the test.

The bad guys never had a chance.

Everybody Loves Chloe

The heart and soul of My Spy is centered around the surprising bond between JJ and Sophie, as brought to life by Bautista and Chloe Coleman. "Our two principals couldn't be more different," offers Segal. "One is a nine-year-old girl, the other is a grizzled special ops veteran turned spy."

In casting the young super-sleuth, Segal says he wanted an actress "who could stand toe-to-toe with Dave and be sarcastic and funny with him. Chloe is the real deal. She's not a 'child actor'; she's an actor – a finely-tuned artist. Chloe understands everything, even terms I used during filming that many adults were unfamiliar with. She makes everything about movie-making enjoyable and reminds us that we once looked at it with the same starry eyes she has now."

Internal use only Segal adds that his favorite on-screen moment between Chloe and Bautista is when JJ reluctantly teaches his young charge how to outsmart a lie detector. "JJ is incredulous at how quickly she not only learns how to beat the machine, but how she turns her new skillset against him. Chloe is so deadpan and really carries it off. She and Dave are brilliant in that scene," he enthuses.

Bender notes, "Chloe not only knew her lines, she knew everybody else's lines. She's a natural."

Despite Chloe's familiarity with movie sets – she's been acting since age five and previously appeared in the acclaimed HBO mini-series "Big Little Lies" – the young actor admits that My Spy had a new element that she hadn't encountered before. "When I was introduced to Dave, I was thinking, Oh my god, he's a giant! But I quickly pulled it together. We started chatting and got to know each other pretty fast and became good friends. Dave is like a big Teddy bear who can play a really nice guy as easily as he can a tough guy."

Bautista relates that he, too, could be a charter member of the Chloe Coleman Fan Club. "Chloe is special in so many ways," he explains. "She's a bright light, and I'm in awe of her. She really loves acting and it comes across in so many ways. You can't learn what she does; it's instinctual."

Parisa Fitz-Henley sounds like the proud mother she plays in the film when she exclaims, "I have decided that when I grow up, I want to be Chloe Coleman – and Sophie. You just want to cheer and root for Chloe. She, along with Pete [Segal] and the writers have created this wonderful character."

A Spy In Waiting … And Waiting

As Chloe's path to becoming a junior master spy blossoms under JJ's reluctant tutelage, his actual partner, Bobbi, feels like she's been left behind. Kristen Schaal, who takes on the role, notes that this is especially maddening for Bobbi because, "She's eager to leave the office and tech side of the operation and get out in the field and take down bad guys. Bobbi wants to be recognized as JJ's partner and equal."
Bobbi's frustration level escalates as Sophie becomes increasingly espionagesavvy. "Sophie is not only getting closer to JJ, she pretty much starts running the only mission," Schaal notes. "So, Bobbi's not thrilled with Sophie." Yes, she's actually jealous of a nine-year-old.

"Bobbi confronts JJ, demanding to know why he's teaching Sophie, and not Bobbi, everything he knows," Schaal continues. "And JJ is clueless about handling her frustration, which drives her even more crazy. They're like a bickering married couple."

The role was initially written for a male, which, says Bautista, "felt a little like a cliché." It was popular actor and Academy® Award nominated screenwriter, Kumail Nunjiani, who had recently starred opposite Bautista in the comedy Stuber, who suggested Schaal. "Kristen is a gifted comic actress who brings a lot of fun and heart to the character," Bautista says.

Momma Bear

Chloe's mother, Kate, an ER nurse working long hours, is at first oblivious to her daughter's friendship with JJ – not to mention her lessons in espionage. Then there's Chloe's other top-secret operation: to make a love connection between her mom and JJ.

But Chloe's master plan goes sideways when Kate spots JJ and Chloe holding hands as they're enjoying ice cream cones. The protective "momma bear" springs into action, swatting away JJ's cone and kneeing him in his … "special ops." Obviously, the scene was carefully mapped out in advance, and Parisa Fitz-Henley jokes that, "I'm proud to say I did not damage Dave Bautista in any lasting way!"

"Dave's this big, warm person – and I'm probably ruining his reputation as an action superhero as I say those words, aren't I?" she adds with a smile.

Fed Up

Popular comic actor Ken Jeong (the Hangover films, Crazy Rich Asians) portrays JJ and Bobbi's exasperated and fed-up boss, David Kim. Kim has pretty much had it with JJ's take-no-prisoners exploits and lack of field smarts, so he banishes him to monitor a woman and her young daughter in a nondescript Chicago apartment building. "Kim is definitely a by-the-book, control-freakish CIA boss," Jeong confirms.

Internal use only Seeking to put a fun spin on the character, Jeong gave Kim a backstory: "He's at a tough place in his life and taking it out on everyone, especially JJ," he explains. Jeong was thrilled to reunite with Segal, with whom the actor had collaborated on the television film "Ken Jeong Made Me Do It," and whom Jeong describes as a "dear friend." Moreover, he embraced the opportunity to work opposite Bautista, of whom he's a longtime fan. "I loved Dave's work in the Guardians of the Galaxy films and in the recent Blade Runner, as well as his wrestling with the WWE. So, Dave is a towering figure in my worldview. He's the real deal and very soulful. I'm so impressed with his range and heart."

On Thin Ice

For action movie veteran Bautista, My Spy's big set pieces and stunts were all in a day's work. But for Chloe Coleman, they provided new and wondrous experiences. "This was the first time I got to do my own stunts, including jumping out of a [grounded] airplane, and it was a lot of fun," she remarks. A high point were the explosions and running during the film's climax – "definitely my favorite scenes to film," she adds.

But there was one "stunt" that Chloe mastered much more quickly than her costar: an ice-skating sequence where JJ reluctantly accompanies Chloe on a sojourn to a local rink. Unfortunately – for Bautista – the Toronto location (standing in for Chicago) had yet to undergo winter's worst, and the water had not completely frozen. The combination of an extra-slippery surface and Bautista's inexperience with skating … well, it wasn't pretty. "I'm a horrible ice skater," he confesses. Adds Segal, with a laugh: "Yeah, it was like 280 pounds of Brian Boitano on ice!"

Equally daunting for Bautista was a dance scene featuring the actor and FitzHenley – the culmination of JJ and Kate's first date. But according to Fitz-Henley, the actor, a natural athlete, acquitted himself well, as JJ fully commits to enjoying himself on the dance floor. "The scene brings out a side of JJ that Kate didn't expect to see – and definitely brings out a side of Dave that audiences won't expect to see," she says.
Internal use only Chloe's ****Ing Swear Jar

Ever mindful that a youngster – Chloe – was frequently on set, cast and crew endeavored mightily to avoid using "colorful" language. To aid their efforts, and maybe make a little extra cash on the side, Chloe set up a swear jar, to which each member of the My Spy production team had to contribute each time they'd inadvertently utter an expletive.

Some knew the task would be impossible and planned accordingly. Prior to becoming an actor, Bautista spent years in the rough-and-tumble world of professional wrestling, where, he says, "bad language is a fact of life." He knew abiding by this edict would be the greatest, if not most hopeless, challenge of his career, so he surrendered at its onset. "This was a mission impossible for me, so I just gave Chloe 50 dollars – paid in advance," he says with a smile.

To make sure the others kept to the agreement, or paid the price for noncompliance, Chloe, like her onscreen character, went into super-stealth mode, spying on her castmates and the crew. "Everybody had to be on their toes because Chloe was always lurking in the shadows, just waiting for you to say a bad word," remembers Bautista.

Segal, who became known on-set as "King of the F-bombs," was a frequent target. "That ******* swear jar was the bane of my existence," he jokes. "Too often, I was the victim of Chloe's sneak attacks."

Mission's End

As he puts the finishing touches on My Spy, Segal shares that he "wanted to give audiences something unexpected: Dave Bautista being vulnerable and funny, as well as badass and tough. I compare his acting and on-screen presence to Clint Eastwood's – it's contained, grounded, real and subtle."

"This film has all the action you expect from Dave's films, as well as the romance and heart you don't expect from a Dave Bautista movie," he continues. "It has elements of a family comedy, that's also relatable to adults, all wrapped up in a big action movie."

Internal use only Concludes Bautista: "I can't wait for audiences to experience My Spy. I knew we were onto something special from the day Chloe and I filmed our first scene together – in fact, from our first chemistry read."

"Along with the action and comedy, there's an inspiring message of two very, very different kinds of people coming together against all odds. That's inspiring. And now, more than ever, audiences need a good laugh and to be entertained."

My Spy
Release Date: January 9th, 2020