LOGAN MILLER ON ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, SCREENWRITING, AND COLLABORATIONS

BY IRVIN RIVERA

Life is just like a series of non-linear escape rooms meant to be solved at your own pace either by yourself or with the help of your friends. Very much like the adventures of LOGAN MILLER and his friends on ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS.

Logan spoke to us about the evolution of his character Ben from the original ESCAPE ROOM (2019) film to becoming the hero of this new dystopian epic adventure.

In this interview, Logan also talked about navigating his way through the pandemic, the toll of working on escape room sets, appreciating the movie’s elaborate set designs, collaborations and screenwriting.

Logan Miller can also be seen on Love Simon, A Dog’s Purpose, the Disney XD show I’m In the Band, and he also voiced Nova / Sam Alexander in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man.

Hello Logan, what's up? How's it going?

Good. Good to see you.

Good to see you. Thank you for coming today.

Of course.

So how are you, and how are you able to navigate the crazy past year all the way up to this point?

It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy for any of us, a lot of liquor helped. But also, at the end of the day, I have a wonderful support system, I have that with my family, I have that with my friends. Two of my friends and myself actually decided to come together during all of this and pull our resources and start living together again. So we got a nice little house together that really brought in a sense of community. We're all creative types so being able to kind of join forces and get away from all of the news and just like the day in day out peril, to kind of have our own little safe space there. That really helped along the way. Everybody that I had surrounding me is what kept me going.

That's so good.

Yes.

Because you need that time to center yourself.

Yes, yes. And then, as things have kind of progressed, getting a little bit more normal, projects coming under way and whatnot. It's a little daunting, of course, being able to have to see like several people at once. The social skills are a bit inept right now. But thankfully, everybody's is bad. So, hopefully, I won't be judged too much by some of the things that I say or do. But I've been an oddball since day one. So I think people just expect me to say random shit, but it's okay in that way. But yes, adapting has been interesting but I'm excited to continue to find new projects, and now collaborate with all the people that I've been working with, during the pandemic to put forth our own effort in creating something that we believe in.

Absolutely.

Not just waiting for somebody to, you know, make a call; it’s us pulling our resources and doing something together creatively.

Speaking of projects, let's talk about your movie.

Yes.

How was it playing your character, Ben in Escape Room: Tournament of Champions?

Yes. Well, it was great. I got to play it in the first one, obviously, and Ben was a little bit of a cynic. He had kind of given up on life due to the circumstances that he was placed in. Now, since he's been through this entire immaculate journey, on the first one, he's had a second chance at life, he's made it out of the escape room once and now they're coming back for revenge. Coming back to destroy this evil corporation. However, they came to find out that Minos, the corporation itself is one step ahead of them at every leg of the race. And so now he has to kind of take a lead role and be more of an enforcer, be more of a hero. But he wasn't the first one and I loved playing with that evolution of the character doing the second movie.

I was just going to ask you about your characters evolution from the first movie all the way to the second movie. So, to those people who haven't seen it yet, what could they expect from your character this time around?

Yes, well, you're going to get a high octane thrill ride with also a mysterious element within the film. I mean, it's solving these puzzles together. The whole audience will be able to interact with like, what the characters are trying to figure out while they go through these escape rooms. Being able to play the character again was just fun. I got to change him in that way of, you know, before it was kind of, he was kind of the black sheep. You weren't sure that he was actually going to make it and that was kind of the surprise at the end that he was able to push through. But now it's no nonsense. He's ready to take down the corporation any way he can. And, yes, I almost want to say he's more of an action hero this time. So soon enough, he'll be John McClane in the third one, maybe.

Do you think the other champions could have been working for Minos, the whole time?

Absolutely. I mean, the thing is you never know what is going to happen with these different characters. For all we know, we could have found out in the second one that Zoey, Taylor Russell's character was maybe working for Minos. And this is such an intense corporation that even the good guy is being forced and manipulated to work for the bad guy. And, you might see that within the film, this one. And the element of surprise within the second one is, if you didn't see it, it didn't happen. And so, there's some surprises along the way of maybe the good has been forced to turn bad.

So there's all these dynamics...

Yes

And the non-duality of things. That's amazing.

Yes.

What's the most memorable part of the filming process for you?

The sheer PTSD afterwards, the dreams that I would have afterwards going home feeling like, no matter what, something was going to be shaking, or like, I was going to end up in the escape room all over again.

Oh my God.

You know, it is such a high octane situation day in, day out and working on that for three months, can really kind of take a toll on your psyche a little bit. But, I mean, there was a camaraderie with the whole cast. I mean, you have to do something like this, with that kind of energy, day in day out, you have to really be able to separate yourself from that outside of set. And so, it was met with a lot of fun with the entire cast and crew afterwards. The weekends, we would try to get out to beaches in South Africa and go to a bar here and there and stuff, and it was a lot of fun there.

So that balances it out.

That balanced it out. But again, one of the most memorable things about these movies is the set design and we got to see that be amped up tenfold for the second one. I mean, the first one was a bit of an experiment and then now we know what we're working with. So we got to experience these illustrious sets, that's all 360, that's actual living working escape rooms in a way. So getting to always just jump into that it adds an element to the acting process, because you don't have to do much. You're just kind of there experiencing it. So that's what makes it fun.

Have you been to any actual escape room prior to filming?

Yes. Yes, I have. And a word of advice is don't do it with a bunch of theatre actors, because it's going to be really loud. And everyone's going to try to be the center of attention. But no, I mean, the whole genre of escape rooms is so much fun. And I was able to do one that was like a zombie oriented one.

Did you finish it?

Finished that one, yes. Although there was a real live zombie in the room. And so like, if you got touched, you died.

Meaning you get kicked out kind of thing?

Yes, yes. No, they physically kill you. (laughs)

You die. bye.

So, I made it through that. Now I'm in the actual escape room movies. Did one that was like a Music City one, like you're stuck in a studio until you can like record a song - that was interesting. A Mad Scientist one, it's great. I find the creativity that these people kind of put together to create this little thrill ride is always so fun, and to see all the different things that these escape rooms have to offer.

What's next for the realm of these types of franchise, do you think?

You never know, we always are waiting until we see how the audience receives it. That was how it was with the first one where it was like, we want to hear the feedback from the audience. We want to see what they think, what they want. And so you never know, but I hope maybe we get one more chapter at least to kind of wrap things up in a way and, have this final trilogy of sorts, but we'll see. It's always up to the powers that be, the creative minds of Adam Robitel and more to see what we can do that's going to continue to be different and unique about this kind of genre. But it's very collaborative. So you know, we'll always be able to put our voice into it. And I'll get to kind of create Ben's chapter three in a way. So yes, we'll see but no news yet, you know? Yes, we'll find out soon.

What's next for you? What can the audience expect from you next?

Yes. Well, I've got a couple of projects that I'm working on now. I just finished a movie with Shiloh Fernandez and Ashley Benson. It's a remake of a 1960s noir called Private Property. So that's coming up next. I'm going to be doing a movie with Emma Roberts and Melissa Leo. That's going to be really fun. And yes, I'm really pushing forward in my writing and trying to get behind the camera as well and create some of my own stories.

Screen writing?

Yes, yes.

Nice.

So I'm screenwriting a couple things right now that I can't really talk about in too much detail. But I'm working together with a very fun, creative sort of people. I did a movie called shithouse that went to South by Southwest. And with that, I was able to develop these relationships with some of the producers, one of the actresses in the movies whose in fear street now, Olivia Welch, and we're kind of, all creating a bunch of things together and making a collective of sorts. So that's exciting.

It's amazing!

Yes, yes.

Final question. If you were a book, what book would you be and why?

Oh, my God. If I was a book, let's say, I would be Infinite just because I'm long, I'm thick and people only want to read my first chapter before they put me down.