Tyler Labine & Ella Rae Rappaport on Egghead Republic | TIFF 2025 World Premiere Interview
Egghead Republic had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF 2025) in the Discoveries section, and The Extra Mile sat down with stars Tyler Labine and Ella Rae Rappaport to talk about this wild, satirical new film.
Directed by Pella Kågerman & Hugo Lilja (Aniara), Egghead Republic is a surreal sci-fi satire about gonzo journalism, media manipulation, and the search for mutant centaurs in a radioactive Cold War zone.
Watch the full interview below:
Tyler Labine on First Reading the Script
“At first I thought — reporters chasing centaurs? Pass. But I read it again, this time imagining myself as Dino, and realized I’d have an absolute ball with the role.”
Tyler admits the script came to him in an unusual way, but once he locked onto the character of Dino Davis, he knew he had to do it. He also revealed that he drew inspiration from real-life controversial media figures like Gavin McInnes, describing Dino as “disgusting and likeable at the same time.”
Ella Rae Rappaport on Playing Sonja
Ella almost missed out on the film after overlooking the casting message for three weeks. But once she read the scene (involving a centaur), she was hooked.
“The dark comedy in Sonja comes from her naivety. She’s kind of a fish out of water, and that creates both humor and vulnerability.”
Building On-Screen Chemistry
Despite the intensity of their characters’ relationship, Tyler and Ella didn’t rehearse much. Their first major scene together was one of the trickiest:
“They put us right into this scene in the cab, where she has her head in my lap and I want to kiss her. We basically had to just do it,” Tyler recalled.
Ella added that she felt very safe working with him, even without intimacy coordinators on set in Sweden.
What They Hope Audiences Take Away
Ella: “I hope people laugh, but also think about ambition and how recognition shapes us.”
Tyler: “I hope people look with more scrutiny at what they consider a news source and also laugh.”
What “Going the Extra Mile” Means to Them
Ella: “Be humble. You can always be open and learn more. Listen to people.”
Tyler: “For me it’s as a father – meeting my kids at a place that exceeds their expectations.”
Read the full interview transcript below:
TEM (The Extra Mile) :So what was your first reaction when you read the script?
Tyler: I just want to say you should start a new genre called Sat-Fi . So, it came to me in a very untraditional way. It came to me through an old agent in Canada, and kind of circumvented my current agents, and I was like, what is this crazy script, and why are they sneaking it to me? And my agent was like, it’s a movie about a team of gonzo reporters that go looking for centaurs. And I was like, oh my god, pass. And then I read it, because he was like, just read it, it’s really interesting. And I read it, and I immediately had to read it again. Because I was like, what the fuck did I just read? I think it’s awesome, but I had to go back through it again and be like, and I didn’t actually know which character they wanted me to play. I was assuming it was the character I ended up playing, but I was like, I don’t know. Hoping that it was Dino that I got to play. And I read back through the second time, imagining that I was Dino, and I was like, oh my god, I have such a ball with this role. And yeah, and then I met with these guys over at Zoom, and my first question was, why in the world do you want me to play this role? What made you think I could do this? And they were like, we just like your work from New Amsterdam. And I was like, how did that correlate with this scumbag, sleazy guy? But anyway, I think you said you saw something in my eyes. Something creepy in my eyes. Anyway, yeah, so my reaction was just like, I can’t believe I’m going to get to do this.
Ella: Yeah, I just read, like, a panel contacted me on Facebook, and I didn’t look at my messages, so I missed the message for like three weeks. And then I saw it, and she had like a small description of what it was about, and I got really interested. And then I got to do the self-tape, and the scene was the centaur.
Tyler: That’s such a great scene.
Ella: I immediately, like, really wanted to do it. And so, yeah, but I, the script changed a lot. But I was really, like, I really wanted to do it. I think Pella and Hugo said that they wrote it in Swenglish. It was a little bit like, oh, yeah, it was great.
TEM: You know, your characters have such, like, an interesting dynamic. Like, is there anything that you guys did to prepare to kind of, like, build that chemistry up?
Ella: We didn’t prepare. And I think that was really good, because I could, like, imagine Sonya’s situation better. You and Arvin had.
Tyler: Arvin and I met, yeah, for a little bit. He kind of, he came to L.A. for, like, a month to kind of, like, help with his English and get his English sounding very seamless. And he came up to where I live and we hung out. But we didn’t get that much into the film. We talked about the ending and how we wanted to maybe help with the ending changing a little bit. But, yeah, I didn’t prepare a ton for, like, I prepared for Dino. But as far as chemistry, it’s, honestly, they put us in one of the trickiest scenes of the whole movie to begin with in the cab. Yeah. Where she’s, like, has her head in my lap and, like, I want to kiss her. And, like, so it was, we basically had to, like, do it.
Ella: Yeah, it was, like, but I think that was the best way. And I legitimately felt very safe with you.
Tyler: Which is funny, because I, yeah, I, you know, it’s funny. In North America, there’s a lot of attention paid to intimacy, coordination, intimacy coaches. And there is none of that in Sweden. So I was, like, I had to make sure I talked to Ella. I was, like, okay, look, I want to make sure you’re comfortable with all these things. So I think that helped us feel a little more, you know, safe compared to, like, get kind of raw.
TEM: Like, is there anything that you guys, like, did anything in particular to kind of, like, portray that in the film?
Tyler: Honestly, I, because Pella worked for Vice magazine, there was a lot of my initial research was looking into Vice magazine and Gavin McGinnis. And I watched a lot of Gavin McGinnis interviews. And for people who don’t know, Gavin McGinnis, he’s one of the cofounders of Vice, but also he’s one of the proud boys in the United States. And he’s, like, a really divisive, controversial character, to say the least. And I sort of drew inspiration from watching his interviews where he’s, like, charming as fuck, but he’s saying horrible shit. If you really pay attention, it’s, like, really horrible stuff he’s saying. But he’s just so charming and good at it. And I was, like, that’s what this guy, that’s what I have to be. I have to figure out how to be disgusting and likeable at the same time. And I think a lot of comedy comes from that. Dark, dark comedy.
Ella: Yeah. I think my dark comedy in Sonya has to do a lot with her naivety. And so I took inspiration from my own experiences and my friends’ experiences and being, like, just, like, happy to be there. Yeah, fish out of the water.
TEM:What’s, like, one thing that you hope the audience will take away from this film?
Ella: I hope that people have a fun and realistic experience. Beneath the satire, the story is really about, like, how ambition, how recognition forms us. And so I hope that, I mean, it often puts us in kind of uncomfortable situations. And I hope that people just have a laugh, but also, like, think a little bit about themselves.
Tyler: Yeah, and I think we were talking a lot about how, sort of, there’s a lot of mirroring about the media, the state of the media today, and just, like, how you sell people out. It’s just how you tell it, you know what I mean? And Dino is trying to manipulate her into selling, you know, a line of shit. But it’s just kind of like that. I hope people look with more scrutiny at what they consider a news source. But yeah, and also laugh.
TEM: We’re all about going the extra mile. So what does going the extra mile mean to you guys, whether that be professionally or, you know, what does that mean to you?
Tyler: There’s a lot of ways to answer that question.
Ella: You can never learn enough how, like, to say that. You have to be humble. You can always be open and learn more. Listen. Listen to people.
Tyler: I think the extra mile for me has been as a father. I have three kids. And, yeah, learning to, you know, it’s very cliche as well, but don’t be the thing that you didn’t. Don’t be your parents. You know what I mean? I love my parents. We learn from their mistakes, and you do the best you can, but it often requires doing more models, you know, especially nowadays. There’s a lot more happening in the world, and I feel like going extra miles in America has become this really deep listening exercise instead of, like, oh, I was trying to make a teachable moment.Just, like, clean what you can from your kids and then meet them at a place that exceeds their expectations, you know. Yeah, and it brings me a lot of joy in America.