Hollywood actress Amber Midthunder on Her UAE Eid release Novocaine: On love, heartbreak, and pain

I don't think I'd be against it. Sherry from Novocaine did, so I probably would. Yeah, why not?

It seems as though he can feel emotional pain and it's his journey. This movie is about watching somebody who can't feel physical pain fight for love, which is like the ultimate emotional circumstance tied to anything. It's the ultimate emotional pain.

I'd like to think so. I'd like to think love never goes out of style. I think that's probably also what makes this movie special. You know, there are these big, big action sequences — Jack worked so hard on them, and they spent so long preparing. Some of the circumstances are so insane, right? But ultimately, what's at the centre of all that is the heart of this film, which is his sweetness and his love. So I think the action is entertaining, but the love is what really buys you in.

Yeah, we definitely had. I think something I really appreciate about Dan and Bobby is that we had a lot of conversations, and we did. We put a lot into making sure that Sherry was not just a damsel in distress. It's easy to look at a character like this and to just kind of let it only be that. But that's not the character that they were interested in creating, and that's not the character that I was interested in creating either. And so I felt very fortunate to have that, because it's not often that you have two male directors who are on the same page of creating a character that is just as layered and interesting as you want her to be.

There was a vulnerability in just playing a character like Sherry. In some ways, she's so simple. I have never just gotten to be the romantic lead in a movie. There's something about not having such incredible circumstances for your character that you just kind of have to lean on the realism, the simplicity. Trusting and leaning into that was a challenge for me.

I am always interested in something new, right? I'm always interested in something that I haven't done before in my career. There's a lot of things that I love that I want to continuously do. But I think, what made part of this so exciting to me was that this is something I wanted to do that I'd never gotten to do. I knew my character had the potential to be very interesting. And the arena was perfect for me to be able to do this.

I'm very self-critical and that's always a constant. Jack and I were talking about this and how to a degree we are always hard on yourself. But then again, that's also what keeps you in line and that's also what makes you better. It's also important to take a moment and try to be proud of yourself as much as you can.

Ultimately, you never know and it's often just about: 'what do you think?'. With regards to Novocaine, the script is really fun, and I put a lot of trust in Dan and Bobby, and I was excited to work with Jack. For these reasons, I said yes to this movie and those are the factors that make any job worth the gamble.

If I had a superpower, it would be teleportation. You could do so much with that superpower and I stand by that heavily.

Yes and we are starting to see a lot of positive shifts in terms of representation. We are at the starting line of that and specifically for indigenous filmmakers or any minority, the world is starting to understand what we have to offer as artists, as filmmakers, as actresses, as make-up artists. They are starting to understand what's important and have begun honouring that we might operate differently than what is familiar. But that is the way that we work best, and that's what brings out that special magic. On top of that, when you look at a movie like this, it's so important for stories to be told about marginalised communities by those communities. At the same time, for a movie like Novocaine where I am an Indigenous, mixed-race woman who just is in this movie — and it's not something that we talk about, and it's not a centre point of this character — I just am. And that's is the ultimate goal of representation, is just to have ourselves and our faces reflected in these positions, and we don't even question it. We're just used to that. I think there's so much power in taking up that type of space without having to always say it every single time. So both are important.

Yeah, the more we become comfortable with that — that really is the power. Having the ability to tell our own stories, and then also just exist — there's a real power in simply taking up space.

I agree with you. Seeing that stuff, it really warms my heart. I champion all of these people, and I champion all of these women, and I hope that we only see more.

I hope I get a combination with Novocaine, because I feel it's got a good mix. There's a lot of fighting for the damsel in not-so-distress, but fighting for you and love wins eventually. Just come and watch our movie because it's fun and has a lot of heart.