Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Part-conspiracy thriller, part-comedy, Netflix’s upcoming film They Cloned Tyrone boasts a fantastic cast, and an intriguing premise. Neighborhood drug dealer Fontaine (John Boyega) is shot and killed, only to wake up the next morning like nothing happened. Together with Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) and Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris), the trio investigate what really happened to Fontaine and uncover a massive government conspiracy in the process.

With a story that forces actors to work so closely together, chemistry and camaraderie with your co-stars is key. In a new interview, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff asked Boyega and Parris what makes for a good scene partner, both with respect to each other and their co-star Foxx. The pair also discussed working with Juel Taylor, and how he supported them as an “actor’s director.”

And of course, the two also snuck in a couple of jokes about Parris’ upcoming appearance in The Marvels. For more from the stars of the upcoming film, check out Perri’s interview in the video above this article, or check it out in the transcript form below.

PERRI NEMIROFF: One of my favorite parts of this movie is how many characters process things that are happening via movies, TV shows and books. So for you two, as in real you, what movie, show or book weighs on your mind most during the day where you process real-world things through that story?

TEYONAH PARRIS: Real-world shows? I don’t know.

JOHN BOYEGA: I would say any time I’m in downtown LA The Last of Us comes to mind.

Good choice.

BOYEGA: You know how it embeds into it. I’m just thinking, “Oh, they could pop out any minute.” I almost kind of put myself in that scenario, you know?

I’m glad you went genre because mine is Final Destination.

BOYEGA: Ooh, alright!

I look around and I’m like, “Something’s gonna fall on me.”

PARRIS: That’s a good one!

BOYEGA: On set! You know, because a lot of things that happen on set, the construction, the scaffolding. That gets me on set.

PARRIS: Yeah, that’s a good one. I could go with that one. Any time you see tree logs on the back of a truck, it’s like, “Move me.”

You move!

PARRIS: “Get out from behind this.” Yes. [Laughs]

Image via Netflix

No tree logs on trucks, no tanning beds. I can go on and on.

So for you two and also Jamie, I love talking about the value of a good scene partner and the three of you have exceptional chemistry with one another. Can you each tell me something about the other two that you really appreciated as a scene partner and you think brought something out of your own character that you wouldn’t have been able to reach without them?

PARRIS: Sure! I’ll start. With Jamie, he was so generous with jokes. There were times where I’m like, my character Yo-Yo would definitely be able to come back at you harder than Teyonah can process to come back at you, so he would offer me jokes and I just think that’s so dope. He’s like, “Here’s a joke that would cut me down, that’d make me look crazy,” and so that was dope. And then with John, John really was a metronome for us. You have Yo-Yo and Slick, who are so high energy – or Yo-Yo is very high energy, Slick is what he is – but John’s character, Fontaine, acted as a metronome. Inevitably, I don’t know, I can’t speak for him, but John also brought a very calm, smooth, just chill energy to the trio that helped to balance.

BOYEGA: I would say that the extroverted high energy from Yo-Yo kind of teaches you your place in a sense, but yet still gives the gang some form of energy that keeps you motivated as you go through a scene. And then with Jamie, just the ability to improv and just to get a scene on paper, but to be able to kind of shake it up a little bit, you know, give us new ideas and just kind of give you the freedom to be able to imagine a little bit more. That’s real cool.

So how about Juel now? I have a very good feeling that there will be many, many more films for him on the horizon, so what’s something you appreciated about him as an actor’s director that you are very excited for more actors to get to experience in the future with him?

PARRIS: For me, what I think Juel does very well is the overall vision and giving me references if I had any questions, or being able to say, “Oh, maybe not that. Let’s kind of bring it back a little bit.” But really, he just let us really go for it. Because we’re genre-less in the fact that we have all the genres and we’re era-less in the fact that it’s any era, we really got to play around. He just started with a very strong point of view and a very strong vision and allowed me to play within that, left me alone unless I asked something.

BOYEGA: He doesn’t have that respectful honesty industry thing, you know what I mean? When the director doesn’t want to say – he doesn’t have that. He’s just straight up, just kind of like, “Yeah, man, this is how I feel the tone should be,” or, “We should hold it back in this moment,” or, “We should do more.” I just like the freedom and the honesty. It just gives a fresh perspective to the experience.

Image via Netflix

Does he have a monitor dance? When you crush a take, does he do anything specific that signals to you that he likes it behind the monitor?

BOYEGA: Oh, “Crispy, crispy,” [Imitates Taylor’s gesture.] “Crispy.”

You brought up the many genres, not knowing specifically what time this movie takes place, and there are so many little details here, so when you first signed on, what was your biggest burning question about your character or the scenario overall that you absolutely needed him to answer to be able to fully wrap your head around this whole thing?

PARRIS: One of the things I really wanted Juel to help me with was tone in the sense of Yo-Yo can be very excitable and very high energy, and I loved that about her. I saw that for her, and I wanted to make sure that in creating this woman that it didn’t tip the scales too far over, but I think that’s what was awesome is that John’s character, Fontaine, is such a metronome and a calming force with it – “calming force” [laughs], he’s not that calm, but you know, a different energy that is very much needed. But that’s what I really needed Juel to help me with was tone. Like, “Is it too much? Can I go further?” That sort of thing.

BOYEGA: Some characterization stuff. You know, he helped me out with accent and just body language, how to differentiate the different clones, and just the little stuff like that. But Juel was so particular that he’s the right type of director for this type of job.

Can you give me an example of something he was really particular about that someone might say, “That is not an important detail,” but it wound up being key to bringing everything together?

BOYEGA: It was actually Fontaine’s look. I hadn’t found the character until we found the look. You’d come on set and Juel would just be like this [imitates Taylor]. He’d check out the beard first, check out the grills, check out the hair. He was so particular about this look, what silhouette was Fontaine gonna make, and how I move in the silhouette also. So the look, he was very particular on that.

Image via Netflix

As I have to wind down, the inevitable Marvels question. In particular, I want to ask about working with Nia [DaCosta] again, which I think could be a safe way to get at it. Having worked together on Candyman, what is something she did on The Marvels that makes you say, “I knew you could do that. I knew you would crush it,” but then on the other hand, what’s a layer of her ability as a director that was illuminated on that project that you never knew she had?

BOYEGA: You should have asked her if she was gonna be in [Avengers:] The Kang Dynasty! You’re being nice! What is this? [Laughs]

BOYEGA: [Quietly] So, are you a new Avenger?

PARRIS: Hush! [Laughs] Nia is so dope and the fact that Candyman was – let’s just be clear, The Marvels is a lot bigger budget to work with in a bigger universe. That, I think, is not a spoiler alert. So to watch her be able to – and it’s [a] sci-fi world. We were doing horror before. It felt like more freedom. I can’t speak for her, but this is what it felt like for me. In the world she got to create and the things she got to bring to life from her mind with us, I feel as if I got to see her do even more of that in this world.

I like that.

BOYEGA: So you are an Avenger then?

[Laughter]