'The Rip' Interview: Director Joe Carnahan

Moviefone speaks with writer and director Joe Carnahan about 'The Rip'. "I wanted to make something that was crowd pleasing and in the cop genre," he said.

'The Rip' writer and director Joe Carnahan.

Premiering on Netflix January 16th is the new action thriller ‘The Rip’, which was written and directed by Joe Carnahan (‘Smokin’ Aces’ and ‘The A-Team’) and stars Matt Damon (‘The Martian’) and Ben Affleck (‘The Town’).

In addition to Damon and Affleck, the film also stars Steven Yeun (‘Nope’), Teyana Taylor (‘One Battle After Another’), Sasha Calle (‘The Flash’), Scott Adkins (‘John Wick: Chapter 4’), Néstor Carbonell (‘The Dark Knight’) and Kyle Chandler (‘The Wolf of Wall Street’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with writer and director Joe Carnahan about his work on ‘The Rip’, bringing the project to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, working with them on set, their characters’ relationship, the supporting cast, building suspense for the twists and turns, the action sequences, working with Netflix, and why he’s not disappointed that the movie isn’t going to be shown in theaters.

Related Article: Joe Carnahan Talks 'Shadow Force' and Why Jon Hamm was in 'The A-Team'

Writer/Director Joe Carnahan on the set of 'The Rip'. Photo: Claire Folger/Netflix © 2025.

Moviefone: To begin with, I understand that you brought this project yourself to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s company, Artists Equity. Can you talk about that? Also, at a Netflix event last year Affleck told a story about you pitching this project to him as ‘Heat’ meets ‘Training Day’ and his response was, “Kind of like ‘The Town’?” Did that really happen?

Joe Carnahan: That is inaccurate. I don't know where he got that. No, you know what it was? Matt and Ben and I are all the same age. So, all the films that we loved as kids, ‘Serpico’ and ‘Heat’ and you know, ‘Lethal Weapon’. Like, these types of movies, and I think we wanted to make something like that that was kind of crowd pleasing and in the cop genre, which I love and have had some success with. Someone at Actors Equity got a hold of the script. I had not gone out wide with it. Matt and Ben and I have been friends for many years. The AE executive said, “Let me get it to them”. It got to Matt within 24 hours, and he called me 24 hours later, and then Ben called me. They were like, “What are you thinking for the cast?” I'm like, “What do you mean? Come on, I want you guys.” So, it was just a dream to have guys that were running the studio that could put the wheels in motion here. At the same time, these two are movie stars. They are two guys that grew up together that happened to be movie stars. It doesn't happen like that. So, it was a joy from start to finish. It really was.

(L to R) Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in 'The Rip'. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix © 2025.

MF: Obviously, Affleck is an accomplished director in his own right, and he and Damon are also Oscar winning screenwriters. What was it like having two veteran actors and experienced filmmakers on your set and working with them to create this movie?

JC: I know. Having them say my lines, these guys who have little gold statues for their writing. It was incredible. Again, they're both wonderful filmmakers. They understand it. They see it from a 30,000-foot vantage, right? They get what you're up against. They get what the challenges are, and they get what the obstacles would be. So, I found them to be nothing but lovely and helpful. Especially Ben, who's coming out of a directorial background. He's walked the same roads I've walked. He's put in those hours behind a camera. He understands. He's a world-class filmmaker. He really is. So, to have that level of competency, I could be a fool and still get to the finish line. But they gave me this wonderful grace and room to try things and they were game for stuff. We had a blast, man. We really did.

(L to R) Ben Affleck as Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne and Matt Damon as Lieutenant Dane Dumars in 'The Rip'. Photo: Claire Folger/Netflix © 2025.

MF: Can you talk about how their long friendship together and how that really plays into these characters, and was there ever any talk of them flipping roles? Because they both could have easily played the other part.

JC: You know what they asked me, “Who do you want us to play?” I always had in mind that Matt would play Dumars. That is the slightly senior guy. But they absolutely could have gone the other way, which is an interesting role reversal. I'm sure AI will be capable of flipping Matt and Ben’s roles next month. But again, I'm trading on a 40-year plus friendship. The sense of that and the gravitational pull of that is something you could feel when you're watching them. You know what I mean? You can't say that about everybody. Not only do they have natural chemistry, but these are two people who love each other. Then once you get in there, now you're messing with not only that personal history, but you're messing with who they are as movie stars. You're messing with their cinematic presence, which is very different. But it was the moving between one and the other, and then sometimes coexisting at the same time, which was fantastic. Again, I think that's what gives all their scenes this real authentic sense because they do care deeply for each other. Then there are moments where you feel like one of them is betraying the other one, and that lands with that much more presence and weight. So, that was great.

MF: Without giving anything away, the film keeps you guessing the whole time as to who the good guys are and who are the bad guys. Can you talk about creating that suspense and building to the twists and turns?

JC: Yeah, it was a lot of Mike McGrale and I really sitting down and structuring this in the outline stage, which can be tedious and time consuming. But ultimately, it’ll give you the greatest dividends because you've really leaned into the technical aspects of screenwriting, which can be tricky. But I think once we did that groundwork, and once the script was done, I wrote it fast. It was like five weeks to write the script. But all of this was rigorously thought out and planned and machined in that outline stage. Then once you knew that it's like a Rube Goldberg device, like this trip trips that and drops some mouse traps. So, it's a lot of fun because once you know it's working on the page, then it just becomes execution on the day. I always say this, it's like there's three films. There's a film you write. There's a film you shoot and there's a film you cut, and oftentimes they're wildly different. This was consistent throughout, I think if anything, it got leaner. We cut down information as we went on because we felt like we understand. I don't want to pander to the audience. If I feel like we're condescending, then let's keep it moving.

(L to R) Steven Yeun as Detective Mike Ro, Matt Damon as Lieutenant Dane Dumars, Writer/Director Joe Carnahan, Ben Affleck as Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne and Kyle Chandler as DEA Agent Mateo 'Matty' Nix on the set of 'The Rip'. Photo: Claire Folger/Netflix © 2025.

MF: Can you talk about executing the action sequences?

JC: I had a second unit director, Scott Rogers, who I just adore, who's talented and did a lot of work with me and the DP and are a really great group of guys who understood. It's like, “Here are the boards, here's what we want, here's the shots we want, and then anything after that you get, knock yourself out.” Of course, they always give you fantastic stuff on top of that. So, it was a lot of planning. We use this Libra Head, which is this expensive stabilized head for our shots. If we shot sticks or handheld, we'd use the Libra Head. To do that kind percussive seismic thing when the gunfight starts to make you feel like, “Oh, my God.” I wanted to just feel it in your chest. We would destabilize those things. We did what’s called seizure wheels. We just did these kinds of wild shots, but it created this unsettling effect. That's always what you're trying to do. You don't want to feel like you're treading over the same ground repeatedly and the familiar. You want to mess with it and see what you can do. I think we did some interesting kind of innovative things in that and the action.

(L to R) Steven Yeun as Detective Mike Ro and Teyana Taylor as Detective Numa Baptiste in 'The Rip'. Photo: Warrick Page/Netflix © 2025.

MF: We’ve talked about Ben and Matt, but can you talk about putting together the rest of the supporting cast including Teyana Taylor, Steven Yeun, Kyle Chandler, and Scott Adkins?

JC:Sharon Bialy and Sherry Thomas cast us, and they just did a phenomenal job. I think casting is sometimes 90% of your work. Like, who do you put in this movie? Everyone from Catalina Sandino Moreno to Steve, to Scott, to Néstor Carbonell, who I’ve worked with before. I have a history with a lot of these people. Again, you just get these people working at such a high level. Scott Atkins, who's not seen the film yet, he will see it tonight. I think he's just going to be blown away because I didn't require him to blade kick anyone in the head, which is kind of his stock and trade. So, it's exciting. When you, when you have this collection of talented people and you get good material, it's hard to screw that up. You've got to work extra hard to screw that up.

(L to R) Kyle Chandler and Writer/Director Joe Carnahan on the set of 'The Rip'. Photo: Claire Folger/Netflix © 2025.

MF: Finally, what was your experience like working with Netflix and are you disappointed that the film will not have a theatrical release?

JC: You know what? No, because I think what's happened is, you know, we used to live and die by Friday night and the weekend box office. It's like, “My movie didn't work, and it is dead in the water.” I like that we've eliminated that undue tension of, “what if I'm not number one?”. I never liked the box office stakes. Unless you win, then you're happy. But I think that so many homes now have mini theaters. They have very sophisticated televisions that aren't that expensive. They have very sophisticated sound systems that aren't that expensive. I know in my house; I've got this great room that is all blacked out with bean bags, and that's where you watch movies. That movie in that room would play just as well as anything else. Like, that communal experience of being in a dark room with strangers and sharing something, that's never going away. I certainly love it. I don't ever want theaters to go, and we're going to see it tonight in theater. So, we get the best of both worlds. I do think it's strong, but it's strong regardless. Netflix has been a dream. Honest to God, I can't say enough good things about those guys. From the marketing to the publicity, they have been top of the top, and just amazing.

(L to R) Ben Affleck as Det Sergeant JD Byrne and Matt Damon as Lieutenant Dane Dumars in 'The Rip'. Photo: Warrick Page/Netflix © 2025.

What is the plot of ‘The Rip’?

A group of Miami cops discovers a stash of millions in cash, leading to distrust as outsiders learn about the huge seizure, making them question who to rely on.