Den of Thieves: O’Shea Jackson Jr. & Pablo Schreiber Talk Capturing Real LA

Movies about the criminal underworld of Los Angeles go back to just about the beginning of motion pictures being produced in the county. Still, it is harder to find films that actually capture with authenticity a city’s grit, especially when trying to fall down through the cracks. But O’Shea Jackson Jr. was first attracted to Den of Thieves because it attempts to go there in the vehicle of a fun action cat-and-mouse game where the cops are just as much a part of a gang as any bank robber.

Jackson and Pablo Schreiber sat down to discuss just that with Den of Geek this past week. Chatting with us about how he noted that director Christian Gudegast is as much of an LA kid as he is, the film was an opportunity to go big into the realm of action movies for the up and coming actor, who made waves in two other LA stories with the very real Straight Outta Compton and the much stranger, but ever authentic, Ingrid Goes West. It was also his chance to learn how to extensively bartend! We also discussed with Schreiber how much Den of Thieves is a departure for him after playing such larger than life roles in Orange is the New Black and American Gods. With Thieves, Schreiber takes on the part of the reserved and very collected head of a bank robbing operation that has in its sights a Federal Reserve as its next target.