Ismael Cruz Cordova, Paul Wesley, Rita Ora, Joe Cole and Marshawn Lynch sitting on a sidewalk and posing for the camera in He Bled Neon
Josh Holloway is making his movie return after over a decade with He Bled Neon, and it's coming with a rare transformation for the star. Holloway, best known for his turn as Sawyer in ABC's Lost and as Will in Colony, last lent his talent to the big screen with Arnold Schwarzenegger and David Ayer's 2014 thriller Sabotage, in which he played fellow DEA Agent Eddie"Neck" Jordan.
The decade since has seen him largely turn to television, including the aforementioned sci-fi drama, as an antagonist on Yellowstone and on the short-lived HBO Max action comedy Duster. Hailing from music video director Drew Kirsch in his feature debut, He Bled Neon centers on Ethan, a young man grieving the death of his brother, only to find out it may have been a murder. Having left behind a violent past in Las Vegas, Ethan is forced to put his good life in Los Angeles on pause in the hopes of finding out the truth, confronting past demons and the seedy underbelly of the Nevada town along the way. Gangs of London vet Joe Cole leads the ensemble He Bled Neon cast as Ethan, with the roster also including Holloway, musician-turned-actor Rita Ora, NFL player-turned-actor Marshawn Lynch, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power's Ismael Cruz Cordova, and The Vampire Diaries' Paul Wesley. Penned by Tim Cairo and Jake Gibson on a story from producer Nate Bolotin, the film made its world premiere at SXSW 2026 on March 16 as part of the Narrative Spotlight section. In honor of its festival debut, ScreenRant's Ash Crossan interviewed Josh Holloway, ZHU, Joe Trapanese, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Nate Bolotin, and Drew Kirsch in our SXSW media suite to discuss He Bled Neon. While giving a rundown of their various characters, the conversation turned to Holloway, who makes a very rare turn down a villainous path, having largely played protagonist roles throughout his 30-plus-year career. Joking that he's"the star of the show until I get burned alive," Holloway pointed to something Cordova shared in his breakdown of the character in that his villainy is rooted in a very empathetic place, with"the justifications that we do as people" in the film, particularly his character, stem from family: Josh Holloway: For me, and my family that was killed, and I was justified in doing what I do, and how I became, because that was my idea of family. They killed my brother. Even though my brother's an evil b----rd, he's my brother, that's my family. And we felt justified, and we worked since childhood to get to that point, and that was our success story, really. Even though we were dark and evil, to us, we were just making it. So that's how I approached this character, anyway, because just to play a bad guy who's just mean, it's two-dimensional, and has nothing interesting about it. So for me, I had to find the empathy of him, really, and why he was doing this, and enjoying it. The Lost alum further expounded on the fact that his He Bled Neon character"frames my life" in the way that if someone kills a member of his family,"I'm going to enjoy killing your a--." He also acknowledged the fact that"I haven't gotten to play a straight bad guy in a long time" — or"probably ever" — and thus found he had to be"walking the line" between allowing the empathy to be felt for his character, while still leaning into the fact"he's bad": Josh Holloway: It's just perspective. I don't care which way you're looking at him. So that was interesting and fun. And it was challenging, because I got the script, and I was like,"Where is he?" You're flipping, 'cause I don't just skip ahead to my part. I want to know how he gets there. And I was at like, 60, page 61,"Where am I?" And then it was like,"Boom. Four-page monologue." I'm like,"Oh s--t, there he is." So when he was introduced, he was definitely present. So that was a lot of fun, and Joe was awesome, and we fought all night. I was like,"Oh, such a joy to fight a 28-year-old bada--, and you're 50." So it was amazing, but I think it turned out well. I haven't seen anything, so I'm kind of excited. Nate Bolotin & His He Bled Neon Team Wanted To Show The Grimy Side Of Vegas ScreenRant: Just tell me where the origin of the idea came from, and how we got here. Nate Bolotin: So, being from Las Vegas myself, it's something I grew up with. And so there was a lot of interest in sort of figuring out how to kind of bring that into the fold in an authentic way. But what really kicked the whole thing off was that about 20 years ago, I lost my stepbrother and best friend to a drug overdose. I got a text message similar to the text message that Joe Cole's character gets in the movie, and I had to go back and obviously bury him, and kind of reconnect with some of my old friends and the people that I grew up with there. And then many years later, I was sitting there thinking like,"God, there's a great opportunity for a classic noir revenge story." Just a fantasy concept of like, what if someone went back? Was it what it seemed like? And that was it. It was sort of like that was the impetus for putting together this movie in the very first place. And after I put together some initial thoughts, I was thinking about who the right director could be. And it just so happened that Drew had been killing it in the music video world, and he knew my younger brother, a blood brother, a separate situation, grew up together. I thought there's a connection. There's a Nevada connection here. There's something about his style that I think could bring something really special to it. So we reached out to Drew, and then the rest is history. I mean, there are many steps from there, obviously. Many, many steps. ScreenRant: So, is there something unique about shooting the neon lights and the Vegas of it all that people maybe wouldn't expect, or maybe immediately notice on watching, that was a challenge for you? Drew Kirsch: I mean, from the beginning, I think with the name — there's so much neon in Las Vegas. We knew we were going to stay away from The Strip and keep The Strip in the distance. And you go just off the strip, you get like, I don't know, maybe like a dirtier version of neon, right? A ton more texture. And so there was already that opportunity to bring a ton of color and neon into the film. And it just happens that's part of the title as well. And then my style is very vibrant and colorful, so it all kind of just came together, and it was a perfect backdrop for the film. ScreenRant: And then tell me about bringing these guys in, and just go through who your character is, and what their relationship is to the story. Ismael Cruz Cordova: Well, I don't know how much I say without giving much, because he's so shady. It is a wonderful character. When you're reading it and performing it, and then watching it, there are layers that are peeled back in each one of those times. He's that friend who has a secret. I played him that way. I think he needed to have a secret, even beyond the secrets that you see in the film, that's something that I infused the character with. There are a lot of secrets there. Same guy who kind of keeps a lot of things inside. But at the core, he has his own set of values, which I think moves the entire film. The notion of family that you have when you come from somewhere like that, that it's very different than that postcard family thing. You grew up in the hood, you're roughing it out, you create your own morals, and that's the family that you put together. And I think that's his north star, and whatever it takes to do that. So for me, it was very exciting. I could go to a certain point, and I think then you hit the editing, and they helped bring out even more of what I even hoped that that character would have. I watched the movie like an audience member myself. ScreenRant: Almost every character in the movie, from an audience view, seems a little suspicious; you're not sure who to trust. How fun is it for you to kind of throw that line to the audience, like,"We don't know who to trust"? Ismael Cruz Cordova: Absolutely love it. I love dark and grimy characters, and I love broken people, losers, and sociopaths. I love that stuff, because 99% of people are — the fallacy that people are good. I don't believe in that at all. These characters resonate much more because we all have that inner monologue that is like,"I'm not going to be dark and conniving," and like, morally gray. So I really enjoyed that. I think each one of those characters makes you better as a person. Drew Kirsch: He had a really complex character, and we talked about it quite a bit on set. We'd bounce ideas off and there'd be issues, or like controversy, like,"How do we play this part?" He was very hard to edit with, too. When I had it all thrown together at the beginning, I was really having to focus on his character to not give away too much. I think it was a very tough role to play, from my perspective, but he crushed it. ScreenRant: In terms of when you were looking at these roles, what were you looking for? You both have characters maybe people associate you with. What were you kind of looking for in your career at this point that led you to this role? Ismael Cruz Cordova: I wasn't looking for it. I was found for it. I had the offer to be in the shoot, which is very flattering, as an actor, but it also means something to you, as an actor. It means that people are watching, and that something that you've done has resonated, and you hope that it's the right thing, but it is the wrong thing. He's terrible. He's a terrible guy, and I love that, 'cause there's just a brokenness that I was very happy to play. Again, as I said, we consume a lot of stories that uplift us and get us out of reality, and those stories are very popular, and they're very popular because reality is not as happy. I do love to lean into those parts of things. The backside of life, and this character really is carrying so much in him, and that wound, which you really never — I'm unable to answer the questions that he has, but that search was just a delight. It was very difficult to play. You couldn't indicate anything, at all, that will lead you to the third act. So it's like you're biting down so much, without having to indicate and whatnot. If I would have given a breakdown to audition, I would have loved to audition for the very same role. So I was very happy and honored that I was offered that, and tried to make it my absolute best performance that I could. ScreenRant: We were talking just before we started, we just talked a few weeks ago for The Bluff, Lord of the Rings. You're killing it. You're doing so many amazing things, it's just awesome. Ismael Cruz Cordova: Those two actually came at the same time, and I had to choose between the two, but they actually worked out. A Bohemian little sailor playing a violin, and then this dude, who is the grimiest, shadiest guy ever. But at the core, they're just people. That's the thing, you play people. You have to play that sliver of the role, and of the world, and you can't be concerned with the genre. They're just people, and whatever they want and need, it's the same thing: family and the justifications around it, and that's your set of values and nothing else matters. ScreenRant: Yeah, absolutely. So, we definitely need to talk about the music. You obviously have this music background. What were the conversations about what the sound of this film would be, and then how these guys got involved? Drew Kirsch: I knew that there was going to be an electronic soundscape to the whole thing, and thought about the urban landscape of it all. I've always been a fan of ZHU's music, and so when I started kind of reading the script over and over — I like to kind of put music on in the background with really low volume, and I kept marinating on his music, and then chatting with Nate, we thought that would be a good collaboration. Nate introduced me to Joe , and Joe's work is just phenomenal. He's done so many things. When I met at his studio, we talked about bringing on an artist to work with Joe, and Joe had done similar things in the past, so it felt like it was going to be the perfect cocktail to bring both of them on to do the project. So yeah, we had that conversation, and here we are. ScreenRant: So talk a little bit about what you saw in the film that you were inspired by, and what you wanted the sound to be. Joe Trapanese: Early on, you expect bringing in someone like ZHU with this tremendous electronic experience, that your early conversations might be about synthesizers and drums, but our early conversations really were about the script, and how to bring this world to life with organic sound. We all knew, sure, there's going to be this heartbeat, there's going to be this energy that keeps us driving through the film, but we talked a lot about guitars, acoustic drums, different types of, almost, ethnic drums that we could integrate into this score. Just so you could feel the grime and the dirt of the location in the score, that wasn't just this sheen electronic sound. It had real depth to it. ZHU: What I love to do, and what I'm great at, is really making people feel, and I really need to feel the survival element, just being raw. I know what it's like to lose somebody as a friend. So after that, you're in survival mode, you make decisions on how you would move, and the music needed to feel like it was raw. It needed to feel like it penetrated, and it wasn't too clean, 'cause the combination of the cinematic and the underground together really was able to bring out a feeling that you can't just tell in a story of words. You needed to immerse yourself. You needed to stand there for the 10,000 people and understand what it's like to receive that energy. And the energy of this film was a tale for survival, and it was prime, so that's really what I wanted to feel like. Nate Bolotin: Yeah, there's gonna be a movie soundtrack. We don't have a release date for it. We don't have a release date for the movie yet. The movie is still available for global distribution, and so you have to obviously premiere the movie, and start to explore who the best partners are, not just for the movie itself, but for the soundtrack. But there's a lot of opportunity to capitalize on what was done here, not just with the movie itself, but the music. From day one, Drew and I talked about how important it was that the music for this be on its own, something that can live and survive, and be something that people will talk about and reference. Music, from day one, was such a critical component to this movie and these guys nailed it. Joe Trapanese: And it's a true honor to be brought in so early. We got brought in before they were shooting, reading the script, kind of getting to know the movie, and then we visited the set. So, it's a true honor how hard these guys worked to make music that's such an integral part of the story they're telling. Ismael Cruz Cordova: And as a performer, it was always there. Since I met with Drew for the first time, that was the soul of the characters, as well. We knew the world that it was going to be in, presented playlists to us before certain scenes, we were hearing sounds, as well. So it was a very beautiful process to have that character be there. Again, you're not playing the script, you're not playing the genre, we're playing all of that, but there's always a spirit of it that placed you in the world, and it was through the music, and that you made sure that we were impacted. Drew Kirsch: Yeah, I think it just comes from a music video background, too. You make a video, you get the song, you listen to it 1,000 times, and then do your visuals. So, I think it's comforting for me to kind of know the soundscape before we start shooting, and let everyone have access to that. He Bled Neon made its world premiere at SXSW on March 16 and is currently awaiting a wide release date! He Bled Neon 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed Action Thriller Release Date March 16, 2026 Runtime 85 minutes Director Drew Kirsch Writers Tim Cairo, Jake Gibson Producers Lucan Toh, Nate Bolotin Cast Executive Producer Andrea Scarso, Drew Kirsch, Joe Cole, Marshawn Lynch, Timo Argillander Powered by Expand Collapse Be sure to dive into some of ScreenRant's other SXSW coverage with:
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