Margaret Qualley spars with a sleazy Chris Evans in Honey Don't trailer

Aubrey Plaza and Charlie Day also star in the Ethan Coen-directed film, which premieres in theaters August 22.

Margaret Qualley spars with a sleazy Chris Evans in Honey Don't trailer

Freed from the shackles of Marvel’s most good guy Captain America, Chris Evans is now free to pursue his true passion: playing smarmy, arrogant antagonists. His sleazy preacher character in the Honey Don’t trailer has shades of The Gray Man‘s Lloyd Hansen and Knives Out‘s Ransom Drysdale. Meanwhile, Margaret Qualley is pursuing her own passion of playing the gay protagonist in an Ethan Coen film, continuing their collaboration from last year’s Drive Away Dolls.

Qualley plays the titular role of Honey O’Donahue, “a small-town private investigator who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church,” per the film’s logline. In addition to Evans, she co-stars in the film with Aubrey Plaza (playing a “mystery woman,” per IndieWire, though she appears to be a regular cop in the trailer), Charlie Day, Billy Eichner, and Talia Ryder. Like Drive Away Dolls, the film is directed by Coen from a script he co-wrote with his wife Tricia Cooke. “I just love Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke so damn much and love being on their set,” Qualley gushed to IndieWire. “I can hardly put into words how special making that movie was for me and working with Aubrey Plaza, who is one of my favorite actors and people of all time.”

In the Honey Don’t trailer, all signs of villainy point towards the clearly villainous charismatic cult leader played by Evans. But maybe the real story is less about who is behind the murders, but how to take him (them?) down. The face-off between Qualley and Evans (“I see a need and I fill it.” “You see a need and you exploit it”) is a high point, but there’s lots of other violent hijinks to behold that will whet your appetite for the film, which premieres in theaters August 22 after it debuts at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. 

 
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