Anthony Michael Hall has lived a thousand lives—geeky teen, teeny bopper heartthrob, troubled twentysomething, intense dramatic actor, surprise action guy, and now: Southern-fried villain with a smile as punchable as his political ambitions. In Trigger Warning, Netflix’s latest action-revenge-thriller-whatever-the-genre-we’re-calling-it-this-week, Hall plays a senator with a capital S for sketchy. “He’s not a good guy at all,” Hall grins. “But man, it’s fun being bad.”
Directed by Molly Surya, a rising filmmaker from Indonesia with a penchant for violent reckoning and beautiful framing, Trigger Warning has the gloss of a John Wick film and the soul of a dusty western. “She watched my movies growing up,” Hall says with a laugh. “That’s where I’m at now—working with people who grew up on Weird Science and Sixteen Candles.” Just don’t ask him to reminisce too long. “I didn’t do The Brats doc,” he shrugs. “I’m always moving forward.”
That forward motion has landed him in projects like Reacher, a production company (Manhattan Films), and a long-developing comedy series with Robert Downey Jr. and Brad Falchuk. “We accidentally created Succession,” Hall admits of the original concept, a family drama with a scheming black sheep son and a tyrannical tech magnate dad. “Completely unintentional. And then Succession dropped, and we were like, ‘Okay. Back to the drawing board.’”
Still, longevity has always been the game. “You’ve got to be tenacious,” he says. “At some point, you just decide—no one’s going to take this from me.” He credits faith, Downey Sr.’s advice (“In the long haul, the short one won’t make it”), and good old-fashioned work ethic for staying in the game. “I treat it like my sport,” he says. “You learn to work in teams. You humble yourself. You keep going.”
In Trigger Warning, Hall leans into the role of a “career politician” who’s charming, loaded, and swimming in cringey contradictions. “There’s a line where he says, ‘Everybody in my town knows I’m not racist,’ and the audience just cracked up. That wasn’t meant to be funny—but it is,” Hall says, eyes wide. “That kind of guy who thinks he’s saying the right thing and just keeps stepping in it.” He credits the costume designer with helping shape the character—pulling style cues from early-’80s Ted Turner. “Not a cowboy, but acts like one,” Hall says. “You know the type.”
Jessica Alba stars opposite him, and Hall has nothing but praise. “She’s intense. Game face. Producer hat on. And she kicks ass. Literally—I get beat up by Jessica Alba in this movie,” he says proudly. He loved filming in New Mexico too, and yes, he drove himself to set every day. “I like the quiet. I like breathing it all in before the chaos starts.”
Hall also confirmed he's still working behind the scenes with his production company and teased another indie film, Roswell Delirium, that’s already racked up about 50 awards on the festival circuit. And yes—he did make an album in 1999, a fact he owns with equal parts humility and enthusiasm. “It was called Hall of Mirrors—some funk, some pop, a little all over the place,” he says. “I just wanted to make something.”
Maybe it’s time for a 25th anniversary reissue? Hall laughs. “Right on, man. That’s not a bad idea.”
At 56, Hall’s still here, still building, and still finding new angles to work from. Whether it’s producing films, getting punched onscreen by Jessica Alba, or dodging Breakfast Club nostalgia like a professional, he’s managed to outlast, outwork, and outwit an industry that loves to eat its young. “I’m grateful,” he says. “None of it’s lost on me.”
Watch the interview above and then check out the trailer below.
