When award-winning actor Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place II, Mary Poppins Returns) signed on to play a harried single mom-turned-ethically compromised, high-powered sales rep in the new criminal conspiracy film Pain Hustlers, she knew she was in for a challenge.

Her character, Liza Drake, begins the movie at the end of her rope and desperate to turn her life around — leading her to accept a job at a failing pharmaceutical start-up. Soon, she’s participating in a dangerous but profitable racketeering scheme, dealing with an increasingly unhinged boss, and attempting to manage her daughter’s precarious medical condition. As Liza begins to realize the devastation the company is causing, she’s forced to take stock and reexamine her choices.

“I was very aware that I needed to track it very delicately because it is darkly funny,” Blunt says of the tone of the film, from BAFTA Award-winning British director David Yates. “It is not
a lecture. It is not too heavy-handed. The tone is very dynamic. And yet we knew we had to stick this landing not only to honor all those who have lost their lives during the opioid crisis, but really to emphasize that this is more than a crisis — this is a criminal offense.”

Inspired by Evan Hughes’s true crime book, Pain Hustlers: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup, Pain Hustlers is also enlivened by memorable performances from a stacked ensemble cast — starring alongside Blunt are Chris Evans as Pete Brenner, the sales rep who draws Liza into a life of crime; Andy Garcia as her boss; Catherine O’Hara as her mother; and Chloe Coleman as her daughter. 

Pain Hustlers offers a sharp look at what some people do out of desperation and others do out of greed: “Even though we don’t want you to be lectured throughout the film . . . I think you do come away having learned something.”

All interviews included in this piece were completed prior to July 14, 2023.