Rian Johnson on teaching Angela Lansbury 'Among Us' for 'Glass Onion' cameo: 'Very patient, but not a player'

From the moment the cast was announced, moviegoers knew 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' would be a star affair. The Rian Johnson murder mystery sequel featured an A-list of suspects for Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc to investigate, including Edward Norton, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn and Dave Bautista. But once the film started streaming on Netflix, fans quickly learned that it featured surprise celebrity cameos at almost every turn.

One memorable scene features Blanc playing the video game "Among Us" on Zoom with several famous murder mystery aficionados, including Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury (both of whom made their last on-screen appearances in the scene).

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Johnson and producer Ram Bergman talked about working with the two nonagenarians.

"She couldn't have been prettier and more generous," Johnson said of Lansbury, though he noted the video game-centric scene was complicated by the fact that the actress is not was "not a player".

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"She was very patient in letting me describe the rules of 'Among Us', up to a point," he continued. "At that point, she just said, 'You know what? Just tell me what the lines are. I will trust you.'"

Lansbury played one of the most iconic television sleuths of all time in 'Murder, She Wrote,' but the arrival in Sondheim was just as significant for the production team. The Broadway composer was famous for his love of mysteries, and he wrote the detective film "The Last of Sheila," which Johnson cited as the inspiration for "Glass Onion."

"I didn't really know how to reach it. But then I had a call with Bryan Lourd, our agent, and it happened somehow,” Bergman said. "I said, we'd really like Stephen to do this. And I swear, five minutes later he emailed me: he's going to do it."

Johnson may be an acclaimed director who has worked with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, but that hasn't stopped him from being intimidated by both legends.

"I allowed myself to have this awkward little moment of telling them what I'm sure every person who meets them is saying," he said. "But still, it was really nice to tell them that I wouldn't be here doing this if it wasn't for them."

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