Noah Centineo talks ‘Black Adam’ success and his major new show

In his new series 9AM General, filmmaker Enzo Marc sits down at Soho House to have conversations with his most distinguished friends in the industry. First up is actor Noah Centineo, fresh off the success of DC’s blockbuster hit Black Adam, in which he plays the superhero Atom Smasher. Over a cup of coffee at Holloway House, Centineo recalls the experience of being on the jaw-dropping set, the wildest fan interaction he’s witnessed, and discusses his upcoming show, The Recruit.

Enzo Marc: ‘We should probably tell everyone…’

Noah Centineo: ‘…that we’re friends. We’ve lived together.’

EM: ‘And this is your first post-release interview since Black Adam came out, and has now already proven itself as number one at the box office. How does that feel?’

NC: ‘I got to just ride on Dwayne Johnson’s coattails, honestly. This movie’s all him; he started making it 15 years ago and I joined two years ago.’

EM: ‘We watched it last week at Soho House.’

NC: ‘Yeah, we did, that was great. What a beautiful theatre.’

EM: ‘Yeah, like an all-velvet theatre. So, number-one movie in the world, the numbers are in…’

NC: ‘Which is crazy. And I think it’s a testament to not just Dwayne and his brand, which is massive, but also the hunger for DC to come back. I think people want a resurgence and they want to be wowed in a new way. When it comes to DC, Marvel has of course done such an incredible job in the genre of superhero movie and film. And they’re juggernauts, you know, when it comes to that sector of the industry, and entertaining and moving people. Shazam has done so good and this has been great, but I think that Black Adam has proven a hunger for more from DC. ‘It’s exciting, because we’ve always said that if people liked it, if they want more, they’re going to get more. And DC and Warner Bros have made that very clear. Putting Peter Safran and James Gunn at the helm of DC, for Warner, I think it’s making steps to move forward radically.’

EM: ‘How did you feel walking onto such a huge set? By far the biggest set you had been on at that point.’

NC: ‘Absolutely. I was intimidated, to be honest. The first day, I don’t think I was working. They were filming the opening scene from The Rock Of Eternity with Marwan, Sara and Mo, and the rest of the mercenaries. And that was the first time I saw these three massive techno cranes. You know, they built The Rock Of Eternity, right? Sarah was climbing on a real rock. And, you know, you have hundreds of extras, mercenaries, and I was like, how the f**k am I supposed to act with all of this? They said “action” and Marwan had a close-up, and he just like gave a look and I went, OK, that’s how you do it. You know, he did it, I can do it, too.’

EM: ‘What’s the craziest interaction you’ve had with fans?’

NC: ‘From this press tour? I signed some boobs, that was a first [laughs]. Someone offered their child to Dwayne. I’m telling you, it was crazy. We’re on the stage, there’s thousands of people around us, and Dwayne is giving a speech. He’s talking to the good people in Mexico City and suddenly he goes “...and a baby is being crowd surfed”.’

EM: ‘What? Crowd surfed?’

NC: ‘Oh, yeah. There’s no mother attached to this child. The people are like, “Yeah, we know what to do, like they’ve done this before. They’re like, pass it on, pass it on. So, Dwayne takes the child and it barely fits in his hand, right? And he’s like, “the number-one fan for Black Adam is right here”. So, yeah, he got a baby. That was pretty fantastic.’

EM: ‘So you’re obviously in a DC movie. But are you Marvel? Or are you DC? I know the answer because I’ve watched it with you. But I’m going to let you say it.’

NC: ‘Well, I can certainly say that I’ve seen all of both. And now that I’ve joined the DC family, obviously DC. But I’ve got respect for the juggernaut of the industry and think that, you know, DC will ultimately come out on top… not that it’s a competition.’

EM: ‘I mean, no one will ever top The Dark Knight, ever.’

NC: ‘You said it. You’re right.’

EM: ‘Let’s talk about what’s next. You’ve got something coming out very soon, and we’re starting to see some press about it. Tell us about The Recruit.’

NC: ‘It’s a first-time gig for me when it comes to a couple of things. It was a pilot. The idea was created by Adam Ciralsky; he’s now a journalist, but he was a lawyer at the CIA. I think he ended up suing the CIA and winning.’

EM: ‘Sounds like a terrible idea to sue the CIA.’

NC: ‘Well…[laughs] I read the pilot; CAA as an agency packages a lot of projects for those who don’t know – they represent actors, writers and directors. And so if there’s like a writer that wrote a project, they’ll get a director and actors attached to it. It’s called packaging and then they sell that to Netflix or whoever. So, because it's in-house, I got the pilot for The Recruit at the time. I fell in love with it.’ ‘And I have a very strong relationship with Netflix because of To All The Boys. So, with that relationship, I said, you know, I would if you allow me to be an [executive producer] on this, I’m pretty confident I can at least walk this in to Netflix. And I became an EP, which was a first for me. I got in there and they said, OK, we’ll write a second episode – let’s see how she fares. Next thing you know, we’re greenlit. The show has all of my heart inside of it, and the cast was phenomenal.’

EM: ‘You think you can give a little one liner on the plot?’

NC: ‘The Recruit is about a young lawyer, who graduates from law school and gets recruited to go to work at the CIA, at the Office of the General Counsel. There, he’s assigned a case that throws his whole world into a tailspin.’

EM: ‘And we’re actually beating everyone else on this. This is your first interview about The Recruit. Do you want to talk about anything secret? Probably not…’

NC: ‘I do have a secret project in the works right now that you knows about. All my friends know about it. It’s completely locked down and very exciting. It’s the most excited I’ve ever been about a project. And, hopefully, we’ll get it shot within the next four months, and edited and put out by next year.’

This interview has been edited and condensed.