Exclusive Interview: Drew Van Acker Chats Last Survivors, Producing the Film, and More

Actor and producer Drew Van Acker has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents. He’s creating timely and relevant narratives in front of—and behind—the camera with credits including Pretty Little Liars, Training Day, Titans, and Spy Intervention. His latest project, Last Survivors, is a must-see thriller that has audiences on the edge of their seats.

The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where Troy (Stephen Moyer) raised his now grown son, Jake (Drew Van Acker), in a perfect wooded utopia thousands of miles away from the decayed cities. When Troy is severely wounded, Jake is forced to travel to the outside world to find life-saving medicine. Ordered to kill any humans he encounters, Jake defies his father by engaging in a forbidden relationship with a mysterious woman, Henrietta (Alicia Silverstone). As Jake continues this dangerous affair, Troy will do anything to get rid of Henrietta and protect the perfect utopia he created.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Drew about Last Survivors, how his work as a producer has made him a stronger creative and man, and the film’s timely message about hope.

PC: To start, could you introduce us to the film and your character?
Drew: The movie is called Last Survivors and my character is Jake. It follows a father and son living off the grid in a post-apocalyptic utopia. Their utopia starts to crack when my character Jake stumbles across a mysterious unicorn (as I like to put it) in Henrietta, played by Alicia Silverstone. She opens his world to a whole slew of possibilities and to things that he didn’t know existed.

PC: There’s an unexpected twist that happens halfway through the film. What was your initial reaction when you read it?
Drew: It’s one of those things that we weren’t really trying to hide. The audience can pick up on it. It wasn’t supposed to be this major reveal, so I understood the story behind it.

When I’m reading a script and I’m deciding “Do I want to do this project?” for me the question is, “Is this a page-turner? Is this something where I read one page and I can’t wait to get to the next to find out what’s going on?” This was definitely one of those.

When I read the script, I enjoyed the twist. It’s not necessarily a big reveal. We intended for it to be received that way. It’s not some big secret, but it’s interesting in terms of how that works for both you as an actor and the audience. The audience is being clued in on something just a bit before Jake is. It’s fun, especially for me. It’s fun to rewatch it. I got to see it with an audience when we premiered in London and it was really cool. It was moving to see the audience’s reactions to it, so it’s a good little turn.

PC: You’ve said in previous interviews that there wasn’t a lot for you to pull from when shaping this character and that was one of the reasons why you were excited to take on this role. What did you learn about yourself and your craft through the process of playing Jake?
Drew: As far as personal experiences, there wasn’t really a lot that I could run with, but I think we can all relate to Jake’s isolation, especially with where the world is today. There were things that I could relate to but not in terms of experiences that I’ve lived through. You can do a little bit of research on military prepping, doomsday prepping, and all those things, but at the end of the day it’s really about finding this character who is a man but also such a boy at heart. The biggest thing with Jake is the hope that he has. I’ve said this before—it struck me during another interview—but there’s an idealism to him that the movie centers around, and that’s something that I really need to be better at in my life, especially given where I was when I filmed the movie.

We filmed it in December 2020, so it was right at the end of the first year of the pandemic. I found myself getting into situations where you’re spinning, wondering where this is all going? What does the future hold? All of that. With Jake, he’s been through this hell. He’s been through a trauma that I hope the majority of us have not experienced in our lives. Yet, he still has that hope. He still has that idealism, trusting that there is hope for a better life, not only for himself but for humanity in general. It’s a good outlook to have.

PC: You do such a brilliant job portraying Jake’s boy-like wonder and curiosity with such nuance. How did you get into the headspace of experiencing everything for the first time? Was there a ritual or process that helped you make it feel more authentic?
Drew: That’s a really good question. It was trial and error. How do you find that arrested development where you have to revert back to being a child and consider what it is like to experience certain things for the first time? A lot of it is imagination and being able to throw yourself into these unbelievable circumstances. Our director, Drew Mylrea, made sure that I was always on track. We did some rehearsals together and found ways to experience things not with a sheer sense of awe but with a maturity.

You see it a bit when Jake is at the secret spot. You see that childlike side that he doesn’t really show his father come out of him. He’s very regimented. He is like, “I can do this. I’m a man. You can trust me. All the training and prepping have paid off.” But then we get to see the side of him that’s still a boy at heart. He wants to play. He’s fascinated by magazines and the female form and what that means to him. He’s going through a whole slew of emotions and you see that unfold in the film.

PC: Can you talk a little bit about the collaboration with Stephen [Moyer] and Alicia and how they differ given the fact that your character has spent his whole life with his father and Henrietta is somebody whom he has just met?
Drew: First off, Stephen and Alicia, as you know, are immensely talented individuals. So working with them was obviously very difficult. [laughs] It made my job a lot easier, but they were also two people who have very separate relationships with Jake. It was almost like two different films.

With Stephen, we wanted to create this sense of comfortability between our characters. Could you imagine living with only one person in a confined space for about twenty years of your life with no outside influences? What is that like? How comfortable can you really be with somebody? We really wanted to get a sense of that physical space from their relationship, which was fun to explore.

With Alicia, it was totally different. I had met her and we had this great chemistry and connection. She’s such a sweetheart. But I tried to keep her at arm’s length a bit because I didn’t want to be in awe of her like I am as Jake.

It was totally different. It was two completely different things altogether. I was fortunate enough in our timeline of filming that they only overlapped for a day or two. I was able to explore Troy and Jake and then have my time with Henrietta and Jake. It’s a matter of finding those childlike moments but also trying to be a man. It was definitely a balancing act for sure.

PC: The cinematography in this film is beautiful. This utopia that Troy and Jake have created almost feels like its own character. How instrumental was that in helping you tackle Jake’s arc throughout the film?
Drew: It’s beautiful, isn’t it? It grabs you right off the bat. Someone said to me the other day when they watched it, “The first thing that hooks you is the landscape and how beautiful it is. You are entranced by it.” That’s our DP, Julián Estrada. He’s brilliant. He’s a really, really, really talented DP from Peru. I’d never met him before. He came in with such a vision, and that puts you at ease as an actor and also as a producer.

I was a producer on this as well, so there are a lot of things running through your head and a lot of things that you need to worry about. For him to come in with such a vision took a big weight off our shoulders because we trusted him. We trusted that he had this idea in mind and that we could completely give it all to him and he was going to do the rest. It is a character in the film. It’s the fourth major character in the film. It plays a big role in who Jake is. This is more of his home than the little cabin.

Jake feels more comfortable in this environment. Henrietta, Alicia’s character, talks about that a bit in the film too. You can see the beauty of the snow and the Montana wilderness. It added this whole element that you can’t prepare for. I’m in Los Angeles, preparing for the film, but until you get there and you’re in the middle of it there’s no way to appreciate that. It always makes your job a lot easier when you don’t have to pretend there’s snow or pretend like you’re freezing cold because you actually are. We were doing night shoots and I think it got into negative one or two or something like that. It’s definitely a major character and adds to the whole plot of the story and the characters as well.

PC: Like you were just saying, not only are you starring in this project, but you’re also an executive producer. How did that come to fruition? How has your work behind the scenes impacted your work on screen and vice versa?
Drew: Another great question. You’re filled with them, which is great. I had done a movie previously, Spy Intervention, with Sunil Perkash and Drew Mylrea, and before that, I had met Sunil on another movie called Life Like. He and I just clicked. I was like, “He’s a really talented producer.” I’ve met other producers and he knows what he’s doing. He knows film, story, and character. I thought that was really fascinating. He wasn’t just on the business side of things. He and I clicked, and as soon as we wrapped Life Like he was like, “We have this other project that’s ready to go. Would you want to step in?”

I was like, “Okay, sure.” Then I read the script, and I stepped into that. He and I have gotten closer and closer. I was an executive producer on that, but it was more just by name. Then on the next one, I said, “I want to be a part of it because I love Drew Mylrea. I love you, Sunil. You guys are ahead of the game in a lot of ways. I want to produce it from the beginning. I want to get my feet wet. This is something that I want to do.” I was fortunate enough to come aboard in the early, early, early stages of it all.

It’s weird because it changes you as an actor. It changes the way you see everything, from casting to script work to finding directors to location scouting to equity and loans and the whole gambit. That’s a good question. I want to say it has really created patience in me as an actor. As an actor, you have a lot to worry about. You’ve got to know all your stuff. You’ve got to be prepared. You’ve got to be in the mindset and you’ve got to lead with your heart and emotions. That’s tough to do in general. Then you have to worry about a whole slew of other issues because this is an independent film as well.

We made this for not a lot of money. It was a very small crew and a small unit. I don’t know how it compares. I’ve never produced a $50 million dollar movie. I hope to one day, but it’s definitely created a sense of patience in me as an actor and as a man, truly. There’s a lot involved. You have to keep your wits about yourself and you have to roll with the punches and breathe through it.

PC: There are so many timely and relevant themes that the film covers from hope to isolation. What do you hope audiences take away after they see it? Has that changed given the past two years that the world has experienced with this pandemic?
Drew: When we made this movie, we were all like, “This is a coincidence or a synchronicity that the world is going through all this right now.” Like I said, this was filmed in December 2020. There was this sense of urgency because, like you said, this was something that gives you a sense of hope. To be able to show someone who goes through such a traumatic experience, someone who goes through defeat and deceit and all from the people closest to him, and still come out of it with this hope, this positivity, and this faith for humanity—that’s really where we all are right now. Nobody really knows where this is all going.

This is one of those things where you want people to watch and enjoy the film. You want them to root for the characters and you want them to feel something and to be moved by it. But at the end of the day, if you can learn anything from Jake, it’s that there is an upside. There is good that can come from having faith in other people, even if on the surface it may not seem like it. There is hope. There’s a lot to be hopeful for—not just for yourself, there’s hope for others as well. Jake is someone who leads with his heart first. He leads with his emotions. We could all, myself included, do a little bit more of that, especially now.

PC: Besides Last Survivors, what’s next for you?
Drew: I’ve actually been focusing a lot on the producing side. It’s something that I’m really enjoying, and I’m working with Sunil Perkash again. We have a few projects. One of them is called Back Home, which we’re about two or three weeks out from filming. We’ll be doing that in New Jersey. That’s exciting because that’s where I spent my childhood and grew up.

Then we also have another project with a buddy of mine, Alan Ritchson, who I was on Titans with. He’s now Jack Reacher, no big deal. [laughs] He’s super, super talented. We got to chatting on Titans and we were riffing off each other and had these ideas. He is a well of ideas. He’s really talented. He’s very, very intellectual and he’s very smart. We sat for two hours talking. We were like, “We’ve got to do something together.” We had this script that he completely revised and put his own spin on. It’s really cool. It’s a really grounded sci-fi love story. We have some really interesting people that are coming onboard. I can’t say too much, but it’s called Travel Back East, and we’re going to be getting that going in April.

We’ve got some things coming out that I’m really excited about. I’m sure as we get these going I’ll hopefully be able to chat with you again about them.

To keep up with Drew, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Last Survivors in theaters and wherever you stream movies.