Did M. Night Shyamalan Cast an Important Role in ‘Trap’ Just to Make a Corny Joke?

After doing battle with Michael Myers, alien Jon Stewart and the concept of not having sex for just over a month, Josh Hartnett’s latest role finds him struggling against the confines of a pop-music concert. In M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, Hartnett plays a serial killer known as  “The Butcher” who takes his daughter to a “Lady Raven” show, only to discover that the entire event is part of a police ploy to snare him. 

Now that the movie is available on VOD, more people are discovering that the movie is actually quite funny — and also deeply relatable for any parent who’s ever taken their kid to a concert only to severely embarrass them.

In addition to the objectively ridiculous plot line, the movie does feature some overtly comic scenes, including a brief tension-cutting moment in which Kid Cudi’s flamboyant rapper character “The Thinker” pauses to make eyes at Hartnett’s beefy girl dad.

And since its release, Trap has spawned a number of social media memes, many of which feature Jamie the overly-helpful merch guy.

It’s no wonder that some have branded Trap a modern “camp classic.” But the movie’s biggest goof might be in its casting. The role of Dr. Josephine Grant, the FBI profiler in charge of taking down The Butcher, is played by Haley Mills, the former child star who appeared in ‘60s Disney classics like Polyanna and The Parent Trap. 

As a lot of critics pointed out when Trap first came out, it sure seems like Shyamalan cast Mills purely to make one big dad joke — which is fitting for a movie about a dad, written and directed by a dad attempting to boost his daughter’s music career. After all, Mills was famously in The Parent Trap, and this movie calls for her to literally trap a parent. 

“It has to have been a pun, right? They have to have cast her knowing this, right?” questioned NPR’s Linda Holmes. She also suggested out that the movie blew a big opportunity by not having Mills’ character deliver the line: “Now that’s a parent trap.”

The casting of a now 78-year-old Mills does seem to be a conspicuous decision, considering that she isn’t exactly known for appearing in psychological thrillers, or many major Hollywood productions at all these days. Mills told The Hollywood Reporter that, until Trap came along, she “didn’t think she would star in a film ever again.”

When asked about casting Mills, Shyamalan didn’t cop to his meta pun work, but instead, claimed that he just likes to do “unexpected things with casting” and loves showing familiar actors in a “new light.”

Even if Hayley Mills was cast to fulfil a sly wordplay gag, she’s quite good in the movie. Had she turned Shyamalan down, presumably the role would have gone to Lindsay Lohan.

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