McCone’s look in ‘The Running Man’ helped Lee Pace understand him: “It does a lot of the work for me” [EXCLUSIVE]

Can you even see Lee Pace’s face in The Running Man? That’s the question on my everyone’s lips as the Edgar Wright adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian science fiction adventure novel draws closer; and while we may not have answers, we did learn a little bit more about the hunter’s already iconic costume.

The Mary Sue spoke with Pace at The Running Man press junket in Los Angeles ahead of the film’s release. The actor discussed many things about the film including the look of his character.

The Pushing Daisies and Foundation actor plays Evan McCone, one of the “hunters” tasked with assassinating the contestants on the deadly game show that Glen Powell’s character, Ben Richards, enters for a necessary cash reward. This makes McCone, for all intents and purposes, the antagonist of the film. From what we’ve seen in the Running Man trailer, McCone is quite good at his very particular set of skills. But what we haven’t seen much of is his visage, because he also has a very particular costume that includes a form-fitting mask. According to the actor, the restrictions made getting into character that much easier.

“It does a lot of the work for me,” Pace said of the costume. “Because I don’t have to think as much and I can kind of put a lot of work into creating what that costume is. And for a character like McCone, he’s very presentational, he’s playing a character. He has a face; he’s just covering it with a mask. So he’s trying to exude a sense of violence and cool.”

Some of the elements of Pace’s McCone costume, like the branded beret, are shared by other hunters in the competition. But this is far from an official uniform. Most of what we see him wear comes from his character. These are fashion choices that he is making. McCone is dressing for the job he wants. And the look does exude cool. There’s nothing cooler than fingerless gloves, Aviator sunglasses, and a floor-length leather duster. Those all scream “guy who doesn’t look back at explosions,” don’t you think?

You can watch our full chat below:

The Running Man is in theaters November 14.

(featured image: Paramount Pictures)

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Leah Marilla Thomas

Leah Marilla Thomas (she/her) is a contributor at The Mary Sue. She has been working in digital entertainment journalism since 2013, covering primarily television as well as film and live theatre. She's been on the Marvel beat professionally since Daredevil was a Netflix series. (You might recognize her voice from the Newcomers: Marvel podcast). Outside of journalism, she is 50% Southerner, 50% New Englander, and 100% fangirl over everything from Lord of the Rings to stage lighting and comics about teenagers. She lives in New York City and can often be found in a park. She used to test toys for Hasbro. True story!