Partners in Crime

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt shares his delight at teaming up with Shailene Woodley again in new Amazon Prime movie Killer Heat

- BILLIE SCHWAB DUNN

GETTING PAID TO WORK ON A BEAUTIFUL, sun-drenched island might be a large enough attraction for many an actor to take on a lead role. But for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of the biggest highlights of appearing in Amazon Prime murder mystery Killer Heat was reuniting with Shailene Woodley, who he starred alongside in Oliver Stone's 2016 biographical thriller Snowden.

"Shay's performance in this movie is my favorite part of the whole film," he told Newsweek. "She's so brilliant in it and we did a movie together years ago called Snowden, which is a dramatization of the whistleblower Edward Snowden, which is a really momentous and weighty historical event. We had to take our work very seriously and it was a very different feeling because in this movie we were just having fun.

"We just went to a beautiful Mediterranean island and did a murder mystery. It was not that deep; we just got to play.

So it was really nice, the contrast, actually." Available on Prime Video now, Killer Heat is based on short story The Jealousy Man by Jo Nesbø, who Gordon-Levitt calls "a master of the genre." Set on the island of Crete in Greece, the film blends classic noir with a modern twist. Gordon-Levitt plays Nick Bali, an American private investigator drawn into a web of deceit.

The plot centers on the suspicious death of Leo Vardakis, a young shipping magnate portrayed by Richard Madden. Although the official police report deems it an accident, Leo's sister-in-law, Penelope (Woodley), suspects foul play. She believes someone within the powerful Vardakis family is responsible and fears the local cops are under their influence.