Recently, Atom Tickets sat down with Kumail Nanjiani (Stu) and Dave Bautista (Vic) during the press day for their movie, Stuber. Normally, you don’t expect an odd couple, buddy action flick to be that woke. But Stuber, surprisingly, addresses toxic masculinity in a number of ways without being preachy or pandering. It’s something that initially drew the two actors to their individual roles.

“I say this all the time but I think what really makes a good film is when you can become emotionally invested in a film,” explained Bautista. “If you leave a film after having laughed and you actually talk about the film and talk about certain subjects, that’s a connection and I think that’s what’s going to set us apart. We’re not there just to make people laugh; we’re also there to have a discussion.”

Nanjiani agreed, explaining that it was especially interesting to him to do it in what’s traditionally a “dude” genre:

“I felt like, if we’re making an action movie about two dudes in this day and age, specifically, you have to talk about that stuff. What is masculinity, how has it traditionally been defined, how does it need to be redefined? I feel like everything that falls under the definition of ‘masculinity’ needs to be expanded and that’s really what this movie is about. It’s okay for men to cry and to feel other feelings. And putting it into the context of a movie that is traditionally a very dude movie, we felt like, if we could get away with this, we’d feel awesome.”

“It’s a fun conversation,” finished Bautista. “You take two extreme examples of these personalities and show they can have a middle ground and meet somewhere and learn from each other.”

You can watch the full discussion, and the actors discussing how they handled the extensive fight scenes and stuntwork, in the video below:

Stuber is in theaters now.