Frank Grillo's Boss Level to premiere on Hulu in March

This month, EW is offering exclusive looks at more than two dozen of 2021's most anticipated movies. Check out more of our preview here.

Roy Pulver has a problem. He can't stop dying.

In Boss Level, Roy (Frank Grillo) is a former special forces agent who wakes up every day to the same, well, everything. Roy is stuck in a time loop, one where a number of different assassins are determined to kill him. And they usually succeed. In other words, Roy's life is a bit like a video game, which is why Grillo felt the need to get in tip-top shape for the role.

"I wanted to look like a character in a video game, that was the theory," says Grillo. "I went on a crazy diet for four months, I lifted weights three times a day, I got myself down to about four percent body fat and then I realized, why am I doing this? Why does this character need to look like this? But it was too late."

The film, which also stars Naomi Watts, Mel Gibson, and others, comes from director Joe Carnahan, who wrote it alongside Chris and Eddie Borey. Together, they've managed to create something that Grillo calls "genre-mashing."

"It's a full-blown action movie, it's funny, and then it becomes a bit dramatic," says Grillo, who admits that time loop movies don't always work. Even he was surprised at how much fun Boss Level turned out to be. "You don't get bored at any time," he says. "Joe did it in a way that worked."

And thanks to a bit of voiceover work, the film also provides Grillo the rare opportunity to flex his comedic muscles alongside his actual muscles. "I get to be kind of funny instead of the guy who kills everybody and dies at the end," Grillo says. Although, rest assured, he does more than his fair share of killing in this movie.

Boss Level premieres on Hulu on Friday, March 5.

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