Jay Rohr
Swen Temmel recently took some time to chat with us here at Film Obsessive. He’s currently promoting his latest film, High Rollers. This action heist thriller stars Temmel alongside John Travolta, Gina Gershon, and Lukas Haas.
In addition to acting, his career includes being an Emmy-winning producer of the digital daytime drama The Bay. His acting isn’t solely confined to screens. He’s been known to take the stage such as when he performed in The Sunshine Boys with Dick Van Dyke. Still, he’s probably most recognizable from starring in features such as Guy Richie’s The Covenant (2023), The Clean Up Crew (2024), or Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025).
With every movie bigger than the last, Swen Temmel has shared the screen with a lot of large stars. These include Bruce Willis, Robert De Niro, Antonion Banderas, and Idris Elba just to name a few. And it’s clear he can handle his own alongside such Hollywood legends.
That’s why we were lucky to get a little time with this rising star discussing High Rollers. Below you’ll find a slightly abridged transcript of that conversation as well as link to a video of the interview. Besides the movie, we discuss acting, Swen’s background, and what it’s like to work with such famous faces.
Film Obsessive: We’re here with Sven Temmel of the upcoming flick High Rollers. How are you doing?
Swen Temmel: I’m doing. Thanks for having me. I’m excited.
So just to start off with, to acquaint our audience, this is a sequel to a movie called Cash Out, correct?
Yeah. So, this is the second part to Cash Out one which came out last year and now it’s Cash Out Two: High Rollers.
This is sort of like an action-thriller heist movie. And what what would you like to say about the plot to help people get an idea of the film?
It’s just a fun wild ride. It’s very different from the first one and the character that I play comes back in a very different way… he’s part of the gang now. And they have to do things in order for John to get his woman back and things happened along the way.
Yeah, it’s always tricky to explain a film like this because you don’t want to spoil anything because there’s twists and turns and there’s thrills. When you were filming Cash Out, the precursor to this one. Did you know that there was gonna be a sequel?
Swen Temmel: No, that was, you know, we all shot. We all got along so well, John and the rest of the gang. I think maybe a few months down the road they called and said that, you know they’ve seen the edit and they saw how much fun everyone had together and John would be really interested in sort of doing a sequel to this movie and I think everyone at the same time said Hell yeah, let’s do it. Everybody was on board, everybody came back eager and ready. We all got along so well that it really wasn’t a hard decision just to say yes.
It’s a fantastic location where you’re shooting. You’re over in the Gulf Coast around like Mississippi, correct?
Yeah, we shot it in Biloxi, Miss. It was nice and sunny, humid, muggy. But you know there’s worse things. Great location. We had the casino at our disposal. Some really, really interesting set locations for the end shot as well so you know it offered a lot of different looks that we needed for the movie in a small radius.
Especially the — was it the Scarlet Casino?
Yeah, the Scarlet Pearl is where we shot.
What was that like having the film inside of like an active casino? Because I’m sure they didn’t want to stop because those things are like a license to print money, is the old saying.
No, it’s true. I mean, they were nice that they opened their doors. Obviously, we had a lot of restrictions and a lot of things we could and couldn’t do. You know, you can imagine the security that goes on behind the scenes of a casino, but it was interesting to be able to shoot in a functioning, live operating casino. On the other hand, it was tough not to put a couple of bucks into the slot machines while we were there.
You have a pretty impressive resume as it’s building up. Your career is on a great trajectory. And you’ve studied at a lot of great places like the The Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, the Groundlings theater in Hollywood, and Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. How does all that come together? Does it give you a lot of like diversified perspectives or have you amalgamated all that teaching into like your own personal way of approaching apartment?
All these different acting schools just give you certain tools. One school will give you a hammer and a wrench. Another one will give you a screwdriver and bolts. The other one will give you this and you take all those tools and you put it in your toolbox and your acting toolbox and then you pick from the various ones. When you get a job or you’re breaking down a character it’s nice to have a variety of different tools at my disposal because you know every character’s approach from a different aspect. You can approach it from a different perspective. So, it just depends on what you play. It’s nice to have those different tools and to have been able to study at some of these prestigious schools and just some great teachers that have given me some really valuable knowledge along the way. Obviously, there’s always room to grow and learn something new, so I’m always open and continue and learned a lot from some of these legends that I’ve worked with.
You crossed paths with a lot of like easily recognizable individuals over the course of your career. Are you finally getting to where you’re just like, oh, we’re all movie stars or are you like still occasionally like wow, I get to be in a movie with John Travolta or Gerard Butler and so on and so forth.
It’s definitely still, WOW, I get to work with John Travolta. I don’t think that will ever go away. I’ll make sure to keep that for the rest of my life because these people have had a career in what I’m working my way up to do and I look up to them and I appreciate what they do. On the other hand, when you get to set, and you’re working with these people you’re on an even playing field. You know you’re all in the same boat. All trying to do the same. You’re all there to act and to make the best film possible. So, it’s a little combination of both, but you know, at first it definitely is, Holy ****, I get to work with this person.
As for yourself, what have you got going on in the future?
I’m always looking for the next thing… a pilot at the end of last year with a very famous director and actor, and hopefully that gets picked up. As far as now though, I can’t say too much, but there’s always something going on, always working on something always striving to play another character and move my career forward.
Excellent. Well, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Been a pleasure.
Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me and hopefully I’ll see you in the future.
