Justin Long has spent the past few years making a career out of a particular kind of discomfort: the easygoing guy whose charm turns out to be the problem. In Zach Cregger’s Barbarian he played AJ, a TV actor facing a sexual assault accusation who keeps trying to talk his way out of everything, and he stole scenes doing it. His next role takes that register somewhere colder, into a story about the adults who hold power over young athletes.

Long has joined Jenna Ortega and Rose Byrne in Nasty, the drama Mary Bronstein is directing for Clockwork, Warner Bros.’ specialty label, as The Hollywood Reporter first reported. He plays the brother of Byrne’s character and co-coach of her team, the coach the gymnasts actually like. The character, by the trade’s description, has a hidden dark side.

Isabella Jarosz wrote the script, which follows a prodigious gymnast fighting for a place on the Olympic team whose toughest opponent turns out to be her own coach. Ortega plays the athlete. Byrne plays the coach, maternal on the surface and manipulative and exploitative underneath. The screenplay made the 2024 Black List, and some readers have pitched it as “Black Swan in the world of competitive gymnastics”, a nod to Darren Aronofsky‘s ballet thriller about a dancer pushed past her limits.

Putting Long in the friendly half of the coaching duo gives that setup a second trap. Byrne’s coach is the obvious threat, while Long’s is the one the gymnasts like, and a performer who can sell warmth and rot in the same scene is exactly what that role needs.

The project also reunites Byrne with Bronstein after If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, the director’s portrait of a mother coming apart under pressure, which earned Byrne an Academy Award nomination. Nasty gives the pair another story about a woman who is responsible for a child, this time one who abuses that responsibility.

LuckyChap’s Tom Ackerley, Bronte Payne and Morgan Begg are producing alongside Ortega, who takes both the lead and a producer credit. LuckyChap, the company Ackerley co-founded with Margot Robbie, has a track record of provocative films such as Promising Young Woman and Saltburn.

Cameras are set to roll in mid-November in New Orleans. Long followed Barbarian with a cameo in Cregger’s Weapons and led the first season of Goosebumps for Disney+ and Hulu. He is next due on screen opposite Penn Badgley and Meghann Fahy in You Deserve Each Other, an Amazon MGM romantic comedy set for January.

For three years Long was the friendly face of Apple’s “I’m a Mac” commercials. On Nasty he will be paid to make that friendliness the threat.