Janelle Monáe Says She Still Has a Group Text with Her Knives Out Castmates: 'We Were Family First' (Exclusive)

Janelle Monáe is still tight with her Knives Out "family."

The actor and singer famously appeared in Rian Johnson 's 2022 film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery , among a cast of other big-name stars like Edward Norton , Kathryn Hahn , Leslie Odom Jr. , Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista , plus returning star Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc.

As Monáe, 38, tells PEOPLE in a new interview to promote her partnership with AMC's FearFest , "We all are close" to this day, nearly two years after the movie's premiere.

"We still have a group text thread called 'The Green Room,' " she adds. "And whenever anybody's doing anything, even when they just shot the newest Knives Out , we all were like, 'Congratulations on wrapping, Rian, and Daniel.' "

"We still show each other love," Monáe says.

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The Welcome to Marwen actor praises the cast's "incredible bond," which they formed while filming during the COVID-19 pandemic — something she "hate(s)," but on the flip side, gave them an "opportunity" to connect in a way they might not have gotten to otherwise.

"We couldn't go out, and we had to make sure we didn't get sick. So we were sort of all in one hotel, and one space a lot," Monáe recalls. "And we would play murder-mystery games like Werewolf and Assassin, which was my favorite."

"We were family first .. and when I say family first I would say that Rian, I have to give him a big pat on the back," she adds. "It started with him and how he made me feel, and made us feel."

Specifically, the Glass Onion writer-director, 50, wanted the cast "to have a really great human-to-human experience as family," rather than "needing" something from them.

"And that's going to make the work feel, look and sound better when you're coming in and you actually like the people," Monáe says. "And culturally, which feels like we're caring for each other, not because of how talented we are, but just as humans."

The upcoming third film in the anthology trilogy is titled Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and once again sees Craig, 56, back as Benoit Blanc, though it's unlikely that any other cast members from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will return.

Several new cast members were announced earlier this year, including Kerry Washington , Andrew Scott , Josh O'Connor , Cailee Spaeny , Jeremy Renner , Josh Brolin and Mila Kunis .

Glenn Close is also among those joining the cast of Wake Up Dead Man, and she called filming the movie "truly one of the best experiences of my life" when talking to PEOPLE in August.

And while Monáe is not involved in the new film and doesn't know anything about the plot, she tells PEOPLE she's "a Rian Johnson fan for life" and "already at the movie theaters ready to watch it."

Of making Glass Onion during the pandemic, Monáe also says, "People were nervous, and we got to really be vulnerable and honest with each other about that. And I had the time of my life. That's one of the highlights of my movie career so far."