I love the film, Gina
I'm sure you've heard that a lot today.
And I never get tired of hearing it.
I mean, the film is so brilliantly kind of entertaining
and delivers on the epic scale and kind of action side of things.
But it's also got like a lot to say this delving into at times
quite profound kind of political and historical kind of territory.
I just want to ask about that kind of balance
and having a film peppered with those elements
and yet at the same time just remaining a big old, enjoyable
blockbuster, was that quite a challenge to get right?
Oh, I don't know.
Necessarily a challenge as more of a mandate
for myself and for everyone involved that
we wanted to make a historical epic, which is just
like the genre
is so great and it's always heroes and villains and and taking us into worlds
that we're not familiar with and David and Goliath.
So we knew that we had that.
But this is we're dealing with real history.
And that's interesting to us as well.
And so we set this film in a specific time where we could deal
with some of these big issues that I think are important to talk about.
And that absolutely apply to what's going on today.
But when it comes to directing the action,
there's almost take on the act of like a dance, because
I guess it was so choreographed, isn't it, when you kind of directing?
I guess
it's almost feel yeah, a bit like you're
kind of directing a dance sequence almost as much as you are a kind of fight.
Fight sequence.
Yeah, it's I mean, it's a lot.
There's a lot of planning.
And with action and fighting,
you just can't leave things up to chance.
You can't leave things up to improvization because in somebody,
you know, they've got machetes.
Someone's going to get cut.
So it starts.
Danny Hernandez, my incredible stunt and fight coordinator.
All our conversations started with character and story.
What are we trying to say in this moment?
What does this mean for the character?
What does it reveal about character?
So when you start from that, it it makes it smaller.
It doesn't feel as overwhelming, you know, that you need a beginning,
middle and end.
So if you're telling a story, it really starts with that.
And then it's really, really, really helpful
to have your actors really doing the fighting and the stunts.
And it makes it harder because we're literally teaching people
to be athletes, creating warriors, creating fighters.
But it allows me to tell a full story, to have more leeway with the camera,
because I'm not trying to hide stunt doubles.
I don't have a quick cut around it.
But it is it's it's an elaborate
dance that you're continually honing
and honing and honing until you feel like you really got it right.
And then it takes the actors to be willing to do that.
16, 17, 18.
Take to make sure that we get it absolutely right.
I know this sounds like incredible hard work, but there's been such talk from
everyone is on the press junket and interviews of how the shoot
was such a kind of positive for my family, boosted each other's kind of game.
There's a real sense of teamwork and pride to do this story justice.
Often on a set, the filmmaker really sets the tone.
So how do you go about keeping
a happy shoot like that
and a positive crew in the way that in the way that you have had.
Mm hmm. Well, slowly over here,
I feel like my job as a director
is to create a space where the actors feel safe enough to give me everything.
So I do have to set the tone.
I love what I do.
I love making movies.
So I want everyone to feel that. Absolutely.
I also want everyone to understand on
what actors have to give not only all the training that they did.
So let's respect that and bring our A-game so they're not having to do
more than 17 or 18 takes.
But also the the emotional toll that some of these storylines
took on these actors as well, and what they have to dig
into in themselves to be able to bring that to the screen.
So to respect that always, but also to make people feel a part of the vision.
If people believe in the vision, are inspired by the vision that they give
you everything to help you realize that vision as well.
So my final question is, I mean,
because obviously this and I love the old guard as well,
but you're putting kind of women front and center
in the heart of action movies and it's something that
shouldn't be feel unique but still remains so in some ways in cinema.
But can you feel the tide turning in that regard?
Absolutely.
It's slowly turning, but the more that we do it
and normalize it and that's the thing, it's not normal.
As normal.
My life growing up, an athlete and so I want to normalize it in everyone's life.
So again, the more success we have and the more
that men can look up on the screen and be excited by the fighting
regardless of who's fighting that was on you.
To help us with that, I think we'll get to see more and more.
But thank you so much for talking to us about with the release of the movie.
Thank you very much.