Hollywood heartthrob Ryan Reynolds relates his experience filming the upcoming big screen sci-fi thriller
HIS charming good looks and sarcastic sense of humour is what makes him one of the most liked celebrities in Hollywood. Not only is he handsome, talented and married to the stunning Blake Lively (his co-star in Green Lantern), Ryan Reynolds is also a father of two, which ultimately puts him in the running to be Hollywood’s hottest dad.
Life is certainly looking good for the 41-year-old, who recently earned himself a star on Hollywood’s famous Walk of Fame a few months ago. With an award in hand won last year (Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actor in a Comedy for Deadpool and a Golden Globe nomination as well), the man is set to grace the big screen again with a new movie.
Titled Life, it is a terrifying sci-fi thriller about a team of scientists aboard the International Space Station (ISS). They are tasked with examining a single life cell form that has been discovered on Mars and brought back to the ISS by an unmanned space craft, modelled after the Curiosity Rover, the NASA vehicle that has explored the surface of the Red Planet. Their discovery turns to chaos when the evolving life-form threatens the crew and all life on Earth.
SCI-FI GEEK
Far from his role as a fictional antihero in Deadpool, Reynolds will be floating in outer space as Rory Adams, a space walker and engineer. He acts alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, Olga Dihovichnaya and Julie Lynn, who make up the rest of the multi-national ISS crew members.
Curiously, behind his good looks and status as an A-list Hollywood celeb is a sci-fi nerd who happens to be a huge fan of the sci-fi genre. “I love science fiction all the way back to Alien (sci-fi horror franchise), and I just watched 2001: A Space Odyssey again.
He says that the very best sci-fi has the ability to provide thought provoking entertainment and at the same time, scare its audience with the unexpected. His character Rory catches the Rover in space using a space arm and brings it in a very controlled environment to see what they have.
“Part of the spike and exhilaration in the film comes with just that — the fact that this is the first time we have ever had the opportunity to investigate life beyond our planet. It’s just a single cell organism when they find it and it’s incredibly thought provoking. Obviously the movie takes an incredible tonal shift shortly after that,” he adds.
The actor knows exactly what he wants from a movie experience that will take the audience on a journey that is truly out of this world. “It’s one thing to make an audience terrified but you also need to make them lean into the screen because they are so intrigued by what’s going on. We get to do both of those things with Life,” he says.
“I don’t want to just see a bunch of astronauts who are heroic trying to fight this bad, evil thing from another planet. It’s more complex than that and I think that the audience is really going to have a chance to decide how they feel about it, and how they would attack this situation or how they would react,” he says.
Reynolds adds that the film allows the audience to see it the way the characters see it. “I think it’s a great way to tell the story and we certainly give the audience the emotional investment.
“The audience is on the ride with us — they are not just watching us. They are discovering things with us. We don’t go into great detail about every little thing we are seeing, we let the audience discover that for themselves,” he says.
ACTIVE ROLE
The actor says his character’s job sounds a little more glamorous than it really is. “He’s a space walker, the guy that does the space walk. “He goes out and fixes anything on the ship. He’s basically a mechanic and the ISS needs a mechanic just like a car does. He doesn’t have an incredibly important role in terms of being one of the doctors or the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) guys or the commander. He’s a utility crew member and he is there for one reason alone, which is to make sure the ship is running,” he says.
With all the action that takes place on the recreated ISS set, Reynolds says filming the movie was a bit like an athletic event. “My character is very active, the guy is racing to and fro and trying to deal with so many elements all at once, so there was a real physical aspect, which I wasn’t expecting.”
He explains that a group of experts were on set with them to coach the cast with their movement and give them advice on how to move in zero gravity. “At first I was like, why are all these people here? And I quickly realised why because we are at zero gravity for the entire film. It was almost like holding a plank position so you are kind of beat up at the end of the day,” says Reynolds.
He adds that having the movement coach was important in giving authenticity to his performance. “You want it to feel immersive and you want it to feel like the audience is experiencing something they don’t quite understand. One of those things is being in zero gravity and weightless throughout the film.
“I can’t think of too many movies that have ever done a film in zero gravity from start to finish but this is definitely one of them. We had a lot of people there to help us make sure that it was as immersive and as real as possible,” he says.
The actor shares more about his thoughts on the movie and his experience on set for Life.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THIS MOVIE?
It’s a story about survival in the truest context. What I love about Life is that there’s an interesting shade of grey cast on everything. Halfway through the film I don’t think we have any idea about who is good and who is bad, including the life form we discovered. That life form is simply utilising every aspect of its being, in order to survive. And you know, what’s more dangerous on this planet than a bunch of human beings?
There’s an interesting moral complexity that imbues itself into the story quite quickly and I think that’s what makes for an interesting film.
THE ISS WAS RECREATED ON A GIGANTIC SOUND STAGE IN LONDON. WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING ON REAL SETS AS OPPOSED TO GREEN SCREENS?
The details on those sets were incredible. The production designer, Nigel Phelps spent painstaking hours (he probably never slept) on them. The ISS isn’t this futuristic perfectly groomed ship: there are elements of it that are a little junky. The crew is very international but so is the ISS because different parts of it have been built by different countries at different times so you will go through one capsule and you’ll feel like you are in the early 1990s.
Then you’ll zip into another one and you’ll feel like you’re in 2030. It was interesting to move around that environment and see how those different environments affected all the different things you want your cast to experience when you are up there.
YOU WORKED WITH DANIEL ESPINOSA ON SAFE HOUSE AND THE WRITERS, RHETT REESE AND PAUL WENICK ON DEADPOOL. DID YOU HAVE PLAN TO WORK WITH DANIEL AGAIN WHEN YOU WERE INVOLVED WITH SAFE HOUSE?
With Daniel we’ve always looked for something to do together. And you know, I’m a producer as well — not on this film but I produce other movies — and I was always trying to find some ways to put us together again. Daniel and I can convey ideas using very few words and that to me speaks of chemistry.
As for Rhett and Paul, I’ve been working and playing with them in the Hollywood sandbox for close to nine years now and it just felt like a great fit.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH THE CAST?
It was amazing. I can’t remember having this much fun on a set. I find that sets that have a comedic tone are typically quite serious because you are focused on manufacturing a reaction in the audience and with movies like this I find that you spend a lot more time laughing simply because you’re trying to not focus too much on all the information that you need.
I think Jake and I collectively wasted probably a good million dollars of the bosses’ money just laughing. He and I would be on the ISS at a 90-degree angle laughing so hard that we can’t breathe.
Rebecca is such an incomparable actress in what she is able to say and convey. Her character has a real conflict that she is dealing with throughout the entire film. I would say that the central female character is the heartbeat of the whole film.
WAS IT IMPORTANT TO BUILD FRIENDSHIP AMONG THE CAST?
Right when we got there on set we all clicked. It’s the best case scenario when you are dealing with an ensemble cast and people that you don’t necessarily know that well. I knew Jake Gyllenhaal a little bit but he was the only one I knew.
Everybody on this cast is very good at just being kind of off-the-cuff and zeroing
in on the intent of the scene and we got to
do that in ways that were incredibly organic. So when circumstances turn somewhat tragic and intense, you get to see that
psychological shift with this entire group. A huge part of the story is the psychological impact on the group when things begin to go wrong.
COULD YOU SUM UP THE EXPERIENCE OF FILMING LIFE?
I can’t think of a time when I had more fun shooting a film than Life. It was a built-in family for me. I had a director that I already knew and worked with in the past and writers that are like my brothers. Then there’s Jake who has become one of my closes friends since shooting the movie. To be getting there with those guys was a complete pleasure.
Sony Pictures Malaysia
Life will be released in cinemas on March 23
