Movieline spoke with the 30-year-old actor about his role in The Mechanic, fetishistic action, and a little something we like to call "the pedophile-baiting scene." Also on the docket: Foster's upcoming slate, his indie vs. mainstream philosophy, and the production company he formed with Messenger director Oren Moverman. [Minor spoilers follow.]
What was it about this volatile, angry and sort of masochistic character that appealed to your senses?
Is he masochistic?
I think so.
I was doing a little film called HERE, which is at this year's Sundance, and it was such a quiet, lovely little experience, a life experience. We shot it for $1.5 million, and were just traveling from village to village [in Armenia]. At the tail end of that I was told that they wanted me to play this role in The Mechanic. They asked me if I wanted to blow sh*t up with Jason Statham, and I said, "Sure!"
I completely understand the appeal. The Mechanic is basically you buddying up with and squaring off against Statham; how did you two get to know each other and build your chemistry before filming?
Time is, of course, the most valuable asset we all have. Spending time with Jason, it's easy. He's a terrifically funny guy, he's an incredible athlete. I was a fan of him in The Bank Job. I hadn't seen all of his movies but he did some great work in that picture. You know, we're getting to know each other as the film as the film progresses, so that kind of took care of itself.
Did you film in order to let that relationship unfold naturally?
We jumped around a bit, but in films like this it's really about getting right to the gun porn, which is what everybody's after.
All right, you said it! But no, that brings up an interesting conflict; in a movie as action-heavy as this, where the action is so fetishized, you and Jason are doing some uncharacteristically sophisticated character work for this kind of movie. How did you, Jason, and Simon elevate the material beyond its action-genre trappings?
That's a well-phrased question. Simon has a great appreciation for the moments and improv and we worked a lot in pre-production to understand who these men were, and then take out as many lines of exposition as we could. There's a tendency in these films to overstate who these people are and why they're doing what they do, and our belief was that yes, we were making an action-thriller, but if we do our homework we can sense who these people are without having to be beaten over the head with it. The intention was to take these human beings and the situations that they're in that link these tentpole scenes of fetishized violence and root them in the people of it all.
Did you improvise many of your lines? In the film, there are moments that, even looking at your face and your eyes, suggest that you're taking your character well beyond the page. Beyond, frankly, what most actors do in these kinds of films.
Well, the situation he's in is a difficult one. To try to understand that, or feel it, I suppose is the job at hand. It's really a difficult situation, as all dramas or stories are, there's always going to be conflict. Simon was interested from the beginning to allow these characters to breathe a bit in between all the excitement.
One of my favorite scenes of yours is, for lack of a better turn of phrase, is the pedophile-baiting scene -
[Erupts into laughter]
... in which your character goes undercover to target a big, beefy assassin. You hide your intentions not only from him, but from the audience. So much happens with you in that scene without dialogue -- and of course, it all ends in a bloody mess. Describe the internal experience of shooting that scene.
I don't think we were actually sure about how bloody it was going to be. But it was important. Simon and I talked a lot about what it would mean to kill someone -- what it would take. It's not just a crazy person who's pulling a trigger, but even then there are going to be years of life experiences bringing you to this moment. Understanding where my character Steve was at this point in his life was very important to Simon, and I really appreciated his interest in that. And I'm fortunate I'm not a hit man in real life. I get the opportunity to, even within the genre, be given room to maybe show a few flickers of the human being that would pull a trigger or fill-in-the-blank.
Your career of late has seemed to sway toward the indie side of filmmaking. Are you making a conscious choice to stick with smaller films these days as opposed to major studio releases?
It's all interesting. If the right studio film comes along with a role I feel I can contribute to or ask interesting questions with, or questions I'm interested in asking, absolutely. I'm not a movie snob. I love all films, I love all kinds of films. The roles that have inspired me and got me excited and the filmmakers I've wanted to work with and been fortunate enough to work with were working on just smaller budgets. Right now I'm doing a film [Contraband] with [Mark] Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale for Universal. And then I'll be doing a little movie in London with another beautiful cast. I've been really lucky lately, and we're all lucky. For any of us to have a job right now is incredible.
In Rampart, you're reuniting with Oren Moverman, your director on The Messenger. That film seemed like a pretty unique filmmaking experience in itself. What brought you two back together?
Yes, so much so that Oren and I started a production company, and I moved to New York to work with him. We're developing several projects right now, and this was the first one that went. I was able to work as a producer as well as an actor -- a small acting role. That's really thrilling, to contribute to a film from the early stages and follow it until its completion. And Woody does work in this film that's gonna knock people out.
It will be nice to see you all working together again.
I'm very excited about this picture.
What kinds of projects are you considering to make with Oren?
We've got a humble little stack of things that we're playing with, but we really just finished Rampart four weeks ago, so we're editing. We'll just be in the editing room for the next four months; I'll be going back and forth between that and New Orleans for Contraband, and we'll wrap that up by spring. Then I'll head to London to shoot 360 for a few weeks, and then we'll see what feels best. But we're looking to get a project going again, hopefully, in the fall. It's good to be busy!
You're also reuniting with your _ Alpha Dog_ director, Nick Cassavetes. What is it that brings you back to work with the same people again? And is that bond a rare thing to find?
Ah, he's the best. Well, making movies is a collaboration and I've been doing this 18 years and spending time with people that you care about and you're challenged by and you love -- nothing's better than that.
[Top photo: Getty Images]