Eric Bana plays an ex-CIA agent who quits the agency to raise his daughter totally off the grid in Hanna, a coming of age story with a fairy tale vibe. Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement), Hanna stars Saoirse Ronan as the young girl who's been trained by her father (Bana) from childhood to be an assassin.
In our exclusive interview with director Wright, he explained why Bana was an obvious choice to take on the key role of Hanna's father in this action-heavy adventure film. "Well, if one works in the form of a fairy tale, then we're dealing with these archetypal characters. And in fairy tales, the archetype of the father is often a sort of woodcutter," offered Wright. "I'm thinking, in particular, Rapunzel, and so I wanted someone who felt like he was like a tree, like a great strong earthy man, and there aren't many of those around these days in Hollywood and the acting fraternity. There's a lot of pretty boys, but not so many manly men anymore. I think Eric's one of the few, and therefore he was a natural choice."
"He also has a warmth to him, Eric. I was very conscious of not making it seem at all creepy, this guy in the woods with this young girl, and Eric could not be creepy if he tried, I don't think. He's a very genuine and warm and lovely man, and so I thought he would play the part beautifully."
And at the LA press day for the Focus Feature film, Bana talked about why he took on the role and how he prepared for the part.
On the women taking the lead in this action film:
Eric Bana: "One of the things that was exciting about the project, I mean, the script read incredibly original and fresh and exciting but at the same time it was like, 'How cool is this that it’s a 16-year-old girl that’s playing the role of what would normally be a 25-year or 30-year-old guy?' So that was something to me that was very exciting. So no, I had no reservations about being the mentor and occasionally getting my ass kicked. I was more than happy to."
On his fight scenes with Saoirse Ronan:
Eric Bana: "It’s different, definitely. Initially I was concerned, obviously, because when you read the script, you realize there’s going to be a lot of full-on physical stuff between you and – at the time Saoirse was 15. So it’s even a concern when you’re doing that stuff with another male actor. You’re working with another actor who’s a young girl. I had a lot of faith in Jeff, our stunt coordinator. After probably two days of training with Saoirse, I was no longer concerned because I could see that she had really put the work in. It’s more of a concern when you’re working with someone who hasn’t done that stuff before. You’re just more aware that something can go wrong. She was really well prepared and trained really hard. In the end, I was more concerned for my own safety than hers."
On training to pull off a lengthy fight scene against four opponents in one lengthy take:
Eric Bana: "It’s interesting. The thing about that scene, the one in the subway where it’s all just one shot, is physically it’s exactly the same. Whenever I learn a fight, you learn it from start to finish. I like to be able to do the fight from start to finish without stopping so that on the day you’re covered if the director wants to shoot it in any particular way. What makes it different when they do decide to do it in one shot is it’s just more pressure because you realize there’s no way for any mistakes or for anything to be picked up or fixed. But it’s extremely exciting because it’s the opposite of what we do mostly. Most fights are assembled in the edit suite and you lose a lot of the hard work you’ve put in to learn all those fights. So I was honored when Joe said, 'I’m going to shoot this steadycam. One shot. We’ve got to get it in magic hour.'"
"It becomes more like a sport. The cameraman, the focus puller, the guy dragging the cables, everyone has to be absolutely perfect on one take. So it does become more like a live performance and there is more adrenaline on a day like that. It’s good fun."
"We only had time [to do it]. We had about a 45-minute window because it was magic hour. I think we did six or seven and I think it’s the second take that’s in the film. We just kept doing them and resetting all the background. We spent all day preparing for that magic hour."
On handling the film's fight choreography:
Eric Bana: "I think having a physical background definitely helps because there’s always some kind of base that you’re working upon. But I actually haven’t done a lot. Troy is the only movie where I’ve done any fight scenes, oddly enough. None of the other movies that I’ve been in had any fights. In Troy there were a lot of weapons but I haven’t done a movie where the fighting is hand-to-hand combat, so that’s what was new for me. But again, getting to work with Jeff Imada, who is just a genius at that stuff, and his team was a helluva lot of fun. It was really challenging, but a lot of fun."
On his one scene with Cate Blanchett:
Eric Bana: "First off, I wish I’d had more scenes with Cate, obviously, but I couldn’t coax that out of the script or out of Joe [Wright]. But I loved the fact that when I read the script there was so much about [Cate's character] Marissa and Erik that we don’t know. And that’s a lot of fun because it’s like it’s in your imagination to play with that. We don’t know what the hell they got up to. We don’t know if they were a couple at some stage or what the physical dynamic is in their relationship. So it’s kind of fun when you get to play those beats or at least play with them in your head, because it’s not there to be judged because we don’t know exactly what happens. There was a good mixture of clear information and a lot of ambiguity as well, which was good."
Finland's climate's a little different than Australia's:
Eric Bana: "Yeah, it was cold. I’m probably better suited to the 110 degree Morocco climate than I am the Finland climate. My thin Australian blood was not cut out for Finland, let me tell you. But it was fantastic. The only concern I had when we got to Finland was the landscape was different to how I imagined it. It was very, very flat and there was this amazing vista where there was just nothing in the horizon until way off in the distance. And I turned to Joe and said, 'Can you promise me that we’re going to be able to tell that we’re not on a bloody sound stage in L.A., that this is going to actually look like we’re here?'"
"That was the cool thing about the production. It was a very limited budget and the money really went into getting us to those locations and making sure the film looked as big as it does for a very modest amount. It’s more fun. I much prefer shooting on location than indoors."
Next up: Blackbird:
Eric Bana: "I’m shooting in Montreal right now on a film called Blackbird which is a little indie drama with Olivia Wilde and Sissy Spacek, Charley Hunnam, Kris Kristofferson are in the movie. I play not a very nice character for the others, so I’m in the middle of that at the moment in Montreal."
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Hanna hits theaters on April 8, 2011.
