Willis and Mirren team up in the film and they teamed up at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con to talk with a group of reporters about their movie. Red, based on a graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, is rated PG-13 and hits theaters on October 15, 2010.
Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren Red Roundtable Interview
Bruce, you've been in quite a few action films recently (Live Free or Die Hard, Surrogates, Cop Out, Red). What do you think it is about now that makes it the right time for what you do?Bruce Willis: "I always question whether it’s the right time for anything because I rely a lot of times on my own choices for the stories I’ve had and the scripts that I like. This film was always ambitious right from the very start. It could have just been defined as an action movie or as a comedy or as a romantic comedy and the studio and the story always was about them and stayed there, and it always felt ambitious . Everyone you talk to that sees the film the guys would say, 'It’s an action movie,' and some people say, 'It’s a comedy,' or 'It’s a romantic comedy.' But it weaves all these things together in a way that doesn’t move you off of liking the action or liking the comedy or liking the romance or it being a romantic comedy. So it seems, creatively, I am pleased with this choice."
Can you talk about Robert Schwentke as a director and this combination of action with humor and tension?
Bruce Willis: "I think Robert had a lot of things he juggled and I think it would be intimidating for almost anyone to have to work with as many talented actors and big movie stars. Robert managed every day with a lot of grace and a sense of humor and got the work done."
Helen Mirren: "He was very loose and very easy and very patient, and he was also quite German, as a German person in that he was very, very... What’s the word? He wouldn’t let go. He knew what he wanted and he would push all of us in terms of acting always towards what he wanted, and he was kind of relentless in that way. And I think in a way the consistency of tone, because as Bruce says with this disparate number of people coming in with their own histories of acting and so forth, you could have a movie where everyone is kind of acting in a different style. Robert was very good at maintaining the overall style of acting as well as the overall style of the movie."
Helen, why do you think comic book characters are such a creative basis for film and TV?
Helen Mirren: "Well, I’m wearing a T-shirt in respect of Harvey Pekar who I think was a great, great graphic artist and graphic novelist. He showed me that graphic work, which in my ignorance I didn’t understand before I was exposed to his work, now I’m much more open-minded but I thought it was all about comic book heroes and boys’ kind of stuff. He revealed the fact that a graphic novel can be as deep and complex and personal, psychological as any other work of art, novel, movie, painting, anything. So I think that this world, I think it’s really exciting to see it burgeoning and expanding and changing as it goes into a real total art form. I think we’re at a very exciting point in the whole era, the whole ethos, the whole development of comic books. So I’m fascinated to see where it’s going to be in another 20 years from now."
Bruce Willis: "I knew these guys wrote a pretty well thought out story that already had drama that showed up long before it ever made the transition from a graphic novel to a film. So we had to take 66 pages of the graphic novel and turn it into a 110 or 115 page script and trying to film 90 minutes of that. It was very ambitious and there would be many days where I’d say, 'Where are we in the story?' Robert always knew the answer. He always knew exactly where we were, what we were doing, what this scene was about. But I think this story was already really dramatic and very easy to play and very easy to understand."
Did you have fun together? Helen, was it fun to be an action star and did you learn anything from Bruce?
Helen Mirren: "Oh my God, it was great fun this film. I had fun anyway. I absolutely loved every minute of it. Yes, you always learn from great movie stars, I have to say. There’s no accident why they’re a great movie star and Bruce is a great movie star. As I say, these things don’t happen by accident and it means that they have both a mystery about them and an expertise, a very high level of technique plus an incredible instinct that they allow to sort of operate. It’s always a dream to watch that and to learn from it. I was doing that all the time on the set."
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This film really explores the concept that there are heroes older than 50 years old and that people over a certain age can actually be viable and relevant and when pushed to the extreme are capable of what they are doing. Can you talk about that?Bruce Willis: "The word is certainly used and used in the title of the film. Retired, extremely dangerous and it’s commented on a couple of times, but when you see the film it’s right now. It’s hip. Karl (Urban) and I went at it in one of the toughest fights I’ve ever fought in my life and contact was made. I wasn’t going, 'I’m a little too old, I can’t fight this hard.' It was definitely crafted along the lines of mixed martial arts. We were throwing each around, I mean literally, and doing things that are very cool and very right. I don’t see anyone who’s reported to be retired in this film that wasn’t sexy and hot and romantic and funny."
Helen Mirren: "I would just say that as an older person, you bring a different energy to the piece. Maybe it’s the energy of wisdom and the energy of experience. I think that in a sense is the story of the movie as well, that these people are bringing their deep experience and knowledge of what they’re doing to this particular job."
What skills did you have to learn?
Helen Mirren: "Oh, well, shooting a gun was all I had to learn really. Apart from that, but that was fun to do and I did it to a certain extent. No, you were saying about the relevance of old people and so forth but I think that is their relevance amongst us. It is to do with wisdom, to do with experience, and it’s kind of a gorgeous thing."
What is the one thing that drew you to this project?
Bruce Willis: "I was talking with Lorenzo [di Bonaventura, the producer] about this, I think, two years before we started shooting. There was never any way you or I could ever have imagined the richness of what a film could be that has a huge cast of characters in it when all those characters are played by actors you already know and I was already a fan of for a long time. I was excited all the time. [...] One thing that’s going to be talked about a lot more is just the phenomenon of having this many actors and this many movie stars in a film being told, a good story, and telling an ambitious story that’s fun and funny and has action in it and is very satisfying."
Helen Mirren: "Me, not the queen, Bruce Willis, evening dress, machine gun. Gotta do it."
At this stage in your career and your life, is there anything that still scares you?
Bruce Willis: "It’s my favorite part of making movies. There are lots of different parts of moviemaking that I take part in and that’s talking about the project prior to the time they turn the camera on and doing work after the film’s been made and talking about it afterwards and participating in the marketing of it and getting the word out there. My favorite part is the making of it. I’m scared every day. I keep thinking that somebody’s going to throw me the ball and I’m going to go, 'Oh wow, oh god, I just messed that up.' It’s not fear so much as excitement and that thrill of you have to create something out of 115 typewritten pages and make it be human and lifelike. I think I’m much more afraid of making a mistake in raising my daughters than I would be of any work that I do as an actor. It’s a much higher scale of fear, raising kids."
Helen Mirren: "I’m just kind of frightened all the time really, actually. I think my whole life is just overcoming fear. But first nights in the theatre are always really scary. Right now I’m terrified of the rubbish in New York. Such a mountain of it. Where does it all go? That’s a scary thought. I’m terrified of plastic, basically. Plastic packaging. That’s what’s scaring me right now. There’s too much of it. Get rid of it. Sorry to be ecological."
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Red was directed by Robert Schwentke and is rated PG-13 for PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence and brief strong language.
