If you’re one of those people who stops for hitchhikers on the side of the road, you might want to rethink that behavior after seeing The Hitcher. This remake of the 1986 film with Rutger Hauer, C Thomas Howell and Jennifer Jason Leigh features Sean Bean in the part of the serial-killing hitchhiker. Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton co-star as the young couple he terrorizes and frames for murder.
The Original Rutger Hauer Movie: Bean watched that version when it first came out about 20 years ago. “I was very impressed by it,” said Bean. “It’s quite spooky and scary. I thought it was a really good film. I suppose this is just a re-imagining of it. It’s not a remake of sorts. I think we’ve added a lot of edge to it and a lot of tension. The characters are very well drawn. They’re not cardboard cutouts and cartoon characters. There’s a great depth to them. David [Meyers] is doing a great job directing. Jim Hawkins and the lighting cameraman added a very dark, sort of ghostly quality to it. There’s a lot of thought and precision of detail going into this.”
Bean didn’t go back and watch the film again before starting work on The Hitcher. He also didn’t try and base his character on Hauer’s performance. “He had a certain charm, which I thought was quite fascinating to the character. I didn’t really want to see the original because I just didn’t want it to color what I did. I wanted to bring my own views, my own ideas to the part. But I’m glad I did see it when I saw it, when I was a kid. It certainly made an impression on me. But as I say, I think we all wanted to approach it in a different way and bring out ideas to it, fresh ideas.”
Developing the Character’s Backstory: “I think because there wasn’t so much backstory, there wasn’t a great deal to go on. I think for me it was just creating some kind of sensation rattling around his head. I’m not quite sure what that is but a lot of it is the way it was shot and the way it was explored, in terms of expression, things that weren’t said really. Just looks and expression. That’s what I found interesting about playing the part. Not so much what I said, but the way I looked at these guys, the way I looked at life, the way I looked at people. I just tried to bring something to that, to try and convey something, what was going on inside his head.
It’s difficult to explain. I’m notoriously bad at trying to explain characters I play. I think it’s something that just happens on the day, usually. You think of something and figure something out, maybe something in the past, something somebody said to you, somebody did or someone you knew. I just try and think of things like that when they say action. It must work.”
Working with Guns: “It’s okay. I’ve done quite a few films now that had guns and rifles, s**t like that. I feel okay. I don’t have any particular affinity to it. It’s just I guess the parts I play tend to carry real weaponry, a bit of hardware. I’ve become quite familiar with them. Particularly in this film, it doesn’t really matter. This guy kills by any means. He doesn’t have a particular choice of execution. He uses knives, guns, ropes, anything he can get his hands on. Anything that happens to be around. He’s just a killer. I’ve never really done that. I’ve never really worked on a part like this before. He’s so unapologetic in terms of the character’s psychology that he has no remorse, no regrets. There are not any redeeming features to this guy. I just think he does it because he can, and he believes he’s liberating. He’s a liberator. He believes that everyone is guilty of something, maybe these young guys are guilty of something. He just wants to clear them out.”
Bean continued, “Every question… He’s asked where he’s from, he says, ‘All over.’ He’s like a phantom, a ghost that’s kind of your worst nightmare. He terrorizes these young kids because they’re so stupid. They’re going to Lake Havasu to get her tits and drink beer. This guy just wants to get rid of them. I think he sees something in Grace that maybe thinks she can identify in some kind of strange way with his mentality, his psyche. He maybe wants to pass something onto her, the instinct that he has.
I’ve enjoyed playing the part and I know what I’m thinking when I’m doing it and I know what I’m doing, but it’s difficult to kind of explain the psyche. He f**ks about with people’s consciousness, just plays games. He finds things humorous that a normal person wouldn’t. He finds humor and comedy in that people might get their head blown off. It’s sort of a peaceful time for him. It brings him peace, satisfaction.”
Comparing Middle America to Other Shooting Locations: “It’s pretty lonely. It’s a kind of lonely sort of feeling. It’s got a lot of things. I can imagine it’s very beautiful in the daytime and the sort of landscape, but it can also be very desolate. It’s a very lonely kind of place to be, where you could quite easily lose your mind if you were here for any length of time.”
Filming at Night: “We did about five weeks of night shoots. That was good because it is a film about the road, to be on the road in a car, in cars. Like I said, the loneliness and the desolation, how people come together in those situations, bizarre situations. They could have bumped into anybody. He seems quite a nice guy in the beginning, the crew of the service station, he just wants a lift. His car’s broken down; he wants to get back to his wife. It’s raining. They reluctantly give him a ride and he proceeds to terrorize them. But it’s good how that’s revealed because you don’t see it… I just thought at the beginning you should see another side to John Ryder, the amiable side, the friendly guy, because you don’t see it very often after that point. Once he starts f**king about in the car and breaking mobile phones, sticking knives in people’s eyes, you’ve got an idea of what this guy’s all about.”
Page 2: Sean Bean on Horror Films and Playing a Bad Guy
