'The 355' Interviews with Sebastian Stan, Jessica Chastain And Diane Kruger

Cinema Blend

“The 355” stars Sebastian Stan, Jessica Chastain and Diane Kruger discuss their action movie influences, fighting in a dress, their admiration for stunt performers and much, much more in this interview with CinemaBlend’s managing director, Sean O’Connell.

Transcript

00:00I'm mesmerized by those posters in the background there.

00:03They are the two greatest films ever made.

00:07So that's amazing.

00:10George Washington's first female spy during the revolution.

00:14They called her Agent 355

00:16because they didn't want the world to know her real name.

00:22I love that this movie could end up becoming a gateway

00:25for teenage girls to the action genre,

00:27where they might not necessarily look for stories

00:29or might not see themselves,

00:30but now they finally will in your guys' performances.

00:33So I want to know who that action hero was for you

00:36when you were growing up.

00:37Who was someone that you looked at on the big screen

00:38and said, I would actually like to try that?

00:40Ripley in Alien, Sigourney Weaver, man.

00:43I mean, I remember watching that film

00:45and just being like, wow, a woman is doing all of that.

00:48And of course she would be doing all of that.

00:50I mean, the fiercest competitor in the animal kingdom

00:54is a mother animal protecting their young.

00:56I mean, there's something about a mother's instinct

00:59and like that feminine, ferocious energy

01:01that I think can be quite intimidating.

01:03So yeah, she would have been my favorite.

01:07Ripley or Linda Hamilton

01:08are the only two acceptable answers.

01:10Oh, Linda Hamilton when it opens up

01:12on her doing all those pushups.

01:13I'll tell you, I started actually,

01:16I can't really do a ton of pushups now,

01:17but that movie made me, I would go to the playground

01:20and practice doing pull-ups

01:22because of Linda Hamilton in Terminator.

01:25Who was the action star that when you looked at,

01:27you thought, oh, I might want to give that a shot.

01:29I'm not, are you familiar with the film

01:33called Run Lola Run?

01:34Yes, of course.

01:35Yeah, so I remember that film as really formative

01:41because A, she looked so cool with her red hair, right?

01:44And she was everything that I didn't think I was.

01:49I'm blanking on her name.

01:50I know she shows up in the first movie.

01:52Yes, right.

01:53Thank you very much.

01:54That was a terrific, terrific film.

01:56You have so much experience with onscreen action.

01:59And so I'm just curious if there are skills

02:01that you can carry over from one project to the next

02:03to almost make action sequences get easier for you.

02:06Or is it really different from project to project

02:08because of the director or maybe even the demands?

02:12It is different from project to project.

02:15It's always about the story and the character

02:18and to what extent, how much action are they capable of

02:23and whatnot.

02:24But yeah, you get more confident the more you do it.

02:30You sort of start to kind of understand things

02:32that your body doesn't necessarily do that.

02:36But it helps.

02:40It helps if you've done it before.

02:42This year marks the 10 year anniversary of Zero Dark Thirty.

02:46So I want to know if there's any Maya to be found in Mace.

02:50Yeah, it's 10 years ago I made.

02:54Actually, 10 years ago next month,

02:57I would have been in Chandigarh, India

03:00in Amman, Jordan making Zero Dark Thirty.

03:02So yes, absolutely.

03:04And I'll tell you the woman that I play in Zero Dark Thirty

03:06was a consultant on this film.

03:09Yeah, and she connected us to so many women.

03:11She connected Penelope and Lupita.

03:14And there's so many that we spoke to

03:17because of her incredible access.

03:19So yes, absolutely, we were inspired.

03:22We're the top agents from around the world.

03:24American, British, German, Colombian, Chinese.

03:29So we need to join forces.

03:35The green dress in the final act is phenomenal,

03:38but hard to fight in?

03:40Or what kind of accommodations do they make

03:42to make it easier for you to fight it?

03:45What was amazing is Ralph Lauren actually made

03:47all my clothes in the film.

03:48And we knew we had to go undercover at this art auction

03:53and that this fight would happen.

03:55So the question was like, okay, well,

03:56how can the dress be made in a way that it wouldn't,

03:59you know, be completely destroyed

04:01or it wouldn't disappear?

04:03So they had created a whole corset system under the dress

04:07and made it quite easy.

04:08It's actually, in some sense, probably easier to fight in

04:11than a suit would be because a suit would be

04:14more constricting in the arms.

04:15There's a moment where you seem to get hit by a car

04:18in this, where I'm actually convinced

04:20that it happened to you,

04:21that you just gave it up for this movie.

04:25I, well, yes, there is that moment.

04:32And I was allowed to do some of it.

04:36You know, I was allowed to roll off of it a few times.

04:38And that was kind of fun.

04:40I want to ask this too, because every time I get to see

04:42a movie like this that's wall-to-wall action,

04:44I marvel at the fact that the Oscars

04:46don't have a stunt category yet.

04:48What are your thoughts on that?

04:49Do you think we're any closer?

04:51I hope so.

04:51I really do admire and stunt performers and stunt actors

04:59because, and I think they're very undervalued.

05:02I mean, it just, it's, they're to some extent

05:04always risking something.

05:07And I don't, and I just don't think it's easy.

05:11And the weird part is what people don't see is,

05:14they'll see a final product, which is an edited version of it,

05:17but they won't necessarily connect

05:20where the stuntman came in and make that look pretty

05:22and awesome.

05:24And what you don't see is when you're on set

05:25and you see them do that stunt like 10 times in a row.

05:29There are many times I've been in a,

05:31on a movie or on a TV show where they've changed,

05:34they changed what they were going to shoot in that moment.

05:37And they'll turn to a stunt person and they'll go,

05:39by the way, do you care if we,

05:41instead of doing what we just rehearsed,

05:43we just do this instead,

05:44meaning like you throw yourself in front of a car.

05:46I know it's new.

05:47We're just sort of realizing because of the light and things.

05:50And then they're like, yeah, of course, let's do it.

05:52And then they'll change costume in five minutes

05:54and just do the thing in front of you.

05:56It's like, what do you do with that?

05:59When you get a screenplay like this,

06:01which is wall-to-wall action,

06:03but it has really great character development,

06:04what do you look for first?

06:05Do you want to see like what your action set pieces

06:08are going to be

06:08and maybe how physically challenging they are?

06:10Do you look to make sure that there is strong dialogue?

06:13Like what attracts you the most about the project?

06:15To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect.

06:18You know, I've never been offered an action movie.

06:20I don't think people look at me and go,

06:22yeah, Diane Kruger is an action star.

06:24So I was a little surprised when Jessica called me.

06:31The other girls were already attached, right?

06:33And so I was completely intrigued

06:35why all those amazing actresses

06:37would want to be in an action movie.

06:40And, you know, you saw the result and that's why,

06:44you know, I think it's a very fresh take

06:45on women in that genre.

06:48I think all the characters are really well-rounded

06:51and representative of, you know,

06:54what women actually are like.

06:55And so, yeah, so that's really what attracted me.

06:59There's a terrific scene in the movie

07:00where the ladies sit around and start to swap war stories.

07:03And you can tell that this means

07:04that the barriers are breaking down

07:05and they're starting to trust each other.

07:06And I want to know if actors do that on set.

07:08Like, did you and Fan just compare X-Men stories?

07:10Our actors absolutely do it

07:13because our job is to be open, right?

07:16We have to be as open as possible

07:18because that's how we're affected and sensitive

07:20and all of these things to what we're playing.

07:23So from like day one, usually we overshare.

07:27We talk too much about our lives, our feelings.

07:30And so, yes, but Bing Bing and I,

07:33we were on the jury together at Cannes.

07:35So we had plenty of time to get to know each other

07:37before we even ended up on set.

07:39I'm already planning the sequel.

07:40It's going to be called the 710,

07:42which is 355 times two.

07:43356, the days of the year.

07:46What actors are you recruiting for the next film?

07:50Who do you, who's your get?

07:52Oh, I don't know.

07:52I honestly, I, it's funny because when making this film,

07:56it wasn't like, oh, I want to be an action star.

07:59I mean, I'm really, there's so many genres I like.

08:02I, you know, I'm doing Tammy Faye and, you know,

08:05scenes from a marriage.

08:06And there's so much I love to explore as an actor.

08:11I wouldn't want to be stuck doing one thing

08:13for the rest of my career.

08:15If we were lucky enough to get to do another one,

08:18it would be wonderful to like meet other agents

08:21from other countries.

08:22I think that's the exciting thing about 355

08:24is it's international and it feels like,

08:27I mean, there are women working in espionage

08:29all over the world.

08:30And that's an exciting thing to bring actresses together

08:32from all over the world.

08:34I like the new team.

08:34We're the 355.

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