00:00You know, making a film that has a lot of humor,
00:29that plays like this, especially with like the Solvang, you know, the gang with Botas,
00:35you know, and with like somebody like, obviously, Dave, could you talk about finding the balance
00:42and tone or the tone that you want to create, JJ?
00:45Yeah, I mean, I actually set out to make a love story, like a romantic comedy that has
00:49a head on collision with an action movie.
00:51And I mean, listen, brother, the world is dark enough right now, you don't need me to
00:54make it any darker, you can turn on the news, whatever it is you watch and think of three
00:58or four different ways to like, you want to hang yourself.
01:00So I just want to make something fun that people can laugh at that speaks to people,
01:04especially you could take your date night movie, which is awesome.
01:07So that's kind of where my headspace was, keeping the pacing up, keeping the humor up,
01:12but also having the upper hand on the audience with the action where I have them jumping
01:15in their seat when somebody gets their neck cut or their leg broken the wrong way.
01:19You know, that's, I feel like in action storytelling, that's having the upper hand on the audience,
01:23you kind of lead them, you don't say, I'm going to punch you in the face, then punch
01:28him in the face.
01:29What you do is you punch him in the face and then say, I just hit you in the face.
01:32That's better.
01:33Joe Blood, the most prolific professional hitman in Europe.
01:39More hits than Motown.
01:40And he has really bad headaches.
01:41Are you okay?
01:42I've got some bad news.
01:43It's terminal.
01:44I need a contractor executed.
01:45Who do you want retired?
01:46Me.
01:47I've thought about doing this for years.
01:48You killed my father.
01:49Clock starts at midnight.
01:50You're the client.
01:52Well, it has to do with that balance.
01:53Like maybe there's so much, obviously, Sophia is a dancer by, by training, you know, but
01:54having talked to both of them for like Hotel Artemis for her and Dave, you know, the thing
01:55is, is that motion is so important, how people are in frame, both in the fight sequences
01:56and it just in the general human sequence.
01:57Can you talk about that?
01:58Cause that, that relates very specifically to, to both of us as a character.
01:59Yeah.
02:00I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
02:01it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
02:02it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
02:16it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
02:22it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
02:28I was, when I was like, when I, when I got Dave, I, it was like winning the lottery,
02:32but I was like, okay, who am I going to cast?
02:34They can dance because a lot of actresses will tell you they can dance.
02:38But I mean, dancing, doing tap dance in the second grade, it doesn't really qualifying.
02:42Is dancing for me is I do?
02:44It's not what I need on camera.
02:45So.
02:46You know, getting her he, Dave brought her up.
02:48He said, I work with her in hotel arms.
02:50I think she's amazing.
02:51Got her on the phone, talked to her, told her you're not doing action in this movie.
02:55You're the romantic lead.
02:57She loved that though.
02:58She dug that she wasn't gonna carry a gun
03:00or have to fight.
03:01She loved that.
03:02So incorporating that opening dance sequence,
03:06because she's an amazing dancer
03:07and we brought in this bad-ass dance choreographer as well,
03:11watched it, figure out how to capture it,
03:13set the tone of the movie with the camera work
03:15in that dance scene.
03:17And when you have someone like Marco and Scott Atkins,
03:20I don't have to hide anything in the action.
03:23Like when you're dealing with people who can't really fight,
03:25you have to stunt double them.
03:26If you have one stunt double
03:27and you're doubling someone else, it changes the coverage.
03:30The camera no longer goes where the action is the star.
03:34The camera is hiding something from the audience
03:36and the audience can feel that.
03:37So that hiring the right tool,
03:39hiring a starting pitcher that could really throw a fastball
03:42for me was, I mean, I couldn't go wrong.
03:45There's been a mistake.
03:46You're not gonna die.
03:50Doc, I'm gonna have to call you back.
03:53I'm canceling the contract.
03:55You think you're as good as anything?
03:59I'm calling in every hit I knew of.
04:01I'm pulling one way out of this.
04:03But going to you, Marco,
04:05because you have to do a change-up.
04:07I mean, obviously you've doubled for Dwayne too.
04:10So everybody has a different movement structure,
04:14but both times, it's like tango, it's flamenco,
04:17it's everything like that.
04:18Could you talk about taking sort of the action background,
04:21melding it with that kind of dance idea,
04:24but then putting it like that final sequence
04:27with you and Dave,
04:28if the way that the motion works is so specific
04:32and yet it's so unique?
04:34Yeah, well, whenever you get a call from JJ,
04:40you know that he's gonna change the game.
04:43He's gonna take you to the next level.
04:45He's gonna push you to go more higher
04:50than what you've done before.
04:52So that's the beauty of it.
04:54And we've worked in the past many times,
04:57and he's been a very big inspiration for me
05:00to always be improving and learning.
05:05So I was lucky to have this opportunity.
05:09Why?
05:09Because I can go for it.
05:11I know that I can go for something very crazy
05:16and it's gonna be well covered.
05:19He knows, he has the experience
05:20to put the camera in the right place.
05:23And so I can come up with this crazy thing
05:26of flamenco dancing with martial arts.
05:29Like if you don't shoot it right, you're gonna fail
05:31because it's hard to tell that story.
05:33Like you just said it.
05:35It's hard to mix martial arts fighting
05:37with dancing and flavor and this character
05:41that has all this passion when he's fighting.
05:43So how you tell that story just in a fight scene, right?
05:47So it was great.
05:49It was amazing.
05:55Hey, Botas.
06:03Un segundo, por favor.
06:12Amo esta puta canción.
06:14Baby, do you understand that sometimes I feel like I'm mad?
06:23But it's also the, and I'll go back to you, Jake.
06:25And this works with Marco as well.
06:28You have to have that humor in the scene.
06:29I mean, every single one of the assassin teams
06:32even like the brothers.
06:34I mean, there's such a great sort of bum, bum, bum
06:37but it doesn't take away the danger
06:39of what these guys can do.
06:40Can you talk about that?
06:41Because the pace has to reflect that.
06:44Now that's on set.
06:45And then obviously reflected in editing too.
06:47See, I mean, all those characters are based
06:49on things that I've experienced.
06:50Like Marco's character with the music was a guy
06:52in my gym when I was competing back in tech window
06:54back in the 80s that he had the Walkman,
06:57the initial Walkman.
06:57When he had that Walkman on, he would spank everyone.
07:00But if he wasn't wearing the music,
07:01he just, his step was off.
07:02So that always, I was like, always a trip for me.
07:05Then I worked in Scotland as a second year director
07:06on Fast and Furious 9.
07:08We locked the city up.
07:09My whole crew was Scottish.
07:10I didn't understand a word of what they were saying
07:12but it was funny as hell.
07:14They were all big, tough guys.
07:15They're like, oh dude, do I really matter?
07:16And they laughed at me when I talked.
07:18And I was like, you guys sound funny.
07:20And the party girls, of course, when I was younger
07:22I did a lot of research for those characters
07:24when my youth.
07:25So there was a lot of, I just bring familiar things
07:27into my movies.
07:29So for me, I familiarize myself with the characters.
07:32So when the actor asked me or the actress asked me
07:35a question, I can speak intelligently about it.
07:38And pacing and comedy is super important.
07:40And a lot of that is spontaneous.
07:43We're prepared for it in the script
07:44but then like fight choreography
07:47the venue offers a ton of target of opportunities.
07:50And in the middle of a fight scene,
07:52don't mess with the bull, get the horn.
07:54I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.
07:56Those are all after market.
07:57That's all stuff we did on set, just kind of off the cuff.
08:01♪ But don't you know that knowing a lie ♪
08:03♪ Can always mean anything? ♪
08:05So fine.
08:05♪ When things go wrong I seem to be back ♪
08:09♪ I've found a soul whose intentions I could not control. ♪
08:14♪ Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood. ♪
08:25♪ Yeah, I'm so edgy, I want you to know. ♪
08:28♪ That I never meant to take it out on you. ♪
08:32♪ Life has its problems, I've got my share. ♪
08:36♪ That's one thing I never meant to do. ♪
08:39My last question.
08:40Yeah, thank you.
08:41Because that leads into the idea of environment, location.
08:43Obviously, you know, Turkey, Budapest.
08:46Using that, but using these specific things,
08:48because I love how you almost do the Russell McCahey shot,
08:51like coming around the chandelier
08:54or using these different locations,
08:56using the church, using these different places.
08:58Can you talk about the importance of environment,
09:01both as a martial artist and for you too, Marco,
09:04but also in terms of the visual style of what,
09:07because you're mirroring and you're showing
09:09something that happened also in a book
09:11and people have their own ideas what they saw in their head.
09:14Totally.
09:15So, first of all, my grandfather who raised me
09:17was from Hungary.
09:18So, and I'd worked there a few times on a movie Spy,
09:21on the movie Spectral.
09:22I've worked there a bunch.
09:23It was kind of, Budapest was a character in the movie for me,
09:27like maybe number three on the call sheet.
09:29So, I wanted to show Budapest, a beautiful town.
09:32I have been using drone technology.
09:34I've been trying to take that drone technology
09:36and really use it a lot
09:38and try to create a bunch of impossible shots.
09:40And I would tell you when it comes to the,
09:43using the environment for fighting,
09:45I mean, it's like anything else.
09:46Like an example, when he's fighting the Goyang crew
09:49and he breaks the glass with the guy,
09:51he creates the broken glass.
09:52He uses the girls to, he opens her up.
09:55He folds the leg the wrong way.
09:56He makes a doorway through a wall so he can go through.
10:00It's setting those things up for me.
10:02It's like, that's clever action storytelling.
10:05Is an action, when you're directing action,
10:08good action direction is when you create a problem
10:10for your protagonist and you show how he solves it.
10:13You show how he solves it
10:14and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat.
10:17He or her solves it.
10:18So that, that's true.
10:19You show the intelligence.
10:20That's right.
10:21You show the intelligence.
10:22That's right.
10:23The audience wants to see that.
10:24I defer you to anything Jackie Chan did in the mid eighties.
10:26It is a good template.
10:27And you know where Jackie Chan got it from?
10:29He got it from Buster Keaton, you know?
10:31So it's, I didn't invent it,
10:33but I'll take credit for what we did in my movie.
10:39I'm gonna take them all out.
10:43There's nothing to stop you from leading a long life.
10:50I got you.
10:59I got you.
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