00:01So Baltasol, can you talk about how this whole project came together?
00:07Yeah, back in 2007 I think a director called Oscar Jonasson brought me this film called
00:16Reykjavik Rotterdam and I thought actually he was asking me to produce the film but when
00:20I read it and told him I liked it he actually was asking me to play the lead in it.
00:24So I was
00:25like I had to quit acting you know because my kind of director writing and producing
00:32had taken over and that was where my passion was. But we made a deal that I would play the
00:37lead if I would produce the film as well. So we came to agreement on that. And from the
00:43beginning we developed the film from there and from the beginning I always thought you
00:47know it's a good Icelandic film but it probably will play better as an American film. It doesn't
00:53have really much to do with Iceland. It's about the international shipping community and smuggling
01:00on container ships. So when we had the film actually opened the same week as the bankruptcy
01:06of Iceland, official bankruptcy, the worst economy collapse in the history I think. And so it
01:13did quite well but you know of course not as well as we expected in the beginning because
01:18of that bankruptcy. And it played in a couple of places in Europe and did well and was well
01:24received. But these kind of films do not necessarily travel you know as well as art house films.
01:31So I decided you know to see if there would be interest in Hollywood for this film or this project.
01:38And I brought it to my agents at WME who showed it to Mark which was my first choice for
01:44the role.
01:45and he loved it and that kind of made it happen. And then they took it out and there was
01:49a lot of
01:50interest and working title which has been my, done a lot of films that I have loved through the years
01:55were one of the companies who were interested in it. And I wasn't a question in my mind. I'd love
02:00to
02:00work with them. And actually my company in Iceland, Blue Eyes, is kind of based on the idea of working
02:05title. How you know I kind of use them as a model. So I decided to go with them and
02:12the rest is history.
02:14Can you talk about the importance of having Mark Wahlberg on board for this project?
02:18Well he kind of made it real you know because there's a lot of projects out there who don't
02:22have a home and you know people are kind of thrown back and forth. And when Mark accepted he wanted
02:28to
02:28do it it changed the game. It was a game changer. You know that after that it was real. And
02:32then he
02:35also supported the project all the way through. I mean he was stood by me you know in some difficulties.
02:42And it was a fantastic collaboration. And also which I always think if movie star is in the right
02:49role it's it's great. When you can find you know because sometimes movie star are used because of
02:57their you know box office power and therefore sometimes they're put in the wrong roles. But if
03:01you can get the right guy who also has that box office power or you know that attention from the
03:06media whatever you need and he's in the right role you're in good hands. And I felt that that was
03:11that's why I wanted him. Because of his to me very truthful as a blue collar guy. I believe him.
03:17I
03:17believe he works and has a job like that. He comes from a background like that. And and and it's
03:23very
03:23important then you take the character on. But the core of the character is placed right.
03:31And what is he like on set? Oh I mean he's very light. He's very professional. He's very well prepared.
03:37And it's very important because that that gives you gives you an opportunity of of of playing.
03:44You know when you're well prepared. If I think in my Bergman actually I heard this from him that
03:49that if you prepare well you can let everything go at the set and just do what comes to your
03:55mind.
03:56And and and that is also happens when you start improvising. If you if you just come to improvising
04:02not prepared the improvisation is not going to work. But with Mark because he's so grounded in what he's
04:06doing therefore when he started improvising a lot of it was totally spot on. And some of the great lines
04:13actually just come from him.
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