GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
It is 2017 and Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling and their friends from 2049 are here
(Los Angeles) — Bustling and vibrant downtown Los Angeles suddenly became the “Blade Runner 2049” hub when we met the film’s stars Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana De Armas, Sylvia Hoeks and director Denis Villeneuve one beautiful Sunday morning to talk about their involvement in the latest offering to the blockbuster franchise among other things.
Here are some excerpts of our individual chats with each of them.
Harrison Ford (“Rick Deckard”)
_2017_10_01_18_52_19.jpg)
On his favorite LA spots and what he wishes for Los Angeles in 2049: My favorite part of the city is home, thank you very much. And what I want the city to look like is a place where homelessness has been solved, where there is more an equitable distribution of opportunity and where we have not spoiled the environment.
On whether or not Elvis Presley is his favorite singer: Elvis Presley was a masterful vocal artist. I really do appreciate what Elvis was able to do.
On working with the ladies in the film, Sylvia Hoeks and Ana De Armas: Regarding the strong female parts, there is no male story. There’s no female story. Our nature, our reality in this world, has always been a male and female world. And to acknowledge the different varieties of female relationships as this film does, I think it brings a reality into the storytelling world. So it was a great pleasure to work with these actresses and to have them play these parts, which are very useful in understanding the world.
On being sympathetic, not nostalgic, for the first film: I am not nostalgic. I am sympathetic. Is that the word I want to use? I think so. I am susceptible to emotion but I don’t sit around wishing I was back where I came from, I am happy to be here.
On what he tells younger actors who are nervous to be in a scene with him: I tell them to be useful. I once got a great piece of advice from Mike Nichols, who was a great man, funny and smart. And he said about the business, he said, don’t let them turn you into a thing. I am not going to explain it, because it’s all for us to think about.
On whether fame makes it more difficult to find out what is real and what is not: No, it’s an opportunity to help you find out who you really are, which is not necessarily what people think you are. Good question, thank you.
On the dangers of making life in the laboratory: Well, I nominated one of them which is ownership and the degradation of the fact that a human, your humanity is divided by under the circumstances in which, where you came from. I won’t say the circumstances of your birth because that may vary, but where you come from. That’s why it’s so important in raising children, to honor that responsibility and it’s where you come from that determines where you are going. But always remember where you came from, and you will never know where you are going. But it’s important to always remember where you came from.
Ryan Gosling (“K”)
On how he handled the fight scenes with former professional wrestler Filipino-Greek Dave Bautista (“Sapper Morton”) and Sylvia Hoeks (“Luv”): I think those fights were great. Those fights went fine. It is Harrison’s punches you have to look out for.
Harrison is wonderful in the film. I loved working with him. I loved working with Sylvia. I thought she created a very complicated character and she brought something very unique to an already unique role. And Dave is just a wonderful actor. I really hope I get an opportunity to work with him more.
On his character’s quest to find out who he is and if he relates to this quest in real life: I am not sure, but I think what is so compelling about "Blade Runner" is that it’s so massive in its scale. It’s so conceptually adventurous. But at the same time, it’s a very intimate, emotional and a personal character study. There’s a lot of themes that I felt that not only I could relate to but that the audience could also relate to. That struggle for identity is not something that is unique to me, and that we all share that.
These questions of what it means to be human, some of the questions of overpopulation, technology isolating us from one another, moral responsibility and science, and yet it’s not a message film.
Those are things that are there to create a texture to the universe of the movie but at the very heart of it, it’s just a very simple emotional stories. So I connected to that, but had a great respect for the rest of it.
On being like Harrison’s age in 2049: Harrison is in a class of his own. It’s been a real wonderful experience to just see not only the body of work that he has created, but also the approach to his work now. We all should be so lucky if a little bit of that magic rubs off on us.
Director Denis Villeneuve
On his reaction when Ridley Scott gave his blessing to him and gave him all the freedom to do this movie: Yeah, the thing is that when I agreed to do the movie, I had some conditions and one of them was to get Ridley's blessing because I was saying to myself it's already something to accept that to give myself the permission to do that being a massive fan of the first movie. But I needed to hear from Ridley himself that he was happy with the idea that I will take the helm of the project. He was very generous with me.
We had like very cordial, direct, nice, first long conversation where basically we talked more about the first movie than the new one. We talked about his references, what was behind the genesis of the first movie, what basically was composing the DNA of the first movie.
Then he said this new movie is yours. It's your total responsibility. I won't be there. He said to me if you need me you can call me anytime but otherwise it's yours. I felt grateful. I'm still grateful that he gave me that total freedom. I would not have been able to work with Ridley behind my back. He's a master. I have a very different sensibility than him.
On Ryan Gosling’s specific quality that made him right for the film: Yes and no because for again I am afraid of spoilers but I will say that okay, first when you put someone in front of Harrison Ford you need an actor who will have a lot of charisma. Okay, Harrison Ford is one of the most charismatic. We can count on both ends in the film history actors who have that kind of charisma in front of the camera. So you need someone who will be able to throw back the ball. You need someone who will not fade, will not melt in front of that. He will still exist in front of the camera when he will be in front of Harrison Ford.
I'm talking about chemistry. After that, I needed an actor who will be able to convey a lot without words. I wanted someone who had that capacity of being in front of the camera and not acting a bit like Clint Eastwood, you know, someone who we will just feel his inner turmoil. We will feel how he struggles with his own identity without having to express it with words.
I needed a strong actor. There's not a lot of them and also it's strange to say but I did the casting. I chose all the actors and I chose every single extra in this movie. It's not all the faces that can go in a ‘Blade Runner’ movie. It's like a period movie. There is like people who feels part of the world and other people don't. Ryan Gosling definitely I mean a lead who will be like at the forefront of that aesthetic; someone who will definitely feel like a science fiction hero. There's not a lot of people who can have those qualities.”
Ana De Armas (“Joi”)
On working with Harrison Ford: I never imagined that a Cuban girl like me would be working with Harrison Ford because in Cuba, you grow up thinking that all you’ve got is all what you need. You normally are just happy with it. So it was just me being very ambitious and curious about how far I could get, how many great artists I was going to meet in my life and get the chance to work with. So I never even dreamed of it because it was impossible in a way.
The day Harrison met me, he went to visit Ryan. Ryan was doing the scene. Joi, my character, is this giant pink naked woman. So that was the day Harrison went to set. He saw me. He goes to places telling that the first day he saw Ryan he was with a naked woman. But the first day I met him I was dressed.
He’s an incredible actor. He is a person whom I’ve been watching in movies since I was very little. It was surreal at times and intimidating because sometimes you have that idea that you can’t approach people because of that image you have of them. But sometimes, it’s just in your head. They’re really welcoming, warm and funny. They’re just very nice. He is one of those. He’s very nice. He makes jokes and he has a great sense of humor. He was really, really cool.
Sylvia Hoeks (“Luv”)
On how she sees herself in 2049: That's a hard question. I have no idea. I see myself very spoiled working with Denis Villeneuve. I hope I will do another film with Denis Villeneuve. That's what I hope we are doing in 2049 because it’s been a wonderful experience with him.
On how familiar she was with all those martial arts before: Not at all. It was the first time actually. So after I heard I got the part I was introduced to my trainer Lesley Patterson. She is a world champion triathlete. She just won another Iron Man. She's this tiny chunk of dynamite, muscle. She got me through the 6 hours a day, 6 days a week of training, starting out an hour and a half weightlifting, then 2-1/2 hours of cardio, then 2-1/2 hours of martial arts every day except for Sunday when I was just dead with ice packs and knee packs on my body lying on the couch.
They wanted me to gain 15 pounds of muscle. So for me, that's quite something. During that whole time of training, I really met my character I felt. I felt going through that pain. I met Luv in a sense that I felt her discipline, her pain and her conflict inside herself. That was really interesting because I'd never done a physical transformation like that. It really helped me.
On what surprised her about working with Harrison Ford: Everything. He's just a lot of fun. What surprised me the most was that he's such a down-to-earth man. We talked about our dogs not being eaten by coyotes, the fear that it brings walking your dogs in L.A. in the hills. He's just a very normal man who has children, who has had a fantastic life, who really respects that and knows how lucky he is. He's very grateful. He doesn't take things too seriously that don't need to be taken very seriously. But when the camera's on him and the word action is there, he'll go there for 300 per cent. He's a very generous actor to work with and that's one of the things that stuck with me and I learned from. — LA, GMA News
