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Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall and Edgar Ramirez on the making of ‘Jungle Cruise’
Los Angeles — We were in Atlanta, Georgia on the set of Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” period fantasy adventure film helmed by Spanish-American director Jaume Collet-Serra.
Based on Walt Disney’s theme park attraction of the same name, the film stars Dwayne Johnson (as “Skipper” Frank Wolff), Emily Blunt (as Dr. Lily Houghton), Jack Whitehall (as McGregor Houghton), Edgar Ramirez (as Aguirre) among others.
Dwayne, 49, also known as “The Rock”, portrays the “Skipper” Frank Wolff who is a wisecracking, shrewd and cynical but noble steamboat captain who reluctantly agrees to guide two explorers on their quest for the Tree of Life.
Emily Blunt, 38, whom we last saw in “The Quiet Place 2,” is Dr. Lily Houghton, intrepid, eccentric, adventurous and virtuous scientist-researcher searching for the Tree of Life, which she hopes to study for its healing properties. She has a brother, McGregor Houghton, played by British actor-comedian Jack Whitehall, 33.
On the other hand, the Venezuelan actor, Edgar Ramirez, 44, portrays Aguirre, a deadly mercenary hired to guide a rival expedition for the Tree.
From the story by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa and a screenplay written by Michael Green, Ficarra and Requa, "Jungle Cruise" is about the skipper Wolff who guides Dr. Houghton in a thrill-ride down the Amazon in search of the Tree of Life.
In the action-adventure, Dr. Houghton travels from London to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quilla – his ramshackle-but-charming boat, determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities — possessing the power to change the future of medicine.
Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Dr. Houghton and Frank and their fate — and mankind’s — hangs in the balance.
We interviewed Dwayne, Emily, Jack, Edgar and director Jaume and below are excerpts of our conversations with them:
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt
What do you think of 'Jungle Cruise' itself making a leap from an attraction to a story? Why has it such a resonance?
Emily: Doctor Lily Houghton is a tenacious, heedless, exciting, questionable character, adventurous spirit and she meets her antithesis in Frank who works with her.
Frank is the skipper of this Franken boat that she needs to get her down the Amazon. It’s a miracle the boat even gets them down there from what it looks like.
It’s very charming, very sweet and Frank has become quite stuck in this role that he’s playing and he’s cynical and not hopeful like not like her at all and so they do have this fairly contentious relationship at first.
But it’s quite delightful to watch and certainly for us to play both of them and both have become quite addicted to that sense of going head to head with each other. They have met their match in each other in the most unlikely pairing so we’ve really enjoyed playing all the different levels of this. Ultimately, it’s a love story.
And the attraction?
Dwayne: The attraction part of it just came down to the timing and it came down to the opportunity. A little bit of context for you, if it's not in the notes already or wasn't explained: Jungle Cruise was Walt Disney's baby and in 1955 when he first opened the park, it was his way of bringing the safari to people here in the states who couldn’t necessarily go overseas and travel.
It just came down to timing and I know that this has been on their radar for some time and just when I say timing and opportunity, just waiting for the right opportunity in terms of cracking the proper story and as often as it happens, sometimes it happens right away and sometimes it happens decades later.
But the story came together and everything came together creatively in the story and then we got together, we met and we had a pretty good meeting.
Can you talk about working with director Jaume Collet-Serra?
Emily: I could talk about Jaume all day till the sky goes dark. We are both madly in love with him and he’s an extraordinary and quite a rare combination of someone who’s visually really stunning — what he can do with a camera, his ideas visually are so elevated and yet he gives us the most thoughtful, beautiful notes and he understands the emotionality of every scene. It's rare that you get someone who visually and emotionally can line up like he can and you may not think of Jaume to do a comedy.
He actually is so funny and really understands comedy and understands the spontaneity of it, so it allows us to stretch the scenes around and improvise. He is so giving and generous. Truly, if I could do every movie with Jaume I would be so happy.
Dwayne: Jaume is very funny in an understated way. He doesn’t necessarily come from the world of comedy, but he did make his bones in thrillers, right? When you have somebody who comes out of that genre who knows how to as Emily was saying create and stretch these scenes out and create instances around every corner that are always compelling something that we just spoke about again.
One of the deciding factors with Jaume and there were a lot of directors who had their hands up for this opportunity but probably the deciding factor with Jaume is as he was pitching us the story, ultimately when I asked, “Well, what’s our story about? What’s our anchoring asset to deal with the story?” and he said, “Well, the story is about love.” And in that it just informed the kind of movie we were going to make and how everything was driven out of love and here we are.
How important is it for us to see this kind of film?
Emily: It is so important and I no longer want it to be refreshing to see that it would be just from my perspective.
When I got sent this script, I was pitched it and they said, “You know, it really is a two-hander and Dwayne Johnson’s in the movie and you know this is a real two-hander." When I first read the script, I have to say — because I’ve been told that many movies are a two-hander and then it turns out you’re the girl in Dwayne Johnson’s movie and so I was a little cynical when I started reading it. But actually, I think you’re the girl in this movie.
Just like the old one.
Emily: Exactly, and I think I really did fall for her as a person. There was something about the reckless quality, the heedless quality, how positive she is and how rare for her time she was.
It’s set in 1917 and she’s not conforming to anything that women had to do in those times and so it’s an instant yes for me wanting to play somebody like that.
Dwayne: And when you see the movie and the material, you’ll start to see how what she’s saying will really inform even more of this answer. It was important to all us, certainly important to Emily to take on this role but certainly important to all of us too.
Do you have a sense of adventure? Are you adventurous?
Emily: Yeah quite, yeah, yeah.
Dwayne: She’s very adventurous. By the way, you have to be to take on this role and I think for example, when we created our set in Hawaii it was truly one of the most spectacular sets ever built. Honestly in the history of Hollywood, we were just so blown away.
Emily: So stunning.
Dwayne: And so massive, so epic, so beautiful and all these things and you just can’t help but get really into your own sense of adventure and she was just game from day one and hasn’t stopped since. So, yes, the truth is, you know her character, she is a doctor. She is very Indiana Jones in a way inspired in the spirit of Indiana Jones of discovery and adventure and wisdom and badassery and all these things.
Going up the Amazon River is like a dream of every young man and young woman. Did you ever dream about it?
Emily: I’ve never been to the Amazon. You’ve never been, right?
Dwayne: No.
Emily: My parents, when we were growing up, they were so wonderful in the sense of taking us on really extraordinary trips. My dad would save all the money and take us to Egypt, South Africa, Australia, Morocco and Israel and like so I grew up going to these really incredible countries and immersed in different kinds of cultures and interested by it like even if some days when I was a bratty 13-year-old, my mom would be dragging us to some ancient ruins in Crete or wherever it was, but that’s really been instilled in me from a young age that need to travel and the need to see other worlds and the possibility of what’s out there. So I have yet to go to the Amazon but it’s on the bucket list.
Dwayne: Wow, amazing. It’s a special time in our movie because it’s 1916 and that time in the Amazon was a very unique time before some commercialism had gone into the Amazon.
We've talked about this probably the first or second week on set when we were in Hawaii as it was doubling for the Amazon, it’s really a kind of movie that dreams are made out of. It’s that kind of stuff because we’re in Hollywood and we make these movies and we all sit and we talk about them but like this kind of movie is one of those big adventure, fun movies and yeah so you know we get an opportunity to get transported to the Amazon and have this relationship and I have this amazing, terrible looking boat that barely runs.
Edgar Ramirez
Talk about the Latino aspect of the movie.
It’s part of the story. To really delve into that, I will have to tell a lot about the plot and want to stay a little bit away from that but it’s a story that starts many centuries ago and hence the conquistadors.
The conquistadors are involved so for me it is such a pleasure to work with Dani Rovira (as Sancho) and with Quim Gutierrez (as Melchor). I love their work and I knew their work very well, before they got involved in the film and their amazing rising stars from Spain and they have done some of the most fun work I've seen in the most recent years.
I love both of the actors’ works and of course, working with Jaume. He’s also Spanish and it’s cool. After working for so many years in Hollywood, it’s great to have my two worlds combined in one.
How was it shooting in Hawaii and Atlanta and how the movie fits into your own sense of adventure? And have you ever taken the Disneyland adventure ride there, the Jungle Cruise?
You know, because I grew up in Venezuela, the thing that the people from Venezuela do is go to Disneyland in Orlando because it’s closer.
I’ve only been once to the original Disneyland in California and I haven’t done the Jungle Cruise so this is completely new to me and now I know a lot about it.
But I haven’t taken the ride and I know that it’s one of the first and a lot of the humor that I know that is now part of the ride these days it’s being translated into the film. Listen, it’s very nice to shoot here. I love Atlanta. I’m pleasantly surprised. I didn’t know what to expect because I’ve never been to the city before and it’s really, really nice. People are very nice and warm and they look you in the eye and they’re not afraid to interact with you on the streets, very nice.
I like that southern warmth and I’ve done “Point Break,” “Gold” it’s just like this. It’s a piece of cake. There’s no jungle. It’s the forest, but it’s great. What I think is amazing is how our production designers and our set designers have taken advantage of the amazing forest here and because I come from the Amazon and out of all of the people involved in this film, I'm the one that comes from an Amazonian country and I'm telling you their sets are amazing. I'm in awe.
So I'm very, very proud of our team because they have the ability to set it up in a way that it really feels like we are in the Amazon without the mosquitoes and without the snakes which always good.
I remember when I was doing “Gold” in Thailand with Matthew McConaughey when we were in the jungle and we were like in the jungle and then the production designer or the line producer would say, “Okay and Matthew, Edgar this path is clear of snakes, there are snakes, so the snake wrangler just cleared this so just take this road, don’t take that road.” So it’s super nice here because we don’t have those concerns.
“Pirates of the Caribbean” was another Disney film that was inspired by an attraction. How much special effects and motion capture did you guys use?
It’s very exciting because it is very new to me. It is very new to work with this technology.
The type of technology that we use in this film, it really feels like a science fiction kind of tale. So, I’m very excited, I’m very excited to be part of a production that is really innovating in terms of the technology that we’re using and I’m telling you, there’s going to be amazing special effects and my character is going to be part of it but in a way that is seamless. I just don’t feel it. What the real excitement comes from.
In a future interview, I will be able to elaborate more on that but just going through the process has been so exciting because I’m a journalist so what I do first, I mean I was interviewing everybody on all different stages when I was getting ready, going through all the different tests for the character and it’s incredible, it’s kind of like a “Westworld” kind of thing and for me it’s really exciting.
You grew up in Venezuela so that’s part of the Amazon. Was the Amazon part of your childhood, your playground? How comfortable do you feel in the real Amazon area?
Venezuela is part of the Amazon, but it’s still a faraway remote place. I only got to visit the Amazon in my adult life, because it’s not like you just take a car and go to the Amazon and it’s still a very remote place and you need to be prepared to go there. It is a very “Jumanji” style setting.
For someone who's doesn't know the jungle, there are a lot of threats and things that you need to be concerned about everything from the snakes, the floods, the rain, the insects, the fish. It's exciting. It's an amazing natural reservoir and this movie is also a good opportunity, a good window for many people around the world to get a taste of what the Amazon is and that it also could invite to some preservation attitudes towards nature in general.
What does Jaume bring to this movie?
Jaume has an amazing command of the scene and all the elements, this is a very complex film. It is a huge film, an epic film both on the screen and behind the camera.
It’s a very complicated operation and he’s got the command, the patience and the calmness. He knows exactly what he wants and he’s a very relaxed guy. So, in movies like this you need to be very relaxed. You need to be able to handle a lot of different moving targets and at the same time stay calm and be very communicative and he’s got that quality. He’s very relaxed. To see the number of things that he needs to be paying attention to, he’s so relaxed, so, so nice. He’s really having fun. He enjoys what he does and he conveys that, and everyone works they’re in power in the movie, everyone works because it always comes down to the director.
If the director keeps calm, nice compassionate attitude, then everybody behaves like that on the set. So, taking into consideration how complicated the film is, we’re really having fun. We’re really coming to play every day and it doesn’t feel like a job. We’re all very relaxed. That has been my experience and I think that I can speak on behalf of everyone because I’ve talked to everyone and every actor feels that way.
What do you think is the most important, breathtaking, magical thing about the jungle?
The production design is incredible. They really paid attention to the little details on certain trees and trunks, the fungi, the mushrooms, the bromeliad. For me, it’s been great and seeing flowers that connect me straight to Venezuela whether they’re real or fake. It’s incredible how they have been able to craft it and in detail. I’m telling you that walking through the set which is both a set and a natural environment as well so it’s been a combination of both and that’s where movie magic kicks in.
Atlanta is incredible as well as an amazing movie location to provide a jungle, to provide the Amazon because there are spaces here when you look at the trees and that combined with the way our production designers have built those sets, you’re really feeling the jungle, but to the very little details, there’s one specific mushroom kind of like fungi that I saw the other day that I know that it was brought. It was produced by our team and it’s incredible because I’ve seen it when I was doing “Point Break” and other movies that have taken me to the Amazon. I’ve seen those things that are really at the bottom of trees and I’ve seen those here. So, it’s been great.
Jack Whitehall
Introduce us to your character and how does it feel to be part of this iconic venture?
My character is McGregor, Emily Blunt, Lily’s brother and he’s like probably the worst person you can throw in into this adventure. He’s very proper; he’s very well turned out. He’s a kind of the classic English gentleman, likes his home comforts, most comfortable in his gentlemen’s club in London and having nice lunches and he’s holed into the Amazon unwittingly and dragged along by Lily and Frank and he’s just one of those characters just everything bad happens to him.
You end up feeling really sorry for him. He gets really put-through the ringer in the film so it’s so much fun to play a part like that, to be that within this world that they’ve created and the film itself is amazing. It’s great to be part of something this big and it feels epic in the scale and the sets and everything else. But doing it doesn’t feel big. It feels like doing a sitcom or something like that just because it’s so much fun to be on set and to play with the scenes.
This movie is based on a ride so how were the boat sequences when you’re on a gimbal and there’s a waterfall and all of that?
The stuff on the boat and on the gimbal when you’re going through the rapids on that thing, it does feel like you’re on a Disney ride even though you’re filming. It's like you're moving around and all of this hydraulics and that sound. You only ever hear it on like log flumes where they pump out water and you get smashed in the face with a load of like water and so when you’re doing this it is a bit like being on a Disney roller coaster.
You are dressed in this film in very fine linen. So what do clothes in general mean to you? How do you feel in these types of clothes?
I love wearing suits. Then again that's something I got from my father. My father wears a three-piece suit every day like he's the best-dressed man you've have ever seen. So, McGregor is kind of the same. This is his armor for him. He puts on these three-piece suits and that's just the way he likes to do things. So the wardrobe my character has is amazing and Emily and Dwayne basically stay in the same costume for most of the film and I would say it's the most costume changes I ever had. Every scene is a new suit that comes out and so all the costume budget is on me. They've thrown everything at my character and so hopefully fingers crossed, I’ll get to keep something in the end.
Jaume Collet-Serra (Director)
Can you tell us about the conquistadors? You have included two Spaniards in these roles.
This was originally obviously from the beginning of the script that I read it had this mythology in this script. Obviously, it’s fantasy what happens in the movie, but we want to keep some authenticity to it, and especially with the way that they dress, the way that they talk, their expedition and whatever we portray it never happened obviously. But around that time, there were a lot of expeditions going to America only. But where these men went, I think that they were 50 years too early. But we could say that they actually went there, and they were lost so nobody found out about it, but they had the means to do that. So, other than that being Spanish, I am trying to keep it authentic, and that’s why I brought in some Spaniards, because not only in front of the camera but also behind the camera.
Were you looking for making a love story in particular?
This is an adventure. It’s a romantic comedy in the shape of an adventure, right? So, we’ve seen those like in “Romancing the Stone” or whatever, and the comedy comes from the romantic aspect, usually it’s like people who are falling in love, but they don’t get along and there’s a lot of material there. So, I think the love is not only an aspect for oh, I wanted to make a romantic movie, but I wanted to make a comedy, and the romantic aspect helps me with the comedy and it ties everything together very nicely. But we haven’t seen something like this for a while where it’s a romantic comedy period. Two characters who are in the jungle, and this kind of banter. We haven’t seen it in a long time.
How much did you study the attraction in Disneyland?
I went there and rode it a few times but it’s not the attraction in itself. It is not only the seed but it’s also the people behind it and they tell you about the history of the attraction and there’s a variation of each attraction in each one of the Disney Worlds and so they all have different things to them and so learning about that, learning about that there is a real mythology behind the attraction. You know there is a real Society of Explorers that they’ve created with the people paying attention to this. Obviously, those things are not well known because they're not in the comic book, but they exist in the mythology of Disney, and we’ve taken seriously to at least put seeds of that in the movie and see where that goes.
You have a motion captured jaguar. What was the biggest challenge for you in this movie?
Every day is a challenge. These scenes are probably the biggest scenes in any other movie. So, we are doing big scenes every day that are very complicated there is nothing that is simple.
When you do big movies, there’s a different rhythm. So, I was always used to moving faster, but you can’t because look at the sets and look at all of the equipment and the people that we have for everything it takes on a life on its own. So, you just have to get used to a different type of rhythm, but what you get is spectacular because the quality of the crew and the actors. It’s amazing putting all the things together. You might get less of it during the day but what you get is much more interesting and impactful.
The set in Kauai…those things are just incredible and it’s sad when it’s over because sometimes you’re like oh, my god I wish I could shoot a whole movie in this set, not only ten minutes of the movie because it’s impactful but there’s no drawbacks to it.
And working with Dwayne and Emily?
We got in tune with the kind of movies that we loved growing up, and that we wanted to make a movie like this, and it is a two-hander and to do a romantic comedy or not of any kind you need a partner who can fit in the movie. And Emily was just obviously our dream choice and we work very hard to get her and get her excited about the movie and we were thrilled that she signed on to this. Obviously, you can see the chemistry that they have, that’s the real movie right there. It doesn’t matter where I put the camera. At the end of the day, everything does not matter ---the sets, the jaguar --- if you don’t have chemistry, there’s no movie, but they do. — LA, GMA News
