Be Cool on set interview
Ok I am not sure if I already posted this or not but this is an on set interview from Be Cool
THE ROCK
Rock, what challenges have you faced on this, flexing comic instead of action muscles? The
Rock: Sure. Well, for me, I’ve always been a big fan of comedy. I love comedy, and any chance I get an opportunity to do a comedy, I take it. With “The Rundown”, I had a chance, and with a movie like this, for sure. And, you know, challenges to where there are so many other actors involved who are really, really good actors. You know, and you get to test your timing against them, and who aren’t necessarily comedians either
Is this the biggest ensemble you’ve worked with on a movie?
Rock: Of course. Yeah, sure, absolutely. Yeah, I can’t… Let me see, “Mummy Returns”, no, “Scorpion King”, camels [sounds like big daddy] wasn’t a star.
Is it more comfortable feeling that they are relying less on you?
Rock: Is it more comfortable for me?
Yeah, or does it make any difference?
Rock: No. I mean, either way, number one or number five, and I think I’m number five, so, it’s fine. I understand what you’re saying, though. It’s a little less pressure, but I’m all for pressure too, I like that. With something like this, it’s such a team effort. It’s smartly written. Everybody knows their characters. I’m very, very excited. Everybody knows their roles, so to speak.
Are you intimidated to be on set with Harvey Keitel?
Rock: No, man. I’m excited. Not intimidated, not at all, just really, really, excited. To be able to work with Harvey is great. Uma, John, Vince Vaughn, sure.
Have you seen “Kill Bill Vol. 2″ or “The Punisher” yet?
Rock: I haven’t seen either one. I saw the, I think, 1987 version with Dolph Lundgren. I know this one’s a lot better. And, I can’t wait to see “Kill Bill 2″. I was telling Uma earlier, I’m just really excited about that.
What are some of your favorite action movies?
Rock: That’s a tough question. What are my favorite action movies?
Or one that you might like to see get remade?
Rock: Oh, get remade? Well, I could tell you my favorite action movies, by far, would have to be a lot of Clint Eastwood movies, my favorite actor. Steve McQueen, movies of that era. Get remade, man that’s tough.
“Bullitt”?
Rock: Well, yeah, “Bullitt” got sure. You could easily say “Bullet”, you could say “Cool Hand Luke”, another one of my favorites. But it’s really tough. It’s just like with “Walking Tall”, when you’re remaking something that’s pretty good originally anyway, you know what I mean?
Obviously, I’m a big action fan. I love “Kill Bill”, the first one is awesome.
Set tonight and working in LA?
Rock: Oh, man. It’s great. It’s easy for me, because I’m home. And coming off of the tour that I just did with “Walking Tall”, it’s just nice to come home and, you know, I live 30, 45 minutes away, but at least I’m home and you’re here in LA, and there’s always something nice to be said about working at home. I live in Florida as well, and I might do a comedy down there based out of Miami.
Have you and Travolta talked about that at all?
Rock: He lives a little bit North, but yeah, we were talking about that. As a matter of fact, where I used to live was up in Tampa, and he is probably 30 minutes from Tampa now.
Do you know what you’re working on next?
Rock: Yeah, absolutely, man. I’m in pre-production for a movie called “Spy Hunter”. I’m very excited about that. It’s going to be with Universal.
Based on the video game?
Rock: Yeah, man. It’s awesome. The script’s great.
You drive the “Spy Hunter” car?
Rock: Of course, man. The Interceptor, it’s awesome. And the developers, this is what I’m really excited about with the developers, who developed all the “Mission: Impossible”, all the “Terminator 3″, all the effects. What’s really cool is, they told me this last week, they were like, ‘You can’t visualize this in your head, because in our world, it doesn’t exist, and we’re going to create that.’ And it’s awesome and they’ve shown me this cut footage that they have of the car. It’s just great.
Will it look like the one on the Playstation game at all?
Rock: Oh, yeah. But you know what? It’s even, it’s actually even better than that. Because, to go from the boat to the car and then to the motorcycle, it actually goes into a three wheeler first, and then into a two wheeler when you need it to. So, it’s great. Smartly written, and it’s really, really good. We haven’t cast it yet. John Woo is in line to direct, which is great, yeah.
Is Woo signed?
Rock: He’s not signed yet, no. So that’s just, like, first hand information I’m giving you guys, as I just found out this afternoon. He would be, he is in the running, I should say. There are other directors too, as well, but he’s in the running.
Would he be at the top of your list as an action director?
Rock: For an action director, him. I firmly believe Clint Eastwood could pull off a great action movie, given that type of action from that era that I love. It’s just like with “Walking Tall”, I love that kind of stuff where, if you throw a punch, one punch means something, you know what I’m saying? There aren’t explosions just for the sake of explosions.
Well, we’ll probably get a lot of explosions in “Spy Hunter”, so I’ll take my foot out of my mouth.
The scene tonight?
Rock: It’s the final scene, and it’s the scene where I’ve got a gun pointed to Uma Thurman, and a lot takes place. [Laughs] And we say bye-bye to Vince Vaughn.
Do you have any action sequences?
Rock: In this movie? No. Just comedy. It’s funny, because I sing a song, it’s this crazy song by Loretta Lynn, it’s called “You ain’t woman enough to take my man.” I’m singing that in the end, which we’ll shoot next week, and then this big dance sequence, so it’s like, just all singing and dancing, not what you would expect.
Is the hair and your look all F. Gary Gray’s?
Rock: Yeah, absolutely. And Gary’s great that way, by the way. We got together a long, long time ago and got close and talked about the character and things like that, so between the hair and the goatee, the songs, singing that song, like here’s Elliot Willem, Samoan, there’s not a Samoan in the world named Elliot, singing a country song on top of that, and old school country song by Loretta Lynn, what else…
Keeping the tattoos, which is very important?
Rock: Oh, it’s awesome. When I continue to get the tattoos, it’s really, really great.
Where does the balance lie between playing that character without too much camp?
Rock: I think the balance lies in just finding a, forming from a place of honesty, without sounding too technical, keeping it real, so to speak. Here’s a guy, in this crazy world, and he wants to get out of this world, but yet, you know, at the same time, he’s trying to hide, not only is he gay, but he doesn’t want to be this guy, doesn’t want to be this bodyguard, doesn’t want to be this thug, he doesn’t want to hurt people. He wants to sing, he wants to act, he wants to do all these things. So, I think as long it comes from, and this is stuff that Gary and I talked about way earlier in the process, of not being over the top, not ‘eeewww’ like a Saturday Night Live skit, not like that, but more real. Like, talking to you guys just like this, and if a guy walks by, I go, ‘Oh.’
Do you like country?
Rock: Yeah, I love country. I love country, blues, hip-hop. I love old school country. I love old school movies, old school blues.
Have you been satisfied with the success of “Walking Tall”?
Rock: Yeah, absolutely. In the tracking process, it did somewhere in between 12 and 17 when the predictions, and [we did] 15 and a half, which I thought, ‘Oh, that’s great.’ For a movie like that, a genre movie. I was happy. It worked out.
It’s a crowded movie season…
Rock: Oh my God. Unbelievably crowded. Dare say, it might not even happen for the rest of this year where there’s so many movies within a four week period of time, that’s really incredible. But yeah, I was happy, everybody from Ben Affleck to Tom Hanks, everybody’s out there. For me, I always just wanted to make a movie that delivered. People walked away and said, ‘Ah, it was a good movie’ and then, for me to, performance wise, I’m getting better.
Were you happy your revenge movie hit theaters before Bill and Punisher?
Rock: [Laughs] Well, you know, it’s one of those things where we knew. So that’s why we moved up a week earlier anyway. Because there was, I think five movies that opened last weekend, or maybe four. I’d rather compete with “Hellboy”, yeah. It’s interesting to see all these vengeance movies coming through.
Best wrestling video game?
Rock: I know that… Let me see, I haven’t played…
It must be cool to play yourself in a video game.
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