Carry-On - Behind the Scenes

Tell me, which way is it to the elevators? It's over here. I don't get a chance to play a bad guy that often, mostly because I just don't... I don't think I'm super believable as a bad guy, and this bad guy isn't really kind of the petting the white cat, twisting the mustache type of bad guy. He literally says in the script something like, you know, I'm not your typical movie kind of bad guy, I'm just like you and me, I've just got a job to do and you're going to help me do it. That type of approach to it. So it's a bit more modern and something that I could stomach. Hopefully the audience will too. But the movie begins in a sort of seemingly ordinary day in the life of a regular Joe, and then it becomes an extraordinary day very, very quickly, and I found something of that, the setting up of it and the premise of it being a kind of, almost like a slice of life. I just thought, well, that's cool, because this is an everyday guy who becomes someone quite extraordinary through necessity, and I liked the fact that the character is both extremely pedestrian, but also becomes kind of extremely special over the course of the day. This movie does carry a tremendous amount of tension, and that's part of the beauty of this film, is that with every frame, you have no idea what's going to happen next in the most terrifying yet exciting way. So it is our job as actors to kind of be in that mind frame every day and to kind of keep that adrenaline rushing. It's almost like being at, how does Taron describe it? It's like he's about to have a heart attack at any moment in the day. He's constantly on edge, especially his character. So it is interesting and a challenge as an actor to be able to be at that level constantly, but of course the action does a lot of that work, because the action sequences are just spectacular. They're so complex, and the skill and the scale that it takes to bring them to life is truly spectacular. And I know Jama also wanted to use camera work that hadn't really been typically used before in action films, so it was cool to see his vision for that as well, as well as his expectations for the action was like through the roof, because that's what he does. Jama does action movies. Ethan, Nora, Elena, they've got their own things. They're moving down their own kind of pipelines, and they're riding side by side. It's a kind of trio of how a story is told, and not a subplot, but these things are interconnected, and you're seeing how each character's dynamic is rolling down the way together. It's almost like being in an airplane. You're in a tube together, but everybody's having their own individual experience, and that's the way it was shot. I didn't interact with everybody else's track until it was necessary for those tracks to intersect. My character called Traveler is just a guy who is, we don't find out that much about him. What's implied is that he's a serious person, a bit jaded and a bit cynical and a bit over it, not because he's some old salty veteran, but somebody who is a little less optimistic about the way things go and what the future might hold than our hero is. When Jama approached me about it, I said, well, look, I'd love to come on this journey with you, but if at any point you ask me to do something archetypally action hero, I'm going to kick and scream, because I don't think that's what's exciting or interesting about the movie. And he was always totally on board with that. He's not someone who looks like the Finnish article, and he's not someone who runs in a cool way, he's just coping with a desperate situation in whatever way he can. If Ethan doesn't stop me, a plane blows up and 200-some people die, so stakes are very high, it's Christmas, you know. Elena is a detective with the LAPD, and she is intent on following her intuition. The details are the thing for her. She's a bit of a hint of a rogue, and she's on a track that leads her to supporting Ethan amidst the chaos that he's going through. I hope that when TSA agents watch this, whilst they will hopefully recognise that it's a movie and some of it will be elevated, I hope they feel that we have represented them well. Because they do a tough job, and it has to be said, you do see passengers behave horrendously going through security at airports sometimes. I think they put up with a lot. I've always had a respect and an appreciation for what the TSA workers are doing in our airports. This confirms that they are people like us and that they have jobs like us. I guess the instinct as a traveller is to kind of ignore them and just get on the plane and get to your destination and try to ignore the perceived inconvenience of what they're doing. And then also it's sometimes a little scary to think about what it is they're doing, preventing danger and tragedy and crime. So it's nice to do something where, not to give away the ending, but put them in a bit of a heroic light. The Traveller is played by the icon that is Jason Bateman. And when I found out that he was being cast in the film, I almost had a heart attack because Jason is just extraordinary and iconic. And it was just the most brilliant match because no one could bring to life the Traveller how Jason would. You know, the Traveller is brilliant and manipulative and cold and eerily calm, but at the same time, only in a way that Jason could, also undeniably likable. It's really fortunate that there was an airport that wasn't being used in this country. We're down here in New Orleans. It was originally written for New Jersey and then it was changed to Los Angeles. This airport has been adjusted a bit to reflect some LAX signage and whatnot. And it's just really, really lucky that an environment as massive as an airport is. It would just sort of be cost-prohibitive to have to build something like that and obviously impractical to shut down a real airport. So the fact that this airport has just recently been closed down because we've got a newer New Orleans airport just across the way, it was perfect for this production. My mind was blown when I arrived at the airport. I don't know what I expected, but I arrived and it was an airport. And I sort of travelled around the whole thing saying, so is that set? Is that set? And the answer was constantly yes. They just dressed an airport. You just couldn't build it. You couldn't build a set like that. It's extraordinary. And yes, the movie is set at Christmastime. It's a great sort of juxtaposition. There's sort of the nothing bad can ever happen on Christmas type of thing. There's joy and family fun and love and everyone being together. And then you've got this really nefarious element running through that airport and then ultimately on the plane. This is the Christmas action thriller of your dreams. I think audiences will feel when they watch this, one, it's got, I hope, that sense of Christmas movie but not Christmas movie. Like, you know, a bit like Die Hard, I hope. That's what we hope for. And it just clicks into gear straight away. This movie goes from 0 to 60 in no time at all. My experience of reading the script was that once I started, I couldn't put it down and I immediately went back to the beginning. And I hope and suspect the experience of watching the movie will be the same. I also hope we've infused it with some heart and some emotionality. It's a difficult day at the office for Ethan, you know. So not only is he forced into incredibly action-packed situations, it's a real sort of journey for him as a young man as well. And hopefully that has some resonance too. You know, in my career as an actor, I've been involved in things that I have felt excited about watching and things that I've felt maybe slightly less excited about watching. And this absolutely falls into the category of something I am very excited about watching. I'm hoping it's going to be a good film. I don't understand. Why would you do that? Ethan, I need you to talk to me. This isn't me. So you're just walking away? Ethan!