IR Interview: Charlotte Kirk For "Duchess" [Saban] - Part II - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Actress/Producer/Writer Charlotte Kirk talks to The Inside Reel about preparation, training and mindset with her new movie, the action thriller “Duchess” from Saban Films.

Transcript

00:00♪♪

00:10♪♪

00:14Nicely done, Duchess.

00:16Duchess?

00:19She handled that with grace.

00:20♪♪

00:23Real power

00:25can never be given.

00:27It has to be taken.

00:28♪♪

00:31You've got some balls on you, Princess.

00:33It's Duchess.

00:34♪♪

00:37♪♪

00:39Because you see the empathy.

00:41That's the interesting thing about it.

00:43You empathize with her because you see

00:45that she's reacting as normally people would.

00:48But her head needs to be somewhere

00:49specifically when you're playing her

00:51because she has to be able to go back and forth.

00:53Can you talk about what you needed to get into

00:56as far as the psychology of her?

00:59Because it's a physical thing.

01:00It's a mental thing.

01:02It's an emotional thing, too.

01:04Yeah, I mean, it was tough mentally and physically.

01:09I mean, for example, physically,

01:10I had to learn to box.

01:11I've never boxed before in my life.

01:12So that was quite challenging and a lot of fun.

01:15Yeah, your hook is pretty damn good, though.

01:17I mean, Charlotte.

01:19You know what?

01:20It was a lot of fun.

01:21I mean, one of the toughest days on set

01:22was when Rob McNaughton comes to visit Scarlet

01:25in the boxing ring and then I have to remember

01:27to right hook, left hook,

01:29and remember all these chunks of dialogue

01:31at the same time.

01:32That was very tough.

01:33It was like trying to rub my head

01:34and pat my belly at the same time.

01:35It was like, really?

01:36That was a difficult one.

01:38But, you know, overall, it was challenging emotionally.

01:45I have done a lot.

01:48I've done, I would say, emotionally.

01:50The reckoning was very challenging for me

01:52because everything was like that.

01:54But Dutchess was challenging in itself

01:57because I had to go from, as you said,

01:59humour, dark humour, to crying over my love's dead body,

02:03to revenge.

02:05It's a whole, her arc is pretty phenomenal,

02:07going from all...

02:08But there's a difference between fear and rage.

02:11You know, that's the thing, looking at that.

02:13Sorry, I didn't really mean to interrupt you.

02:15No, absolutely.

02:16And not overdoing it.

02:18But a big inspiration for this film was Scarface.

02:22And, you know, one of my favourite films.

02:24And Tony Montana.

02:26And the big thing for me and Neil was,

02:28I said, Neil, I want to play this character all out.

02:31I don't want to, you know, that there's no...

02:34A lot of these movies you see today are very vanilla.

02:37They're out there, but they're not outrageous and as crazy.

02:42They're not visceral.

02:43They're not visceral.

02:44Yes, exactly.

02:45And I think we're making a gangster movie here.

02:46This is the perfect opportunity to go all out.

02:49So it was also that balance of, you know,

02:52I don't want to play her over the top or overdo it.

02:55So there was that fine line in the performance,

02:57making sure that I'm not overplaying her.

03:00But that's where I leave, you know,

03:02I trust the director and trust Neil and say,

03:04look, reel me in if I have to,

03:06but I'm going to go all out on this one.

03:08I have to.

03:10What, what?

03:18I'm sorry. They're my best friends.

03:27Move!

03:33Move, move!

03:34Move, move!

03:35Move, Rob!

03:37On me!

03:39Move, babe!

03:41Stay behind me, stay behind me!

03:42Danny!

03:43Move, babe, move!

03:45Rebecca!

03:56Move, move!

03:57Shit!

03:58What did you say?

04:10Well, here's the thing.

04:11It's like, you know, where do you guys find it?

04:13Because it's sometimes an interesting line to walk

04:15to see where the audience will go with you.

04:17I mean, at that one point, it doesn't give too much away,

04:19but towards the end, it gets really,

04:21that's what reminds me of Scarface.

04:23It's in this one sequence in a room, you're in a chair.

04:25It's pretty brutal, you know, but she's laughing through it.

04:29The blood in her teeth, all this kind of stuff.

04:31And that's what Tony Montana did that.

04:34He's like, come on, come at me.

04:36She's gone.

04:37She's gone at that point.

04:38And I think that was a big part of it.

04:40Like, she kind of had everything she wanted,

04:42but then she had lost everything at the same time.

04:44And then Scarface, at the end, he's gone.

04:46Gone.

04:47There's no way you're going to get him back.

04:49And that was like her towards the end.

04:51She'd lost everything that mattered to her.

04:53So it was just a, it was really,

04:55the ending is really bittersweet.

04:57She's got her journeys, her rise to power,

05:00but it's kind of tragic as well.

05:03I don't want to give away too much away.

05:05No, I don't want to give away anything.

05:07But it's, it's funny.

05:08It's just looking at that ambition,

05:10but it's an ode to so many things.

05:12I mean, with the tiger, all this,

05:14you guys place in all these great little details that are

05:17obviously loves of, of yours from films, you know,

05:20cause you, you know,

05:21cause you can look at the tiger and think Scarface,

05:23but you can also think the hangover, you know,

05:25you can think all these different things.

05:27Can you talk about,

05:29engaging all those homages and trying to, you know,

05:32pepper in your guys' love of films, obviously.

05:35Yeah. I mean,

05:36Neil wanted to make it 60s, 70s vibe.

05:38And I think he absolutely did that with the colors and the

05:41way he shot it.

05:42Simon, our DP was absolutely incredible.

05:44Yeah.

05:45And we had to get a tiger in there, of course,

05:47for the whole nod, nod with Scarface.

05:49It was, it was either a lion or a tiger.

05:51And actually we originally,

05:52we were going to do the tiger,

05:54But between us,

05:55we had to reshoot it because it was pretty bad.

05:57It was really, really cute and cuddly.

05:59And we were like,

06:00we looked at it and we were like,

06:01that's just not believable.

06:02No.

06:03So we had to reshoot,

06:04we had to do some pickup shots and reshoot the tiger,

06:06which looks awesome.

06:07Oh no.

06:08Your, your kick in that one sequence,

06:09just, you know,

06:10it's like coming up,

06:11it's like a 300,

06:12you know,

06:13cause that's.

06:14So,

06:15you know,

06:17all of a sudden it's the tiger,

06:18tiger, tiger,

06:19tiger, tiger.

06:20Tiger, tiger, tiger.

06:21Tiger, tiger, tiger.

06:23Tiger.

06:30Tiger.

06:31Tiger, tiger, tiger.

06:32Oh,

06:36it's,

06:38I forget.

06:39Tiger.

06:40Tiger.

06:41Tiger.

06:42Tiger.

06:43God!

06:44♪♪

06:49Aah!

06:50Aah!

06:51♪♪

06:55Aah!

06:56♪♪

06:59Aah!

07:00Aah!

07:01Aah!

07:02♪♪

07:09Aah!

07:10Aah!

07:11Aah!

07:12Aah!

07:13Aah!

07:14Aah!

07:15Aah!

07:16And then I'm just thinking of other things to Scarface.

07:19I think, like, towards the end, it's just the third act

07:22where she's absolutely just gone.

07:24That's the whole essence of I don't care, no-one can stop me.

07:30You know, as Baraka says, like, what happened to her?

07:35He says she came back and she changed from the desert.

07:40I think that was it.

07:41Like, when you see her in the third act,

07:43she's just a completely different person now.

07:46But again, I think it's relatable,

07:48and I think a lot of people would be and would react like that.

07:51Maybe not to the extreme she did, but that's why, again,

07:54we wanted to make her as grounded and as real and relatable as possible,

07:58because Tony Montana, he's an antihero, but you can't help but love him.

08:01He's crazy, and he's horrible and despicable,

08:04but overall, you can't help but watch him and his charisma

08:08and what he says and how he says it and the situations he puts himself in.

08:13So that was kind of what we...

08:15It was like, let's make a female Scarface.

08:17That's exactly what we wanted to do.

08:19That was my goal.

08:20Hey!

08:27Do you like to play rough?

08:29You little...

08:31Get out of my house!

08:32Sorry.

08:33Can't do that.

08:34Maria, get behind me.

08:38What?

08:39You think I came here for her?

09:00Fuck!

09:13That's a big, big...

09:17No, that's ambitious, but this is cinema.

09:19You play it like cinema,

09:21because cinema allows you to take those journeys.

09:25My last question, thank you, Charlotte, is...

09:27But now, into the third film, can you talk about looking at,

09:30having built these different characters,

09:33the learning curve going in and making this film?

09:36And into your next film,

09:38what has the experience taught you

09:41in terms of both the logistics, the efficiency,

09:44but also what you want to accomplish overall?

09:47I think every film is completely different.

09:50So Duchess was my third film that I produced and co-wrote.

09:53Every film is so, so different.

09:55It's always a different animal, each project.

09:59But I'm always learning something per project,

10:02usually from actors, creatively.

10:04When we're on set, we're playing, we're figuring out the scene.

10:09It's usually something that someone doesn't say,

10:12and I'm like, that's so cool.

10:14I'm going to work in playing off actors.

10:17And then after this film,

10:18I shot Fight or Flight with Dolph Lundgren and Michael J. White,

10:21and it was like, that was so incredible,

10:24because coming from this, which is kind of action-packed,

10:27but then going into a full start-to-finish action film,

10:30it was like, I'd learned, like, okay, if I can do this,

10:33if I can play Duchess, I think I can play any role.

10:36And with Dolph, it's interesting,

10:38because he thinks so much, having talked to him.

10:41He thinks so much,

10:42and yet everybody always sees him for his brawn,

10:44and yet there's so much balance.

10:46And it's true.

10:48No, absolutely.

10:49Like, I could do this.

10:51So when I was on that set, and I met Dolph and Michael,

10:54and I was like, yeah, I've just played Duchess.

10:56I can do this.

10:57I know they're, like, the two biggest action stars,

10:59but I've got this.

11:00Duchess gave me that confidence.

11:01Hence why one of my production companies

11:03is called Scarlet Productions.

11:05Love it. Wonderful.

11:06Well, thank you, Charlotte.

11:07I mean, it's a lot of work to make these kind of films,

11:10and a lot of, you know, investment on your part,

11:13just time, emotion, everything, you know, and physical.

11:16My God, yeah.

11:17Congratulations on that, because it's not easy, I know.

11:19So thank you very much.

11:21Thank you for your time.

11:22No, thank you, Tim.

11:23Thank you very much.

11:26I'm going to kill all the men that betrayed me.

11:29They will eat you alive.

11:33Do your worst.

11:36It's not enough to be as good as a man.

11:40You have to be twice as ruthless.

11:44And ten times a bitch.

11:46Oi.

11:49Yeah!

11:50Yeah!

11:51Yeah!

11:52Yeah!

11:53Yeah!

11:54Yeah!

11:55Yeah!

11:56Yeah!

11:57Yeah!

IR Interview: Charlotte Kirk For "Duchess" [Saban] - Part II

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