IR Interview: Marko Zaror & J.J. Perry For “The Killer’s Game” [Lionsgate]

The Inside Reel

Actor Marko Zaror and Director J.J. Perry talk to The Inside Reel about tone, pace, humor, approach and intent in regards to their new action comedy “The Killer’s Game” from Lionsgate.

Transcript

00:00You know, making a film that has a lot of humor,

00:29that plays like this, especially with like the Solvang, you know, the gang with Botas,

00:35you know, and with like somebody like, obviously, Dave, could you talk about finding the balance

00:42and tone or the tone that you want to create, JJ?

00:45Yeah, I mean, I actually set out to make a love story, like a romantic comedy that has

00:49a head on collision with an action movie.

00:51And I mean, listen, brother, the world is dark enough right now, you don't need me to

00:54make it any darker, you can turn on the news, whatever it is you watch and think of three

00:58or four different ways to like, you want to hang yourself.

01:00So I just want to make something fun that people can laugh at that speaks to people,

01:04especially you could take your date night movie, which is awesome.

01:07So that's kind of where my headspace was, keeping the pacing up, keeping the humor up,

01:12but also having the upper hand on the audience with the action where I have them jumping

01:15in their seat when somebody gets their neck cut or their leg broken the wrong way.

01:19You know, that's, I feel like in action storytelling, that's having the upper hand on the audience,

01:23you kind of lead them, you don't say, I'm going to punch you in the face, then punch

01:28him in the face.

01:29What you do is you punch him in the face and then say, I just hit you in the face.

01:32That's better.

01:33Joe Blood, the most prolific professional hitman in Europe.

01:39More hits than Motown.

01:40And he has really bad headaches.

01:41Are you okay?

01:42I've got some bad news.

01:43It's terminal.

01:44I need a contractor executed.

01:45Who do you want retired?

01:46Me.

01:47I've thought about doing this for years.

01:48You killed my father.

01:49Clock starts at midnight.

01:50You're the client.

01:52Well, it has to do with that balance.

01:53Like maybe there's so much, obviously, Sophia is a dancer by, by training, you know, but

01:54having talked to both of them for like Hotel Artemis for her and Dave, you know, the thing

01:55is, is that motion is so important, how people are in frame, both in the fight sequences

01:56and it just in the general human sequence.

01:57Can you talk about that?

01:58Cause that, that relates very specifically to, to both of us as a character.

01:59Yeah.

02:00I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

02:01it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

02:02it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

02:16it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

02:22it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,

02:28I was, when I was like, when I, when I got Dave, I, it was like winning the lottery,

02:32but I was like, okay, who am I going to cast?

02:34They can dance because a lot of actresses will tell you they can dance.

02:38But I mean, dancing, doing tap dance in the second grade, it doesn't really qualifying.

02:42Is dancing for me is I do?

02:44It's not what I need on camera.

02:45So.

02:46You know, getting her he, Dave brought her up.

02:48He said, I work with her in hotel arms.

02:50I think she's amazing.

02:51Got her on the phone, talked to her, told her you're not doing action in this movie.

02:55You're the romantic lead.

02:57She loved that though.

02:58She dug that she wasn't gonna carry a gun

03:00or have to fight.

03:01She loved that.

03:02So incorporating that opening dance sequence,

03:06because she's an amazing dancer

03:07and we brought in this bad-ass dance choreographer as well,

03:11watched it, figure out how to capture it,

03:13set the tone of the movie with the camera work

03:15in that dance scene.

03:17And when you have someone like Marco and Scott Atkins,

03:20I don't have to hide anything in the action.

03:23Like when you're dealing with people who can't really fight,

03:25you have to stunt double them.

03:26If you have one stunt double

03:27and you're doubling someone else, it changes the coverage.

03:30The camera no longer goes where the action is the star.

03:34The camera is hiding something from the audience

03:36and the audience can feel that.

03:37So that hiring the right tool,

03:39hiring a starting pitcher that could really throw a fastball

03:42for me was, I mean, I couldn't go wrong.

03:45There's been a mistake.

03:46You're not gonna die.

03:50Doc, I'm gonna have to call you back.

03:53I'm canceling the contract.

03:55You think you're as good as anything?

03:59I'm calling in every hit I knew of.

04:01I'm pulling one way out of this.

04:03But going to you, Marco,

04:05because you have to do a change-up.

04:07I mean, obviously you've doubled for Dwayne too.

04:10So everybody has a different movement structure,

04:14but both times, it's like tango, it's flamenco,

04:17it's everything like that.

04:18Could you talk about taking sort of the action background,

04:21melding it with that kind of dance idea,

04:24but then putting it like that final sequence

04:27with you and Dave,

04:28if the way that the motion works is so specific

04:32and yet it's so unique?

04:34Yeah, well, whenever you get a call from JJ,

04:40you know that he's gonna change the game.

04:43He's gonna take you to the next level.

04:45He's gonna push you to go more higher

04:50than what you've done before.

04:52So that's the beauty of it.

04:54And we've worked in the past many times,

04:57and he's been a very big inspiration for me

05:00to always be improving and learning.

05:05So I was lucky to have this opportunity.

05:09Why?

05:09Because I can go for it.

05:11I know that I can go for something very crazy

05:16and it's gonna be well covered.

05:19He knows, he has the experience

05:20to put the camera in the right place.

05:23And so I can come up with this crazy thing

05:26of flamenco dancing with martial arts.

05:29Like if you don't shoot it right, you're gonna fail

05:31because it's hard to tell that story.

05:33Like you just said it.

05:35It's hard to mix martial arts fighting

05:37with dancing and flavor and this character

05:41that has all this passion when he's fighting.

05:43So how you tell that story just in a fight scene, right?

05:47So it was great.

05:49It was amazing.

05:55Hey, Botas.

06:03Un segundo, por favor.

06:12Amo esta puta canción.

06:14Baby, do you understand that sometimes I feel like I'm mad?

06:23But it's also the, and I'll go back to you, Jake.

06:25And this works with Marco as well.

06:28You have to have that humor in the scene.

06:29I mean, every single one of the assassin teams

06:32even like the brothers.

06:34I mean, there's such a great sort of bum, bum, bum

06:37but it doesn't take away the danger

06:39of what these guys can do.

06:40Can you talk about that?

06:41Because the pace has to reflect that.

06:44Now that's on set.

06:45And then obviously reflected in editing too.

06:47See, I mean, all those characters are based

06:49on things that I've experienced.

06:50Like Marco's character with the music was a guy

06:52in my gym when I was competing back in tech window

06:54back in the 80s that he had the Walkman,

06:57the initial Walkman.

06:57When he had that Walkman on, he would spank everyone.

07:00But if he wasn't wearing the music,

07:01he just, his step was off.

07:02So that always, I was like, always a trip for me.

07:05Then I worked in Scotland as a second year director

07:06on Fast and Furious 9.

07:08We locked the city up.

07:09My whole crew was Scottish.

07:10I didn't understand a word of what they were saying

07:12but it was funny as hell.

07:14They were all big, tough guys.

07:15They're like, oh dude, do I really matter?

07:16And they laughed at me when I talked.

07:18And I was like, you guys sound funny.

07:20And the party girls, of course, when I was younger

07:22I did a lot of research for those characters

07:24when my youth.

07:25So there was a lot of, I just bring familiar things

07:27into my movies.

07:29So for me, I familiarize myself with the characters.

07:32So when the actor asked me or the actress asked me

07:35a question, I can speak intelligently about it.

07:38And pacing and comedy is super important.

07:40And a lot of that is spontaneous.

07:43We're prepared for it in the script

07:44but then like fight choreography

07:47the venue offers a ton of target of opportunities.

07:50And in the middle of a fight scene,

07:52don't mess with the bull, get the horn.

07:54I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave.

07:56Those are all after market.

07:57That's all stuff we did on set, just kind of off the cuff.

08:01♪ But don't you know that knowing a lie ♪

08:03♪ Can always mean anything? ♪

08:05So fine.

08:05♪ When things go wrong I seem to be back ♪

08:09♪ I've found a soul whose intentions I could not control. ♪

08:14♪ Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood. ♪

08:25♪ Yeah, I'm so edgy, I want you to know. ♪

08:28♪ That I never meant to take it out on you. ♪

08:32♪ Life has its problems, I've got my share. ♪

08:36♪ That's one thing I never meant to do. ♪

08:39My last question.

08:40Yeah, thank you.

08:41Because that leads into the idea of environment, location.

08:43Obviously, you know, Turkey, Budapest.

08:46Using that, but using these specific things,

08:48because I love how you almost do the Russell McCahey shot,

08:51like coming around the chandelier

08:54or using these different locations,

08:56using the church, using these different places.

08:58Can you talk about the importance of environment,

09:01both as a martial artist and for you too, Marco,

09:04but also in terms of the visual style of what,

09:07because you're mirroring and you're showing

09:09something that happened also in a book

09:11and people have their own ideas what they saw in their head.

09:14Totally.

09:15So, first of all, my grandfather who raised me

09:17was from Hungary.

09:18So, and I'd worked there a few times on a movie Spy,

09:21on the movie Spectral.

09:22I've worked there a bunch.

09:23It was kind of, Budapest was a character in the movie for me,

09:27like maybe number three on the call sheet.

09:29So, I wanted to show Budapest, a beautiful town.

09:32I have been using drone technology.

09:34I've been trying to take that drone technology

09:36and really use it a lot

09:38and try to create a bunch of impossible shots.

09:40And I would tell you when it comes to the,

09:43using the environment for fighting,

09:45I mean, it's like anything else.

09:46Like an example, when he's fighting the Goyang crew

09:49and he breaks the glass with the guy,

09:51he creates the broken glass.

09:52He uses the girls to, he opens her up.

09:55He folds the leg the wrong way.

09:56He makes a doorway through a wall so he can go through.

10:00It's setting those things up for me.

10:02It's like, that's clever action storytelling.

10:05Is an action, when you're directing action,

10:08good action direction is when you create a problem

10:10for your protagonist and you show how he solves it.

10:13You show how he solves it

10:14and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat.

10:17He or her solves it.

10:18So that, that's true.

10:19You show the intelligence.

10:20That's right.

10:21You show the intelligence.

10:22That's right.

10:23The audience wants to see that.

10:24I defer you to anything Jackie Chan did in the mid eighties.

10:26It is a good template.

10:27And you know where Jackie Chan got it from?

10:29He got it from Buster Keaton, you know?

10:31So it's, I didn't invent it,

10:33but I'll take credit for what we did in my movie.

10:39I'm gonna take them all out.

10:43There's nothing to stop you from leading a long life.

10:50I got you.

10:59I got you.

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