The cast of Hitman: Agent 47 continued their New York press tour with a stop in Soho where BSO had the opportunity to speak with the film’s core threesome of Rupert Friend (Agent 47), Hannah Ware (Katia van Dees) and Zachary Quinto (‘John Smith’) and also director Aleksander Bach.
During the presser the cast and director provided some in-depth details about what it took to bring the hi-octane movie, based on the wildly popular series of video games (Hitman) to the big screen.
Zachary Quinto spoke at length about the weeks of training before hand, including getting into the boxing ring with co-star Rupert Friend, the Agent, himself, in order to prep for the movie
Quinto’s approach to the film put an emphasis on mastering the signature physicality of the video games–versus playing the actual games.
“Training was like six weeks of conditioning, like after I got the job, before we started shooting and then once we were in Berlin, it was much more about focusing on the fights themselves and working with the stunt team to built ourselves up to speed to be able to do it together and make sure we were where we needed to be for the cameras and all that stuff—it got more traditional once we were over there. I know Rupert did some really fun stuff and I joined him in the boxing gym for the six weeks before we went over there, so it was all good.”
Rupert Friend decided to take the most method approach possible for a movie about a hitman and played the video games, in addition to boxing training, as research.
“I found the games very useful, particularly the later ‘absolution’ (Hitman: Absolution) game, the game makers have clearly used an actor for the character, because there was a motion capture thing I could feel and the way that the character moved was very interesting to me, there was something very graceful about it and this is a guy who takes such pride in his clothes–you know the iconic suit and tie and yet, is able to fight very efficiently in a very inefficient kind of ‘uniform’, so that kind of ‘deadly grace’, if you like, was at the center of something very physical for me, and when I got the role began training with Zachary in a boxing gym with a great guy and then at the Krav Maga Academy, here in New York, so I was doing this sort of, kinda very brutal, efficient Israeli self defense technique and tried to marry that with something a lot more balletic. “
In the midst of a movie centered around a trained assassin, it’s easy for filmmakers to let the violence tell the story instead of the actors, thus reducing the piece into a mindless saga of blood and guts.
The reason Hitman: Agent 47 avoided falling into the trap that so many action movies succumb to was due in large part to director Aleksander Bach, who combed through the games and found an outstanding narrative to bring to the big screen.
Aleksander explained what initially drew him to the project:
“I was studying the game from the very beginning from scratch, because I knew it’s my job to bring this character to life in a great way and especially when there’s such a big fan base and I needed to definitely find the right DNA of Agent 47 and I learned from the game that the DNA is his intelligence and the way he does things–it’s not about random killing–it was always( for me) important that it’s never just random killing, he’s always killing because he needs to make the next step and I think this is all about how we tried to capture this and bring this to life from the very beginning; that 47 is just probably smarter than all of us and to make a smart movie and otherwise, when it’s just about random killing it’s just boring”
Bach would then elaborate on his point when BSO asked him the following:
How did you make the decision to forego the romantic angle and stick straight for the action, because so many action movies choose to go down this romantic path, but you chose to stick with the narrative and keep it very character driven, it’s a real stand out.
“Well first off, I was thinking a lot about Agent 47 and for me, there’s no romance with this character, it’s a very very thin line. The question was more to answer how much humanity is still left and when there’s too much, you don’t buy it because he’s a killer, he’s a clone he’s stone cold but the interesting part was Hannah’s role, Katia van Dees, who’s actually triggering this she’s challenging him and that’s exactly the reason why step by step we feel there is something left….and I knew that when you put in some romance there–the audience is too smart and I just don’t buy it.”
Perhaps the hardest question for the actors to fully answer was how they handled bringing humanity to cold characters through actions and scant conversation throughout.
Actress Hannah Ware, who plays the film’s protagonist, the complex Katia van Dees, carried the task of bringing the emotion of the story to life.
“Katia is introduced as a girl who’s seemingly normal and not genetically modified, so the human component is definitely out there and for me personally, I always wanted to see films where it can reflect some sort of universal feelings and themes–which writer says ‘you read to feel you’re not alone in the world?’ I think people watch movies to in some way to identify with the character. So if there was no human component, [then] you would be left cold and you wouldn’t be compelled to watch, so that’s what drew me in. It’s odd, because my character goes on the reverse journey of Agent 47–he’s sort of uncovering that he has this humanity and I’m going at him and trying to tell him that he does and trying to find out why he works the way he does. Katia is very not at ease with herself because she’s not completely human and is trying to make peace with that and understanding that despite her being quite extraordinary in lots of ways. The way she operates to the world, at the beginning of the film she sees [humanity’s flaws]and sees the flaws in her supernatural strengths, but then there’s this kind of universal thing where once you embrace the bits that you think are bad about yourself they’re kinda great or they make you who you are and they’re integral to the great things. I’ve always thought that is sort of wonderful and human and interesting.”
