From the moment he directed his first film, Antoine Fuqua has been at the helm of movies featuring some of the biggest stars of the times. With Olympus Has Fallen, however, he directs his biggest, brightest cast yet, with names such as Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Dylan McDermott, Cole Hauser, Robert Forster, and Morgan Freeman all on the bill. From actors, to cops, to the world of CGI, Anton Fuqua covers a great deal of ground in this interview conducted shortly before the release of his latest film.
Gerard [Butler] is incredibly passionate about this project. It must have been great for you to have someone who you’re working so closely with to have that passion. How did that help you, and what attracted you about this project overall?
Related Posts
Well, I’m extremely passionate in the first place, so working with someone like Gerry just fits right into my personality. I’m one of these guys where 24/7, I have a sort of military mind. I had Gerry doing push-ups and stuff, and if I saw him looking a little sleepy or something, I’d say, “Get down and give me 30,” and he’d be like, “Really?” (laughter) I like to keep the blood going and everything, and he loved the story, so he’d do whatever I asked him to do, and I think that’s important.
We’ve been talking about the embarrassment of riches you had in terms of your cast, and while you’ve been working with a number of large names since your debut, this certainly is the single largest cast of names you’ve had. Does having that much well-respected talent make your job easier, or does it provide new hurdles to work around?
Does it make it easier? For any filmmaker I would imagine it does. You always get different experiences, and you start to get used to different personalities and trying to understand what people’s needs are. Different actors have different needs — you learn that as a director, and along the way you realize that every actor has a different approach to give you what you need as a director. Yeah, I’d say it gets a little easier.
Do you ever get intimidated, still?
Oh my God man, I’m like, “Okay, I’m going to meet Morgan Freeman today.” Then he gets out of the car and he says, “Hello Antoine.” (sighs) Yeah, I still get intimidated, absolutely. Angela Bassett, Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo — God, I love her, you know, you’re always intimidated.
So do you just let them go, or do you state when you need and then just them run with it?
I find the great actors — the ones that I’ve gotten to work with, they look to the director to give them the direction they need, and then they bring their magic to that. My job at that point is to get my camera and find it, and capture it, and protect them.
Gerard is like that too…
Gerry is 100 percent that way, absolutely. He comes with a lot of ideas — Gerry is exploding with ideas at times. Sometimes I have to talk to him like he is my little brother: “Gerry man, you have to calm down.” (laughter) He loves it, you know? He’d call me in the middle of the night and I’d I say, “Why don’t you go to sleep.” That’s who he is.
Can you talk about your rapport with the young boy who plays the president’s son?
Oh, he’s great. That kid is so smart. He’d hang out with us all the time; he was like one of the guys. After awhile I would have to watch out. A few times some guys would start talking like guys do, and he’d be right there, and I’d be like, “Hold on a second, you’re not in this conversation.” He’s a smart kid though, not a typical little Hollywood actor — he’s more of a little man.
Was it tough saying goodbye to him at the end?
Yeah, it was tough. Like I said, he was with us all the time. We had our schoolteachers and things like that, but he would literally come over when we were working on things he had nothing to do with and want to be around it. He probably has a filmmaker in him — he loved the camera, and he wanted to look through the lens. He’d asked questions, he would sit in my chair; I had to kick him out sometimes.
Related Posts
“The great actors that I’ve gotten to work with, they look to the director to give them the direction they need, and then they bring their magic to that.”
You had been in talks to bring a Vince Flynn novel to the screen. His character of Mitch Rapp is a lot like Mike Banning, except Banning has a lot more gentility to him. Seeing a character like Banning, you have a chance to connect to him emotionally. Why did you feel this was a better film to come to first, instead of working on a Vince Flynn novel?
Yeah, I was going to do Vince Flynn’s novel, and I wanted Gerry to play the role, but at the time the studio wanted an American to play the role. I thought Gerry was fine to do that, so that film didn’t happen. When this came along and Gerry was attached, I spoke to Gerry about it, saying, “This is our chance to show you would have been great as Mitch Rapp.” Gerry has a certain vulnerability about him as well. As big as he is, he has a certain vulnerability about him that the audiences needs to connect with.
Was the North Korean angle of the script an attraction point for you?
No, it was really just the overall movie — that story of the hero’s journey was all I needed. When you look at a script and the journey of the hero, it just has that classic feel for me. It was the idea of a guy who falls flat on his face. You know, in the Secret Service, it’s 100 percent failure or 100 percent success, so he fails, but says he wants back in. Well, you know how the universe works — it says, “Sure, you can get back in, but you have to go through hell first.” So it’s all about who you are when you walk back out of that situation. That’s a classic journey.
The terrorist is more about that personal debt. This Kang character, like all terrorists, it’s really personal. No matter what flowery things they say about bringing the world together to destroy America, it is always something personal.
Was there a part in the script that when you read it, you thought, This is going to be really hard to bring to the screen — then when you saw the finished product you thought, That really kicks ass, it’s even better than I expected?
Yeah, the scariest thing was how to recreate Washington, and then blow it up. You think, How are we going to make the White House look real, and have guys go up to the gates and blow it up — and how are we going to do it in Louisiana, in Shreveport, in 120 degrees? I was really proud of [of that]; when I brought in Derek Hill, our production designer, he had done W., so I felt better — at least I have somebody who understands the White House. Then, unlike W., we ended up building ours, because we had to shoot ours up. We ended up building quite a bit — that whole Pennsylvania Avenue block, we built. All that stuff you see, is real: the fountain, the walls, the interiors. It was amazing, because when I walked in there, it was like the White House.
Generally, as a director, you’re all about practical sets. So what about CGI — are you okay with it?
I’m getting there. It’s a real slow process for me. I can’t say I completely understand it all, and I learned quite a bit about it in this situation. It’s a necessary evil, absolutely it is. It’s wonderful because you can go to worlds you wouldn’t normally be able to, and you can do things that you couldn’t do [without it]. But at the same time, I’m a step removed because it’s not as organic for me, and it’s hard for me because I would rather build so much.
I had people come to me saying I would have to build this wall and that wall — but for this, you just have to put a green screen up, and it would just drive me crazy. I would say, “Well, how do you do that?” I literally made them build as much as I could get away with, and then at some point they would do what they had to do to add to it. I was trying to keep it at a minimum, but there are things about it that I found fascinating.
You’ve worked with undercover cops, and now you’re at the other extreme with the Secret Service. Is there an aspect of law enforcement you’d like to look at [in the future], even if it is far down the road?
Related Posts
Yeah, I’m fascinated with these guys; I’m fascinated with people who give their lives for service. I think this is an honorable job, and there are many different groups of them, and they’re all different. A Secret Service agent had their own training, Special Forces has one way, Seals have one way, even the DEA, which I’m really fascinated with right now, have their own ways. After 9/11, we changed our way of thinking, and they are all expanding, so I’m interested now in what they all do, in the world. You know, the FBI has gone international; they are not like they used to be. I like to explore those things.
As someone who has had experience in that world — I was a cop for 10 years — [I think] you do a really good job of portraying it. Training Day is something we would actually watch on the team, all the time. It reminded us of all the narcos we would work with.
Thank you. I used to have dinners, and I still do, with a lot of my buddies who are cops. They’re interesting guys, and I learned a lot about them, and I learned a lot about the hall of whispers, things like that. I have a lot of concerns about it; I find them to be underpaid, and they see the worst of mankind, everyday. I don’t think they are honored enough, in my opinion. I think it’s tragic.
What’s next?
I don’t know yet. I’m hoping it’s Southpaw, a boxing movie I’m looking at. Harvey Weinstein has it for me, and we’re looking to cast it right now.
—
Matthew Schuchman is the founder and film critic of Movie Reviews From Gene Shalit’s Moustache and a contributor to Den of Geek.