ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Freelance director Pierre Morel about the John Cena and Alison Brie-led action comedy movie. The filmmaker discussed working with Cena and how Taken affected the action genre. The movie is set to release in movie theaters on Friday, October 27.
“An ex-special forces operative stuck in a dead-end desk job (John Cena) reluctantly takes on a gig to provide private security for a washed-up journalist (Alison Brie) as she interviews a ruthless — but impeccably dressed — dictator (Juan Pablo Raba),” reads the movie‘s synopsis. “When a military coup breaks out just as she’s about to get the scoop of a lifetime, the unlikely trio must figure out how to survive the jungle, the assassins, and each other in order to make it out alive.”
Tyler Treese: What led to Freelance’s first-person opening? That was a really fun and unique way to start the film.
Pierre Morel: Well, I think it was just a way to tell the backstory of our main characters without going to a classic flashback version of it. Rather than see him [get] into a situation, seeing the situation through his eyes makes you, right away, embrace what he’s going through. It was an attempt. I hope it worked … I think it did. [Laughs]. It was not easy to shoot, because you have to pull a lot of tricks to be able to do what he’s supposed to do with a camera on your back right there. But it was fun
You could not have asked for two better leads here. The chemistry between John Cena and Allison Brie is so much fun. When you saw them interacting together when you started working on Freelance, did you know you definitely made the right choice with these two leads?
It became obvious on day one because they both have that crazy sense of humor. I mean, John is mostly known for his physique, but he’s also a hilarious guy. I mean, we saw that in Peacemaker, for instance, but he has a sense of humor, and she does too. Off-camera, the banter was going on all day long, so you knew it would translate on screen.
You do a really good job of blending both action and comedy with Freelance. What’s the biggest challenge when it comes to making sure both dynamics are landing without negatively impacting one other?
Having mostly done very dark thrillers before where the action is there to scare you somehow, you put more violence or more blood and more scary things that you would do for an action comedy. You shoot action comedy a little differently, so it leaves space for comedy. With comedy, you make it as impressive as possible, but you don’t push the limits the same way. So it leaves space and, timing-wise, you also need to change your timing so you leave space so you have time to land. It’s just timing and the way you shoot it that is different, because you’re looking for a different effect. You’re not here to bring people, the audience, to a scary place. You want them to have fun.
John is obviously known for his physique and for becoming a huge wrestling star, but we’ve really seen him over the past couple years establish himself as an actor. He has a really nice character arc in Freelance where he’s this unhappy lawyer and, through this crazy adventure, figures out what’s important to him in life. What impressed you the most about seeing his growth as an actor? For a while there, people kind of wrote him off and it’s great to see him get to do these different types of roles.
Well, I think he’s extremely versatile and he is very smart in his choices. I think, John, when you are already known for your physical capacity and when you are already a wrestling superstar and people know you can pull things off physically … if you want to replicate that, and again, all the WWE shows are the craziest shows live on TV. But if you want to translate that into movies, it doesn’t play. So I made the choice right away to not just play on that, but show his humor and also that he has that fantastic capacity to be very sensitive and very fragile. So his character in this movie is very much that.
We see, yes, it’s fun during the movie, but the beginning and the end, you show that fragility and that that journey in his life when he comes from that very frustrated and unhappy professionally place and, in his family, finding purpose and finding peace — regathering with his family. So he pulled all three elements of that: the physique, the action, the comedic aspect, and the sensibility and the fragility of his character is very interesting. Very few actors can do all three.
Taken is 15 years old this year, and it really just changed Liam Neeson’s career and it is still regularly referenced in pop culture. How do you view its legacy?
Already 15 years? Oh gosh, it went like a breeze. [Laugh]. I don’t know. I think one thing that changed with Taken and for other actors is that you would not employ action hero actors to make action, but people who come from different things. Things have changed from that point on. You use people you don’t expect to do. Well, that’s the way I like to do things. You don’t use people, you expect to do action and you bring them to doing action. So you already have their acting capacity in drama or in fun or in comedy, whatever you want, then you bring them into action. You don’t overuse the same action guys again and again, basically.
