Watchmen Movie

I was lucky enough to take part in a roundtable interview Malin Akerman today. Check out what she had to say about fight training, the awesomeness of Zack Snyder, and the state of the superhero genre!

When asked if she had read WATCHMEN before being cast…

I’m embarrassed to say it, but no, I hadn’t. I had no idea. I was never sort of into the comic book genre… except for the films. You know, I think everyone goes and watches Superman or Batman or Spiderman. But my first introduction to WATCHMEN was through the script, which was phenomenal. I had no idea what just happened to me when I read the script.

On the intense action sequences…

We did 95% of the stunts… They would film us doing it, and then they would film our stunt doubles doing it. Basically, two months before shooting I started a boot camp with an ex-Navy SEAL to try to gain some muscle mass and just kind of feel more like a strong fighter … Our trainer was really meticulous – he really wanted it to be stylized. We trained with our stunt doubles so that we’d get sort of the same style going on. It was crazy, because she would do the sequence and I’d go, “Oh, that’s so cool! I love that! Yeah!” And then I’d go and try to do it and it was so frustrating because it did not look the same at all. You know, she just looked super cool and I just looked like a dumbass trying to fight. But eventually, you know, once you got the hang of it, it felt pretty phenomenal. You felt like the character.

On playing such a revered character…

You know, it’s interesting, that was one of the challenges… Because there is the source material, you not only have the history of your character and the whole story, but you also have the visuals. So just even seeing the body language of her and of the other characters was a challenge and was helpful all at once. Often when you go into a role you know you have to do all the backstories for yourself, and here it was all written for you.

On working with Zack Snyder…

If you meet Zack Snyder, within three minutes you’re sold on whatever he’s selling you, because he’s so passionate, and he’s so smart, and he has such a vision for things that you automatically become enthralled… You know you’ve got a real leader at the helm, which is what you need, especially for something like this… I was sold from minute one.

On how WATCHMEN differs from other comic book movies…

I think that your typical (if I can say “typical”) superhero film is more about good versus evil, it’s a bit more black and white. Whereas I think WATCHMEN is… I almost don’t want to call it a superhero film, because it’s almost its own genre. I mean, it really is more an exploration of human nature at its worst and at its best. And it’s a very grey area. And there’s no true answer.

On the politics of the film…

Of course it is a huge reflection of what’s going on today, which is amazing and sad all at once. But I also think that this novel, had it come out as a film in any time, I think it’s relatable, because life is cyclical. You know, we’ve had wars in the past and unfortunately it looks like we’re going to continue having wars… And I think that that’s a big theme in this movie – war, and how people react to it, and what they do to maintain peace.

On the similarities between Malin and Laurie…

I mean, I do kick ass all the time – my husband loves it! No, I do see a lot of similarities, just because, you know, I think that’s a true phase in everyone’s life at some point, where you are soul searching and kind of figuring out who you are and what you really want in life. And then also trying to find true love. I mean, I think we’ve all been through at least one break-up and one, you know, finding who you think is your true love. So those themes are very relatable for me. And also, I’ve had, at times, a tumultuous relationship with my mother. So, that complicated relationship with Laurie and her mother was really interesting and hit very close to home in many ways.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 10:12 PM and is filed under World of WATCHMEN. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.