Interview: Behind the Scenes with 'Hanna' Director Joe Wright
- Details
- Category: Interviews
- Created: Friday, 01 April 2011 09:57
- Published: Friday, 01 April 2011 09:57
- Written by Lupe Haas
In HANNA, Soairse Ronan is Hanna, a biologically enhanced 16 year-old trained by her ex-CIA father (Eric Bana) to be the ultimate assassin and escape the clutches of ruthless CIA operative played by Cate Blanchett. For his first action film, the director of period dramas Atonement and Pride & Prejudice decided to shoot most of the fight sequences with his young star Saoirse Ronan and Eric Bana in one take instead of cheating it in the editing room through fast cuts.
"I'm a huge fan of Paul Greengrass' Bourne films. But I certainly felt they've been imitated rather too much since. So I wanted to see what I could do differently."
Joe tells CineMovie he learned much more about the action genre with HANNA and how to keep the drama going during the action scenes. "I learned a lot about how to construct an action sequence. I learned it's very important not to stop the drama when the action begins. I think a lot of action films, there's the drama, then there's a fight scene and everyone does some cool moves. And then they stop the fighting and then get on with the drama."
"She's a bit more serious than she was when she was twelve-years-old. But maybe that's a good thing. As an actress she has evolved. She's more controlled in her craft.
For HANNA, Saoirse trained in self-defense and martial arts to take on grown men but Jim told his stunt men and Eric Bana to not hold back on the 16 year old during her fight scenes. Jim joked it wasn't the men who were in danger. "Everyone was a bit nervous that she was this little girl and therefore might get hurt. Actually they were in far more danger in getting hurt by her than she was of them. I needed to make sure that they weren't too shy about filling their roles."
For more with the director and a behind the scenes look at HANNA, check out the video above. HANNA is in movie theaters April 8, 2011.