National Post (National Edition)
BIG BUDGETS, BIG RISKS AND BIG RETURNS
An interview with director Gina Prince-Bythewood. Chris Knight
When Netflix offered me the opportunity to talk to director Gina Prince-Bythewood about her new film, the action-thriller The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron, I jumped at it. There were in particular two scenes about which I wanted to know more.
No. 1: Theron’s character, Andy, an ancient and immortal protector of humanity, finds herself in rare need of medical help, and visits a pharmacy for supplies. She asks the woman behind the counter if there’s a bathroom she can use. The woman instead takes her to the storeroom and patches her up.
“You need help,” she says as she works. “What does it matter why? Today I put this on your wound. Tomorrow you help someone up when they fall. We’re not meant to be alone.”
It’s a beautiful, quiet moment and a distillation of the film’s underlying message, punctuated by a lovely performance by French actor Olivia Ross as the philosopher-pharmacist. And Prince-Bythewood tells me it wasn’t in Greg Rucka’s graphic novel, which served as the movie’s source material.
“Those quiet moments felt as important as the big action set pieces,” she says, explaining the addition. “Theron does her share of shooting and being shot at, but (her need for help reveals) an important facet of her character. So much of who she is is about protecting humanity, protecting life.”
No. 2: Two immortals, Joe and Nicky (Marwen Kenzari and Luca Marinelli), have been captured. One of the soldiers guarding them snickers and says to Joe: “What is he, your boyfriend?”
Joe replies: “He’s not my boyfriend. This man is more to me than you can dream. He’s the moon when I’m lost in darkness, and warmth when I shiver in cold, and his kiss still thrills me after a millennia.” This goes on for some time, a speech any couple would be proud to recite at their wedding.
“That scene, that beautiful speech is in the graphic novel,” says the director. “The one thing Greg made me promise was that that speech would be in the film, that it would never get cut. That relationship and that speech was one of the reasons I wanted to do it.”
There was of course much more that attracted her to The Old Guard, the story of a young U.S. Marine named Nile (Kiki Layne) who learns she is immortal, and joins Theron’s group just as they are exposed by an evil scientist (Harry Melling) who wants to learn their secrets.
Chief among her reasons was the chance to direct two main characters, both female, one Black, in a genre most often reserved for male actors and male directors.
“I love that they are warriors, these two women,” she says. “There’s no reason for it. They just are. More than ever it’s necessary for us as a community and for the world to see us like that.”
The Old Guard meant a change of pace for Layne, whose breakout role was in the 2018 romantic drama If Beale Street Could Talk. Prince-Bythewood had been invited to watch an early cut by its director, Barry Jenkins, so she had a lot of time to consider Layne for a role.
“She’s too soft,” was her first thought, watching Beale Street. “But she came in and auditioned and I knew within five seconds that she was Nile. She had this innate strength and innate vulnerability, and I believed this young woman was a Marine.”
Prince-Bythewood also had to overcome any prejudices others may have formed from her own earlier work, which includes the romantic dramas Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights – but also, more recently, the creation of the 2017 crime series Shots Fired, and a lot of work on Silver & Black, a Marvel superhero film (which was cancelled). She did direct the pilot episode of Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger TV series.
“For me this is an action drama, and the drama part I felt I was able to bring my esthetic to,” she says of The Old Guard.
The action part meant a bigger budget, though ultimately that means little. “What more money gives you is more time and bigger toys, but none of that matters if you don’t care about the story and the characters.”
She’s also cares about a fellow female action-movie director. “I give so much credit to Patty Jenkins, the incredible pressure she was under to get Wonder Woman right and have it be a success and be as good as it was.”
Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984 was just one of several big films from female directors that have been delayed by the pandemic. There’s Mulan from Niki Caro and Cate Shortland’s Black Widow. “This was a watershed year for female filmmakers, and I’m still hoping their films can come out at the end of the year.” Even The Old Guard was supposed to have a limited theatrical release alongside its Netflix debut.
“Honestly, no Black female has ever had this opportunity,” says Prince-Bythewood. But if audiences connect with this movie, she may do it again. The Old Guard is just one part of a graphic-novel trilogy. The Old Guard is available July 10 on Netflix.