Gosling, Ford talk ‘Blade Runner 2049’
The long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi noir opens this weekend.
Ryan Gosling, the star of the Denis Villeneuve-directed “Blade Runner 2049,” ponders a question about the film, starts to answer and then stops himself.
“It’ll be nice when we can have this conversation without divulging too much,” the 37-year-old actor finally says.
Journalists do try to get answers, but as everyone connected with the sequel to the 1982 Ridley Scott influential sci-fi classic tells you, everything about the new film is something of a spoiler.
“We worked on an insane level of secrecy for two years where we weren’t even allowed to talk about the project with our families,” says Villeneuve (“Arrival”), “and we’re just trying to protect the surprise until the very end.”
Today we are only two years from 2019 when the original film was set, and the world looks quite different from Scott’s stunning dystopian vision. “2049” takes place 30 years later in what the filmmakers now call an alternative universe.
In “2049,” Gosling plays officer KD6-3.7, an android called a replicant in the film terminology. Like Harrison Ford’s Deckard in the first film, K is tasked with “retiring” — that is, killing — rogue replicants that are in hiding.
A question that has engendered passionate debate ever since the first film is whether Deckard is human or not. The new film dives into that, but Villeneuve wanted a film that would also stand alone.
“We want to be linked to the first one and independent at the same time,” the director says.
The filmmaker adds that they did a test screening of “2049” for audiences who hadn’t seen the original and found that the film worked for them.
Villeneuve first saw Scott’s film when he was 14, and its visual palette and sophistication influenced his decision to become a director.
“I deeply love science fiction designed for adults, and that’s what I was trying to do with ‘Blade Runner,’ “says the director of the Oscar-nominated “Arrival.” “This film is more about humans than technology.”
Scott wanted to make a sequel for decades and a few years ago
reached out to Hampton Fancher, a co-writer of the original “Blade Runner.” At the time, it just so happened he was working on a story set in the “Blade Runner” universe.
They took the idea to Michael Green to turn it into a screenplay, and the film began to take shape from there. However, Scott found his schedule prevented him from directing. So they approached Villeneuve who was intrigued by the script, but he wanted Scott’s blessing to do it his way.
“Right from the beginning he said to me, ‘You’re totally responsible for what comes. It could be either fantastic or could be a disaster,’ “Villeneuve says with a laugh.
The director’s first call was to cinematographer Roger Deakins, with whom he worked on “Arrival.” They spent several months deciding the visual look of the new film. It’s more silver than the original’s blackish tone, influenced by the low light of the winter sun.
“We had to look 30 years into the future to create our own world,” says Villeneuve, “from a geopolitical, economic and climatic point of view.”
In the new film, the Los Angeles of 2049 is in dismal shape. A giant sea wall keeps rising oceans at bay, air quality has worsened and everything south of the city is a seemingly endless dump. To the east is a radiation dead zone.
Villeneuve also knew that bringing back the iconic character of Deckard 30 years on would be tricky.
“I felt that I needed Harrison Ford’s input since he created the character,” says the director, “from what would be his clothes to the way he cut his hair to his mental state at this time in his life. I didn’t want to make those decisions alone.”
For his part, Ford was interested in revisiting Deckard.
“I was looking for opportunities to extend the audience’s understanding of the character,” says the actor, 75. “I really want to be involved as well, and I also was anxious to work with the people involved like Denis and Ryan.”
Gosling was about 12 when he saw the first film, and while he wasn’t asking himself then “what it meant to be human,” over the years he began to realize how much influence the film had on the culture.
He calls the new script “a love letter to the original while also being very much its own thing,” and he saw it “as a wonderful opportunity for me to be a part of something very unique.”
Villeneuve loved the fact that the new script had a lot of different female roles.
“House of Cards” Emmywinner Robin Wright portrays LAPD Lieutenant Joshi, K’s no-nonsense boss, who after he makes a sensational discovery that could have political implications presses him to get answers fast, leading to the search for Deckard.
Mackenzie Davis (“The Martian,” “Halt and Catch Fire”) plays Mariette, a mysterious “doxie,” reminiscent of Daryl Hannah’s look in the first film, who crosses paths with K during the investigation and plays a key role later on.
Dutch actress Sylvia Hoeks plays Luv, an elite Nexus 9 replicant who is the assistant to Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), owner of the vast corporation that makes the artificially intelligent beings. Luv is gorgeous but powerfully deadly and not without a bit of ironic humor.
The woman K goes home to is Joi, who is played by Cuban-born actress Ana De Armas. She is smart, sexy and ready to please.
When I asked Gosling if she was a projection of K’s mind, he hesitates.
“I find that’s consistent with my understanding of most men,” Ford jokes, jumping in when Gosling appears reluctant, possibly fearing he would reveal a plot point.
Since the original “Blade Runner” dealt so much with memories, I wondered how the first film played into Ford’s own memories.
“It has grown in my memory because of the stories people tell me about their experiences with it,” says Ford. “That’s what kept it alive in my memory, and actually makes it intriguing to come back to because other people are still thinking about it. It had this rare transfer of energy from the audience, and it still generates so much influence.”
Adding, “The reason we are trying to protect the information about this movie is because people are dying to know.”