GRoove
l love Liam (Neeson). He is tall and handsome, kind and funny, and annoyingly professional. Emmy Rossum
Bateman says that the story “erupts” from his character. But why? “Well, Viking doesn’t really operate on the same wavelength as anyone else. He’s basically a psychopath,” he adds.
To get into the role, Bateman read a book titled The Psychopath Test, which looks at people who who don’t really function on the same wavelength as everyone else in society.
“It’s very interesting to see someone making decisions like shooting someone in the face on a whim — even if that person happens to be close to them or work with them — because the audience never knows what’s going on in this guy’s head.”
Bateman says his character constantly keeps the audience guessing. “I rehearsed my scenes on my own in my hotel room, and I found that there were about a hundred different ways I could play this character, and each scene could be played in a hundred different ways. I could play them deadpan, as they were written, or I could play around with them and go, ‘Actually, what if I make this line funny even though what I’m saying is horrible?’” Rossum plays an eager you g r cop who is coming into a ne police department and wh is being shown the ropes by an older officer, played by Jo Doman.
“She’s very idealistic wh comes to right and wrong. And the town she’s in is one where there doesn’t seem to be a lot of crime. When all these dead bodies start piling up, it gets exciting for her because suddenly she has something to do.
“She’s living in a slightly misogynistic world where her partner, who’s kind of like your stereotypical white male, is very interested in her dating life, but not that interested in doing the right thing.”
In her preparation to play a cop, Rossum shares her experience getting a ride with NYPD in Brooklyn. “That was really, really fun. I always think of the police force as being older than me because they’re authority figures but the people I rode with were younger.”
Getting a glimpse of how the authorities work was a fascinating experience for Rossum.
“I think we naturally have a fear of the police, you know, just in terms of getting in trouble or being on the wrong side of things or in the wrong place at the wrong time, so getting to see the other side of that was really fascinating.”
Sharing her experience with the NYPD, Rossum recalls a female police officer she has gotten to know who reminded her a lot of her character.
“She was 27, and had just taken the sergeant’s test as she wanted to move up the ranks. She was a fierce driver. I’m a terrible driver, which was definitely one of my challengesbecauseIactu llyha todrivea vehicle in this picture, which is never advisable. And just getting to see how powerful she was behind the wheel, it was just very inspiring and eye-opening.”
Working with Neeson was an organic experience. “l love Liam. He is tall and handsome, kind and funny, and annoyingly professional. He cares about the little people on set. He’s really just everything that you would imagine him to be. He can go in and out of character completely seamlessly. He’s not the kind of person who needs 30 seconds before the camera rolls to get into character.
“I’ve been such an admirer of his work for so long that I was really looking forward to doing scenes with him. My character is initially intrigued by and is very empathetic to his struggle and the loss of his child, so they have some kind of connection, until the bodies start piling up.”
Filming took place in Alberta, Canada and the production spent the first four weeks of shooting in the Mount Fortress mountains, battling extremely hazardous conditions at 610 metres above sea level.
“There were some days where you would ask yourself, ‘What am I doing dragging everyone all the way up here?’,” says Molan.
“Mother Nature never ceases to amaze. There were a few times when we were filming up in the mountains that I thought, the audience aren’t even going to be looking at me on screen, they’re going to be looking at these billions of years old mountains behind me.”
On set and at that altitude, shooting days would start off relatively calm, but then suddenly blizzards and heavy snowfalls would occur.
“It was very, very dramatic and beautiful, and cold, which was necessary for our film. It was lovely getting up there, and it was equally lovely, at the end of the day, to get back down again,” adds Moland.
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