FREE GUY IS A MOVIE THAT’S LESS ABOUT VIDEO GAMES AND MORE ABOUT EMPATHY AND HUMAN CONNECTIONS
FREE GUY IS AN ACTION COMEDY ABOUT AN ORDINARY PERSON LIVING IN A CHAOTIC WORLD – NOT KNOWING THAT HIS REALITY IS A FORTNITE-LIKE VIDEO GAME.
It’s an outrageous concept that’s not afraid to laugh at itself, but deep within the core of the movie is also a metaphor about taking control of your own life and the human connections you build up.
That was the key takeaway during a virtual (because, you know, Covid-19) round table session members of the media (me included) press conference for the film, with director Shawn Levy, plus lead stars Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer. As with any interview that has Ryan Reynolds in it, there were banters galore, laughter and jokes. Here are my key takeaways.
Firstly, the movie feels right in these trying times, as Shawn Levy noted, “The movie was a screenplay that got sent to Ryan and I. Matt Lieberman, the screenwriter, wrote the original screenplay, and it was immediately clear to Ryan and me that this was a very good script with a phenomenal idea and that it had this kind of, this central idea about a background character realising that maybe he could have agency and empowerment in his world. That was a big idea conceptually as far as gaming and plot, and maybe that was more important to Ryan and me in those early days. It was also a big idea thematically because it felt like something that scratched at ideas that matter and that we can all relate to. And that was in 2018, and then we made it to 2019, and now in 2020, we really relate to the idea that, oh, wait, maybe the world doesn’t need to remain as you find it. Maybe you can have an impact on circumstances around you.”
Ryan Reynolds agrees and describes the movie as a “fastball of joy” and the exact kind of thing this year has not given us, “When I first saw the script…it spoke to me, which was just,
you know, simple action comedy. A bank teller discovers he’s a background player in an open world video game. I just thought, that’s provocative, that’s amazing. But really, discovering later and as, you know, certainly as we marched through 2018, 2019, and 2020, just seeing how this movie is just a fastball of joy. And I feel like we’re missing some of that right now in our world. So, this movie could not come along sooner for me, just as a movie watcher and somebody who enjoys entertainment and culture. I’m excited about that, and I think it’s pretty damn timely.”
According to Reynolds,
it’s the best movie he’s ever a part of. Coming from the man who literally gave us Deadpool, that’s a big statement. Ryan also praised his director and co-stars for making the actual production of the film such a wonderful experience, “I do think it’s the best movie-making experience that I’ve ever had easily, but also, I think it’s the best movie I’ve ever done. You know, it’s the most pertinent to our times, in that sense. Where I feel Deadpool was like a movie that was pertinent to the comic book culture when it came out, this really to me, speaks to a broader kind of spectrum of where we are in the world, and not only that, but how we are in the world. I think that’s one of the reasons I think it’s my favorite movie.”
“The experience certainly plays into that, but also this incredible cast. I mean, it’s not every day you work with a group of people, and they’re all on this press conference via Zoom right now, where each one brings something unexpected and stronger than, you know, you’ve ever sort of had before. Each one has authorship of their role. It’s just so nice to have a cast that you can absolutely 100 percent count on to blow you away every single day, and that to me was what made the experience so special.”
I wished Taika Waititi could have joined the press conference, which is a shame, because Levy was so impressed with his improvisation; giving the director so much strong material that he’s able to turn them all into a featurette. “I’m currently editing the longest bonus featurette in the history of cinema, and it is only of Taika alternate takes. Improvisations, riffs, 19 versions for every joke. He couldn’t be here today, but he’s such a huge part of the movie.”
To call Free Guy a movie based on video games would be missing the point. I mentioned how the movie is a metaphor about living one’s life fully and to be in control.
Here’s how Levy puts it, “It’s like all of us have felt stuck in a loop, and all of us have felt like a background character in someone else’s story. And this idea of, like, stop living in the background, or notice the person in the background; empathize with the person in the background. That’s a big part of the themes that play in this movie, and while they’re called NPCs - non-player characters - and it’s set in a video game, the movie is really not about video games as much as it is about being a person in the world and how you choose to live.
This movie could not come along sooner for me, just as a movie watcher and somebody who enjoys entertainment and culture. I’m excited about that, and I think it’s pretty damn timely.”