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Join Telegram ChannelThe former Kingsman does his John McClane in Carry-On, a hyper-effective action film, which recalls what the genre did best in the 1990s. Encounter.
A crowded airport for the Christmas holidays. A suitcase containing mysterious contents that must be scanned. A security guard coerced and forced by a cold-as-a-blade terrorist. The cocktail is deliciously explosive and it gives Carry-On, action movie very effective carried by Taron Egerton. The young 35-year-old English actor, revealed in Kingsmanplay cat and mouse with Jason Bateman35 years later Bruce Willis And Alan Rickman. He tells us everything.
FIRST: Carry-On is totally doped with action films from the 1990s! Was that the goal?
TARON EGERTON : Absolutely ! It's a film very inspired by this era. From the 1980s or 1990s. That's what's cool in my opinion: we're really in a well-crafted popcorn film, which meets a certain nostalgic need.
Do people often talk to you about Die Hard Right now ?
But so much! (laughs) Besides, in the original script, there was even a moment Die Hard where someone asked: “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?”. Ultimately, it was cut, but that doesn't stop the saga from Die Hard was a huge inspiration for making this film. So obviously, people talk to me about it a lot. Die Hard 2 (58 minutes to live), yes, it's good, but I love the first one so much (Crystal Trap)…
Except that Carry-On takes place in an airport and in that sense, it's more like Die Hard 2No ?
Yes, it's true… but in my opinion, the biggest similarity between our film and the Die Hard saga is this connection between the hero and the villain. In Crystal Trap, Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman communicate constantly, at a distance, as in Carry-On. They used a walkie-talkie, we used an earpiece. But Hans Gruber was also the heart of Die Hard and I really wanted to do the same thing with Jason Bateman!
How did you shoot these sequences remotely? Jason Bateman is really talking into your earpiece?
It’s true that it was a real challenge as an actor to play that. Jason came to do a few of these scenes with me during the first few days, but he couldn't be there all the time. So I toured a lot on my own. Someone from production was giving me the lines in the headset… but it's a challenge to play an emotion without someone in front to bounce off, to interact with.
The settings are pretty crazy. It looks like you filmed in the middle of a real airport…
We shot the film in an abandoned wing of the Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans. It's a huge part of the building in fact, which we were able to rent for several months. It was perfect, because we were able to enjoy real airplane and airport settings in the background. This helps the film to be anchored in reality, to simply be credible. This was essential to build suspense.
Your character, Ethan, spends his time running from one end of the terminal to the other. We are exhausted for him at the end of the film!
My calf is naturally very developed because I walked on tiptoes when I was little! It's true ! So I have legs made for running. I didn't particularly train for this film because my character is supposed to be this somewhat lazy guy… So no, I'm not Tom Cruise (laughs)… but I did my best. better for running!
Carry-On, by Jaume Collet-Serra, to watch on Netflix from December 13, 2024.