“Black Adam” stars Dwayne Johnson (Black Adam/Teth Adam), Pierce Brosnan (Doctor Fate/Kent Nelson), Aldis Hodge (Hawkman/Carter Hall), Noah Centineo (Atom Smasher/Al Rothstein), Quintessa Swindell (Cyclone/Maxine Hunkell), Sarah Shahi (Adrianna Tomaz), Mohamed Amer (Kamir) and director Jaume Collet-Serra discuss their new DC film in this interview with CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell. Find out if The Rock intends on making a movie that speaks to the film's end credits sequence and more.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 What I really meant by this is a new era in the DC universe
00:05 is listening to the fans, listening to the fans.
00:10 Now, and doing our best to give the fans what they want.
00:13 (upbeat music)
00:16 Sean, it's good to see you.
00:20 It's good to see that T-shirt.
00:21 I like it a lot.
00:22 Let's start with that.
00:24 - Mr. Cavill asked me to wear this to intimidate you.
00:27 (laughing)
00:28 - He's intimidated me enough lately.
00:30 - So I went back to the CinemaBlend archives
00:34 and found a story that we wrote in September of 2014
00:38 of you tweeting, "Kneel at his feet
00:40 "or get crushed by his boot."
00:42 And you were gonna be playing Black Adam
00:44 in a Shazam movie for New Line.
00:46 So my point being, for almost a decade,
00:48 you have stood by this character and this project.
00:50 And knowing how projects can come and go in Hollywood,
00:53 and even dream projects can hit obstacles,
00:55 what was it about this one in particular
00:57 that made you stick with it for this amount of time?
01:00 - I had a sense in my gut.
01:02 I really had a strong feeling that
01:04 there would be something really appealing
01:07 about Black Adam to the world.
01:09 And that if done right, there would be
01:13 maybe a good amount of people
01:14 who could see themselves in Black Adam.
01:16 But then also, man, if done right,
01:19 we could really shake up the universe.
01:21 We could shake up the DC universe.
01:23 And I get it, and you know the business very well,
01:27 in that for a studio executive,
01:29 when it's time to make those investments,
01:31 it's easy to make those investments with IP
01:35 that everybody knows and loves.
01:36 I love, like you and us, I love Superman,
01:39 I love your shirt, I love Henry,
01:40 Batman, you name it, Wonder Woman,
01:42 I love the Justice League.
01:44 But it was time, I felt even back then,
01:49 that it's time for new blood and fresh blood.
01:51 And if you look at the DC Bible
01:56 and the pantheon of these characters,
01:58 man, they're such cool characters that you could show.
02:01 Yes, Black Adam, who I just personally was so invested in,
02:03 but also, hold on, you've got the JSA
02:07 who's sitting over here for decades and decades and decades
02:11 that predated the Justice League.
02:12 In no way do I wanna step on Justice League.
02:15 I love the Justice League, 'cause I'm a DC boy,
02:17 from a punk little kid, I'm still a punk little kid.
02:20 So I love DC and I love Justice League,
02:23 but let's expand this thing
02:25 and let's introduce the JSA too as well.
02:27 So to your point, to your question,
02:28 there was just, there were a lot of elements about this
02:31 that just kept me inspired, kept me motivated.
02:34 And by the way, from that tweet,
02:38 I was so excited, we were so excited.
02:41 It was almost 10 years ago, as you know.
02:43 And even then, they had a rollout
02:47 of the next four or five years
02:49 and Black Adam was at the end of that list.
02:52 And it's easy to go, all right, well, I'll put it to the side
02:56 but I didn't wanna do that, man.
02:57 I truly felt like, hey, we have an opportunity here.
03:00 So here we are.
03:03 You have two choices.
03:04 You can be the destroyer of this world
03:07 or you can be its savior.
03:11 Gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be with you.
03:12 How's your day?
03:13 Good, Sean.
03:14 Fantastic, what's up?
03:15 I dig the stache.
03:17 Let's see what's up.
03:18 Thank you very much.
03:19 Mr. Brazen, I saw in a GQ video recently
03:21 and then definitely noticed in the finished cut of this film
03:24 the wedding ring and the watch.
03:26 And I know that those are part of your personal collection
03:28 but I was hoping that you can maybe talk about
03:29 why you chose to include them
03:31 as part of this character's development.
03:33 Well, thank you.
03:34 Yes, well, Kent Nelson, he had a wife.
03:38 He had, Inzo was his wife.
03:40 He is, in my books, he was a widower.
03:44 And so my wife, Keely, I love watches
03:48 and she gave me a beautiful plonk pon
03:51 there 15, 20 years ago.
03:54 And the inscription is, "Time flies on love's wings."
03:59 And so I thought it was very fitting to wear it
04:03 as a timepiece for this character.
04:05 And the wedding ring is my wedding ring.
04:09 And there is a silver amulet on my right wrist
04:12 which is Haida art, which is the mythology of the whales.
04:18 And so, you know, those three objects
04:23 became talisman for me.
04:25 And I don't normally, I wear them in movies,
04:29 but that's some of how Dr. Fate came into my being.
04:34 In this world, there are heroes.
04:40 (intense music)
04:43 And there are villains.
04:47 Heroes don't kill people.
04:49 Well, I do.
04:54 - Your director called him the Dirty Harry of superheroes.
04:57 And there's a great good and bad and ugly reference
05:00 inside this movie too.
05:02 It plays with the Westerns a little bit.
05:03 To what extent did Clint Eastwood influence your performance?
05:07 - Greatly.
05:09 Clint Eastwood has always been my favorite actor.
05:11 And- - Wow.
05:13 - Always.
05:14 And especially those movies in the past,
05:16 Unforgiven 2 as well.
05:18 I mean, all of his movies, but especially those Westerns.
05:23 And I will say, especially Unforgiven.
05:26 He has always been my favorite actor.
05:27 I had the honor to meet him.
05:28 He surprised me a few years ago and it was a true honor.
05:33 And so the influence, you'll see that influence.
05:36 And when I was talking to Jauma,
05:37 Jauma did come up with that and he goes,
05:40 "Well, let's make the Dirty Harry of the superhero genre.
05:45 Let's do it. Let's be disruptive."
05:47 - Go ahead. Make my day.
05:49 - So I thank you for bringing up Jauma, man.
05:52 'Cause it really gives me an opportunity
05:53 to acknowledge not only his vision
05:56 and 'cause he had very specific vision
05:58 on how he wanted to disrupt,
06:00 how he saw this interpretation of disrupting,
06:03 surrounded himself.
06:04 Lauren Shear, by the way, our DP,
06:05 who's now on Joker 2, back on Joker 2.
06:08 Just incredible.
06:09 He assembled an incredible team.
06:11 But also just for me personally,
06:14 this role was a departure
06:18 from really anything I've ever done.
06:20 So he really helped me too, as well.
06:23 - I like those kinds of characters that operate in the gray.
06:26 Or, you know, Black Adam,
06:31 we are kind of discovering this character
06:36 that we don't know much about him.
06:39 And he comes into a town that kind of has been oppressed
06:44 by some bad guys and he frees them.
06:48 So that had a kind of a Western feel.
06:50 Like, you know, we've seen Western movies
06:52 that have done that.
06:53 So we just played a little bit with that.
06:56 But, so it's not like, it's not a Western,
06:58 it's not Dirty Harry.
06:59 It's a little bit of that overall character
07:02 that when the system kind of is broken,
07:06 and which we've seen in a lot of movies,
07:09 especially in the '70s,
07:11 you need someone who doesn't follow the rules
07:15 to kind of help the innocent
07:18 or the people who are not protected.
07:21 And that's where Black Adam kind of lives and can thrive.
07:25 - We're here to negotiate your peaceful surrender.
07:27 - I'm not peaceful.
07:29 Nor do I surrender.
07:32 - A lot has been made about how difficult it can be
07:34 for someone like Dwayne Johnson to disappear into a role.
07:37 Like, we look at him and we see the rock.
07:39 But I'm just curious if there was a moment on set
07:42 or a scene in particular where you finally looked at him
07:44 and thought like, "Oh, I don't see Dwayne Johnson anymore.
07:46 "I only see Black Adam."
07:48 - Oh, from the first time I saw him in the suit.
07:51 - Really? - Yeah, absolutely.
07:52 I think the way that he kind of has like melted
07:56 and blended himself into this character
07:58 is just like amazing.
08:00 And so, you know, like Noah said, like a little bit is,
08:04 you know, when we were all there together,
08:05 it was incredible.
08:06 It's like, okay, you know,
08:07 this is like someone completely different
08:09 and a side of DJ that we like, you know,
08:12 may not have seen before.
08:13 And it's intimidating just naturally and very cool.
08:17 And just, you know, he's incredible to work with.
08:21 So it was like a, you know, it was amazing.
08:24 - I gotta be honest, this is no hype.
08:27 I'm not completely objective.
08:30 I felt that way immediately.
08:31 - Yes.
08:32 - I felt that way immediately.
08:33 And it was, I think it was the apartment
08:35 was the first scene we shot together
08:37 and just seeing him be so dry and evil,
08:41 but casual about it.
08:42 - Yeah.
08:43 - Like it was just hysterical to me.
08:46 And in that moment I was like, oh, this is special.
08:49 This is really what the amazing body of work that he has
08:54 is all culminating and coming to a really,
08:57 in a fantastic way with Black Adam.
09:00 And then the other scenes,
09:02 whenever he's just floating above you when you're filming,
09:06 I don't know if you've ever experienced this,
09:08 but that's pretty ridiculous.
09:10 Like at the perfect lighting and he's just there
09:13 and it's glowing behind him.
09:15 I looked at him when we were doing the pickups.
09:17 I was like, this is just fucking ridiculous.
09:20 I mean, I have no other way.
09:22 - He did that to me last week.
09:23 I walked outside and he was outside my house,
09:25 just floating over.
09:26 - Floating.
09:27 (laughing)
09:28 - I mean, I don't fly.
09:29 I get big.
09:29 That's what I do.
09:30 - I don't care how many projects that you get to do
09:31 over the course of your career,
09:32 a superhero, playing a superhero
09:34 in a blockbuster like this is going to be special
09:36 for so many various reasons.
09:38 And I want to know what you remember
09:39 about the day on set that you saw yourself
09:42 in a finalized version of what your Adam Smasher costume
09:45 was going to look like.
09:46 - Well, it wasn't on set actually.
09:48 It was in a fitting.
09:50 And I was with Kurt and Bart
09:52 and the team of stylists.
09:56 And I sat there, they gave it to me
09:58 and I put the hood on and they zipped me up
10:00 and then I turned and I faced the mirror
10:02 and the four-year-old in me just like exploded.
10:05 (laughing)
10:06 It was so cool.
10:08 I couldn't believe it.
10:09 It was like, oh my God, this is real.
10:11 Let's do it.
10:12 And then we showed up on set
10:13 and that was a whole different vlog.
10:15 - This is phenomenally special in so many different ways.
10:20 This is very rare air that we get to breathe as actors.
10:23 Regardless of how many projects come along,
10:26 there aren't many projects that can fit this bill, right?
10:32 So I understand how special and unique this is.
10:37 Stepping into seeing myself in the costume
10:39 and sort of the full nature of things.
10:42 I never really fully saw everything until,
10:46 you know, the film was pretty much done
10:49 where I saw myself full wings and all.
10:51 And the very first time I saw that,
10:53 it was everything beyond what I could have ever imagined.
10:59 And I knew it was special to me before,
11:01 but that just completely, you know,
11:03 expounded things a thousand fold
11:07 because that's when you really see
11:11 all of the hard work that you put in,
11:13 every choice that you made,
11:15 it all really comes together in a glorious way.
11:19 But it's so far beyond, it's so much better than,
11:22 it's so much more grand than what you could have imagined.
11:25 And you just sit back
11:26 and you kind of live in the wonderment of that.
11:31 And it's an experience that's really hard to explain
11:34 because it's almost like you don't believe it.
11:37 So for me, I'm still sort of in the living on,
11:40 in the high of what that felt like.
11:44 It's-
11:44 - Wait till you get to watch it with fans.
11:46 Just wait to get to watch it with an audience.
11:46 - I cannot wait for that.
11:49 I can't wait.
11:50 - Be prepared.
11:51 - You guys have been having to talk about this film
11:54 for a long time.
11:55 The release date keeps getting pushed,
11:56 or kept getting pushed back.
11:57 And for the right reason,
11:58 we wanted to wait until it was in theaters
11:59 and fans could enjoy it together.
12:01 But because of that,
12:02 you guys have had to deal with very vocal fans.
12:04 I'm just curious what it's been like
12:06 hearing the anticipation for the movie
12:08 and just the hype that gets built up for it.
12:11 How plugged into that were you guys even?
12:13 Or did you just put it out of your mind
12:14 and when it opens, it opens?
12:16 - I mean, I wasn't-
12:17 - Out of the mind.
12:18 - Out of the mind, yeah.
12:19 I wasn't really looking at any of it,
12:20 but I can tell you,
12:21 and maybe you agree with me when I say this,
12:22 it feels like a tsunami wave is coming.
12:25 - Yeah.
12:25 - I feel like we're just getting swept up
12:26 in this tidal wave right now.
12:28 And the excitement is growing.
12:30 And we were just in Mexico City,
12:32 and we had thousands of people around us just chanting,
12:37 and they were so amped.
12:39 And we have been so excited for the last year and a half
12:42 since we started this project.
12:44 And now to see that coming back at us is surreal.
12:49 - And I think for me too,
12:51 like in the beginning,
12:52 when the first release came out,
12:56 I was so excited, so proud.
12:58 I was like, yo, I'm playing this character.
13:00 And I saw like a few of kind of like how people felt
13:04 about me playing this character
13:06 that's represented differently in the comic.
13:09 And for me, that was kind of like the start of being like,
13:11 all right, cool.
13:13 Like, that's how you feel, that's how you think.
13:15 But I know I'm going to bring something special
13:18 and authentic that goes past the bounds of race,
13:21 gender, identity, whatever,
13:24 and make something that I'm proud of.
13:26 And that is a solid representation
13:29 of who this character is in the comics.
13:31 And that is, you know, that was exactly my goal.
13:35 And I couldn't be more proud of it
13:36 and more proud of everyone else.
13:38 - Good.
13:39 That's also what the block button is for,
13:40 when you see stupid shit like that.
13:42 - No, 'cause I'm just like, I can't block it.
13:44 Like people should see how mean people are.
13:47 But also at the same time, you know, it's like,
13:49 what are you going to do?
13:50 You can only keep going and keep doing the work.
13:53 - Fuck you.
13:54 - Period.
13:55 - Point up at the screen and say, that's me.
13:57 - All day.
13:59 - Yeah.
13:59 - Sorry, that's the thing. - All day.
14:01 - That's Cyclone now.
14:02 - That's, look, that's who it is.
14:03 - However you feel about it, that's Cyclone.
14:05 - That's Cyclone.
14:06 - I just got goosebumps.
14:08 - They're going to kick me out of here,
14:09 but do you plan at this moment to make the movie
14:12 that is teased in the end credits?
14:16 - Absolutely, that is the whole point of this, man.
14:21 Thank you for asking that.
14:22 And I, I have been saying for some time,
14:27 this is, there's a new era in the DC universe
14:33 that's about to begin.
14:34 And I, what I meant by that was introducing
14:37 a brand new character.
14:38 It's not a sequel, not an existing IP.
14:40 It was, it was, you know, Black Adam.
14:43 Two years ago, the world had no idea who he was.
14:45 We did, but not, you know, the rest of the mass out there.
14:49 Introducing the JSA, introducing that new era
14:53 of the DC universe.
14:55 But also what I really meant by this is a new era
15:00 in the DC universe is listening to the fans,
15:04 listening to the fans.
15:07 Now, and doing our best to give the fans what they want.
15:09 And maybe sometimes down the road,
15:11 and I went through this in pro wrestling,
15:13 is you can't always give them what you want,
15:16 but you'll always know that we're listening.
15:18 And in this case, with what you and I are talking about,
15:21 I have been listening and I've been wanting
15:26 to address fans for years.
15:29 'Cause I've been waiting for someone to step up
15:31 and address the fans and say, "Hey, we hear you."
15:34 So finally, after many months turned into many years,
15:41 we ended up with what we ended up at.
15:43 And the whole goal and intention now is to this new era,
15:48 new time, now let's build out.
15:51 There's no one on this planet that can stop me.
15:53 [dramatic music]
15:56 [crowd cheering]
15:59 (upbeat music)