“The 355” stars Sebastian Stan, Jessica Chastain and Diane Kruger discuss their action movie influences, fighting in a dress, their admiration for stunt performers and much, much more in this interview with CinemaBlend’s managing director, Sean O’Connell.
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00:00 I'm mesmerized by the by those posters in the background there.
00:03 They are. You've got them all.
00:05 The two greatest films ever made.
00:07 So that's amazing.
00:09 George Washington's first female spy during the revolution.
00:13 They called her Agent 355
00:16 because they didn't want the world to know her real name.
00:19 I love that this movie could end up becoming a gateway
00:25 for teenage girls to the action genre, where they might not necessarily
00:28 look for stories or might not see themselves, but now they finally will.
00:31 And your guys' performances.
00:33 So I want to know who that action hero was for you when you were growing up.
00:36 Who was someone that you looked at on the big screen and said,
00:39 I would actually like to try that?
00:40 Ripley in Alien. Sigourney Weaver, man.
00:43 I mean, I remember watching that film and just being like, wow,
00:46 a woman is doing all of that.
00:48 And of course she would be doing all of that.
00:50 I mean, the fiercest competitor
00:53 in the animal kingdom is a mother animal protecting their young.
00:56 I mean, there's something about a mother's instinct
00:59 and like that feminine, ferocious energy that I think can be quite intimidating.
01:03 So, yeah, she would she would have been my favorite.
01:06 Ripley or Linda Hamilton are the only two acceptable answers.
01:09 Oh, Linda Hamilton, when it opens up on her doing all those pushups.
01:13 I'll tell you, I started actually.
01:16 I can't really do a ton of pushups now, but that movie made me
01:19 I would go to the playground and practice doing pull ups
01:22 because of Linda Hamilton in Terminator.
01:25 Who was the the action star that when you looked at you thought,
01:28 oh, I might want to give that a shot?
01:29 I'm not.
01:31 Are you familiar with the film called Run Lola Run?
01:34 Yes, of course.
01:35 Yeah. So I remember that film
01:38 as really formative because she looked so cool with her red hair.
01:43 Right. And she was everything that I
01:47 didn't think I was, you know, I'm blanking on her name.
01:50 I know she shows up in the first.
01:52 Yes. Right. Thank you very much.
01:54 That was a terrific, terrific film.
01:56 You know, you have so much experience with on screen action.
01:59 And so I'm just curious if there's if there are skills that you can carry over
02:02 from one project to the next to almost make action sequences get easier for you.
02:06 Or is it really different from project to project because of the director
02:10 or maybe even the demands?
02:12 It is different from project to project.
02:15 It's always about the story and the character and to what extent,
02:20 how how how much action are they capable of and whatnot.
02:24 But yeah, you you get more confident, you know, the more you do it,
02:30 you sort of start to kind of understand things that your body doesn't necessarily
02:35 do that. But
02:37 but but it's it helps.
02:40 It helps if you've done it before.
02:42 This year marks the 10 year anniversary of Zero Dark Thirty.
02:46 So I want to know if there's any Maya to be found in Mace.
02:49 Uh, um, yeah, it's 10 years ago.
02:53 I made I actually in like 10 years ago next month,
02:57 I would have been in Chandigarh, India and Amman, Jordan, making Zero Dark Thirty.
03:02 So, yes, absolutely.
03:04 And I'll tell you, the woman that I play in Zero Dark Thirty
03:06 was a consultant on this film.
03:09 Yeah. And she connected us to so many women.
03:11 She connected Penelope and Lupita.
03:14 And there's, you know, so many that we spoke to because of her incredible access.
03:19 So, yes, absolutely. We were inspired.
03:21 We're the top agents from around the world.
03:24 American, British, German, Colombian, Chinese.
03:28 So we need to join forces.
03:32 The green dress in the final act is phenomenal, but hard to fight in.
03:40 Or what kind of accommodations do they make to make it easier for you to fight it?
03:44 Well, what was amazing is Ralph Lauren actually made all my clothes in the film.
03:48 And we knew we had to go undercover at this art auction
03:53 and that this fight would happen.
03:55 So the question was like, OK, well, how can the dress be made in a way
03:58 that it wouldn't, you know, be completely destroyed or it wouldn't disappear?
04:03 So they created a whole corset system under the dress and made it quite easy.
04:08 It's actually in some sense probably easier to fight in than a suit would be,
04:13 because a suit would be more constricting in the arms.
04:15 There's a moment where you seem to get hit by a car in this.
04:18 I'm actually convinced that it happened to you.
04:21 You just gave it up for this movie.
04:23 [laughter]
04:25 I, uh...
04:26 Well, yes, there is that moment.
04:32 And I was allowed to do some of it.
04:35 You know, I was allowed to roll off of it a few times.
04:38 And that was kind of fun.
04:39 Never done that before.
04:40 I want to ask this, too, because every time I get to see a movie like this,
04:43 that's wall-to-wall action, I marvel at the fact that the Oscars
04:46 don't have a stunt category yet.
04:48 What are your thoughts on that?
04:49 Do you think we're any closer?
04:51 I hope so.
04:51 I really do admire and
04:55 stunt performers and stunt actors because and I think they're very undervalued.
05:02 I mean, it just it's there to some extent always risking something.
05:06 And and I don't and I just don't think it's easy.
05:11 And the weird part is what people don't see is they'll see a final product,
05:15 which is an edited version of it, but they won't necessarily connect
05:19 where the stunt man came in and make that look pretty and awesome.
05:23 And what you don't see is when you're on set and you see them do that stunt
05:27 like ten times in a row.
05:29 There are many times I've been in a on a movie or on a TV show
05:33 where they've changed, they changed what they were going to shoot in that moment.
05:37 And they'll turn to a stunt person and they'll go, by the way,
05:40 do you care if we instead of doing what we just rehearsed,
05:42 we just do this instead, meaning like you throw yourself in front of a car?
05:46 I know it's new.
05:47 We're just sort of realizing because of the light and things.
05:50 And then they're like, yeah, of course, let's do it.
05:52 And then they'll change costume in five minutes and just do the
05:55 do the thing in front of you.
05:56 It's like, well, like, what do you do with that?
05:59 When you get a screenplay like this, which, you know, is wall to wall action,
06:03 but has really great character development, what do you look for first?
06:05 Do you want to see like what your action set pieces are going to be
06:08 and maybe how physically challenging they are?
06:10 Do you look to make sure that there is strong dialogue?
06:13 Like what what attracts you the most about the project?
06:15 To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect.
06:18 You know, I've never been offered an action movie.
06:20 I don't think people look at me and go, Yeah, Diane Kruger is an action star.
06:24 So I was I was a little surprised when Jessica called me.
06:29 The other girls were already attached. Right.
06:33 And so I was completely intrigued why all those amazing actresses
06:37 would want to be in an action movie.
06:40 And and, you know, you saw the result.
06:42 And that's why, you know, I think it's a very fresh take on women in that genre.
06:47 I think all the characters are really well-rounded and representative of,
06:53 you know, what women actually are like.
06:55 And so, yeah, so that's really what attracted me.
06:59 There's a terrific scene in the movie where the ladies sit around
07:01 and start to swap war stories.
07:03 And you can tell that this means that the barriers are breaking down
07:05 and they're starting to trust each other.
07:06 And I want to know if actors do that on set.
07:08 Like, did you and Fan just compare X-Men stories?
07:10 Our actors absolutely do it because our job is to be open, right?
07:16 We have to be as open as possible because that's how we're affected
07:19 and sensitive and all of these things to what we're playing.
07:23 So from like day one, usually we overshare.
07:27 We talk too much about our lives, our feelings.
07:29 And so, yes, but Bingbing and I,
07:33 we were on the jury together at Cannes.
07:36 So we had plenty of time to get to know each other
07:38 before we even ended up on set.
07:40 I'm already planning the sequel.
07:42 It's going to be called The 710, which is 355 times two.
07:45 356, the days of the year.
07:48 What actors are you recruiting for the next film?
07:51 Who do you who's your get?
07:53 Oh, I don't know.
07:54 I honestly, I it's funny because when making this film,
07:58 it wasn't like, oh, I want to be an action star.
08:00 I'm really there's so many genres I like.
08:04 I, you know, doing Tammy Faye and, you know, scenes from a marriage.
08:08 And there's so much I love to explore as an actor.
08:12 I wouldn't want to be stuck doing one thing for the for the rest of my career.
08:16 If we were lucky enough to get to do another one.
08:19 It would be wonderful to like meet other agents from other countries.
08:24 I think that's the exciting thing about 355 is it's international
08:28 and it feels like I mean, there are women working in espionage all over the world.
08:32 And that's an exciting thing to bring actresses together from all over the world.
08:35 I like the new team.
08:36 We're the 355.
08:38 ♪ We gonna run this town ♪
08:40 ♪ Hey ♪
08:42 (upbeat music)
08:44 you