ADHITZ

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Orlando Bloom talks about his dark role in Unlocked




 Cape Town – Orlando Bloom stars alongside Noomi Rapace in the action packed spy thriller Unlocked in cinemas this Friday. 

The Lord of the Rings actor plays Jack Alcott a royal marine who teams up with Alice Racine (Rapace) a CIA interrogator whose mission is compromised.

Bloom sat down to talk about his character, action sequences, working alongside Rapace and his career. 

ON PREPARING FOR THE ROLE

I had a great time preparing for this film. Jack was fun. Michael Apted was great to work with, he’s an old pro and has incredible experience. He was very open to me finding my way into this character in a way that was really enjoyable. Jack is a hired gun. I kind of thought he was an ex-black water, ex-military, just a loose cannon and that was enjoyable. Part of that was looking the role. I wanted to have tattoos around my face because I did some research on some of the guys that come back from Iraq and some of the guys that come back from those military situations and they can tattoo their whole bodies like armour or protection. It’s like a dance routine when you’re learning fight sequences and it’s an enjoyable part of the process for me.

ON RELATING TO HIS CHARACTER JACK

This was an opportunity for me to show a different type of character and Michael was up for that. The thing about Jack is he’s sort of charming, he’s duplicitous, you’re not entirely sure what you’re going to get. He has a mission, he has an objective and he is going to fulfil it at any cost.

ON JACK (IS HE REALLY THAT DARK?)

As an ex-military person it’s like listen, “I will kill you if I don’t get what I need because those are my orders”, and in the world that Jack inhabits, he can do that. It’s not like he's a psychopathic serial killer, he's a hired gun and that was fun to play. Michael really sold me on this when we first met. He said, “look there are a handful of scenes for this character that he has. He’s a seducer, he’s a clown, he’s a lover, a hero and then he turns into this complete duplicitous ass, this awful human." As he pointed out, there was a handful of scenes with interesting arcs.

ON ORLANDO'S CAREER

I never wanted to be pigeon-holed. There are a few different things that I am producing that will come into production within the next 12 to 24 months. I had a great experience on this film. Noomi is fantastic in the movie.

ON ACTION SEQUENCES IN THE FILM

It was interesting to seduce her into my confidence and then flip a switch and become an aggressor who is both verbally and physically abusive to get what he wants. Having a 150-pound rottweiler chase me down was certainly unique. I had to protect myself. They had a dog trainer who demonstrated the position and placement for the dog to attack, which was my left forearm. So I had a pad on my left forearm and I remember the dog trainer saying, “keep your hands inside because you never know.” The challenge was to overcome my fear in the moment that the dog would actually take my arm off and maintain Jack's strength of will and determination to win at any cost. 

ON SCENES WITH NOOMI RAPACE

We had a great time exploring the characters and how they interacted in our rehearsal process. It was fun to come in as this seemingly charming criminal that you weren’t entirely sure what his motives were and then flip it on its head. Noomi is one of the most authentic and unique actors. She’s super talented, had great physical skills in the action sequences and was incredibility focused.



REVENUE HITS