"It was one of the best calls we made in the film. I love him."
The most-streamed artist on Spotify in the year 2020, with 8.3 billion listens (yes, billion, with a b). The most-streamed artist on Spotify in the year 2021, with 9.1 billion listens.
In May 2022, Spotify confirmed that a new record had been broken, with an artist racking up 183 million listens within a 24 hour period.
All of these records are held and/or broken by Puerto Rican performer Bad Bunny, who is about to explode into the world of movies, thanks to his performance in brand new blockbuster Bullet Train.
Bad Bunny stars as The Wolf, one of the many assassins - played by Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beatz, Joey King and more besides - who find themselves on the same train heading from Tokyo to Osaka, all with different missions and means to complete them.
In the run-up to the movie's release, JOE sat down with Bullet Train's director David Leitch, and we asked him about the casting of, arguably, the most famous person in the world right now. You can check out the interview in full right here:
Leitch, who previously directed John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw, talks about his favourite action movies of all time, the most difficult stunts while making his new blockbuster and more, but we asked about the process behind hiring Bad Bunny for the role in Bullet Train:
"It was a really smart call by Kelly McCormick, my creative producer and partner in 87eleven (Leitch's production company). We were looking at a great list of Latin actors. But this movie is so bold and we were trying to find a fresh idea, and she said 'I think have this idea for Bad Bunny'. I didn't know who he was, but she knew, and she's my wife so I should know her musical tastes!
"He's been doing some acting on Narcos and he's really, really interesting. So we got a hold of him, we got a Zoom with him, we pitched him the idea. And what I liked about it is that before, The Wolf was going to be a grizzled, old guy at the end of his career and had lost the love he'd been with forever.
"And then I saw Bad Bunny and I thought 'No, it is new love, it is passionate, it is first love, and he lost that'. And it just made total sense.
"He's such a performer, he came to it naturally, he trained his ass off for the fights, he was a pro. It was one of the best calls we made in the film. I love him."
We also interviewed some of the movie's stars, including Joey King (below), as well as Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry, which you can check out right here.
Bullet Train is in cinemas from Wednesday, 3 August.
