Mother-f*cking geese, action film romcoms starring Meg Ryan, and angry delivery men who work for phone companies – as ever, we cover all of the important issues…
The Raid 2 has finally punched, walloped and roundhouse-kicked its way into Irish cinemas and, to celebrate this fantastic feast of fighting, JOE caught up with the film’s devastatingly-talented director, Gareth Evans.
If you’re unfamiliar with the plot for Gareth Evans’ follow up to the absolutely excellent The Raid (2011), the latest terrific-looking tale concerns our hero and fighter Rama (Iko Uwais) who goes undercover as a fighter to fight guys who want to fight him, especially when they find out he’s an undercover fighter, leading to copious amounts of fighting.
And sweet Lord did you see the bit about the fighting? Here’s a sneak peak…
Gareth Evans: Nice to meet you Eoghan, how are you doing?
JOE: Good thanks and lovely to meet you too Gareth, how are you doing today?
Gareth: Good, good,good. We’re coming to the tail end of everything now so it’s all good.
JOE: Well, I’ll not make you work too hard. How about I ask all of the questions and answer them too, just to save you from doing anything whatsoever?
Gareth: (Laughs) Yeah, that’d be great! Thanks!
JOE: Congratulations on The Raid 2, and The Raid for that matter, you must be absolutely delighted with the overwhelmingly positive reaction that both films have received?
Gareth: Yeah, it’s been insane, very intense.
I’ll be honest, I was nervous because I had a feeling that this one would be a little bit more divisive because we were taking it in such a different direction from the first one. Whenever we were designing it though, I always knew that it always going to be that way.
I’m not a fan of seeing sequels where they just retread through the first film and it’s basically just the same jokes with a slightly tweaked punchline.
JOE: Just like they did with Anchorman 2…
Gareth: Actually no! I really loved Anchorman 2! I really enjoyed that film!
But I definitely had the idea that I wanted to go somewhere different with The Raid 2, expand the universe more. To be honest, we had that pressure where there was a certain degree of expectation, which meant that we definitely didn’t have the element of surprise anymore that we had surrounding the first film. So we thought “OK, let’s just go for it and make it on our own terms, make the film that we want to see.”
Now it’s starting to get released in places and we’re starting to see who’s into it and who’s not.
JOE: Actually, near our JOE offices there’s a bus stop with the poster for the film that is jam-packed with 5 star reviews and, just yesterday, there was a group of people standing around reading the reviews, clearly excited about it coming out.
Gareth: (Laughs) That’s nice to hear, I really do hope it plays well for audiences.
JOE: You mentioned the element of surprise that you had with The Raid. Did you think that, at the time of filming, that you were creating something unique and special compared to other action films which had come before it?
Gareth: For me, we were surprised at the reaction that it got. To be honest, me and my producer never thought we had anything. We knew we had a film that was working, and we thought “yeah, this is OK, this is pretty good, let’s see how people respond.”
But there was definitely a certain pessimism there before the film got released, then it played in Toronto and then, all of a sudden, boom! Out of nowhere, people were responding in a big, big way with a huge level of support, and the audiences were really going with the film. We were just completely blown away by it.
It still surprises me now and it’s a hard thing to get over, it’s been very overwhelming.
JOE: I’d say it’s been a bonkers few years alright since those initial screenings…
Gareth: Yeah, it’s been so nuts and so good in a way because, to be honest, the benefits of working with these guys, especially Iko (Iko Uwias, the actor who plays Rama, the hero of The Raid and The Raid 2) and my DOP and everyone around us – we’re so close and have been since the first film.
We’re all like family and the benefit of being like family and feeling like family is that we’re all of each other’s big brothers and little brothers, so we all just tease the shit out of each other and make sure that none of us ever establishes an arsehole ego…
JOE: That’s definitely an important rule to establish; nobody be an arsehole.
And God help anybody that would ever have a feud with that newly-formed family you’re referring to becuase you’d all absolutely knock the sh*t out of your enemies…
Gareth: (Laughs) Exactly! I think we’d win!
JOE: Having spent so much time with Iko and the rest of the cast, have you managed to pick up a few kick-ass moves yourself?
Gareth: No actually, I’ve a decent understanding of the martial arts, but the sum of my physical ability is pretty much nil! So far I’ve just been happy to watch and observe the other guys. Let’s just say I’m learning the martial arts through the process of observation instead of practise!
JOE: I’m going to side with you on that one, that’s the way that I like to “learn” my martial arts as well.
You mentioned the star of the films there, Iko. He’s basically a baby-faced assasin; you wouldn’t actually know that he’s a supreme fighting machine to look at him. Is it true that he was a delivery man before being cast in your films?
Gareth: Yeah, it’s true!
He was a delivery man for a local phone company and I met him when I was working on a documentary. I was filming his Master because that man was the subject of our documentary, and so we went to film one of his classes and Iko happened to be one of the students there at the time.
I met him, shook his hand, thought he was a skinny kid who wasn’t that imposing and a really nice boy, but that’s about it. And then, all of a sudden, he put his uniform on, started practising and all of his mannerisms completely transformed. Suddenly he went from being this skinny little kid that I had met to being this ridiculously focused fighter and performer.
The documentary team found that it didn’t matter which one of us was holding the camera, we all ended up focusing on him. He automatically became the focal point of the group and I thought “well OK, this kid’s got screen presence so we should definitely gear up and make a vehicle to support him and try to position him as an action hero.” So it was a real gamble at first, but he has developed his own talent and his own skill massively and just grew himself.
I’m really proud of him.
JOE: His character goes through quite a change for The Raid 2 and Iko has adapted so well as an actor because, as you said, it’s a gamble when you put your faith in someone who has that kind of incredible skill set in the martial arts and you then think to yourself “I hope to God they can act as well.”
The brilliant thing about Iko is that actually can…
Gareth: Yeah, it’s so brilliant that he can and the thing is, knowing him as well as I do, we’re at that place where his life experiences are just coming into play now because, before the film started, and before we started shooting anything, he got married and his wife was expecting a child.
And so, during production, I was able to call upon those things and tap into him on a more psychological level where I could call upon all of those new experiences of his, and then bring those into his performance which I couldn’t do before.
To be honest with you, in the first film, I wrote that character a little too stoic and, with The Raid 2, there was an opportunity to challenge him as an actor and also to expand that character and bring much more complexity to it. The idea that he could do that, that he was able to convey all of those emotions just shows his growth now as an actor but also as a human being as well.
I’m really proud of him.
JOE: Well he’s certainly done you proud with these performances anyway.
A couple of final questions Gareth, did you ever consider calling the film Fighty Fighty Punch Punch?
Gareth: (Laughs) No! But maybe the next one will be called that. We did consider calling it The Raid 2: Electric Boogaloo but that was already taken!
JOE: Or 2 Fast 2 Raidy?
Gareth: (Laughs) Yeah, yeah, that too!
JOE: We’ve also got a dilemma that we ask all of our interviewees and, seeing as you’re an action film director, you may be particularly well-suited to answer it; would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or one hundred duck-sized horses?
Gareth: (Laughs) Ahmm, I think… I think I’d go for the one horse-sized duck. Becuase, although it would be bigger, I reckon that I could take that down eventually, I could tire him out maybe.
I just think that one hundred duck-sized horses would exhaust me. But then again, maybe… ahmm… ducks aren’t that small you see. (Laughs) I’m really thinking about this properly, just so you know, I’m putting a lot of f*cking thought into this!
JOE: Please do, it is a very serious matter after all…
Gareth: You see, yes, a duck is a smaller animal than a horse, but it’s not necessarily a small animal. I mean, if you get an angry geese coming after you then you’ve got a problem – geese can be motherf*ckers – so I think I’ll take on the horse-sized duck.
JOE: Well, you know what Gareth? Terry Gilliam agrees with you in choosing to fight the horse-sized duck so you’re in good company…
Gareth: Oh brilliant! There you go, that’s really good to know.
JOE: And could you ever see any of your future films having an Irish villain? I’m asking for a friend… a friend who just coincidentally happens to be into all of the same things as me…
Gareth: (Laughs) Sure! I don’t see why not! Actually, you know what, in some sort of weird segue of it, the next project that I do is going to be UK based.
I’ve got two projects in development at the moment, one is UK based and one is in the US. I’m going to be taking a step away from Indonesia for a little bit, but I’ll go back there eventually to make The Raid 3 and then make another movie after that. I definitely plan to go back there because that country did give me this career and so I feel that it’s important to do so.
JOE: You’ve made your name with those Indonesian action films but could you ever see yourself working in different genres, maybe one of these new projects you mentioned could be a Gareth Evans romcom starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan?
Gareth: (Laughs) Yeah! We could do Sleepless In Jakarta which all takes place inside The Raid building…
JOE: Perfect! What a romantic setting as well…
Gareth: Yeah exactly! Well, if Meg Ryan stays with you after that then f*cking keep her, she’d be one to marry!
JOE: She certainly would be. Gareth it’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you and the very best of luck with the release of The Raid 2.
Gareth: Thank you so much Eoghan, I really appreciate it. Good talk, bye.
The Raid 2 is in Irish cinemas now.
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