- 3 years ago
“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 is listening to the fans.
00:09 Listening to the fans.
00:10 Now, and doing our best to give the fans what they want.
00:14 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.
00:23 Mr. Cavill asked me to wear this to intimidate you.
00:28 He's intimidated me enough lately.
00:32 So I went back to the CinemaBlend archives and found a story that we wrote in September
00:36 of 2014 of you tweeting, "kneel at his feet or get crushed by his boot."
00:42 And you're going to be playing Black Adam in a Shazam movie for New Line.
00:46 So my point being, for almost a decade you have stood by this character and this project.
00:50 And knowing how projects can come and go in Hollywood and even dream projects can hit
00:54 obstacles, what was it about this one in particular that made you stick with it for this amount
00:59 of time?
01:00 I had a sense in my gut.
01:01 I really had a strong feeling that there would be something really appealing about Black
01:07 Adam to the world.
01:10 And that if done right, there would be maybe a good amount of people who could see themselves
01:15 in Black Adam.
01:16 But then also, man, if done right, we could really shake up the universe.
01:21 We could shake up the DC universe.
01:24 And I get it, and you know the business very well, in that for a studio executive, when
01:29 it's time to make those investments, it's easy to make those investments with IP that
01:35 everybody knows and loves.
01:36 I love, like you and us, I love Superman, I love your shirt, I love Henry, Batman, you
01:41 name it, Wonder Woman, I love the Justice League.
01:46 But it was time, I felt even back then, that it's time for new blood and fresh blood.
01:51 And if you look at the DC Bible and the pantheon of these characters, man, they're such cool
01:59 characters that you could show.
02:00 Yes, Black Adam, who I just personally was so invested in, but also, hold on, you've
02:06 got the JSA who's sitting over here for decades and decades and decades that predated the
02:11 Justice League.
02:12 In no way do I want to step on Justice League.
02:15 I love the Justice League, because I'm a DC boy from a punk little kid.
02:18 I'm still a punk little kid.
02:20 So I love DC and I love Justice League, but let's expand this thing and let's introduce
02:25 the JSA too as well.
02:27 So to your point, to your question, there was just, there were a lot of elements about
02:30 this that just kept me inspired, kept me motivated.
02:34 And by the way, from that tweet, 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 of the next four or five years, and Black Adam was at
02:50 the end of that list.
02:52 Sure.
02:53 And it's easy to go, "All right, well, I'll put it to the side."
02:56 But I didn't want to do that, man.
02:57 I truly felt like, "Hey, we have an opportunity here."
03:00 So here we are.
03:01 You have two choices.
03:02 You can be the destroyer of this world, or you can be its savior.
03:08 Gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be with you.
03:11 How's your day?
03:12 Good, Sean.
03:13 Good.
03:14 Fantastic.
03:15 Good to meet you.
03:16 I dig the stache.
03:17 Let's see what's up.
03:18 Thank you very much.
03:19 Mr. Brosnan, I saw in a GQ video recently, and then definitely noticed in the finished
03:23 cut of this film, the wedding ring and the watch.
03:26 And I know that those are part of your personal collection, but I was hoping that you could
03:29 maybe talk about why you chose to include them as part of this character's development.
03:32 Well, thank you.
03:34 Yes, well, Kent Nelson, he had a wife.
03:38 Enzo was his wife.
03:41 He is, in my books, he was a widower.
03:44 And so my wife, Keely, I love watches, and she gave me a beautiful Blancpain there 15,
03:52 20 years ago.
03:54 And the inscription is, "Time flies on love's wings."
04:00 And so I thought it was very fitting to wear it as a timepiece for this character.
04:06 And the wedding ring is my wedding ring.
04:09 And there is a silver amulet on my right wrist, which is Haida art, which is the mythology
04:16 of the whales.
04:19 And so those three objects became talisman for me.
04:25 And I don't normally wear them in movies.
04:29 But that's some of how Dr. Fate came into my being.
04:36 In this world, there are heroes.
04:40 I feel the pain of my city wherever I go.
04:44 And there are villains.
04:47 Heroes don't kill people.
04:53 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 inside this movie, too.
05:01 It plays with the Westerns a little bit.
05:03 To what extent did Clint Eastwood influence your performance?
05:07 Greatly.
05:08 Clint Eastwood has always been my favorite actor.
05:11 Wow.
05:12 Always.
05:13 And especially those movies in the past, Unforgiven 2 as well.
05:19 I mean, all of his movies.
05:21 But especially those Westerns.
05:23 And I will say especially Unforgiven.
05:25 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.
05:30 And it was a true honor.
05:32 And so the influence, you'll see that influence.
05:35 And when I was talking to Jalma, Jalma did come up with that.
05:38 And he goes, well, let's make the Dirty Harry of the superhero genre.
05:45 Let's do it.
05:45 Let's be disruptive.
05:47 Go ahead.
05:48 Make my day.
05:49 So thank you for bringing up Jalma, man, because it really
05:52 gives me an opportunity to acknowledge not only his vision,
05:56 because he had very specific vision on how he wanted to disrupt,
06:00 how he saw this interpretation of disrupting, surrounded himself.
06:03 Lauren Shear, by the way, our DP, 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, this role
06:14 was a departure from really anything I've ever done.
06:20 So he really helped me too as well.
06:22 I like those kind of characters that operate in the gray.
06:28 For Black Adam, we are kind of discovering this character
06:36 that we don't know much about him.
06:38 And he comes into a town that kind of has been oppressed by some bad guys.
06:45 And he frees them.
06:47 So that had a kind of a Western feel, like we've seen Western movies that
06:52 have done that.
06:53 So we just played a little bit with that.
06:55 But so it's not like--
06:57 it's not a Western.
06:58 It's not Dirty Harry.
06:59 It's a little bit of that overall character
07:01 that when the system kind of is broken, which
07:08 we've seen in a lot of movies, especially in the '70s,
07:10 you need someone who doesn't follow the rules to kind of help
07:15 the innocent or the people who are not protected.
07:20 And that's what Black Adam kind of lives and can thrive.
07:25 We're here to negotiate your peaceful surrender.
07:28 I'm not peaceful, nor do I surrender.
07:32 A lot has been made about how difficult it
07:34 could be for someone like Dwayne Johnson to disappear into a role.
07:37 We look at him and we see the rock.
07:38 But I'm just curious if there was a moment on set or a scene in particular
07:43 where you finally looked at him and thought, like, oh,
07:45 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.
07:50 I think-- yeah, absolutely.
07:52 I think the way that he kind of has melted and blended himself
07:56 into this character is just amazing.
07:59 And so like Noah said a little bit, when we were all there together,
08:05 it was incredible.
08:06 It's like, OK, this is someone completely different and a side of DJ
08:10 that we may not have seen before.
08:13 And it's intimidating just naturally and very cool.
08:17 And just he's incredible to work with.
08:20 So it was like a--
08:23 you know, it was amazing.
08:24 I got to be honest, this is no hype.
08:27 I'm not completely objective.
08:29 I felt that way immediately.
08:31 Yes.
08:32 I felt that way immediately.
08:33 And it was--
08:34 I think it was the apartment was the first scene we shot together.
08:37 And just seeing him be so dry and evil 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, whenever he's just floating above you
09:04 when you're filming, I don't know if you've ever experienced this,
09:07 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 me.
09:26 Floating.
09:27 [LAUGHTER]
09:27 I mean, I don't fly.
09:28 I get big. That's what I do.
09:29 I don't care how many projects that you get to do
09:31 over the course of your career, a superhero--
09:33 playing a superhero in a blockbuster like this
09:35 is going to be special for so many various reasons.
09:38 And I want to know what you remember about the day on set
09:40 that you saw yourself in a finalized version of what
09:43 your Adam Smasher costume was going to look like.
09:47 Well, it wasn't on set, actually.
09:48 It was in a fitting.
09:49 And I was with Kurt and Bart and the team of stylists.
09:56 And I sat there.
09:57 They gave it to me, and I put the hood on,
09:59 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 exploded.
10:05 [LAUGHTER]
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, and that
10:13 was a whole different vlog.
10:15 This is phenomenally special in so many different ways.
10:19 This is very rare air that we get to breathe as actors.
10:24 Regardless of how many projects come along,
10:27 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,
10:43 I never really fully saw everything until the film
10:47 was pretty much done, where I saw myself full wings and all.
10:51 And the very first time I saw that,
10:55 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 expounded things a thousand
11:06 fold, because that's when you really
11:10 see 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.
11:20 It's so much better than-- it's so much more grand
11:23 than what you could have imagined.
11:25 And you just sit back, and you kind of
11:27 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--
11:40 in the high of what that felt like.
11:43 It's--
11:44 You get to watch it with fans.
11:45 Just wait to get to watch it with an audience.
11:47 I cannot wait for that.
11:48 I can't wait.
11:50 Be prepared.
11:51 You guys have been having to talk
11:53 about this film for a long time.
11:54 The release date keeps getting pushed--
11:56 or kept getting pushed back, and for the right reason.
11:58 We wanted to wait till it was in theaters
11:59 and fans could enjoy it together.
12:01 But because of that, you guys have had
12:02 to deal with very vocal fans.
12:04 I'm just curious what it's been like hearing
12:06 the anticipation for the movie and just the hype
12:09 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-- - Out of the mind.
12:17 Out of the mind, yeah.
12:18 I wasn't really looking at any of it.
12:19 But I can tell you-- and maybe you agree with me
12:21 when I say this-- it feels like a tsunami wave is coming.
12:24 Yeah, I agree.
12:25 I feel like we're just getting swept up in this tidal wave
12:27 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, in the beginning,
12:53 when the first release came out, I was so excited, so proud.
12:58 I was like, yo, I'm playing this character.
13:00 And I saw a few of how people felt
13:04 about me playing this character that's represented
13:07 differently in the comic.
13:08 And for me, that was the start of being like, all right, cool.
13:13 That's how you feel.
13:14 That's how you think.
13:15 But I know I'm going to bring something
13:17 special and authentic that goes past the bounds of race,
13:21 gender, identity, whatever, and make something
13:24 that I'm proud of and that is a solid representation of who
13:29 this character is in the comics.
13:31 And that was exactly my goal.
13:34 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, because I'm just like, I can't block it.
13:44 People should see how mean people are.
13:47 But also at the same time, it's like, what are you going to do?
13:50 You can only keep going and keep doing the work.
13:53 Fuck you.
13:54 Point up at the screen and say, that's me.
13:57 All day.
13:59 Sorry, that's the thing.
14:00 All day.
14:00 That's Cyclone now.
14:02 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.
14:07 They're going to kick me out of here.
14:09 But do you plan at this moment to make
14:11 the movie that is teased in the end credits?
14:13 Absolutely.
14:17 That is the whole point of this, man.
14:21 Thank you for asking that.
14:22 And I have been saying for some time,
14:29 this is-- there's a new era in the DC universe
14:32 that's about to begin.
14:34 And 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 Black Adam.
14:43 Two years ago, the world had no idea who he was.
14:45 We did, but not the rest of the mass out there.
14:49 Introducing the JSA, introducing that new era of the DC
14:54 universe, but also what I really meant by this
15:00 is a new era in the DC universe is listening to the fans.
15:05 Listening to the fans.
15:06 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,
15:15 but you'll always know that we're listening.
15:18 And in this case, with what you and I are talking about,
15:22 I have been listening, and I've been wanting
15:26 to address fans for years.
15:29 Because I've been waiting for someone to step up
15:31 and address the fans and say, hey, we hear you.
15:33 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
15:46 is to this new era, new time.
15:49 Now let's build out.
15:51 There's no one on this planet that can stop me.
15:54 [EXPLOSION]
15:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:00 you