By Deborah McCormick
England born director, MJ Bassett’s first job was as a wildlife photographer. With the film Rogue, starring Megan Fox, MJ brings her love of nature to the big screen. The movie features Fox as team leader O’Hara, taking a squad of soldiers on a mission to rescue hostages in remote Africa. First, they must escape a gang of rebels and angry lions.
We caught up with MJ in LA, where she hopes to eventually be living full-time.
Rogue checked all the boxes for you, didn’t it?
This is the first movie where I’ve managed to bring together my first loves, which are wildlife conservation and action movies. Previously, my love of wildlife and natural history had always been a very private thing from when I was a teenager. It took Rogue for me to really find the story and opportunity to have real creative control over something and make a movie, which is all the things I want it to be and is about something I really care about.
You didn’t think Megan Fox was right for the role originally. What changed?
I didn’t see anything in her filmography that made her right for the role. I didn’t know anything about her at all. Well, I met her finally. I did the same thing that so many people do. I made assumptions on an actor based on what I read. I should know that it’s not real. I went to meet her and she’s a big name and helpful for the movie. We had a cup of coffee and we talked about conservation and we talked about family. We talked about how she knows how she was perceived and how she’d like to change that.
Megan wanted to do something that was a bit tougher. Her character is not a sexual character and gender is almost irrelevant. She is just doing the things she is supposed to do as a professional human in the world and I really liked that for her. I think she liked it as well.
Megan said of your directorial style, “she cuts deep in a good way.” What’s that all about?
[Hysterical laughter] I have no idea what that might mean, I’ve never heard her say that. Listen, I work people really hard. I expect focus. I expect commitment. I expect everything that I’m giving. If I’m giving a hundred percent, everyone else should be giving a hundred percent. It’s interesting with someone like Megan. She’s a big name. She’s a Hollywood star. To come into an indie film where I don’t mind if you bruise your knee or cut your elbow … that’s par for the course. We’re in Africa making an intense physical movie and the environment dictates a lot of how you behave. If you’re timid or uncertain, that place will eat you up. And the production reflects that. It’s like riding a wild bronco; when you do these kinds of movies you’ve got to really know what you’re doing or you’re going to get thrown. Perhaps that’s how Megan felt.
I know she left here a different person than she arrived.
Talk about the challenges of filming in South Africa.
There are major predators in these countries. You have to be careful of elephants on set. You have to be careful when you go out at night because there are lions and hippos and hyenas. It’s nice to be somewhere where you’re not at the top of the food chain; it puts humanity in context.
Why didn’t you go all in on the conservation message?
My trick is to make it look like entertainment and that will do its job. But if you want to know more, it’s there. People don’t want to know the ugly truth; that’s the difficult part. It’s subtle in the movie, but then later people say, ‘I didn’t know lion farming was a thing. I’ve never heard of it.’ It’s a way of getting the information across to people and increase awareness without making them feel like they’re forced to eat their greens.
Rogue is available on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital from December 2, 2020
