by Gill Pringle
As “Guy”, aka blue shirt guy, he exudes positivity and cheerful optimism. But all that changes when Guy discovers he is actually a background player in the ultra-violent, open-world video game ‘Free City’, run by Taika Waititi’s greedy mogul Antwan.
‘Free City’ is a wildly popular game where chaos and devastation reign, players leveling-up by committing unprovoked acts of hostility and vandalism. It’s in this world where Guy becomes smitten with Jodie Comer’s sexy Molotovgirl, who helps him navigate the game and come to terms with the fact that the only life he has known is not real.
As Guy begins to take on a more active role as a good person – an idealist in a cynical world – he becomes a champion for both the players and the other NPCs (non-playable characters) and the hero of his own story. As his popularity grows, it is up to Guy to be the guy who saves his world.
Doing double duty as co-producer and star, Reynolds goes behind the curtain with FilmInk.
How did you get involved in Free Guy – both as a star and producer?
“I was sent the script. Shawn Levy and I have had a few near misses over the years. We’d always wanted to work together and there were a couple of times where we got right down to the last minute and for a number of different reasons, we were unable to make it happen. So, I sent him the script and the next thing you know he’s in my living room in New York and we went from there. And it’s hard to make a new movie. It’s hard to make something that isn’t based on some pre-existing IP or a comic book or a sequel in some regard. But Shawn is amazing at world building. He’s a responsible, intuitive and inclusive filmmaker. He really pulls everyone into the process with him, and I love that about him. I felt like it spoke to this time we’re in too. In 2018, it’s applicable in the same way that it’s applicable in 2020 although we may view it differently. But it certainly spoke to the world we were in. And I loved how joyful the film is and I’m so proud.”
Who is Guy?
“Guy is a bank teller who is perpetually cheerful, but a tad naïve. I fell in love with the character, who is looking for some kind of authorship in his life and some semblance of belonging. He has a childlike innocence to him and a very rote kind of pattern that he goes through each day. He’s obscenely optimistic, but then he meets this woman who helps him grow, and I think that is something a lot of people can relate to. She helps him grow in interesting and unique ways, and he gains his own sort of agency and an ability to begin thinking for himself, as a result.”
What were your inspirations for Guy?
“Guy was slightly new for me. I love the Peter Sellers movie Being There. That was the first foothold I had into this character and this world. There’s something really wonderful about playing a character who’s naive and innocent and looking at everything with new eyes, and filtering that through the prism of comedy and occasionally cynicism, and all sorts of other things. I loved playing a character who is stepping out of the background into this kind of new person.”
What was the greatest challenge in creating a world that was fantastical but also nihilistic? How do you make that believable as well as funny?
“The movie certainly tackles authorship and the idea that we can step out of the background and be a force of change and collectively as a whole shape and shift society in certain ways. And I think that the NPCs in our game world in the movie represent a lot of what we’re seeing, not just in 2020, but over the last century. You’ve seen huge movements and huge change is usually done in a collective sense, not in an individual sense. And it’s not always done by the powerful. It’s done by the many. So, there’s interesting touchstones with some of that stuff. And those are things that we wanted to write in but still obviously keep that levity. Keep that entertainment. Keep that action-comedy aspect which is so important to a movie like this, out front and centre.”
Are you into video games irl?
“I would say I’m a casual gamer. The most video games I’ve ever played was researching the film. I really saw the draw and I saw some pretty appealing and beautiful things about that. Not just video games but the culture. But I have three daughters five and under. It is hard to return an email these days, let alone sit down and do some gaming. But one thing I love about gaming and gaming culture is the accessibility. Particularly backdropped by a pandemic and being shut in. It allows people who don’t have the luxury that I have, which is that I have my family around, so for them the video games offer a little touchstone and a way to connect with, not just other people, but an entire community that have a shared vision and a shared goal. I really love game culture for the accessibility aspect of it. I think it’s important. Honestly, I don’t think you could undervalue its mental health benefits.”
What’s the value of comedy during this ongoing pandemic?
“It’s essential. I think it is like a lot of things, an essential service. This movie is a fastball of joy. It just leaves you walking on sunshine. And I think that you can’t underestimate the power of that. Art has always been essential in our darkest times and our lightest times. People really want and crave movies that can transport them, yet still say something about what we’re going through right now. And I think Free Guy really does a nice job of walking that tightrope.”
Talk about working with Taika Waititi?
“Taika is just a beast. We could literally have cut an entire film of just his outtakes, of just the stuff we didn’t use. He is a legend in every moment. The stuff he does and the way his mind works and how quick and reflexive he is, it’s just unreal.”
What were the themes that drew you to Free Guy’s story?
“What I saw was a sort of inherent dissatisfaction with your own life… and everybody experiences this. I don’t care how wealthy you are. I don’t care how respected you are. Everybody has this desire to push against something. The idea that people put these glasses on and become something else, to me spoke to wish fulfillment. And wish fulfillment is a very important thing. It’s the reason we’re aiming for the same feeling that we had when we stepped out of Back to the Future for the first time. I also think this movie speaks to our time; to what we’re going through. It speaks to people stepping out of the background and complacency and really stepping into their own vision, their own authorship of their own life and collectively moving the ball downfield together. I think you’re seeing it happen, particularly the last few years. But it’s happened throughout time.”
Guy changes the moment he puts on his sunglasses. Do you have a “sunglasses moment” of your own?
“That happens to me all the time. I’m just like the next guy. I get complacent. I get blind. I get sucked into my own bullshit and nonsense. And then the world rips that blindfold off and shows you what it is in all its naked glory and atrocities. And it draws you from rest to effort. It pushes you to do something, get involved and say something. So, my own glasses moments happen often. Maybe not often enough. But I never push it away when it does happen.”
What’s it like to be a pacifist in a violent video game world?
“I think a lot of people can relate to that. Gaming culture has the most violent aspects of society and the most pacifist beautiful aspects of society. Then there are the versions in between – the gray areas which are great as well. It was interesting to explore the idea of this guy who truly wants to do no harm and just wants to have a voice like everyone else and wants the other people that he’s with to have a voice and have the same experience and feelings that he’s having. I loved that about the movie. And any time you just turn on the 6 o’clock news you can relate to some of that. I’m sure a lot of us can relate to that feeling.”
As much as Guy imagines he’s in love with Molotov Girl, his relationship with best pal Buddy (Lil Rel Howery) is key. Was this bromance important to show?
“I love exploring male relationships like this. I think these are important examples to set. And the idea of toxic masculinity is something I’ve sort of explored in different variations with a lot of my movies. I don’t do toxic masculinity very well on screen. And I like that. I embrace that. I remember when we were working with stunt guys on Deadpool, and they would do the crazy acrobatics that I only wished I could do. And they would land in this really aggressive kind of macho way. And that was my only note to them all. I was like, ‘way too macho!’ That is just way too macho. Deadpool does not walk away with this bowlegged, badass strut. He’s got to sashay away. So that character was a bit of a balancing act between masculine and feminine. And I think Guy in Free Guy is similar, he filters everything through the prism of innocence… I don’t think sex is a factor for him. I don’t think it’s even an idea for him, necessarily. Everything that he lives for is bringing the people around him together and making some progress and change for them. I don’t think he has any of those notions of toxic or non toxic masculinity.”
How did you and Lil Rel bring to life this sweet, poignant friendship?
“I think Rel and I, and our respective characters kind of live at this intersection of a little bit on the page, a little bit in the moment. And from the moment Rel and I met, we just clicked. I was a huge fan of his – and he was a huge fan of Taika. So, it was great to get out there and mess around and play, and form that bond and put it up on the screen.”
After Covid-19 sidelined Free Guy’s initial release plans last year, yours has been one of the loudest voices regarding the theatrical experience…
“Yes. At the end of the day, this movie is just an absolute fastball of joy. It is one of those visceral experiences, and it’s heartbreaking to think about the possibility of audiences not seeing a movie like this on the big screen. Assuming that all the safety protocols are in place, I can’t wait for people to experience this in a cinema, on the big screen with that sound that reverberates in your chest. It’s a huge part of the experience, and this is a movie with tremendous scope to it, so seeing it in that format is so important.”
What do you say to non-gamers who may be reluctant to see Free Guy?
“I really don’t think Free Guy is a video game movie. It’s sort of like saying Titanic is a movie about boatmanship. It’s not.”
FREE GUY – in cinemas August 12, NSW September 9.
