by Gill Pringle
If Brad Pitt isn’t particularly known for his comedy chops, then director David Leitch had every faith he could pull off the humour required to play an unlucky assassin named Ladybug in Bullet Train.
Having worked as Brad’s stunt double on five movies – including Fight Club, Mr & Mrs Smith and Troy – Leitch knew that there’s very little Pitt can’t do.
“He’s a very smart comedic actor who makes great choices with his physicality and delivery,” says Leitch. “More importantly, Brad plays Ladybug in a way where you care about him. He thinks he’s unlucky, but really, his luck pays itself forward and proves to be good luck that rubs off on everybody else.
“Brad is an incredibly talented actor, and he can pull off a lot of stuff. He’s the first one to jump in there and really deliver as good as it gets in an action sequence. And the only time I ever really had to do anything for Brad, in all of those years as a stunt performer, was if it was really going to hurt – and then I had to do it!” laughs Leitch who, after a decade as an elite stuntman, became an in-demand 2nd unit director, and stunt coordinator on The Wolverine, Captain America: Civil War, Logan, and Jurassic World.
Going on to direct Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and John Wick, Leitch has since cornered the market in the action thriller genre.
Admittedly, when Bullet Train was still in the development process, Leitch and his co-producer wife Kelly McCormick were struggling with who could play the role of Bullet Train’s down-on-his-luck assassin determined to do his job peacefully after one too many gigs went off the rails.
“It’s such an interesting, unique, complex character, with an unconventional arc,” says McCormick.
At the top of the action-thriller game, Leitch and McCormack co-produced Nobody, starring Bob Odenkirk and, later this year, will release Violent Night, an elevated holiday action-thriller starring David Harbour as Santa Claus set against a Christmas backdrop.
When Pitt came aboard Bullet Train, he helped to define the character. “He’s so great with character,” says Leitch. “He had some brilliant revelations about what he wanted to bring to Ladybug.”
“The bucket hat was a stroke of genius by Brad,” adds McCormick. “He’s arguably the biggest, most charismatic star in the world. People expect his stardom, his charm to radiate. Instead, he’s hiding it in this goofy hat and glasses to become this vulnerable guy. He plays him as the underdog.”
Armed with the rudimentary mantras of self-help, Pitt’s Ladybug is looking for more peaceful ways to execute his job on his latest mission. However, unbeknownst to him, he is not alone in the task, sending him off on a collision course with lethal adversaries from around the globe – all with connected, yet conflicting, objectives – on the world’s fastest train.
Along the way, he will encounter Joey King, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon and Benito A Martínez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny, together with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry’s “twins” [below].
“Ladybug is going through an existential crisis,” chimes in Pitt. “Too many of his recent jobs have gone sideways and he’s starting to think that the one thing all of those jobs have had in common is him. He thinks he’s brought bad luck to every aspect of his life – it’s affected his work, and he’s trying to find a way to turn it around through peaceful resolution,” says the actor.
Adapted by Zak Olkewicz from Kotaro Isaka’s popular novel, the end of the line is just the beginning in this non-stop thrill-ride through modern-day Japan – all shot during the pandemic at Sony’s Los Angeles studios.
Chemistry-tested for their unlikely roles as twin assassins, Tangerine and Lemon, Taylor-Johnson and Henry were delighted to discover a genuine bond.
“We shot this thing during the pandemic and there was such a dark cloud around us and we really did lean on one another. It became a new family and, luckily for Brian and I, it was instantaneous,” says Taylor-Johnson.
“There was an instant friendship that will be there for life and the chemistry just felt natural. I didn’t know who Tangerine was until Brian stepped into the shoes of Lemon and we created this duo together; they really are each other’s half, and we wanted to lean into that twin thing. They were called the twins and I think we just wanted that to really resonate and not be a trope and a joke on us being black and white. It needed to feel like they were brought up together and there was a history there.
“I definitely learned a lot on Brian. He’s just full of light and joy and optimism whereas I’m always a bit of a pessimist and a bit cynical,” Taylor-Johnson says.
If Leitch was initially thwarted by not being able to actually shoot in Japan on a real bullet train – other than external pick-up shots – then it turned out to be a blessing as his vision grew.
“Ultimately, I set out to make my own universe. I wanted to be able to have a heightened world where we could explore those crazy, irreverent themes. We can have some fun with the sadistic characters and their ultra-violence. And we can have fun with the irreverent humour. And I think if you’re trying to ground it too much in the authenticity of the world, then you can’t revel in it. It’s these people that are not redeemable and it doesn’t feel right – but when you make a comic book version of something, you can have so much more fun and push boundaries.
“So, then the intention became, ‘This is not the real world; this is a heightened world; this is our Bullet Train universe’. We messed with everything, including the ride from Tokyo to Kyoto. The stations are slightly different and there are images of Mount Fuji in the wrong place. But none of that stuff mattered to me. It was actually leaning into making it a surreal ride for the audience,” explains the director.
To this end, Leitch’s design team created a heightened reality inside and outside the train. “Part of the fun was creating the environments that we wanted to be in,” says Leitch. “A lounge car, a quiet car, a Momomon car… We were driven by the idea that these were all places where we could do something different, but as it turns out, all of this research led to special discoveries that led not only to bold design choices, but character and plot. It’s more than just a place to walk through. They’re little journeys, little miracles.”
Bullet Train is in cinemas August 4, 2022