By Gill Pringle
“I kept the teeth out for the interview,” Paula Patton smiles between takes on the cavernous Vancouver set of Warcraft, the highly anticipated adaptation of the seminal fantasy video game, which has also crossed over into novels and comic books. “It’s less ‘lispy’…it’s a bit of a challenge to talk with them sometimes!” With her green skin, knotted hair, and protruding, fang-like teeth, Paula Patton is indeed a sight to behold in Warcraft, and for those familiar with the actress’ past work in films like Hitch, Déjà Vu, Precious, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and 2 Guns, she’s also practically unrecognisable. “I play Garona,” Patton explains. “She is half Orc, and half human.”
Warcraft is an epic adventure of world-colliding conflict based on Blizzard Entertainment’s hugely successful game series. The film is set in the far-flung, peaceful realm of Azeroth, which stands on the brink of war as its civilisation faces a fearsome race of invaders: Orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonise another. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes – the human, Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), and the towering Orc, Durotan (Toby Kebbell) – are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people, and their home. Caught between the two warring factions, Patton’s Garona is a mess of torn loyalties, confusion, and indecision. She is also, however, a warrior, and indulges in ample arse-kicking.
Hyper-fit and impressively statuesque, Patton was put through the physical training wringer for the film. “We definitely did a lot of training before the movie,” the actress laughs. “We needed to get the look that the filmmakers wanted, and I also needed to be able to do what Garona does in the film. Actually being able to do the physical things myself really helps me find the character, and it helps me to believe. I don’t know if it’s the strongest that I’ve ever been, but it definitely feels like it! I’m not 18 anymore though! We trained 2½ hours a day, six days a week, for the first two months. We did weight training, mixed in with kickboxing and things like that. Then I started to do step training as well, which was with weapons, and knives, and boxing, and all kinds of physical defence. Then we also did horseback riding. When I got here to Vancouver, I’d never ridden a horse before…I learned how to do that.
Though Warcraft is bound to the usual veil of secrecy thrown over most big budget flicks, Patton can tell us a little about her character. “Garona has lived her whole life with the Orcs as a slave. When we meet her, she’s just left the Orc world, and she’s entered this human realm. She’s a really interesting character because of the growth that she has, and the fact that she has one foot in each world, but doesn’t quite belong in either. You never know where her loyalties lie, necessarily, but she has had to fight, claw, scratch, and beat her way into having any respect in the Orc society. She’s developed a tough outer shell, but when she’s with these humans, a vulnerability starts to come out, and there’s a new warmth, and a softening of Garona. Sometimes, I don’t know how much I can say…but there are new things that happen to her. She’s challenged because she just doesn’t belong anywhere. One of her skills is that she’s able to translate any language, and so the humans need her for the translations of the Orcs, and the Orcs need her to do the same. She can figure out a life in each world, yet she doesn’t quite fit in.
Unaware of who her parents are, Garona was raised by Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), a slave-master. “It’s not in the story, but I would venture to guess, as I create my own backstory, that Garona was more than just a slave, and that she was a prodigy,” Patton offers. “Even though he owned her, there was a sense that she was special because she had this skill, and because she was half Orc and half human. And if she’s made it as far as she has, and she was able to scrape her way into this life with the Orcs, and for them to have respect for her, then she would be very valuable to Gul’dan.”
Patton’s ability to immerse herself into the role of Garona was helped no end by the extraordinarily detailed sets created by the film’s gifted production design, and also by the collaborative nature of director, Duncan Jones, who makes the blockbuster jump after dazzling critics and audiences with his ingenious mid-level budget sci-fi flicks, Moon and Source Code. “This is make-believe at the highest level,” Patton smiles. “Every set that we had was incredible. That’s what’s great about the film. We do have blue screen, but Duncan made sure that it was set in this reality, which is great for an actor. It’s great to have these real sets, and to have real people around you. It’s not like just looking at a taped X on the ground…there was a real of connection and interaction, even with the CGI characters. That makes your job as an actor that much easier, and it also brings the audience further into this reality.”
With her rippling, muscled arms and impressive chiseled frame, FilmInk can’t help but return to the training that Patton did for Warcraft. Was the whole experience as tough as one would imagine? “Oh, you know what’s funny?” Patton smiles. “You have to do whatever it takes for the role. If I’m passionate about the movie, then I’ll do whatever it takes to do it! Whenever I look at the things that I do, the thing that scares you the most is the thing that you should be doing! And I was scared to death of this, but I’m so glad that I did it! It really was the challenge of a lifetime, and I’ve learned from it.”
Warcraft will be released in cinemas on June 16.
