By Gill Pringle
Watching this, you get a distinct Midnight Run vibe. Did you have any classic action buddy movies in mind going into this which you were hoping to emulate?
Ryan: I’ve loved Central Intelligence since I was a little kid so for me that was a big one…
Sam: (laughs)
Ryan: But I grew up watching all that stuff, Midnight Run…
Sam: That’s all they were throwing at us.
Ryan: 48 Hours….
Sam: And I did one. I did a Die Hard movie – where my job was to be an audience member in a Die Hard movie. I just kind of hung out with John McClane. And went ’ha?’
You’re both in great physical shape for this movie.
Sam: I do pilates three times a week and weight-training and physical training three times a week so I’ve got a six-day regimen right now.
Ryan: For years we had the same physical therapist.
Sam: I still have him. I still see Fabrizio three times a week!
Ryan: That was the first time we really met – through Fabrizio, like 12 years ago.
Are you doing the pilates too Ryan?
Ryan: I’m his pilates coach…no….
Sam: He was actually getting in shape to do Blade 3…
Ryan: …and fixing the shoulder…yeah, so that’s where we met.
Presumably you’ve both had bodyguards over the years. Is there anything you’ve incorporated in this?
Ryan: I refuse to work with a bodyguard unless he can carry me through a concert in a fetal position. I don’t know about Sam – I’ve never seen one around him – but we have them for Comic-Con or something, but I wouldn’t go to Chipotle with security.
Sam: I don’t have them in my life like some people do.
Ryan: It attracts more attention too…
Sam: Even when they give me security, I like for the security to be invisible. I don’t like people pushing people away.
Did you improv a lot?
Ryan: There’s nothing worse than working with a guy that starts improvising and makes it all them, and you lose the whole fucking plot. So, no, this guy here is the most professional guy you’ll ever work with. He and I both have a good idea of when to hit the gas and when to pump the brakes.
Sam: And the conversations on the page were structured very well. Occasionally we would think of something funnier or something happened in the moment that made sense for the characters – but we didn’t go crazy and off page.
How was it playing love interest with Salma Hayek?
Ryan: How hard can that be?
Sam: It’s not like I haven’t been in love with her for 10 years before that. So, when the script says: ‘Love at first sight – Salma Hayek’, the hyperdrive cranks up and you go: ‘Yup! Let’s do it!’ And she’s just such a great person. I’ve known her for a very long time and hung out with her and her husband and it’s just easy – and just watching what she does. She’s the one that makes the relationship believable. Being in that jail cell by herself, when I pick up the phone and talk to her, she’s yelling at me and screaming at me – but when somebody attacks me or wants to do something to me, she defends me like this fierce lioness that she is and cements everything about the relationship.
Ryan: She turned that role into a mountain.
Sam: Because there was nothing on the page…
Ryan: She just grabbed it and knew exactly what to do. I would love to see a sequel with just these two: the Kincaids on vacation, Sam and Salma on a road-trip would be great. Hitman’s Vacation! Hitman’s Safari!
You’ve both played tough characters but in this film Elodie [Yung] and Salma are both equally fierce. How did you feel about that?
Ryan: Elodie is a legend in the making. I love it. There’s literally no part of me that thinks: ‘Oh, let’s give the guys in Hollywood a chance!’ I think that’s played its course. So I love it, I love seeing that.
So you don’t mind having your ass kicked by a girl?
Ryan: Well, yes. I don’t like having my ass kicked. Period. But if it’s going to be by someone, it may as well be by a girl. That’s fine.
Sam: If you take Salma out of this world and put her in the superhero world, she could take on both Nick Fury and Deadpool as Elektra and it would probably be very short work.
Ryan: Oh my god, yeah. I’m surprised Salma isn’t already a superhero in the Marvel world. If Kevin Feige is reading this – think on that.
You’ve both had your share of action movies, but what brought you to this particular one?
Sam: Each other – the fact that it was going to be him. I’ve watched a lot of Ryan’s movies and enjoyed them and enjoyed what he does so I knew that the dynamic between the two of us would be interesting. And I knew I would have a lot of fun doing it – which is the most important thing for me when I’m making up my mind about what I’m doing. How much fun am I gonna have? And where are we gonna do it? And they said: London, Amsterdam, Sofia. I said: Sofia? But Amsterdam and London sounds great. I wasn’t sure about Bulgaria but it was actually kinda cool. I was walking around all over town. It’s amazingly cosmopolitan with a great art and theatre scene, lots of people hanging out – young people who want to practice their English.
That’s a great carpool karaoke scene and you have such an amazing voice?
Ryan: I went full Barry Gibb. That scene wasn’t scripted at all…
Sam: I made up the blues song. It’s totally made up…
Ryan: And I thought the only thing that will murder the blues is Ace of Bass. I thought they’d never get the rights so they’ll probably just cut before – his song was made-up so it didn’t matter about the licensing. But somehow, someone must have paid Ace of Bass some money and got the publishing rights and now here we are.
Sam: I read that fight scene and at the time, for some reason, I had just run into Lionel Richie…
Ryan: Of course I see him all the time…
Sam: But I read that fight scene and I was thinking, ‘Hello, would be the perfect song [sings ‘Is it you I’m looking for’] and I thought, ‘Bam! This is perfect’.
How would you describe the movie: action, comedy, parody…?
Ryan: The parody part I think is important because it does poke fun at some of the tropes of buddy action movies, it certainly leans in to some of the tropes in a heavy way and then other times we step away from it and deconstruct it and make fun of it. And then other times it’s just a straight-up buddy action comedy.
Sam: And it has some great rom-com elements. The romance at the middle of it is what the movie is basically about: he has this romance that’s unrequited or confused in his head, and I have a romance that grounds me which is very odd for the majority of hitman films where people always say you have to be a lone wolf, you can’t have attachments, you’ve got to be able to break away from whatever is going on in your life immediately when you’re in that world. But for this guy – that romance is everything for him. He’s in this situation because of that. He gave himself up to get his wife out of jail; he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get her free. So, there’s a love story in the midst of a big old action movie.
Ryan: You’re surfing a lot of expectation with the hitman story – like if you look at the Kevin Costner prototype with The Bodyguard, compared to that guy my character is just an emotional moron. He‘s literally seven years old when it comes to dealing with real-life issues and real people and his relationships, so I have a lot to learn from this guy who I seemingly hate which is so fun.
The ridiculous success of Deadpool showed the power of keeping the faith in that character for so long and it paid off in a huge commercial way. Has that changed your decision-making process since you’ve had that endorsement?
Ryan: No. But the thing I will say about Deadpool; that entity and that franchise has swallowed my life whole. I’ve always been so a part of every aspect of it and I’m so passionate about it, and it’s the privilege of a lifetime to be able to do that. And I’m only as good as the people I work with so to work with these incredible writers and this director has been amazing – but it’s all I do now. From here, right on through to release, that’s all I’ll be doing.
But you have a much bigger budget now, right?
Ryan: Well yes and no. We have a little bit more money to spend just because we have more characters to service – we’re introducing Cable and Domino so there’s a lot to focus on there.
And Julian Dennison?
Ryan: He’s the greatest. The one thing I’ll tell you about that kid – he’s hitting an absolutely tiny target every day on that set, and I’m so proud of him and I just love him so much. I’m very good friends with Taika [Waititi]. And that’s how I found him, because obviously I saw Taika’s film [Hunt for the Wilderpeople] and thought: ‘who is this kid? What voodoo did you put on him to make him this good?’ And Taika said: ‘he just IS that good’. He was the only one we ever considered for the role in Deadpool.
Do you worry about the sequel hitting the same target as the first one did?
Ryan: You can’t look at it like that. Our expectations were so minimal for the first one – and they’re not much different for the second one. The studio may think that we have to make the same amount of money but, for us, we’re just doing what we do and we’re in the sandbox playing every day.
Sam: there’s a graphic novel called The Pro [by Preacher creator Garth Ennis] about a hooker who gets hit by this ray from outer-space and she becomes a superhero hooker. It is sooo awesome – she would be great in Deadpool – and that book is equally as profane as Deadpool.
Ryan: Deadpool vs. The Pro….
What surprised you about each other?
Sam: That he shows up to work on time!
Ryan: I was going to say the same thing about you! You have no idea how wonderful that is in this business – when other people show up on time. This guy not only shows up to work on time but he knows his lines, my lines, the other guy’s lines…he’s one of the hardest-working guys I’ve ever seen so I wasn’t surprised because nobody has the body of work Sam does and works as long as he has and has so many people that love working with him, if they’re not like that so I wasn’t that surprised – but I was happy to see it.
Sam: It’s a fun job but it’s a job job and there are certain tenets about jobs that work – but if you know your job you can be efficient and play and have fun.
Ryan: The guys who don’t know their stuff are not having fun – they’re in hell all day.
Have you ever peed in a bottle like in the film?
Ryan: I have yes.
Sam: Of course, we’re guys – that’s what guys do.
Ryan: It’s a rite of passage for almost every man.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard is in cinemas August 31, 2017
