The Gray Man has "more grounded" action than Marvel, say Russo brothers
The new thriller has now launched on Netflix.
Joe and Anthony Russo are not exactly strangers to the action genre – having directed some of the biggest blockbusters of all time in the form of four MCU flicks (including both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame).
But for their new film The Gray Man, the duo found themselves facing some new challenges, with the brothers explaining in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com that this kind of action required a very different process.
“This is more grounded," Joe said. "So using the geography, the real location for the action, you know.
"With Marvel, it's a lot more storyboard dependent, a lot more imagination dependent, a lot more pre-vis – pre-vis is sort of a rough animation of the sequence. So those are more critical tools when you're working with Marvel.
"This is really getting on location with your stunt team walking around, thinking about how it can unfold. And we're also iterative with the process as we shoot, we'll revise, we'll shoot a few days, watch a cut, revise, go back, reshoot.
"That's an important part of the process for us. It's just making sure that before we leave, before we turn in the cameras, that we've looked at and revised as best we can the work that we're doing.”
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One thing that The Gray Man does have in common with their MCU work is that Chris Evans has a starring role – albeit this time he's playing a character a far cry from Captain America.
Evans plays the main antagonist Lloyd Hansen – a psychopathic ex-CIA agent with a prominent moustache – and Joe Russo reckons the chance to play this sort of role was something the star relished.
"He went into that role moustache-first," he laughed. "So you know, it was a blast. We love Chris – he's got an incredible range as an actor, he's very technically gifted.
"And it was a lot of fun to watch him, you know, not have to be the leading man, not have to carry a movie – that comes with certain responsibilities.
"George Clooney said to us years ago, when we were working with him on a project called Welcome to Collinwood, that he was having a blast playing a character in the movie that was not the leading man, because he said, ‘When I play leading men I have to allow everyone to steal the scenes from me. Now I get to steal scenes.’
"So I think it was fun for Chris to play in that sandbox!"
The Gray Man is available to stream on Netflix.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
