'Greenland' Interviews With Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin
Transcript
00:00 I'm going to hit you guys with a hard-hitting one right off the bat.
00:03 Do you know if bunkers like the ones featured in the movie actually exist?
00:07 - Yes. - Yes.
00:09 Do they really? Can you tell me about them or no?
00:11 Or is it like a lockdown secret?
00:13 The fragment has hit central Florida.
00:15 Oh my God.
00:16 Wait, are some more pieces going to hit?
00:20 Come on, let's go.
00:21 But the sky's on fire.
00:22 We watched it as a family last night,
00:27 and my wife woke me up this morning still thinking about it.
00:30 She came out of the shower early and was like,
00:32 "Yeah, but what about this part?"
00:34 And because I think that I want to emphasize
00:36 it relies heavily on the kindness of strangers.
00:39 Like, there's nothing really special that your guys' characters are equipped to do.
00:43 You just keep going forward,
00:44 but you rely heavily on the kindness of strangers.
00:47 And I'm wondering if that's something that appealed to you
00:48 when taking on the story.
00:49 Yeah, I love that part of the story.
00:52 But it's also the kindness of strangers and the danger of strangers,
00:56 because you see beautiful people doing terrible things,
01:01 but for the right reasons.
01:02 But a lot of the time, there is just such heart and humanity
01:06 in there by the people that pass.
01:08 And by the way, that's the world that we live in.
01:10 There's a lot of darkness out there,
01:11 but there's a lot of light, and we can't forget that.
01:14 And I think that's why,
01:15 despite the fact that this movie pummels you,
01:17 it's intense, it's a ride,
01:20 but at the same time, it fills you with hope.
01:23 Even at the end, as it all goes through,
01:25 you're kind of left with the feeling that maybe we're only moving on
01:28 to something greater and wiser now,
01:31 and more connected and appreciating what is important in life.
01:35 These events, just like the pandemic,
01:37 always in some ways allow us to tap into a greater consciousness
01:42 and remind us who we are and what's important,
01:45 which is connectivity and love and tribe.
01:48 Marina, I'm really curious when you take on a part like this,
01:50 because it is devastating scene after devastating scene emotionally.
01:56 If there's any hesitation that you're going to take this on,
01:58 because you're going to have to live in this headspace
01:59 for months at a time and live in this--
02:01 Yeah, I definitely had to gear up to it.
02:03 I was a little terrified.
02:05 I have a work motto that says,
02:07 "If I am scared to do it, then I should do it."
02:10 And this was definitely a movie that scared me
02:13 because of the emotional commitment and the physical commitment.
02:17 It's really these two characters,
02:19 you know, the whole movie,
02:21 in different peril at different times,
02:23 and then also together.
02:25 So, you know, I would have to rise to the occasion,
02:28 but I really enjoy a challenge.
02:30 [dramatic music]
02:31 We're scared.
02:32 We'll find him. It's okay.
02:33 Clark's largest fragment will hit in less than 24 hours.
02:37 [clock ticking]
02:38 I'm wondering if there was something really humanizing
02:40 about giving the threat a name, like Clark.
02:43 Every time I heard it, it sort of brought me back into the story.
02:46 Yeah, I think that we--
02:48 most of the time, extraterrestrial things
02:52 are given more of a number or some kind of a classification
02:56 that doesn't feel emotional.
02:58 But right now, there's a hurricane called Sally.
03:01 I mean, talk about a lovely name
03:03 that is just going to wreck the Gulf region right now.
03:05 And I like the idea of not--
03:09 of what it conveys, that it is more of an emotional attachment
03:14 to something because we've given it a personal name
03:17 of what that event's going to be.
03:19 You know, to me, it was always two monsters in the movie.
03:21 It was not only Clark, but it was humanity itself.
03:24 Will we turn on each other?
03:26 And are we capable of heinous things
03:27 when it's life or death?
03:28 Or will we do right by each other?
03:29 And there's so many scenes in this film
03:31 because you guys rely on practical effects
03:33 as often as you can in this,
03:35 where you guys in the middle of huge crowd scenes,
03:37 and I can't help but think, like,
03:39 how hard that's going to be to do in the immediate future.
03:43 Have you thought about obstacles like that
03:45 in terms of telling a story of this size,
03:47 the types of precautions we're going to have to take on?
03:49 I don't know how we do that before there's a vaccine.
03:52 I don't see how that's possible.
03:55 I think smaller movies, certainly.
03:57 And I think that's what we're going to see a lot of
03:59 in the coming months as things reopen.
04:02 Or obviously, if you're in a country
04:03 where there aren't many cases, then that's definitely
04:06 something that you can do.
04:07 They're going to be harder to put together,
04:09 but we're going to figure it out.
04:10 I'm in the middle of leaving on the next film
04:13 that Gerard Butler and I are going to do.
04:15 We're going to go three in a row together.
04:16 And there's some scenes with massive crowds in it.
04:20 And you just realize that we all have to make lemonade
04:24 out of lemons, and we all have to figure out
04:26 clever ways to do things.
04:27 And we finished "Greenland" during the pandemic.
04:30 I mean, this movie was filmed, cut, screened, tested,
04:35 locked before there was ever anything called COVID.
04:37 And what we thought was hypothetical
04:39 suddenly becoming much more of a reality.
04:41 It was a very surreal experience to be on a mixed stage
04:44 and then suddenly be in the middle of the pandemic.
04:46 In fact, we got shut down from the California state
04:51 because of it.
04:52 And you suddenly realize the more different parallels
04:54 with it, but you also, I was really moved
04:58 by a team of people, and I'm talking about 300
05:01 between visual effects and editors and colorists
05:04 and mixers.
05:05 We all went to our couches just like we are right now,
05:08 and we finished the movie remotely.
05:10 So I love the fact that we can all get it done,
05:12 and we'll get it done moving forward.
05:13 Just get up and rethink things.
05:15 And I think there's something a really favorite producer
05:18 of mine said is, I think things like this
05:20 will end up knocking the rust off of antiquated ways
05:23 that we used to do things and finding better ways to do it.
05:26 - Yeah, that's good.
05:27 'Cause this was a great return to practical also.
05:29 You know, it was great to see you immerse yourself
05:31 in sets like this.
05:32 - Two days, they got it all wrong.
05:33 There's a ton of fragments, planet killers.
05:36 - Space agencies are predicting an extinction level event.
05:39 - We're gonna be together, all right, get 'em.
05:41 - We're just trying to get to safety.
05:44 - Do you know if bunkers like the ones featured
05:47 in the movie actually exist?
05:49 - Yes. - Yes.
05:50 - Do they really?
05:51 Can you tell me about them or no?
05:52 Or is it like a lockdown secret?
05:53 - No, there's nuclear concrete bunkers dug into the ground.
05:57 And I think I heard that they can have been forgotten about,
06:00 and a lot of them had been covered in ice,
06:02 but that had receded again.
06:05 But they're there. - In Greenland, right?
06:07 - In Greenland, yeah.
06:08 - Yeah. - Yeah.
06:09 - Now I wanna go find one.