IR Interview: Xavier Gens, Jude Poyer & Nassim Lyes For “Mayhem!” [IFC Films] - Part I
Writer/Director Xavier Gens, Action Designer/2nd Unit Director Jude Poyer and Actor Nassim Lyes talk to The Inside Reel about process, approach and collaboration in regards to their new action film: “Mayhem!” from IFC Films.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02 What have you done?
00:27 You woke up the beast.
00:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:34 There's so many different things going on here
00:40 from all your perspectives.
00:43 If I could ask each one of you, I mean,
00:45 obviously, first with Xavier, the tone,
00:48 what you wanted to accomplish.
00:51 And then, obviously, Nassim, the psyche of the man,
00:54 balancing that.
00:56 And then with Jude, taking all that
00:58 and helping craft that between the two with the action,
01:03 with second unit and the fight choreography.
01:04 If you guys could sort of talk about those different things
01:07 that you guys focused on.
01:09 Xavier first, and then after that--
01:14 For me, the most important was really
01:15 to focus on the storyline and the character arc
01:18 and character evolution to make the emotion believable
01:23 by the audience.
01:24 So as soon as you can engage with the character
01:26 and engage with the story, you can go into action,
01:30 go into violence, because you have a foundation which
01:35 is really strong.
01:36 And you can make all the action scenes you want,
01:39 because people will engage for it.
01:41 So for me, that was important to be in charge of this
01:43 and overall of making the film, but keeping that in mind,
01:48 keeping the storyline, and keeping the character driven,
01:51 the emotion.
01:52 And I was really in charge of that.
01:53 And then knowing Jude for three years, four years--
01:57 it's been four years.
01:58 I was counting.
01:59 2019 is four years.
02:01 And we've been working for four years almost together
02:06 all the time, going from Gangs of London to Gala 7's Havoc.
02:10 So we were like, OK, let's try to find something together
02:13 in France.
02:14 So I had that story.
02:15 And I knew Jude was the essential person
02:21 I had to bring into the story to be
02:23 able to achieve what I had in mind,
02:25 because he's the master of his work.
02:27 And we know each other so well since we work together.
02:31 So I really wanted to keep that family
02:33 and make the continuity of the work we've been
02:35 doing through since four years.
02:37 So Jude accepted.
02:39 I bring him to the journey.
02:41 And then I told him, OK, you are in charge of the action.
02:45 You do whatever you want.
02:46 You have total freedom to create something based
02:48 on the storyline we arrive.
02:50 So there was the elements of that corridor
02:53 before the elevator was written.
02:56 But then he had the total freedom
02:58 to create what's inside that element
03:01 and keep the storyline about it, keep the emotion driven
03:07 by the character.
03:09 And then we met with Nassim.
03:11 And we were talking about it.
03:13 Nassim went to meet Jude to make an action assessment
03:16 to be able to see what he's going
03:19 to be able to do as an action actor,
03:23 to where we could push the action scenes together.
03:26 And as soon as we have reunited these elements,
03:31 Jude was in charge of the action scenes.
03:33 I start prepping the film in France and Thailand,
03:37 because the COVID was still going on.
03:38 And everybody was all over Europe.
03:42 And Jude was in charge of the action scene
03:45 he had to prepare to create.
03:47 And Nassim was in charge of his character
03:49 to start prepping his character, prepping
03:51 his physical condition as well.
03:53 And for me, I was in charge of the organization
03:56 and the rest of the film.
03:58 So when I send the ball to Jude, now
04:01 Jude's going to explain to you the process of what's
04:04 going to be--
04:05 what's the action design exactly.
04:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:10 I'm asking for a simple favor.
04:17 Get something for me and Lani.
04:18 It's yours.
04:19 [SCREAMING]
04:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:24 Get up.
04:27 We got to go.
04:28 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:28 [SCREAMING]
04:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:35 [SCREAMING]
04:37 I'm going to find them.
04:39 You woke the beast.
04:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:43 [LAUGHING]
04:47 Locked in and I'm lethal.
04:50 You guys don't realize what you cut yourselves into.
04:54 This will not bring your family back, Sam.
04:57 For me, you know, I think some movies can just
04:59 turn your brain off and be entertained by spectacle.
05:03 And sometimes that's nice.
05:06 But I really like action where you care about the characters,
05:10 where there's emotion and there's
05:14 something relatable about the character, where
05:16 you care about the characters, where you understand them.
05:19 And Xavier always injects so much heart into his projects.
05:25 So for me, before we get into the nuts and bolts
05:28 of choreography, I want to discuss with my director,
05:32 what is this story about?
05:34 And then later on, what is this sequence about?
05:37 You know, what do we learn about the characters?
05:39 Or what needs to happen in terms of the drama?
05:42 What are their motivations?
05:44 And then that's the foundation.
05:47 And it's kind of silly, but I often
05:51 think back to when I was a kid and I
05:52 used to watch "Sesame Street."
05:54 And they would say, this episode is brought to you
05:56 by the letter L and the number 8.
06:00 For me, when I look at a fight sequence, I'm like,
06:03 what is this sequence about?
06:06 And it may be about survival.
06:09 It may be about inflicting pain on somebody.
06:12 But there needs to be a character or an emotion
06:14 driving those sequences.
06:16 And I like to give different colors to the different scenes
06:21 so as the story progresses, the audience
06:23 doesn't feel like, well, we already
06:25 watched that 10 minutes ago.
06:27 And that's something I'll talk to Xavier about
06:29 before we throw a single punch in choreography
06:32 about stylistically where we're going.
06:35 So if you see the fight early on that takes place in Paris,
06:40 it's quite grounded.
06:41 It's quite real.
06:43 And then the attack on Mia and Sam's home,
06:47 it's also not very stylized in its cinematography
06:51 and in its editing.
06:52 I mean, it's hard hitting.
06:55 When we get to the finale, when we go into the corridor
06:59 and then we go into the elevator,
07:00 I like to think then we've gone full Asian.
07:03 We've gone sort of--
07:04 we've reached Korea by the time we've got to the elevator
07:07 by way of Hong Kong.
07:10 And that's something that for me, those conversations early
07:14 on are super important and finding myself on the same page
07:17 with my director.
07:19 And then what we do in pre-production
07:22 is we choreograph the sequences, but we shoot a previs,
07:26 which means that we shoot the fights
07:29 and we edit the fights ahead of time.
07:31 And it's not a blocking tape.
07:33 It's not just a reference.
07:35 It's something that my team-- and I
07:38 was blessed with an amazing small team of European stunt
07:41 performers to work on this previs with.
07:44 And then we refer that to Xavier for his notes.
07:47 But when we step on-- before we step on set,
07:50 when we get to Thailand, we have something
07:52 we can show every head of department,
07:55 the camera team, the lighting team, the makeup people,
07:58 the costume people, the art department.
08:00 And we can say on a shot by shot basis what is required.
08:04 [VIDEO PLAYBACK]
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08:20 [SCREAMING]
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08:27 [SCREAMING]
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10:04 it with his face. Those aren't shots that you can make up on the day. You know, it needs discussion
10:10 with the Art Department, with Special Effects, with the camera team. And, you know, I'm very
10:16 genuinely grateful that Xavier pushed for that and championed that, and I'm grateful to our producers
10:23 that they went along with that, because on a lot of productions in Europe, they'll be used to the
10:30 stunt team turning up in the morning, putting together a bit of a fight, and then you shoot
10:34 it in the afternoon, and then two months later, somebody in an editing suite looking at all this
10:39 footage and just cutting something that hopefully is coherent. And I much prefer action which is
10:45 designed. But of course, it starts with the emotion and the characters.
10:51 [Screaming]
11:07 [Screaming]
11:27 [Screaming]
11:34 You finding the psyche, finding the psychic psyche and the emotional character, but now
11:38 considering what Xavier and Jude was talking about, the balance of the physicality informing
11:44 the emotionality and back and forth. If you could talk about that.
11:48 So first of all, what I liked when I read the script, what I liked, like Jude said, it's not
11:55 just a stupid action movie. And the emotional core of Sam's character was like something that
12:04 really touched me and moved me when I read the script. And I was like, oh, you know, when you
12:10 watch a huge franchise and a lot of action heroes, they don't have this, you know, they don't have
12:17 like... And Sam had this emotional part of, you know, all of his story with Dara, his daughter,
12:33 and all of the... Because we've seen a lot of movies where like Xavier was talking about
12:40 brave hearts as a reference before. But it was not only about revenge. It was about revenge
12:48 and showing a father who is also a lot of weakness. You know what I mean? And that's
12:58 what I loved in Sam's. And it's not about... Now I'm not going to talk about the character,
13:05 but like just about like having the chance to work with Jude, because before that, I mean,
13:11 I was a big fan of both Xavier and Jude's work. Xavier, I knew because he's French, I knew
13:17 in my mind, I was like, oh, there's some possibilities. But like Jude, I was like,
13:22 never in my life would I have thought that I would have the chance to collaborate with him.
13:27 And I've never worked on action scenes with such a high level of demand, you know? And to me,
13:39 as a French actor, you know, it was such a blessing to... And still, I'm still like
13:48 think through and grateful to God that I had this opportunity. And I can see that there's
13:56 before and after for me as an actor, as an action performer, because I've heard so much
14:06 amongst Jude. And yeah, I'm just so grateful to Xavier, Jude and Vincent Roger, the producer,
14:16 who like gave us the go to do all of that and understood how important the action can be. And
14:26 especially for a French producer, you know, they're not used to work like this, trust me.
14:32 And I've worked with a lot of them.
14:35 You walk with the beat.
14:37 [Music]