In an era where action films rarely stand out amongst the overwhelming quota of superhero franchises and violent Jason Statham vehicles, director William Eubank (Underwater, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin) dares to breathe fresh life into the genre with his new film Land of Bad. The film follows four Special Ops agents (Liam Hemsworth, Milo Ventimiglia, Luke Hemsworth, and Ricky Whittle) who are tasked with rescuing a CIA spy who has been captured in the treacherous Sulu Sea. Back at an airbase in Las Vegas, Captain Eddie “Reaper” Grimm (Russell Crowe) is piloting a US Air Force drone and offering support to the rookie of the crew, Sergeant Kinney (Liam Hemsworth), while juggling challenges of his very own.
Written by Eubank and David Frigerio, Land of Bad is an edge-of-your seat experience that offers thrills akin to the most terrifyingly-immersive theme park rides, humor that reaches hilarious heights, and a level of self awareness that is typically unheard of in an average action flick. There is a palpable fear that this film instills in you–with POV shots that make you feel as if you’re jumping into the forest right alongside these hunks–but the coziness of this crew, along with the stunning cinematography, keeps your eyes glued to the screen. I had the pleasure of sitting down with one of the leads of Land of Bad, actor Ricky Whittle (The 100, American Gods), to chat about the process of filming this epic, the extreme physical and mental preparation required for this role, and the magic of the Australian Royal Family: the Hemsworths.
Film Cred: I saw Land of Bad the other night and I thought it was so much fun! I’m not typically much of an action film person but it definitely took me by surprise and kept me on the edge of my seat. You’re someone who has acted in several different kinds of genres both on the small and big screen, I was wondering what drew you specifically to Land of Bad.
Ricky Whittle: Well it’s bizarre that this is my first action movie. I’m a very physical person, I’ve always loved sports, and you would think because of my physicality that casting directors and producers would want to take advantage of that. But for some reason I’m always love interests or stoic American dudes who try to stay out of trouble. So when the script arrived in my email, I got excited because this is a genre that I want to be in! I mean I love romantic comedies and dramas, but action is where I’ve always wanted to be because it makes filming more fun. We can be as pretentious as we like but as actors we’re playing make believe, and I do enjoy it, but if it’s an action movie I’m gonna really enjoy it because I get to do stunts, cars, guns, explosions… When I’m reading this script I’m literally foaming at the mouth, it’s nonstop action from beginning to end. David Frigero who wrote the script along with Will Eubank, they just wrote a really great dynamic between four guys, with really good humor and banter, it was really layered. And I’ve known Milo for nearly ten years now, I’ve always wanted to work with him, and when his name was attached to this script I knew it was meant to be. And where better to shoot it than Australia. I got the script, then two days later I was on a plane to Australia.
FC: Two days? Wow. So that gets me to another question I had, which is about the preparation that goes into this. What sort of training did you have to undergo, both physically and mentally, to get into this kind of action role–which, like you said, you’ve never gotten to play before.
RW: I always say the acting’s for free, and it’s the prep that you’re paying for. People don’t realize the hard work that many actors and stunt people do in silence, when no one is watching. They think we just turn up looking buff, but it’s about staying ready. And fortunately, because I have this mantra and live this way of life, I was ready for this movie. And I didn’t have weeks or months to get into shape, so I’m constantly just training, 5-6 days a week. My discipline isn’t 100% because you never know if you’re gonna need to gain or lose weight for a role. But physically I was already ready with my cardio to be running up and down the mountains of Australia with heavy equipment and guns. But then comes the on-set training. The first thing above anything else was safety. So the first thing I did when I landed was go to a training with Paul Cale, who is ex-Australian Special Forces, and he took the four of us and trained us on guns–how you hold them, how you carry them, how you drop them. We learned various mannerisms of soldiers so that it became natural muscle memory. It was a lot of repetition, and they gave us fake guns to practice with while we’re watching TV at the hotel, and you’re just constantly mimicking what we’d have to do in the scenes. We learned how to “clear” rooms, how to walk and run as a soldier would. We literally had a week or two to get these moves down so it was pretty intense.
FC: Yeah that sounds really intense. I’m thinking of one scene in particular when you yell “I’ll see you fuckers on the beach!” before jumping out of the helicopter. With these POV shots that William Eubank used it felt like I was jumping down with you and Liam Hemsworth. Did it feel just as intense to film scenes like that as it did to watch?
RW: That actually wasn’t as intense. The explosions work was really cool because they just keep getting bigger as the movie goes on. And Milo and Liam and Luke and myself, we’re all active guys so we all want to do our own stunts. And we had an incredible stunt team that was there who kept us safe and made sure everything was rigged properly, but we really wanted to do the stunts! We’re really just four big kids who wanted to play war. And there was just one explosion that they didn’t let us perform because it was just so close to our heads. And we were safe from the explosion itself but it was more about the debris, there was no telling where the rocks could’ve gone. And you’re already feeling the heat of Australia, sweating constantly. Usually on a film you have the makeup department coming in and dabbing you down to make you look matte, they don’t want you shiny because no one in Hollywood sweats–well, this is a movie where you sweat. The heat was blistering but because there was so much banter between the boys, laughing with each other, making fun of each other, just really enjoying the scenes that we’re shooting, we didn’t care. We didn’t want it to end. We were saying how we wished it were a TV show so we could shoot this all year round. So yes, watching it looks intense and crazy but we were really just having so much fun.
FC: That is so awesome, and I know your father was in the military — I was curious if you spoke to him to get any insight into how to accurately and believably portray a soldier?
RW: No, I didn’t. We were playing Special Forces, boots on the ground, and my dad flew helicopters so it’s a very different mentality anyway. But what I did use from my dad’s experience from being in the Royal Air Force in the UK, flying all over the world without seeing my mum, my brother, my sister and myself, I used that to build my character’s background. Because he didn’t have a background. All we know is where we meet him, he’s busting Kinney’s (Liam Hemsworth) ass at the beginning, but he’s this hardened warrior who takes no crap and will put himself in front of a bullet for you. It’s up to the actor to build what’s before what everyone sees. So I took my experience of my dad being my hero when I was younger. He was always away flying, and when he’d come back he’d be in his flying suit and it was like a superhero outfit. I was super proud of my dad — he was my very own superhero. And some of the best, most magical moments of my life were when he’d come home and I’d get so excited to see him. So I used that as a motive for my character, Bishop, wanting to get home to what I’d invented as his wife and daughter. All he wants to do is complete the mission and get back to his wife and his little girl. And that’s why he’s busting Kinney’s balls at the beginning because these characters are a tight-knit unit, he’s new, and any hesitation from the new boy could mean a death. So that was my motivation: a substitution of a part of my life into this character. His will to survive is to get back to his family.
FC: I love that, and I think it does come through in your performance. I wanted to talk about your character, Bishop, because I thought he was so interesting and you portrayed him really well. And apart from Russell Crowe’s vegan cheese adventures later on in the film, Bishop is the jokester, he’s the one cracking wise. I’ve seen you embody this kind of brilliant smartassery before in films like Austenland, but for the last several years working on American Gods you played a very serious, no funny business kind of a character. Did you enjoy getting to play a jokester again? Because it really suits you, if I may say.
RW: Thank you, I appreciate that. It means a lot because that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. And even in my darkest characters in The 100, in American Gods, I made lots of comedic moments or glances or ad libs, and they’ve never made it to film because it changed the perception or the director didn’t think it was right. But I do try to add humor because I’m cheeky. Me and Luke were constantly adding lines, ad libbing back and forth, and so much didn’t make the movie. There was just a running “your mum” theme. Like everything was all about “your mum”, it was so stupid but so funny. And the director, Will, was like “I can’t keep this in because I’ve got to keep the intensity and keep it serious.” Bishop does have some lines in there, some subtle, little jabs that sometimes you miss, but he means well. He’s not the dickhead, he’s not the bad guy. He’s a prankster, he’s a jokester, and even his ribbing of Kinney comes from a good place because he doesn’t feel this kid is ready. And he says in one line to Kinney like “look, nobody wins in war, everybody loses, you are no better than me because you push a button on a computer and I shoot someone face-to-face, someone is dying and it’s not a good thing.” And it’s just something Bishop was trying to warn Kinney about in his own way, he is fun and games but I think that just comes from his experience of hundreds of missions with this crew.
FC: I want to see a cut of the film where it’s just you giving Kinney a hard time, I think that would be a great movie.
RW: You’ve also got to realize, this is really just a love story. It’s a typical, Hollywood love story: guy meets guy, guy hates guy, guy loses guy, guy loves guy — I mean I’ve got to be careful where I go because I don’t want to spoil the movie, but it’s all love.
FC: I mean you guys did build a really fantastic dynamic between all of you, and because it is such an extreme movie to experience, I wondered how, if at all, you guys got to relax and kick back and get to know each other?
RW: This is Australia. Filming with Australians. This is a movie about American Special Forces, with one American in it. I’m British, the Hemsworths are Australian, Russell Crowe is from New Zealand, it’s just hilarious that there’s only one American in this. So what you get with a mostly-Australian workforce is just pure relaxation. Everything is super chill, everything is super funny. There’s no “us and them”, “cast and crew”, there’s no hierarchy, they will rib you just the same, which is amazing. It’s just so much fun working in Australia. And, you know, who better to show you around Australia than the Australian Royal Family: the Hemsworths. So after filming they’d just take us to all of their favorite restaurants. I remember once phoning up a restaurant, asking if they had any tables for that night, and they were like “I’m so sorry, we’re fully booked up” and I don’t say who I am or anything like that, but I was just looking for someplace for us to go eat. Later on, Liam asks where we’re going that night, and I told him I’d tried this cool place but it was booked. So he asked which place and I told him, and he was like “Oh yeah no worries let me just call them up” and he called and just said “Hey, it’s Liam” — no last name—“can we get a table for four tonight?” and it was a done deal. That’s just what it’s like when you’re friends with a Hemsworth. The Australian Royal Family makes things happen. Liam and Luke took me to Byron Bay where their family is and I met mum and dad, and they’re just super cool guys. They’re obviously beautiful on the outside but on the inside they’re truly beautiful human beings–genuine, down-to-earth, cool. Luke’s the funniest guy I’ve ever met, and I love them both literally as brothers. We would joke that I was the fourth Hemsworth brother. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience, and it came down to the people I was with.
FC: That’s so great to hear. And I know you didn’t get to interact with Russell Crowe at all in the film, but I wondered if you got to meet him at all in real life.
RW: It’s almost like he was trying to keep away from me. He arrived the day after I left. It was like shooting two movies. So they shot all of the action on the ground with me, Liam, Milo, and Luke first, then they shot the rest of the movie with Russell Crowe and Dan MacPherson and Chika Ikogwe at the airbase. Liam was still there for voiceover work, but none of us actually got to work face-to-face with Russell. Funny enough, another film I’ll be shooting later this year also stars Russell Crowe, and I also may not end up shooting scenes with him then, but we’ll see. Maybe we’ll get to work together in the prequel/sequel.
FC: I mean, I would watch it! We’re living in a time when straight up, no-holds-barred action movies are hard to come by — apart from the overwhelming influx of superhero movies. I would love to know if you’re a fan of action films and if so, what kinds do you watch, and what action heroes, if any, did you channel for this role?
RW: Well, like you said, I do love the superhero movies but I just feel it’s saturated at the moment. I kind of miss the original stunts that we used to have growing up. Like if you look at the Fast and Furious franchise, the first movie is so good and it’s real driving and real stunts. Now you have cars in space… and I’m like, that’s a little bit silly. So I refer back to James Bond and Mission Impossible, where they’re doing real stunts. Some of the premises can be a little far fetched but the actual stunts in the movie, that’s Tom really doing it. That would be my ideal job, to work alongside Tom Cruise, actually doing some real, crazy stunts. I would love that, that would be my dream. And that’s what you get with Land of Bad: you get real stunt men and women, actively pulling these things off, reacting to explosions, jumping off of cliffs and waterfalls, running around. I feel that when you use too many special effects, it can take you out of the movie because you’re looking at a cartoon now, it’s just not believable. I like the real stunts, and that’s why I’m so proud of Land of Bad because you have this intense, real action–the driving, the explosions, the hand-to-hand combat. It can be an edge-of-your-seat, roller coaster thriller that leaves your heart pounding, which I don’t think you get a lot of when you fake it with the CGI.
FC: Oh for sure. I thought it was really refreshing to see. And I think you should be really proud, Land of Bad is a really fun time, and a really compelling story that a pretentious film critic like myself didn’t necessarily see coming. So my hat goes off to you.
RW: We just wanted it to be a fun watch! We’re not out here trying to change the world or anything, it was about making a fun movie that guys can go and watch, that girls can go and watch–there are so many topless men running around, sweaty, dirty men, the bluest eyes of Luke and Liam Hemsworth. It’s got a little something for everyone. The performance from Chika and Russell Crowe is just so heartwarming and a different side to Russell that we rarely see. It was just a fun script, fun shoot, and it’s a fun watch.
FC: I couldn’t agree more. Everyone did such a great job in their performances, it was super exciting to watch, and to see you on the big screen for the first time. And I just want to thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me!
RW: Thank you!
