Exclusive: Gina Prince-Bythewood On Directing Her First Action Packed Film With “The Old Guard”
Coming out on July 10 on Netflix is Gina Prince-Bythewood‘s action fantasy film adaptation of The Old Guard. Oscar winner Charlize Theron stars as Andromache of Scythia, the leader of a small group of immortal soldiers. Some of the main cast include KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Luca Marinelli, and Marwan Kenzari.
Other cast members include Chiwetel Ejiofor, Harry Melling and Veronica Ngo.
Led by a warrior named Andy (Charlize Theron), a covert group of tight-knit mercenaries with a mysterious inability to die have fought to protect the mortal world for centuries. But when the team is recruited to take on an emergency mission and their extraordinary abilities are suddenly exposed, it’s up to Andy and Nile (Kiki Layne), the newest soldier to join their ranks, to help the group eliminate the threat of those who seek to replicate and monetize their power by any means necessary.
For Prince-Bythewood, who is best known for directing films such as Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees, and Beyond The Lights, this is her first action packed film. Though she’s no stranger to helming a project from a book, as she did when she directed the pilot episode to Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger that played on Freeform, she definitely had to do a lot to bring the graphic novel to life with her vision.
In speaking with BlackFilmandTV.com, Prince-Bythewood goes over her experience in directing an action film.
Can you talk about crafting this film from the source material?
Gina Prince-Bythewood: This is a space that I've been wanting to be in for a very long time. I love action films. To be honest, I didn't know if I would ever get the opportunity given a wack Hollywood can be. But Patti Jenkins, in doing extremely well with Wonder Woman, opened the door for a lot of us to have this opportunity. I also want to credit Sky Dance, who makes big films. They were intentional on wanting a female director for this property that they have. I love that and the fact that they brought me in because they loved my prior work and what I usually do with characters and bringing them to life. That meant a lot that they wanted my aesthetic into the genre. As I said before, I always wanted to do this. When I got the script, I fell in love with immediately. The fact that it has two female leads. The fact that one is a young, black female, and a hero that I get to put into the world, certainly is always necessary. But now more than ever, we need the opportunity to see ourselves and the world needs to see ourselves as well. So it was an exciting opportunity, one that I wanted very much. And then once I got it, I had to work very hard to step up.
You’ve worked on your share of ensemble films, so can you share how you took what was in the novel with the characters and fit it with your style of directing?
Gina Prince-Bythewood: It's really interesting, because when I got this, I actually talked with Rian Johnson (Knives Out director) and I wanted to know how he did not get overwhelmed with the bigness (of the cast) and his advice was that it doesn't matter how much money you have. You have to tell a good story first, and keeping that in my hand settled me. Yes. When you’re working with actors, you're telling a story. In putting together this cast, we have Chiwetel (Ejiofor), who is next level and Mathias and Marlon and Luca, and KiKi and Charlize. These are great actors and that's a gift to a director. Because at the end of the day, it's about performance and l I'm very good at working with actors and getting a performance. I’m just focusing on that and then knowing I've got more money for big toys that I can do and use with the action sequences.
How was directing the fight sequences?
Gina Prince-Bythewood: This was a new world. I've shot action before but not in this level. There were so many set pieces in this film. I remember reading the script, I was like, "Oh my god, this is so great.” Then I got the gig and I was like, “Dam, I gonna shoot this now? I gotta figure that out.” I had started with a vision. I wanted it to feel grounded and real. I wanted the fighting to badass and gritty and having women fighting big could not looking wack. They had to look great. And it was about putting a great team around me that believed in that vision as well. Jeff Habberstad and Danny Hernandez, who was the fight coordinator and Brycen Counts, the stunt coordinator, they bought into the vision. They bought into the characters were fighting with their ancient weapons, and they've got to defeat people with modern weaponry. How can you make them feel real grounded? We have hand to hand combat between two women. I want the actors really doing it. I don't want just stunt doubles because there's a story to the scene in the plane. There's emotion to it. I need it to really be the actors. So the actors have to step up and they have to choreograph it so that they can look dope. Every action scene has a different challenge to it. But at the end of the day, it was always about how do we tell the story first.