Exclusive: Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli talk ‘The Old Guard’
Now streaming 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.
Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli play Joe and Nicky, respectively. They are part of Andi’s small group of immortals but have a special bond with each other.
Kenzari is probably best known as classic Disney villain Jafar, in 2019’s live-action remake of Aladdin. Prior to that, he appeared in Ben-Hur, The Mummy and Murder on the Orient Express.
Marinelli has a number of Italian films to his credits, including the Italian superhero drama They Call Me Jeeg. He also appear in the FX drama Trust, about the abduction of John Paul Getty III.
BlackFilmandTV spoke exclusively with Kenzari and Marinelli on their characters.
Based on a comic book adaptation, how did you approach the characters you played?
Marwan Kenzari: Well, you have two things. On one side you have the script, which is the shooting script that you're going to work with. And on the other hand, you have the graphic novel and you can pick stuff out of it. And if it makes the scene, it only makes it richer. A movie is slightly different than when you're reading a graphic novel. So therefore you get the best of both worlds I guess.
Luca Marinelli: I would say the graphic novel was a gift with the movie because you had the chance to experience it. The graphic novel is an experience of reading and seeing because you have painting growing. And you can you can sense with your eyes also. I was so sure because in the movie, I felt when we were shooting that the soul of the graphic novel was there. I was very comfortable in going through and play my character.
The book was recently written, so were your characters gay in the novel as well? How did you take that approach?
Marwan Kenzari: Without saying anything, I think the relationship between these two characters is obviously special. They started as enemies and then after fighting each other for so long they found out that they are actually closer to each other than they thought they were. I think their relationship has been evolving into a many different stages from this friendship to this. They have a philosophical connection. They have a spiritual connection. They have a physical connection. Since they're so old, I have tried to think about what would it be like if you would be with someone for 700 years. How good would that be? One thing I've experienced in life is that as soon as you love someone, you're going to be scared to lose that person. That's a hard thing in our lives.
If you become a hundred years old, you're going to lose people around you. I talked to a 92 year old writer once. He's a fantastic writer and I asked him what was the hardest thing being 92 and he said "I lost everyone.” For Nikki and Joe, they are together knowing that they also have this mysterious inability to die. So that makes their relationship like a dream.
How was working with Charlize?
Luca Marinelli: Fantastic! She’s so passionate and she’s a great actress. I’m talking as a fan, not as a co-worker.