In my German movie, Who Am I, I was with one of the biggest stars in Germany and we had the same issue. When we were shooting on the street or wherever people could get closer to the set, there were always 200 people yelling, “Jamie, Jamie!” But I’m fine with that. He’s a great guy.ĭid you have any issues with the paparazzi while you were shooting the film? Then, I yelled “cut” and he fell asleep again. Once you yell “action,” he’s so focused and he’s in the role immediately. Then, I yelled “action” and then he was wide awake. Let’s try and see if we can do it.” He literally almost fell asleep at the wheel. I was like, “Oh my God, we’re never going to get through this scene, because it’s already the 14 th shooting hour, and we have to push that scene. He was really tired because of the fighting and the stunts that he did all by himself. We were shooting a shot where he’s in the car and he tries to escape the other car that’s chasing him. There was one day we shot where it was a very long shooting day, and Jamie was so tired. For a director, sometimes it’s awkward if your actor is such an entertainer, because you want to stay focused. Then, I met her and I think she’s brilliant, but that was Jamie’s idea. Was it Jamie’s idea to cast Gabrielle Union as his wife? You really have to have someone who is a good supporter of that. She’s not just a pretty woman, but she’s also a really good actress, and we felt like she was a perfect fit to Jamie, because Jamie is such a good actor. I think she’s a fantastic actress and very likeable, but also edgy. I’ve loved her work since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and also Gone Baby Gone. Then, we started casting with Avy Kaufman. Jamie was the only one who was on board already. Did you cast her or was she also on board when you came on? Michelle Monaghan is Jamie’s equal co-star in this movie. We felt it fit better than having a typical huge Hollywood explosion. We felt that going into that garage was like going into your dark side or a metaphor for that. We always felt because we were so grounded, as least I think with this action movie, that we didn’t want to have this typical big Hollywood showdown, but rather something that was very rooted in the characters. There were also draft versions where the showdown was outside, taking place in Vegas on the monorail. We also felt like sometimes you have to get outside of this entire thing. You get the knight that goes into the castle and has to fight the bad knights to get his son back. We liked the idea of having this entire casino tower, which still feels like a prison for Jamie. You can’t really do much in just the club. As you know, the movie is based on a French movie ( Nuit Blanche) that’s set up in a club, which is also a nice location, but we always felt like it’s too small for 90 minutes. So, we decided to get as much as possible in interior set-ups and build up the casino floor. It’s a great city with great crews there, but it’s really hard to make it into a Las Vegas version of it because it doesn’t look at all like Las Vegas. His new film is a gritty, tautly plotted, character-driven story based on a screenplay by Andrea Berloff that takes place in Las Vegas but was shot mostly in Atlanta.Īt our roundtable interview, Odar revealed how he first came aboard the project, what it was like shooting Atlanta for Las Vegas, why casting a strong actress like Monaghan opposite Foxx was essential, their intense fight sequence that chipped Jamie’s tooth, why he feels collaborating with his actors makes for great moviemaking, the gender politics that inform the movie, why doing an American action film was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, his favorite movies: Lawrence of Arabia, Blade Runner, Heat, and Fritz Lang’s M, and his exciting new Netflix series Dark that he’s currently shooting in Berlin. Odar attracted the attention of the film’s producers for his critically acclaimed crime thrillers Who Am I, a huge 2014 hit in Germany, and The Silence, which landed him on Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch” list in 2011. With Sleepless in theaters this weekend, Collider spoke with German director Baran bo Odar about making the transition from smaller foreign-language films to a big American action thriller starring Jamie Foxx and Michelle Monaghan.
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