The fourth instalment of the Predator series will release in India on 13th September
If 2018 hasn’t been gory enough for you, the latest instalment of The Predator is going with a bigger and better approach. With the government attempting to cover up the extent of Predator incursions on Earth, a rag-tag group of military veterans must figure out how to save the world as the battle spreads from the depths of outer space to once-safe suburbia. Actor Olivia Munn plays scientist Casey Bracket dragged into an adventure she might not be quite ready for. “She’s an evolutionary scientist and biologist. In this movie, we have two storylines that merge into one. We've got Trevante Rhodes, Boyd Holbrook and Thomas Jane and that group of guys – the soldiers, and their interactions with the Predator. And on the other side, my character has been brought in by the CIA because of her expertise in evolutionary biology to get a better understanding of what they have found. She’s only called if there is a higher life that's found, and here there is definitely some alien activity,” says the 38-year-old actor.
Turns out Munn has initially refused to be a part of The Predator fearing that stereotypical love interest role a woman is usually relegated to in a big movie. “But, it ended coming back around, and they said that Shane just wanted to meet. I'm a huge fan of his work and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of my all-time favourite movies, so I wanted to meet with him. I really trusted him as a director. He's a filmmaker that is really collaborative and actually allows you to bring what you want to the character. I read the script and then had another meeting with Shane about some of my thoughts, and he was really receptive to it,” she says.
Turns out Munn hadn’t watched the original predator until recently but she says that the latest instalment has some throwbacks from the very first Predator. Here’s what she has to say about the whole experience:
So, you aren’t playing a damsel in distress in the movie…
When you're fighting for your life, you have to shoot, even though nobody wants to be in a position where they have to fight for their life. The guys – they're soldiers – but I approached this character as a scientist. I'm sure that she's picked up a gun before… I grew up in a military family so I knew how to shoot guns. Making this movie was not about us finding moments for her to not be a damsel in distress. It just wasn’t on the page; it’s not what we were doing.
Was there much training or preparation for the role?
We did a lot of gun training and that was really fun. And I loved being able to do that with the guys, learning how to shoot together; every time we did that, I learned all these different techniques and tools and skills. But then I tried to incorporate what my character would do and put a little bit of shakiness into it. In this movie, there's something really big going on and for her, it's fascinating. This is something that she's waited her entire life for – especially as an evolutionary scientist, somebody who studies how creatures evolve and change. And yet this is happening right before her eyes, so, there is a shock and awe value that's happening. While everyone else is running away from the Predator, she's running towards the aliens, because she’s fascinated.
Does working on real sets and location help your performance?
It's very intimidating and visceral. And it really puts you in that space. But that being said, there's still so much stuff that is put in during post with CG and the VFX and everything that really amps it up for the audiences at home. We get enough that we can allow our performances to be even more real. A movie like this really takes advantage of how great technology is and where we've come from, and what we can do with it and how realistic things are. Especially when it comes to like the blood and guts and the destruction and death.
Shane has said it won’t shy away from the violence…
I’m really big on it. I think we've gotten so PC that we lose the fun of going to the movies sometimes. For me, the bloodier spines being ripped out, the better!
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