Chris Pine Reveals The Most Challenging Part Of The Action In The Contractor - Exclusive
Chris Pine is well known for starring in big-budget action films like the "Star Trek" reboot movies and the "Wonder Woman" franchise. As a result, he's no stranger to the process of filming a successful action sequence that will wow audiences. He puts those skills to good use in the thriller "The Contractor," a film filled to the brim with heart-pounding action sequences.
Pine stars as James Harper, a recently discharged Special Forces Sergeant who takes a new position working for a private military firm where he can put what he learned in the Army to good use. Yet, when his first mission takes an unexpected turn for the worse, Harper finds himself fighting for his life, leading to a series of raw, realistic, and gritty action sequences in which Pine, his co-stars, and a bevy of stuntpeople take part in everything from precisely timed military maneuvers to messy escapes and nail-biting shoot-outs. Together, it adds up to a film that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final frame. In an exclusive interview with Looper, Pine explained what was especially challenging about preparing for the action in "The Contractor."
Learning to look like a pro
While many people might expect that learning and executing fight choreography and working with stunt doubles would be a challenge, Pine revealed that he finds other things more daunting when he's getting ready to film an action sequence. "For me, a lot of the fighting stuff, fighting's fighting and you have to make it work for camera, and a lot of it has to do with angles and having great stunt doubles, so that takes care of itself," Pine noted. "The other part of it is stuff that's actually a lot seemingly simpler, but much more complicated."
To illustrate his point, Pine provided an example from "The Contractor" that happens during his character's first mission as a mercenary. "For instance, [in the film] the ballet of [co-star] Ben [Foster], I and the two other private contractors moving our way up the stairs in the building — that's actually really hard and there's a lot of stuff happening and you have to make sure that you're covering certain areas of the room," Pine shared. "You have to work as a team and you have to work as basically the most highly trained, most adept gun operators in the world. I am definitely not that. I had to take some time learning how to do that. We had a great technician on set, Bert Kuntz, who was a Green Beret Special Forces medic who spent a lot of time in theater and made sure that we didn't look like a bunch of a**holes."
"The Contractor" is now playing in select theaters, and is also available on demand and for digital purchase.