Zack Snyder & Guillermo Del Toro Are More Similar Than You Think, Says Charlie Hunnam - Exclusive
Charlie Hunnam has been blessed with several opportunities to work with great directors over the years, from his time on "Sons of Anarchy" with Kurt Sutter to "Children of Men" alongside Alfonso Cuarón to Guy Ritchie on "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" and "The Gentlemen." In addition, Hunnam has teamed with writer-director Guillermo del Toro twice — on "Pacific Rim" and "Crimson Peak" — and now, for the first time, he's collaborating with writer-director Zack Snyder on "Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire." The interesting thing about working under the auspices of del Toro and Snyder, Hunnam revealed to Looper in an exclusive interview, is that the pair of revered filmmakers are much more similar than people might think.
"They're both obviously master filmmakers," Hunnam said. "They both draw and realize their vision prior to shooting with a pad of paper and a set of pencils. They both create enormous universes, and unlike some directors that create big universes where it's all CGI, they both like to create as much practical in the immediate vicinity that the actors and the directors are going to be working in. There are a lot of similarities."
There are differences between del Toro and Snyder, Hunnam added, but they're both the stronger for those approaches, which in turn makes their respective work so unique.
"Guillermo's process is a lot more precise," Hunnam told Looper. "Zack's process is a lot more rock and roll, [like], 'Let's get out there and figure this out. Let's go make love to it, and who knows what's going to happen?' That's the vibe on set. Not to say one's better than the other, but I loved working with Zack."
Hunnam says Rebel Moon was a freeing experience
Charlie Hunnam plays a Kai in "Rebel Moon," a mercenary who joins Kora (Sofia Boutella) and her band of rebels as they fight the tyranny of the Motherworld. In a play for dominance, the Motherworld's soldiers invade the moon of Veldt, where its sadistic leader, Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein), and his group immediately brutalize members of a peaceful farming settlement. Triggered by a specific attack on a vulnerable resident, Kora employs her lethal set of fighting skills, which raises a red flag to the Motherworld and forces the warrior to reveal her dark past.
"Rebel Moon" has a past of its own, as Zack Snyder originally pitched the story to Lucasfilm as something that could fit into the framework of its "Star Wars" universe. Lucasfilm passed, but the rejection galvanized Snyder to create a sci-fi epic of his own. As such, Hunnam was thrilled for the opportunity to become a part of something original in Hollywood without the baggage from an existing property hanging over his or his fellow actors' heads.
"Because Zack had been dreaming of this universe for so long and knew it so thoroughly, all of the worrying was outsourced to Zack," Hunnam said. "Once we showed up, we realized he wasn't worrying at all — he was having the greatest time of his life, and he was inviting us in — and nobody needed to be precious. Nobody needed to be beholden to the script or any preconceived notion. It was chaos in the best way. I've very seldom been on a set that felt so free and so genuinely collaborative and all about the love of whatever we were doing in that moment."
"Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire" is streaming exclusively on Netflix.