Director Steven Soderbergh Discusses Gina Carano's New Voice in Haywire, Magic Mike, and His "Retirement"
Posted 01.14.12 by Ryan
From his 1989 indie debut of Sex, Lies and Videotape to last fall's viral thriller Contagion, director Steven Soderbergh's movies have always tried to blend an extraordinary story with a sense of realism (often even working with non-actors) and his latest movie, the upcoming Haywire, is no different. The action-thriller follows a freelance covert operative Mallory Kane (MMA fighter Gina Carano) who is double crossed and seeks revenge on the person who betrayed her. Last week, Soderbergh revealed that he wanted the fight scenes in the movie to feel "realistic," avoiding action movie conventions such as wirework. "Nothing that you couldn't actually do," said Soderbergh at the time.
During an interview with Vulture, the director again spoke about the movie's action, calling it a "gamble" to allow the actors to actually do the action sequences.
Look, I like to be entertained, but I know when I'm being cheated, and I didn't want that. What I was trying to do was stage sequences where we wouldn't have to resort to trickery. But it was a gamble, because the stakes in these sorts of things are usually so crazy, in the scale of the action, and with the quick-cut Bourne shots. I wanted a human scale, with looser shots, longer shots, with the camera in lockdown.
While Soderbergh wanted the fight scenes to look as realistic as possible, he admitted that he did alter Carano's voice to give her character a vocal quality that sounded "not like Gina."
That's not really her speaking voice. We spent a lot of time in post working really hard on her voice, and we used every trick imaginable that's used on records today — in the editing, in the pitch. We combined five different readings in one sentence. We wanted her to sound different — not like Gina, but like her character, Mallory Kane. So that took a lot of work, and we worked really hard on it. That was the point of it. Everyone under the age of 30 is terrified of Gina, but Mallory is someone new.
Following Haywire, Soderbergh's next movie is Magic Mike, a movie loosely based on Channing Tatum's early career as an exotic dancer. Tatum told Soderbergh about his stripper past, which led the director to tell him that it sounded "like a good movie idea." Now set for a June 29 release, Soderbergh called Magic Mike a "really fun summer comedy".
It's going to be a fun movie. I wasn't interested in making some dark exposé of the male strip world. It's a very strange environment, in terms of its relationships. I would hope we have an [Robert] Altman-esque group of interesting characters, who are very funny, very familiar, very loose. The issues are interpersonal, and it has nothing to do with the sex involved. It's fun. There's conflict in it, but you could understand how a kid could find this world appealing, especially if you have Channing Tatum guiding you through it. I think people will be surprised at how good-natured it is. It's not a mean movie. It's going to be interesting, to be in this environment where men are completely objectified, when we're used to seeing women that way, and how the men view themselves. It doesn't resort to humiliation for laughs. Nobody gets punished for being sexual, or for being in this world. It's not a punitive movie, or a moralistic movie. I think it'll be pleasing to look at — and not just because of the beautiful actors! Visually, it's really pretty. And the dance-club routines, those are just really crazy and funny. I'm letting things play out within the frame, with less coverage, so you can see everybody, so you'll be able to see some overlapping action. And the subtleties. It'll be a really fun summer comedy.
Once Magic Mike is finished, Soderbergh only has two more projects in line before his self-imposed "sabbatical" — the thriller The Side Effects, written by frequent collaborator Scott Z. Burns (The Informant!, Contagion) that recently cast Tatum, Jude Law and Blake Lively as its three leads; and, finally, a biopic titled Behind the Candleabra, which will star Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, Liberace's lover. After that, Soderbergh says he will step away from making movies, a decision he says has been planning "for four years," admitting that he wishes that movies "mattered more."
I'm not going to stop making things. I just need to come at it from a different direction. I don't think change can be incremental. I need to tear it all down and start again. I tried that after {1995's] The Underneath, with Schizopolis, and that felt like my second 'first' film, and that reverberated [in my work] for quite a long time. But even that explosion [of creativity] has started to ... has stopped expanding, and I've started to retract. I feel like I'm not moving forward. Plus, it's not as fun as it used to be.
I wish movies mattered more. I wish they were more influential. I mean, they do influence things, but only things that are not that important, such as how people talk, how they dress. But in terms of having a real role in the ongoing debate about how everything should work, how lives should work, they're not influential. There was a period where I felt that the movies coming out were as good as any novel, as any form of serious art that you could look at, and I'm particularly frustrated by my inability to create something at that level. I watch older movies regularly, depending what I'm working on, for inspiration. But I'm just not that inspired right now.
Next Showing: Haywire opens Jan. 20