Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass on the set of The Bourne Ultimatum.
When Fandango met up with director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, United 93 and now The Bourne Ultimatum) for an exclusive one-on-one interview, he revealed that making the latest Bourne film was as frantic in its own way as one of Jason Bourne’s onscreen adventures. To meet a very tight production deadline, the 51-year-old British native had only just completed the final sound mixing on a Hollywood soundstage two days before.
Despite the craziness, Best Director Oscar nominee (for United 93) Greengrass – with copious amounts of help from his editor Christopher Rouse, who also collected his first Best Editing nomination for United 93 – has managed to top himself, delivering what just may be the summer’s best action film. Part of that comes from the fact that the final car chase in The Bourne Ultimatum recalls a certain other very famous New York cinematic car chase….
Fandango: The climactic car chase in The Bourne Ultimatum, both in look and in feel, recalls the classic car chase in The French Connection. Was that your intent?
Paul Greengrass: Yes, definitely. Almost the first conversation that we had about The Bourne Ultimatum, Matt [Damon] said to me, “We’ve got to do a car chase in New York.” And I personally loved The French Connection growing up. The American cinema of the 1970s, things like that, Scorsese… That’s where I really checked in.
Fandango: How did you make that scene so intense and visceral, to the point where people in the audience actually rear back and wince at the action?
Greengrass: Well, with Bourne, first of all it's got to be vaguely realistic. You can't fake it. That's the distinguishing feature of a Bourne movie; he's not a superhero, he hasn't got special powers, he doesn't use magic, he doesn't use technology. He's just a trained guy in a real world. What that means is, it's got to be gritty and real.
In Moscow [for The Bourne Supremacy] there are these huge, wide boulevards. You can really go at high speed. But anyone who knows New York, it's just a heavily, heavily congested area. There's no way you're going to be able to hit high speeds. You're going to be like a pinball, aren't you? It's going to be very percussive. So what I wanted to do was create a realistic car chase around the streets of New York, which is staccato: stop; start; go; accelerate; brake; impact. You know, high-impact, high-adrenaline driving. If I'd done a chase that involved a huge car going vast speeds up and down the streets of New York, you'd just know it was fake.
Fandango: What did you learn, if anything, from The Bourne Supremacy that you were able to apply to your second Bourne film?
Greengrass: What you learn at the end of The Bourne Supremacy is that there's still a story to tell. This is a well loved character in a much loved franchise, so there is a high degree of expectation that you as a filmmaker must satisfy. We've set the bar high for ourselves. Bourne is a very intelligent and very authentic protagonist, so we've got to be better than we were last time.
Fandango: Could there be more Bourne films?
Greengrass: I think if you've just climbed a mountain, the last thing you can think about is, “Can I climb another one?” [Laughs] We've been working on this thing nonstop for a year, so I'm just mainly concerned right now with getting this one out there.
Fandango: As a maker of British independent films, how fortunate do you feel to have been chosen to make the last two Bourne movies?
Greengrass: I'm very lucky and blessed. It's a much, much loved franchise, and I as a film fan would love to personally go see those movies. It's a fantastic ride, the best ride of the summer in my view. I love the fact that he's a real man, in a real contemporary setting. But what I most love on a personal level is that I get to make a film that's about giving people pleasure, about entertaining them and just giving them a great, great night out. Part of making it a great night out is that you feel it could happen right outside your door.
Fandango: What differences, if any, did you notice with Matt on the set of this Bourne film versus the previous one?
Greengrass: I think what's interesting about his progression through the franchise is that it has occurred over six, seven years of his life. And the character now knows so much more than he knew then. He knows who he's up against, he knows they're formidable, he knows he can probably never beat them. But yet, he knows that he must continue on with his quest. So he's been on a long, long road and he's still going. And that kind of deepened character definition is something that Matt latches onto in this film, to deliver a much more complex performance.
Fandango: Are there any major challenges to casting a Bourne film?
Greengrass: It's always a challenge, yes, because you've got to have a certain sort of actor. David Strathairn [as CIA operative Noah Vosen] is absolutely perfect casting for this, but we had a big hole to fill with the loss of Brian Cox in the last one. You've got to look for someone who, number one, can be a formidable adversary for Jason Bourne; number two, is an actor who can punch his weight like Brian Cox; and number three, someone who's got different qualities, so it's not the same guy twice. David brings a perfect feel to it. I suggested him from the beginning, having seen him in Good Night and Good Luck, in which of course he was simply fantastic.
Fandango: How complicated was it to shoot that incredible first set piece, at Waterloo train station in London, England?
Greengrass: It was a nightmare. It took weeks to shoot, but it was great fun to do. And again, that's partly because you just knew as you were making all these intricate scenes that they would eventually give people pleasure. On the set, almost every day, someone would say, “Oh, I can't wait to see that.” That's a wonderful thing; you feel you're trying your best to give people something they're really going to enjoy.
The sense of place is – and always has been – really important in the Bourne movies. People love to be taken to places like Madrid and Tangier, and taken there for real. I love Tangier; it gave me a lot of pleasure, it's got so many colors and gear changes, and it culminates in that fight, and it's got that rocky moment between Matt and Julia. I was very pleased with that, and how the sense of place is so strong.
Fandango: Matt Damon is that rare action movie actor that has the same kind of rugged, intense believability as Harrison Ford. What’s your take on his latest performance?
Greengrass: I think he's a brilliant actor. He's got to do it all: running, jumping, driving and fighting. It’s really hard to do that well, with conviction and stamina and strength. And then he's got to act on top of it, and show you what his character is feeling in the moment. He’s walking and chewing five kinds of gum at the same time, yes.
At the same time, it isn't real. It's meant to be entertaining. You do little things to remind people of that. In the fights, which get quite intense, I put that little pirouette that he does, on the reverse wrist throw. And it's kind of a flamboyant little move that reminds you it's a dance. Overall, the fight scenes are very tightly structured though. Because those things can get dangerous if you're not careful. When you're standing in a room with those [stunt] guys going at it, it's a real fight. It feels like it, it's ferocious. You really feel it.
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