Clive Owen and Monica Bellucci in Shoot 'Em Up.
Shoot ‘Em Up is your movie - if you’re looking for a pumped-up, whacked-out action rollercoaster that never lets up on the body or ammunition count. Anonymous, angry protagonist Mr. Smith (Clive Owen), a man adept at killing people with guns and vegetables (no, really), happens upon a pregnant woman about to give birth in the middle of a gunfight. The woman dies after he delivers the child amid a hail of bullets, but he escapes with her newborn.
Quirky hitman Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti) is out to kill the tyke so he hunts down Smith, who teams up with a pneumatic prostitute known as “DQ” (legendary Italian temptress Monica Bellucci)—you guess the reference.
Shoot ‘Em Up goes straight for the jugular – its endless orchestration of gunplay mirrors the violent ballet of John Woo films – and offers a nonstop chase that provides clever and hilarious ways for Smith to eliminate dozens of henchmen.
We had a chance to talk to Owen, Giamatti and Bellucci who waxed passionate about Michael Davis’ politically incorrect, out-of-control action comedy that includes a carrot-wielding anti-hero, a lactating hooker, a necrophiliac thug who’s a family man at heart, a skydiving shootout inspired by Moonraker, and a love scene/gun battle that literally marries sex and violence.
Q: Clive, you’re in 90 percent of the film. Was the pressure on?
Owen: No, it’s weirdly satisfying when you’re shooting an action movie, because the objective is very clear. You have to move very fast - it’s about doing beat after beat after beat. It’s not like you have five pages of dialogue, and how you deliver them is going to nuance and carry the film.
Shoot ‘Em Up is a physical movie and the most important thing was to deliver on the action. It sets itself up to be something wild, and a great ride. {Director] Michael Davis puts together some wicked action sequences.
Q: You brought a lot of passion to your role of the angriest man in the world…
Owen: [Davis] was always asking me to be angrier. I would have toned it down a little bit, but he was like, “Be angrier!” He’s a strange man.
Q: What makes you angry?
Owen: Rudeness can make me angry.
Q: You’ve played many characters who tote guns around. Why are you drawn to those characters, or why do you think directors want to cast you in that role?
Owen: I don’t know. [laughs] I must look like I’m capable of shooting people, which is a little bit worrying. I live in London. I love living there, in a gun-free environment, and long may that continue.
Q: Isn’t it interesting that there is an underlying gun control theme at work here, but at the same time we’re enjoying watching Smith blow everybody away?
Owen: It’s Tom and Jerry violence. I’ve seen other films where I would occasionally question the way the violence is portrayed. But I would say this movie is similar to Sin City [in its approach to violence.] It is hyper-real and has nothing to do with real life.
Q: Was it a challenge to figure out how your character should wield a carrot?
Owen: Listen, the challenge of the movie was [to make] carrots cool. It was a part of Michael Davis and how insane he is.
Q: Paul, was this a refreshing opportunity to be as nasty as you possibly could be?
Giamatti: Yeah, but I could be [even] nastier. I actually think this guy’s not such a bad guy in some ways. He loves his work and he’s just trying to do a good job.
Q: What was it like, getting to use all those guns?
Giamatti: It was a good time. I can’t remember if this was the first time I’ve used a gun [on screen] or not, but it’s the first time I’ve used this many guns.
Q: You had to go through rigorous training on how to shoot for the movies, right?
Giamatti: Yes, it was hilarious. They show you how to hold the gun properly. Then you immediately start swinging it around and improvising. The trainers would [correct us] and say, “You never actually shoot like that, you know.” [And we’d say] “But it looks much cooler like this!”
Q: Monica, did you work with Clive on a back story for your characters?
Bellucci: Even though this movie is action-packed, there was also room to build characters with real emotions, and both my character and Clive’s character have come so far. Even though she’s been mistreated, my character is not a victim. She’s a survivor, and she’s very tough. She’s wild, but she has a big heart. She’s a prostitute that specializes in something very kinky, but she is a mother. She’s so many things at the same time.
Q: Was there chemistry between you and Clive?
Bellucci: I loved working with Clive. In my work you sometimes have to get intimate with somebody you don’t know, and I didn’t know Clive Owen, just his work. Those kinds of scenes are not very easy, but he was a real English gentleman. And I’m sorry that I had only one scene with Paul Giamatti. He was so funny when he was talking tough.
Giamatti: She was laughing a lot [on the set] and it was surprising. I thought, “I’m going to climb on top of you, and burn you, and you’re laughing?” She’s game for anything.
Monica had me call her “a dirty pig” or something like that [in Italian], which is apparently the worst thing you can say to a woman [in her home country]. She can’t wait till people in Italy see this movie because they’ll go nuts when I call her “a dirty pig.”
For some reason, everything seemed funny as we were shooting it. Breaking [Clive’s] fingers was hilarious. As I was feeling up a dead body in the back of a car, the woman [who played the corpse] couldn’t stop laughing. I had just met the woman, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing to her...she just kept laughing.
Q: What was the love scene like for you, Clive?
Owen [sarcastically]: Work, work, work. Oh, the pressure.
Q: Did it take a certain amount of your acting skills to maintain certain…things while shooting it?
Owen: Easy, easy! Believe it or not, it took an enormous amount of rehearsals and prep and working it out, as it actually takes place during a big shoot-out scene. There were always twenty-five people in the room.
Q: What was your favorite and/or most challenging action sequence in the movie?
Owen: The most challenging scene would be the skydiving one because it was wire-work day after day, and it was pretty tough physically. The most satisfying is probably the car chase because it’s a brilliantly conceived action sequence that ends with a great gag.
Bellucci: The love scene. It was just great to do something like that.
Giamatti: I liked breaking Clive’s fingers a lot. That was a good time.
Q: Paul, in light of some of the characters you’ve been playing lately, maybe it’s time you played a romantic lead?
Giamatti: I don’t know if I can pull that kind of thing off. I don’t have a whole lot of those coming my way, and now, thanks to this movie, I definitely won’t.
Shoot ‘Em Up opens nationwide Sept. 7.
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