Let’s establish how similar you are to your character.
Have you ever been in the army?
No.
Do you go out with a Scandinavian princess who shouts at you a lot in front of your mates?
Not Scandinavian…
Have you ever gone to town on a librarian with a hammer?
Nope, I very much value libraries and the people who work in ’em.
Have you ever been confronted by a mad bunch of pagan types making horrible noises and stuff?
Yes, but it was sort of by design! I was much more in control…
Right, give us your version of what Kill List is about and the role you play.
It’s about two guys who are hitmen or “private security contractors”. My character, Jay, has been out of it a while after an experience in Kiev, the details of which we don’t know about but we know it was pretty grim as he hasn’t worked and he’s let himself get out of shape, and been drinking too much, dosing himself up all the time and generally procrastinating. He’s eventually persuaded back into the game by his business partner and his nagging wife and accepts a kill list of targets. As the list goes on things get darker and darker.
What genre movie is it do you think? What kind of films would you compare it to?
It starts of like a piece of social-realism, very kitchen-sinky, and most press have described it as a horror movie, but I think it’s a horror movie that’s bent out of shape, a thriller that’s bent out of shape and a bit of social-realism that’s bent out of shape. It’s very hard to define for me and I still have a lot of questions unanswered about it which, you know, perhaps I don’t really want answered.
What are the ingredients for an unsettling movie do you think?
As we just said, it’s the unknown isn’t it? When the shark goes on the ship, you see a rubber shark and you’re not scared any more [Jaws] but I was terrified when I saw the fin and when people are just dragged into the ocean. Horror lives and breathes in your own head and you have to go to the corners of your mind to work it out, and that’s never a pleasant place, is it?
Did it feel horrific making it or only when you saw the first rushes and edits?
No, I felt like I was having a harrowing experience. I was getting sucked down the hole very much, even though I’d read the script and knew where it was all going. When you shoot so much so quickly the gap between you and the character is very narrow.
How do you prep for doing something as dark and violent as Kill List?
There wasn’t a lot I could do. I couldn’t put myself through the horrors of war or go and kill people, that’s very clear, so I looked online at a lot of blogs from soldiers who’ve served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I like to do a lot of preparation, be on my own and prepare myself intellectually for the scenes. I won’t subject other people to my research and I wouldn’t expect them to do the same to me.
Which films unsettled you as a child? Which characters?
Do you know what, I’m the worst scaredy-cat in the world. I don’t watch a lot of horror movies. I hate to admit this because it’s a Disney film but there’s a movie called Watcher in the Woods which I saw when I was a kid which terrified the life out of me and my sister on a Saturday morning about a family who move to the countryside. It turns out that the daughter of the family is the reincarnation of the girl who went missing in that area years before. It probably ain’t scary now but I wouldn’t watch it now!
Ben Wheatley recently said: “Not everything has to be explained. Some things are inexplicable, and the mystery is much more interesting than the reality. I think that's the case with this." Are films without definitive endings a kop out?
I think it’s only a kop out if you don’t know why. I think if your very clear in your own mind [the director’s mind] and what questions you are leaving with the audience then it;s fine. We all want the pay-off and I don’t want to sound poncey, but it is a bit of art and you want it to raise some questions. Kill List certainly does that, you know?
****SPOILER ALERT (Copy and un-strikthru)****
In my head, what the ending was, and I haven’t cleared this with Ben or anything, a lot of people refer to it as a twist but for me it wasn’t so much of a twist as it was inevitable. If the film is taken as an allegory for invasion where people find themselves in a foreign place that they don’t know – the enemy knows the territory and they don’t know it. So the way they respond to this is to become even more brutal than they maybe should be. You know in Iraq alone there’s been half-a-million kids under 5 killed by that invasion alone and the ultimate price may be the blood of our children on our hands. That’s the inevitable outcome, it’s not a twist. That’s written in the story from the beginning.
There’s a great thing ourside the Tate at the moment on a banner which reads: “It is absolutely imperative that we repeat our mistakes as a reminder to future generations to the depths of our stupidity.”
That was what it was about, for me.
What’s the best compliment you’ve heard about Kill List so far?
When we got nominated for the BIFAs, actors that I didn’t even know that well were ringing me up and saying lovely things about me. It got a little bit overwhelming sometimes.
Who’s top of your kill list for 2012 and what’s your weapon of choice?
Michael Gove! Seriously, and as my character says in the film: “Do him slow!” But quickly, before he absolutely destroys state education. Kill him!
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Kill List is out on DVD and Blu-Ray on 26th December 2011
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