I watched the movie yesterday, and you know what,
I bloody love a good superhero movie that has so many things to it.
It must be fantastic for you.
You know, when you see a script and you're like,
you know what, I'm going to be working on this scene.
Fantastic actors.
Amazing. I mean, it was it was literally
because Tom, Tom Hardy and, you know, sort of I got a call from him
out of the blue saying, would you like to, you know, direct this?
And then when I read Kelly and Tom's script, it was just
it was just it was a gift. You know, it's fantastic.
It was already an established character.
But coming into this part of the story was like,
I've been given this huge present. You know, they done all the set up.
And now we get to really enjoy the, you know, the odd couple
relationship that has been established and the nuances of their,
you know, the way that they relate to each other.
And plus, you get the introduction of a fantastic villain.
And in the in the in the guise of,
you know, Woody Harrelson playing Cletus Kasady and Carnage.
And it was what I loved about it was this was this brilliant kind of,
you know, truthful, quite serious themed
story of dysfunctional relationships, which then grows into total
chaotic comedy, which then grows into sort of operatic big, huge set pieces.
And I mean, it was it was a it was just a fantastic
canvas to play with because you jumped in for the second movie, right?
You've got the fandom and anything you say or anything
you have said in the last while, people are waiting for everything.
How does fandom go with your head?
I'm always interested.
You know what? People who work in the movie business,
how do they deal with all that?
Because fandoms mad!
it is kind of crazy.
And, you know, but it is it's very much part of
the world that certainly the world that I've been involved in
for quite a few years now and in all of the different
jobs that I've done and worlds that have been part of.
So so I sort of got used to it.
But, you know, with with with a comic book character particularly,
I think there are so many strong opinions about about, you know,
the color of carnage, the red, you know,
the you know, it does it does accedes.
Does it disappoint?
Does it you know, the expectations are huge.
You know, Venom, how he how he manifests, you know, it
a race that comes out, you know, is that truly symbiotic?
There's lots of this.
There's this, of course, the diehard enthusiasts, the ones
who are extremely into these worlds and that mean a lot to them .
You're never going to please everybody all the time.
But what we're doing is we are making a movie
which hopefully takes the ingredients, the essence, the
the energy, the you know, the great things about those characters and brings
them to an audience that many of whom won't have heard of Venom before.
So that's that's that's the balance and that's the challenge.
Is there a movie in itself watching it, you know, as it's being made
without the CGI?
So you can see the likes of Tom or Woody chatting to themselves.
Like, is that funny in itself for your eyes, watching it as it's being made?
What you mean before the CG characters?
Yeah, yeah, before all that.
So if you're watching them, you know, react to something
that's actually not there.
Is that like a funny like a comedy in itself?
Well, it kind of is, although because I've been there myself.
So many times, you know,
it you sort of get used to you sort of get used to it and you do that imagining.
I mean, that's why I have to do when you're framing shots, you know,
you're framing carnage.
You know, it's going to be a certain height.
And you have someone standing there with a pole
and then you've got the back of Stephen Graham, who's acting against the,
you know, carnage head on on a nine foot pole, you know,
and he's got to act his socks off.
And so so but then you have then you have you know, that's what
it really, really requires a great deal of imagination from the actors.
But then all of the actors that we were working with have great imagination.
So it was it was easy peasy.
Looking at the movie, you can kind of see that everyone
has such a great relationship.
Do you guys go for like drinks or dinner before it all,
you know, just to kind of get to feel comfortable with each other?
Or is it just, you know, day one on set? Here we go.
I know we all we hang out, you know,
and there are lots of opportunities to hang out, relax.
And, you know, if you're on location or whatever, you know,
you've done a night shoot and you go back to the bar afterwards.
Of course. Yeah, those moments happen. And
there's generally a sort of a rehearsal period
where everybody comes together and you might, you know, you know,
share a lunch or get, you know, you talking about stuff or.
Yeah. It's it's never like you're turning up cold on day one.
Well, not not not in my experience anyway, that usually usually there's
a sort of breaking period, I think in in smaller productions and independent
films in certain TV shows that can happen.
But certainly on these bigger films, there is that luxury.
Yet, before I go, Tom is fantastic.
It's not like anything I've ever seen him in.
And like, what's it like just watching him perform his craft?
I mean, he's he's he's a machine.
He's fantastic. He's just brilliant.
And he, quite frankly, you know, he didn't need anybody yet
because he's he's it's all in his head.
And and the way that he croft's the relationship between he and Venom
you know, is by doing these recordings of just before the scene, before you shoot
the scene, he'll do a vocal pass on Venom's lines,
and then a sound operator plays those lines for him.
And he's he's playing back in his ear and he's able to improvise off them.
It's remarkable to watch.
And, you know, one of the great things about being a director and and an actor,
knowing how it works, is learning from from other from other actors
and continuing to learn from.
And he's he's a force. He really is.
And and and then, you know, Woody and Naomi and Michelle, all all of them
bring what they bring to the table.
Just and Stephen Graham, you know, all all of them
bringing bringing their A game just is it's great to watch.
But Tom, it's always very special in this.
We really is Amazing. Andy, thank you so much for today.
It was great, the movie's fantastic, saw it yesterday.
Really enjoyed it. Like I needed something like that just to go with our good.
Thank you so much from Dublin