(L-R) Laurence Fishburne and Casey Affleck in Bleecker Street's 'Slingshot.' Credit: Bleecker Street.
Opening In theaters On August 30th the new science fiction thriller 'Slingshot', which was directed by Mikael Håfström ('Devil') and stars Oscar winner Casey Affleck ('Manchester by the sea'), Laurence Fishburne ('The matrix'), Emily Beecham ('The Guy Ritchie Pact') and Tomer Capone ('The boys').
Fone Movie I recently had the pleasure of speaking with legendary actor Laurence Fishburne about his work on 'Slingshot', his initial reaction to the script, his approach to his character, the incredible sets, and working with Casey Affleck.
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(L-R) Laurence Fishburne, Casey Affleck and Tomer Capone in Bleecker Street's 'Slingshot.' Credit: Bleecker Street.
Moviefone: To start off, can you tell us about your initial reaction to the script and why you wanted to be a part of this project?
Laurence Fishburne: Well, when I read it, I was really surprised that I couldn't understand where it was going. I thought, well, I want to do this because if it surprised me, I hope we surprise the audience. Also, Casey Affleck was involved, and he's a brilliant actor, someone I've admired for many years, and I thought, oh yeah, I really want to work with him. Then I found out that Tomer Capone was going to play the other character, and I love his work in 'The Boys,' and I thought, yeah, we're going to make a wonderful threesome. So those are the reasons why I wanted to do it.
MF: Is that what you look for when you read scripts and choose projects, something to surprise you with a good cast and director?
Yeah: I don’t necessarily approach the film with “what I’m looking for.” I always approach it with an open mind and heart. If I discover something, whether it’s a surprise, funny, makes me cry or whatever, I really have to connect with the story on some level. That’s the first and most important thing. Then, of course, if there are wonderful people involved, like our director, Mikael Håfström, a wonderful director whose work I wasn’t familiar with, but once I met him, I was like, “Oh, this guy is fantastic and we’re going to do something really cool together.” It doesn’t matter if anyone gets it or not, you just know that we have good material, we have a great crew, we have a great cast, and we have a leader in our director who has a vision that he trusts. So if he trusts it, then he’s the person I’m willing to follow.
(L-R) Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne in Bleecker Street's 'Slingshot.' Credit: Bleecker Street.
MF: Can you tell us about your approach to playing Captain Franks?
Yeah: It's the kind of role that I feel comfortable in, people completely accept me as some kind of authority figure. I'm the captain of the ship, so I have a certain military air about me. I've played a ship captain in space before, so it's not too hard for someone to believe me. So it was all about the tone, because it's a very intimate movie, it's a very small space. It's three people in a ship total, sometimes claustrophobic, and then at other times, because you're in space, it's very expansive. Then they introduced the idea that the ship could be compromised, and the mission could be compromised, and our lives could be in danger. So when you have a small group of people floating through space in something that's the size of a golf ball, the stakes suddenly become very high.
MF: Can you tell us about how Captain Franks deals with the mutiny on his ship and the different dynamics between his crew members?
Yeah: It's great because there's a kind of triangulation between the three characters. For example, at certain points, my character, Captain Franks, sits at the top of the pyramid and then everything changes when the other two are alone and they're plotting whether they're going to follow my orders or whether they're going to mutiny. Then it changes again when I convince one of them to see things my way. Then everything keeps changing and that just increases the tension and you wonder, “Well, what's going to happen here? Who's going to be the captain of the ship, so to speak?”
Casey Affleck in Bleecker Street's 'Slingshot'. Credit: Bleecker Street.
MF: What was it like working with Casey Affleck and having him as a scene partner?
Yeah: Hey, man, that was great. Casey is like the Chet Baker He's a very lyrical, whimsical actor with an incredible sense of melody that's in the emotional range, and he plays it all so subtly and with a kind of beautiful melancholy that's just captivating. So it was great to work with him.
MF: Finally, do you think the small spaceship set helped add to the feeling of claustrophobia in your performance?
Yeah: Well, sometimes yes. It was very deceptive because it's shaped like a circle, isn't it? In those scenes where we're walking down the hallway, you keep walking in circles, but you can't, because of the way the angles are designed, you can never see the end. So in a way, it feels like it never ends. What Mikael Håfström was able to do with his cinematographer was that sometimes it looked quite spacious, and other times he made it narrower and looked very claustrophobic so that the perspective changed. You're not sure if it's up or down. It was a really very well-built and designed set.
“Some fears are darker than space.”
An astronaut struggles to maintain contact with reality aboard a possibly fatally compromised mission to Saturn's moon Titan. Read the plot
What is the plot of 'Slingshot'?
An astronaut (Casey Affleck) on a potentially fatal mission to Saturn's moon Titan struggles to maintain a grip on reality.
Who's in the cast of 'Slingshot'?
- Casey Affleck as John
- Laurence Fishburne as Captain Franks
- Emily Beecham as Zoe
- Tomer Capone as Nash
Casey Affleck in Bleecker Street's 'Slingshot'. Credit: Bleecker Street.