John Woo on making the dialogue-free ultraviolent Christmas film ‘Silent Night time’ — and why Tom Cruise is ‘loopy … however in a great way’

John Woo hasn’t made an American movie in 20 years, because the 2003 Ben Affleck-headlined Paycheck —which is stunning contemplating the run of stateside success the legendary Hong Kong director had with such motion favorites as 1997’s Face/Off and 2000’s Mission: Unattainable II.

After that lengthy hiatus, Woo has lastly returned to Hollywood with Silent Night. The title not solely celebrates the vacation setting of the movie, however can also be fairly literal.

The thriller, starring Joel Kinnaman as a grieving father who plots the demise (learn: extraordinarily violent deaths) of the whole Los Angeles gang answerable for the Christmas Eve drive-by capturing that claimed the lifetime of his younger son, is instructed solely with out dialogue.

“I obtained enthusiastic about it as a result of since [the characters] haven’t any dialogue, it means [it would showcase] extra of the director’s work,” says Woo, 77, who established his bona fides with such high-powered lessons as A Higher Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), Bullet within the Head (1990) and Arduous Boiled (1992). “I by no means favored lengthy dialogue. I favored Steve McQueen motion pictures.

“However this might enable me to make use of extra visible [storytelling]. It’s a tragic story, [this] harmless child that obtained killed by the gangster. I feel it might occur to any household, to anybody, so it shouldn’t be fairly fancy and too over-the-top motion. So [I wanted to] make the viewers really feel it. It’s an actual factor. … And make the viewers get a way more shut encounter with the actors to really feel with them and to benefit from the nice performances.”

That begins with Kinnaman, the Suicide Squad and The Killing actor whose character, Brian Godluck, is rendered speechless early within the movie, after taking a bullet to the throat. His visceral efficiency features a full-body transformation. On the outset, Godluck sports activities a rail-thin physique earlier than step by step including increasingly more muscle as he spends a yr meticulously plotting revenge for the next yuletide.

“After I met him, truthfully, I [had] solely seen one among his motion pictures,” Woo says. “However after I met him in particular person, I discovered he appears to be like so actual. He’s an actual man, and he’s not a form of a superhero. He’s not that kind. … [The character] is an strange man, then one thing occurred, one thing tragic occurred his household, so he obtained a lot ache. … So he needed to practice himself, studying how one can struggle and studying how one can use weapons. However I feel [Joel] is an actual actor and he’s so sensible.”

That’s excessive reward coming from Woo, who has labored with an extended record of high motion stars, each in Hong Kong and Hollywood.

Requested if he has had a favourite, the filmmaker doesn’t hesitate earlier than naming his two stars of The Killer, Chow Yun-Fats and Danny Lee, and Tom Cruise, who has gained a fame for trying more and more harmful stunts as he ages, notably within the Mission: Unattainable motion pictures.

“He’s loopy,” Woo laughs of his Mission: Unattainable II star. “However in a great way.

“He’s all the time attempting to take a threat, [he] all the time prefer to take a problem. However he all the time made me fear whereas working with him. I mentioned, ‘It’s so harmful.’ I all the time ask him, ‘Why do not you employ a stunt double? The viewers gained’t discover out. There are lots of photographs the place we are able to use the double.’ He mentioned, ‘No, no.’ He needed to do all the things. He mentioned the viewers might inform which shot is himself, which shot is a double, even [when] he’s shot from behind him as a result of they are going to have a distinct physique motion. The viewers obtained used to his physique motion. So I had a good time working with him.”

Silent Night time is now in theaters.