Will Poulter has never been afraid to get rough on screen and the same apparently applies to his work process as well. Starring in action adventure films like “The Maze Runner” and “The Revenant,” the English actor has had his share of dangerous productions, but in a recent interview on “The Jonathan Ross Show,” Poulter admitted it was “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” that made him recognize the importance of letting professional stunt people get their hands dirty instead of himself.
“We’re doing this fight sequence and I grew up watching Dave [Bautista] — as a wrestler and then as an actor — I’m a bit nervous,” he said. “I haven’t done a ton of fight choreography. Anyway, we’re doing this fight scene and I accidentally punched Dave straight in the face.”
At point of contact, Bautista was “whisked away” on a wire as the scene called for, leaving Poulter standing there in a daze, wondering if he’d actually just punched a man who used to fight for a living. He got his answer as he “caught a glimpse” of Bautista being made up due to a big gold fist (Poulter was painted gold for his character) being imprinted on his eye. After that point, Poulter’s stunt person “stepped in” to shoot the rest of the sequence.
“You realize when you do films,” Poulter told Jonathan Ross, “you’re so much better off handing over to the stunt people.”
Unfortunately, Poulter didn’t always have that luxury while shooting his most recent film, “Warfare.” Directed by Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland, the film portrays, in real-time, an actual incident that occurred during the Iraq War.
“This is a very literal depiction of a real event,” said Poulter. “Everything you see happened in reality. There’s no dramatized elements. We all have a real life counterpart. Some of those are active.”
Speaking with IndieWire’s Christian Blauvelt during a post-screening Q&A, the cast, including Poulter, described how the acting was “drilled out” of them following a three-week bootcamp and the subsequent time they spent living together during the shoot.
“The bond that developed naturally through the training and the emotional side of things was taken care of,” Poulter said. “There was very little acting required because when I looked down and saw Joe Quinn [injured] I didn’t have to imagine that I cared for him in that moment. I’d spent every waking minute with him for the couple of months prior.”
“Warfare” releases in theaters from A24 on April 11.
