Here are some snippets from the special event and what Chris had to say about the next installment in the Jack Ryan series along with a little tidbit about his role in Into The Woods.
CinemaBlend.com — At a special event in New York City, Paramount Pictures invited journalists to watch 17 minutes of the finished film, which will hit theaters early next year. Pine himself had flown in from Los Angeles to emcee the screening, and was on hand to answer questions. “Jack is really an analyst,” Pine offered in his introduction. “He can get physical, but is much more comfortable behind the scenes.” He went on to point out that Jack Ryan is no James Bond, who is never anything but cool in the face of certain death. Pine stressed that instead Ryan is a pretty normal guy thrown into an extraordinary situation, and this was quite clear in the first clip.
The scene began in a bustling airport in Moscow. Jack Ryan (Pine), dressed in a sharp suit, introduces himself to Embee, a Ugandan bodyguard/”fancy driver” who has been tasked with watching out for him while he’s in Russia. Nonso Anozie plays the jovial driver, and Game of Thrones fans will know him as Xaro Xhoan Daxos, the duplicitous merchant of Qarth. A hulking man at 6’6″, Anozie towers over 6-foot-even Pine as they enter a swanky, modern hotel with garish red furniture and lit up floor panels.
In a luxurious suite, Ryan is taking in the incredible view when he spies in the window’s reflection Embee has pulled out a gun. Instinctively, Ryan ducks and flees to the bathroom as the huge would-be killer blocks the door to the hallway. A brawl ensues that seems to put Ryan at the disadvantage. After all, he is far smaller and lacks a weapon. But his training (we’re later told he’s a marine) kicks in. Ryan utilizes his surroundings to his advantage, taking Embee by surprise, knocking him off balance, and ultimately ending the giant in a desperate bid to save his own life.
Pine pulls off the physicality of the complicated fight choreography with aplomb. Afterwards he said of the stunt work, “I think any actor you talk to, it just seems like part of the component of doing an action film is that you try to do as much of it as you can. I enjoy it because, for instance, the fight scene that you saw, it’s like a dance so there’s like a Zen to it. You have to be really, really focused because you’re moving at really high speeds and there’s kind of a beauty to it because your world just kind of closes down, your vision is about that wide.” He pulled his two hands together to suggest a sort of tunnel vision. He went on to detail how some stunts he didn’t attempt not just for his own safety but for the safety of his scene partner. Best to call in a professional in situations like that. ?Whenever possible, though, he was game. “I enjoy it and I also think it’s important because it allows the camera all those little itty bitty moments of seeing your face. It just, again, kind of gives a reality to it.”
Another challenge Pine faced was having to tone down the big emotions he’d grown accustomed to playing as Captain Kirk. “Kirk’s fun because he’s such a blowhard and also tonally in that film I can be a little bit bigger and there’s comedy and you can go a little bit broader and I love, love that,” Pine explained. “And this, Ken kept on asking me to go smaller and it’s very difficult for me because I’m very used to kind of being, you know, the brash thing, whatever. It was hard. It was difficult to kind of cut as much as I could out of everything and Ken kept on saying we just wanted to rest the camera on your face and see a man thinking and processing what’s happening. I’m not very comfortable with that. I kind of want to do something and he kept on telling me to stop it.”
Asked if part of the appeal of his current project, the musical Into the Woods, was the return to big emotions, Pine responded, “Yeah. That was really more because it was such an incredible cast and I don’t have a very big part, but I just wanted to be a part of that group. And I never sung before – I mean, on camera. I sing in the shower… But yeah, it’s fun. The Prince Charming is very kind of fairy tale-ish and two-dimensional and big hair. I mean, it was a blast. I love that stuff. “
