[IMG:L]Karl Urban is no stranger to action films. He was Eomer in Lord of the Rings (ask a Ringer which one that was), villains in The Chronicles of Riddick and The Bourne Supremacy and the shared top-billing with The Rock [Dwayne Johnson] in Doom. Now he’s got his own action vehicle in this month’s pre-American epic Pathfinder.
Urban plays Ghost, a young Viking boy who gets adopted by American Indians, centuries before Columbus “discovered” the continent. As an adult, Ghost must help his adoptive clan fight against attacking Vikings, calling his own loyalties into question. Directed by Marcus Nispel, the film features hardcore action, swordplay and, yes, beefy guys and bodacious babes in skimpy costumes.
Although a final cut for Pathfinder is still in the works, Urban chatted with Hollywood.com and even without a completed film to share, Urban‘s enthusiasm is sure to whet your appetites for the finished film.
Hollywood.com: What kind of workout did you have to do to be ready?
Karl Urban: I had all sorts of training. I had swordfighting training, stunt training. I had to be in just absolute prime physical condition, which is a lot of gym work. So it was very, very grueling…I don’t traditionally spend a whole hell of a lot of time at the gym unless I have to, like for a specific role, but when I do, I really enjoy it. I like being fit. It gives you a good energy.
HW: What’s your costume like?
KU: It’s actually kind of funny. The first day I turned up to the costumer, to the wardrobe fitting, the costume lady handed me this little leather kind of thong and I was like, “What’s this?” She said, “That’s your costume. Those are your pants.” I couldn’t believe it. My costume consisted of this leather thong which then I would put on chaps and they’d tie the chaps to the little leather thong. Within a week we were getting notes from the studio, “Uh, we can see Karl‘s butt. Can you please do something about that?” So it was almost too authentic…I got a bigger leather thong.
HW: What were the filmmaking conditions like?
KU: Generally pretty good, but it was very grueling. It was a very hazardous film to work on from the point of view that we were shooting the thing 100 percent on location. I think we had one studio day, and we were shooting in real caves and that sort of brings its own inherent difficulties. I remember one particular day, 13 members of the crew injured themselves some way or another. Whether they smashed their head on the roof of the cave or twisted their ankles on the rocks, it definitely took its toll.
HW: Is there lots of dialogue or is it more implied motivations?
KU: It’s not a heavy dialogue driven film. There’s dialogue in it. Half of it is in English. Half of it is in old Norse. We went to great lengths to recreate the Viking language, but this is primarily a film about action, not words. This is about what happens when these two cultures clash. It’s an adventure-chase-love story and it’s full on. It’s grueling. Once it starts it just doesn’t give up. It’s relentless.
[IMG:R]HW: What kind of stunts did you do? It says they actually hung you from cliffs.
KU: Yeah, they did. I kind of wasn’t really prepared for how much I actually ended up doing. I honestly thought the director, Marcus Nispel, was completely off his rocker at a point. I was sort of jumping around these rocks and trees and boulders and stuff, like a 10-year-old kid would do. I was having the time of my life and I was just thankful that I didn’t sustain any real, serious injuries. I was nursing injuries right throughout the whole shoot. I actually pulled some tendon in my leg on the very, very first day and it took about two weeks for that to come right. It just seemed like every other day I was injuring myself in some way or another. There’s a point in the film where we have this sequence where my character flees from the Viking pursuers on a shield and he’s hurtling down the mountain at outrageous speed. Well, we didn’t have the budget to do that how you would normally do that, which was to be on a soundstage and use CGI. We actually went up the side of a mountain and I had some shield which they had attached a snowboard beneath. I was literally hurtling down the mountain out of control. It was a lot of fun.
HW: Are the fight scenes more primitive than others you’ve done?
KU: Yeah, it’s about survival. It was important to me that the character’s technique with the sword wasn’t overly flashy or he wasn’t equipped with numerous moves, flashy moves. It’s really about survival and do what you can and he uses everything and anything he can to get the advantage on his opponent, and that was a lot of fun. Even to the point of using dirt and blinding his opponents or whatever. He’d fight dirty, whatever it takes to win the battle.
HW: What are the key differences between that fantasy style and a more reality-based one?
KU: Well, this is not based on a true story. This film is a hypothetical situation that is based upon the meeting of these two cultures. The Vikings actually did have interactions with the Indians and I think for the most part, they were very peaceful and both cultures traded, were heavily into trade. But occasionally it did go south and their meetings became conflict-driven. Our film is kind of based loosely upon that. I think traditionally the Vikings do get a raw deal in films. They are traditionally portrayed as these monsters who went around raping and pillaging. There is obviously a lot of evidence that there were some clans or factions of Viking tribes that did that, particularly on the coast of England with the monasteries they raided. But there is also a lot of historical artifacts and evidence to point that this was actually a highly sophisticated culture which had its own judicial system and its own laws, and they were incredible adventurers and seamen. Really, the bottom line is that the Vikings discovered America 1,000 years before Christopher Columbus, and that’s fascinating.
HW: Did you get into all that research?
KU: Oh, absolutely. I took the opportunity to find out as much as I could in a limited amount of time. Even down to the old Viking myths and legends, which I found fascinating and which of course formed the very basis for a lot of today’s modern works – the Harry Potter series and obviously Tolkein was heavily influenced by them, and that’s reflective in some of the names you find in Lord of the Rings.
HW: Did you see the Norwegian film that inspired Nispel?
KU: I did, I love that film. I just like the whole concept of this young man, this guy having to lead this group of murderous villains across the interior of North America and having to use his brain to outwit them. Obviously, he tries to physically outmatch them and cannot do so, so he has to use his smarts. That was very appealing to me.
HW: Did you have an instant chemistry with your leading lady Moon Bloodgood?
KU: Yeah, we had a great instant chemistry. She’s a really smart, hip, funny girl and we had a really great time working on this film. We had a lot of fun and it was tough. I was really impressed how she handled herself. There were times where she was being sort of thrown into icy, muddy piles and on the top of mountains. She didn’t complain once. She took it like a trooper and a lot of actresses would have demanded to go back to the trailer and have a half hour hair and makeup reset. She was an integral part of the team and she was up for it. I really respect and appreciate her for that.
HW: Were you going on adrenaline for most of this shoot?
KU: Oh absolutely. We were literally running from setup to setup, running from one camera, we would shoot the shot, and then Marcus would already have another camera set up somewhere else. We would run over to that camera and shoot something else and this would just continue day in and day out. We shot an incredible amount of footage. We really were kind of, I think, trying to make the biggest low budget film in history.
HW: Do you personally gravitate towards physical roles?
KU: I don’t know. I wouldn’t say I gravitate towards them. It just sort of happened to be that when I was looking for a job, this project was up and running and available to me and I really, really responded to the material so I decided to do it. As I said, I’m equally comfortable doing Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams or whatever, as opposed to sort of the more action-orientated stuff. I enjoy it all. I enjoy being physical. I enjoy physical acting and reacting. This film certainly gave me a lot of opportunity to do that.
HW: What do you play in the CBS miniseries Comanche Moon?
KU: I play a character called Woodrow Call. Comanche Moon is a prequel to Lonesome Dove, which was where these two characters, Gus McCray and Woodrow Call were made famous by Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. I play the Tommy Lee Jones, a younger version of Woodrow Call. So that was fantastic. That was 11 weeks in Santa Fe, New Mexico, out in the desert riding horses. And again, that was pretty much 100% on location. Had an awesome time on that…I feel like I’m a pretty lucky guy but I also feel like the harder I work, the luckier I get.
