lektra, the latest movie based on a Marvel Comics franchise, brings star Jennifer Garner back in the role she originated in 2003's Daredevil. But this time, Garner's Elektra Natchios takes center stage. And she's not quite the nice girl she was last time around: She's become a ruthless assassin, working for a mysterious cabal known only as The Hand.
Garner co-stars with fellow TV thespian and hunk Goran Visnjic (ER) and veteran film actor Terence Stamp (Superman II) in a story adapted from Frank Miller's Elektra Assassin comics and Greg Rucka's Elektra and Wolverine saga. Croatia native Visnjic plays Mark, the father of a young girl, Abby (Kirsten Prout), whom Elektra has been sent to kill but decides to protect. Stamp plays Elektra's blind mentor, Stick.
The movie, directed by The X-Files veteran Rob Bowman, was shot in and around Vancouver, B.C., in the spring and summer of 2004. Cast and crew took a moment last June to speak with Science Fiction Weekly and other reporters about the movie. Elektra hits theaters Jan. 14.
Jennifer Garner, you already work out for Alias. Was there special training you had to do for this film?
Garner: Physically I was strong. I got strong before the movie. ... I stay in fairly good shape. But I added Pilates into what I was already doing every day. I would come home from Alias and add an hour of Pilates. ... But it wasn't until I got here [and] I could completely focus on the movie that I felt like it all just came together, and that came from training in the morning, training after work, training at suppertime, training on the weekends. ...
As far as the fight training has been concerned, I have loved picking up a couple of new weapons. I've learned to work with the bo stick, and I have never claimed to be a martial artist, but I do love, love, love getting to train with the best, and that is what these movies afford me. So I am really excited about a bo stick fight that I have coming up against five ninjas, and every time we finish one run-through of it, it's as if I've just done a three-minute sprint interval up a hill, you know? ... I can tell my face is red. ...
I've been working on the sai [Elektra's signature Korean short swords] intermittently, ... although most of the sai work is coming up at the end of the shooting. And I've been doing a lot of punching, because I've always had a strong kick, weak punch.
This is the darkest character you've played so far, even though Alias' Sydney Bristow has her issues.
Garner: Elektra is lethal. And in Daredevil, [she] was somebody who was on the verge of being lethal who was surprised to find herself vulnerable to someone. Once her father's killed—and this is true in the comic books, and it is in the films as well— ... there is no light for her in the world anymore. I think when she's younger and in college, she's kind of had an ideology the same as Matt Murdock's. She kind of feels she wants to make the world better. [But] the second her father is killed, everything changes for her. At least, this is my Frank Miller understanding of it. ... And she goes to such an incredibly dark place. ... Almost dies, is resurrected, and when Stick [Terence Stamp] kicks her out of the only home she believes she has left in the world, she uses her skills to become an assassin. ...
She's a mercenary. She is out for blood. She could care less who you are, what you do, where you come from. And I have to say I love that about her, because I feel she has been driven to it, and she is hiding behind her own soulessness. And she uses it to isolate her completely and emotionally ... and physically from the world. And because she is so bad, I think she doesn't get off on it in a cool, serial-killer way. I think it's all she has to survive. This is something that can define her, and she's indefinable at this point. She doesn't have her father, she doesn't have her sensei, [and] she doesn't have Matt. So, to me, this particular story is about her not being able to deny her need for her own redemption, and it comes up and smacks her in the face, much like falling for Matt Murdock did, except I think this is much more of a surprise, and it's more of a twist, and it's something she fights a lot harder than she fought falling for Matt.
Kind of like your 13 Going on 30 character, Jenna Rink.
Garner: Yes. This character is actually very similar to Jenna Rink.
How was it making the transition from a supporting character to a leading character?
Garner: It's been a scary one, to be honest. I've really missed hiding behind a big red devil. Because I could be his antithesis, and how do you play someone that's only mission is to kill? ... I wanted to do this movie, because I so love this character, and I so love that, as much as she fights against her own re-entry into the world [and] her own her heart opening up after years and years of just being completely closed off, she loses the battle with herself, and she falls for basically a younger version of herself, Abby, and, ultimately, ... opens herself. ...
Rob has been the guiding force for me finding a way to make her whole and making her hold up scene after scene after scene. And believe me, we spent a lot of time. "Is she lethal enough?" Because my propensity is, you say "Cut!" and I kind of giggle between takes, and I can carry that in to what I'm doing. And we say, "No, wait, stop, go back." And I say, "Rob, did I look nice at all?" "Yeah, we'll do it one more time." So I feel really lucky to have a partner like Rob.
Talk about the most difficult, challenging stunt that you've had to do so far.
Garner: There's a tree that's 80 feet high that we made and put it on hydraulics so it could fall, and we could raise it back up, and I had to hang onto the side of the tree. I had a wire on for safety, but it wasn't doing me any good as far as hanging on. And they would raise the tree up and at 45 degrees. There's a camera hanging at the top of the tree, which, I have to say, from my angle you're really hating gravity, because if that thing falls, it's not good. ...
I'm hanging by my hands on the side of the tree, and then my foot, in order to sort of give me a leg up, so to speak, is on a branch up here. ... I'm hanging on, they roll, and then they lift it all the way up, so it starts with my foot kind of out here, and then as they lift it, it goes [makes ripping sound], and your hamstrings kind of go. ... As they said "Action!" ... the tree started to fall, and I had to pull myself onto ... the trunk of the tree and scramble up with my fingernails, and then run the entire length of the tree and stomp on [a bad guy's] head at the end. And then, at the very end, the wire guys ... would whip me up, and I would fly through the air. ... [I had to do that] all day.
You finally get to wear a red costume.
Garner: I've read the comic books. Most of the time, she's in red. ... She does wear the black, and the black is faithful to the comic books, but she is known for ... the color red. So, yeah, it was important to me, and it has been mentioned to me enough that I knew it was important to the Elektra fans. [But] I have never understood how you could physicalize this little flowy fashion that never seems to have even a G-string on the side. I wasn't raised that way. I am a comic-book hero that wears panties. So I didn't know how to accomplish that. But it is ... pretty cool wardrobe, I think. ... And the surprising thing is there's a little bit of femininity in ... this Elektra outfit. I mean it's ... clearly ... not ruffled, but there's a hint of that other hidden side of her.
In the film, the evil Typhoid Mary gives you the kiss of death. What was it like kissing a girl?
Garner: I loved the character of Typhoid Mary [played by Natassia Malthe]. ... As she walks by, everything dies around her, and there's no question that she has some evil breath. But Natassia does not. And, you know, I have to say it's the first time I've ever kissed a girl. I didn't object to it. I didn't really think about it that much either way. And when the time came, it was just ... a kiss. But, yeah, it was totally, completely fine. We would just talk about our sisters, or talk about, you know, "Oh, wait, you've got a hair stuck here," you know? I think it's the only person on screen I've ever kissed where I'm making sure her lipstick was straight. Then they would say "Action!", we would kiss, they would say "Cut!" and we would laugh and get on with it.
Rob Bowman, why did you want to helm this spinoff?
Bowman: You're always looking for what's the story that you're telling, regardless of the genre. And after I'd read the screenplay for Elektra, I did research on who she was, back to Greek mythology, and this seemed to be quite an interesting, complicated person to investigate. In terms of the hyper-real, surreal or science-fiction aspects of it, I'm obviously very familiar with [them], and I think I was comfortable handling the more exotic parts of the story, balancing that against Jennifer's very real, gut-wrenching personal story. So I felt like, "OK, this is within my realm, and I know that it needs to be commercial." But more important to me was the power of Elektra's personal story. And so bringing, you know, muscles built during The X-Files and [the] X-Files movie and Reign of Fire, I thought, "I understand how to make this film."
Did you do much research as far as the comics?
Bowman: Yeah. After I read the screenplay, ... the first thing I looked into with Elektra was "What's going on inside of her?" Is there more than "I'm just a good old person who does heroic things?" So, you know, that's what caught my attention.
There seem to be a lot more supernatural elements to this story than Daredevil.
Bowman: The supernatural elements ... exist to me as the shape of the villain. You know, movies are only about one thing, [and] that's people. The rest is what you throw at them. We have a very severe character in Elektra, who in a two-hour movie will go through a very intense, painful self-discovery. While she's in the middle of that emotional crisis, we throw very exotic, very dangerous characters at her. And I'm always thinking, "Do I want people to leave their homes, drive to the theater, buy the ticket? The popcorn: It's expensive." So I have to give them reasons to come to the theater, ... many of which are driven by movie magic. What can we do in the movies that they can't afford on television? ... To heighten it like that does, I think, echo what people expect from a comic-book genre.
But, again, I say the strength of this film lies not in so much the special effects. It lies in the story of Elektra, and to me ... there is such gravity in her story that I think the balance will be just fine. We do have to be careful and show restraint when it comes to the kind of effects [we have], but to me, ... my mind is in Elektra. The rest is the darts and the things that I'm throwing at her to make her journey more difficult.
What are the main changes that Elektra will suffer being a main character
Bowman: Getting out of bed is suffering for Elektra. Going through the day. ... I'll say that Elektra could not sit in this room idly. Sitting still without an assignment or a task that is not external is a problem for her, because she starts to think about things that ... upset her, cause her to feel anger. She's extraordinarily haunted. ... Existence is what she suffers through. The movie is about her coming to grips with what's actually going on inside of her. One of our themes is that she has abilities and feelings that she's unaware of until very late in the movie. And Stick recognizes earlier than she does, commends her for it, a compliment that she does not accept. So it really is sort of an inside-out discovery. But in terms of suffering, anything that's not external.
Goran Visnjic, comic-book movies are a big thing in Hollywood right now. Is this something you've been following and something that you've been interested in?
Visnjic: [This is] definitely [my] first experience in comic books [movies], but I was a big sci-fi fan since I was a kid. First grew up with ... mythology, then just a lot of sci-fi, and Stargate [SG-1] is one of my favorite TV shows. ... When Elektra came by, I was actually auditioning for it and was really, really happy when they called me and said I got a part. ... European comic books [are] a little bit different, but we get pretty much big comics like Daredevil, Spider-Man, Superman, but like Asterix and Obelix—if you've ever heard [of those] French comic books, they made those in Europe—were my favorite when I was a kid.
What attracted you to the story itself?
Visnjic: In Mark's case, [the] good thing about [it] is, like what makes it interesting for an actor to play, that's like protecting his daughter. That's my main objective, and Mark's only duty in the film, you know, [is] protecting his daughter. And trying to put Elektra on our side to help us out, because she's the only one, literally, who can save you [against an] international mafia with ... villains with supernatural capabilities after you. You want to have somebody like Elektra on your side, and it's one of the characters who is helping storytelling in the story also. It's like Rob said, it's one of the things you throw to Elektra on her journey, which is making it really complicated, because it is one of the things [that inform] why she is turning from professional serial killer ... into a good person again.
What was easy and what was hard about appearing in this movie?
Visnjic: Easy was, like, spending time with Jennifer on set. Difficult stuff about character is, it was a little bit like just being the only one with no superhuman powers. So when you get attacked, ... we talked about some of this stuff, but wolves and big people throw, like, s--t at you, it's sort of difficult to just evade that and seeing everybody else do ... their magic stuff. You need to just sort of be there and have Elektra help you out, you know?
Terence Stamp, you played one of the great, iconic comic-book villains, General Zod, in Superman II, and now you're playing another character known to comic fans around the world.
Stamp: Oh, I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to push my luck. I got away with it with Zod. I don't think I can get away with it again, you know?
Bowman: We begged a lot, though.
Stamp: I just kept saying no. They just kept coming after me. And then I had to kind of look at it, you know?
Bowman: We started sleeping on his front porch. He knew he would have to do the movie.
What changed your mind?
Stamp: I think that the only things that I really regret in my life, or the decisions that I regret in my life, ... are films that I passed on for the wrong reasons. And films I passed on for the wrong reasons were just out of a personal fear of the project, fear of not being able to do a good job. And with increasing age, I've learned to kind of become aware of the fear. And sometimes I choose to go against it, and in this case I thought, "Well, maybe it's that. Maybe I don't want to do it because I don't want to fall flat on my face again."
Can you talk about some of the physical aspects of the role? Your character is obviously very proficient in the martial arts.
Stamp: Yeah, I mean, that's one of the things that's a bit harrowing, you know, not necessarily being a good martial artist, but being able to convey that you can do it. And so my main ... difficulty was with the blindness. ... My original idea was to do it with my eyes closed, because I thought, you know, then other actors would know I was really doing it. ... So all the fight training I did with my eyes closed. ... When it was kind of decided that that might look a bit odd, it made what I'd learned a lot easier. ... I've done martial arts, you know, most of my adult life. I've never used an implement. I've never used a staff. ... So that was a kind of new learning process for me.
Is there any humor in Stick's character?
Stamp: He's not the uppest kind of guy, but he understands that she's repressed her conscience, and at the time the movie starts I think he probably understands that the repression of her conscience is costing her more energy than the release of it. So that's kind of one of the things that he's looking to do, you know?
His relationship to her is that she comes to him looking for a guide, and he understands that. ... In the East they say that when the pitch of the cry of the pupil is right, the guru appears. And I think that the sensei for her appears in the form of Stick. Having said that, he acknowledges that she's potentially his most brilliant pupil, but that ... she's a badass. ... She won't take any notice of him. So his handling of her has to show his superiority.
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Shinji Aramaki, director of Appleseed
