Tina Kakadelis
How do you make an action movie about a guy who is distinctly not an action hero? Director James Hawes’ The Amateur is a throwback political thriller about one man’s journey for revenge. Charlie (Rami Malek) works as a CIA cryptographer. He’s an awkward nerdy guy who feels much more at home in front of a computer than in the field, but when his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is murdered in a terrorist attack in London, Charlie decides he must take matters into his own hands. The Amateur is a action-filled movie with massive set pieces that buck the traditional stylings of spy thrillers. Gareth Wingrove, the Special Effects Supervisor for The Amateur, had to create action sequences that are feasible for a hero who refuses to fire a gun.
After the release of The Amateur, Gareth Wingrove sat down with Film Obsessive News Editor Tina Kakadelis to discuss on set safety, the blend of practical and computer generated effects, and the film’s jaw-dropping pool stunt. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Film Obsessive: Gareth, I want to start with how you feel practical effects add something special to an action movie that you just can’t get with computer-generated work?
Gareth Wingrove: I think the main thing with practical effects is that you give the cast something to interact with. That’s quite important. It’s just the certain look of things breaking or rain hitting some objects, you know? The way the different elements interact with objects and people is very important.
It’s very important for visual effects as well as special effects. I think the best option is when I see a big superhero movie or when I work on a big project, and instead of using something that’s just visual effects, it’s the combination of the two together that’s really important.
When you’re putting together the set pieces in these action films, when do you decide it’s time for the actor to step out and the stunt performer to come in in terms of creating safety on the set?
During the whole R&D design process, we’re always talking with the stunt coordinator and the assistant directors about what we can do. We’ve always got safety in mind, and usually if there’s something we do that’s particularly hazardous, then we always test it with the stunts team. We test it with ourselves first, and then we test it with the stunts. There’s a lot of stuff we know we can do with actors where everything’s safe.
The Amateur is such an action-filled movie in a way that’s kind of unexpected, but I can’t even begin to think about what the pre-production process looks like in terms of getting the ideas ready to be tested. Can you give a little breakdown of what that time period was like for The Amateur?
Mainly for The Amateur, it was about the pool scene. All the discussions really were about how we could bring the pool to life. How we could have the character swimming in the pool and then breaking it. That’s how I spent most of my pre-production time.
Now that you’ve brought up the pool, let’s talk about it. It’s just staggering. It sounds like it was in the script to start with, and you guys were just working to make it feasible.
The first phone call I got was about the pool. It was, guys, we need to explode a pool. Basically, we had to figure out how to drop a pool from between two buildings, and someone needs to be in it. That’s how it all started and we went from there. It was always the main gag of the movie for us.
You talked about wanting to use practical effects with visual effects in tandem. Can you break that down in terms of the pool stunt?
We built a section of the pool that was a third of the size of the full pool. We basically needed to drop the pool away with the stunt performer inside it. The goal was to try and have the water interacting with the performer as it drops and seeing them fall away. That was the main thing. We didn’t need to build the whole pool because that just would have been so much water. We built a section of the pool practically and then the visual effects team did the rest.
Was it done on location or in a studio lot?
We custom-built a tank in a warehouse in North London. We custom-built two tanks. We built a concrete tank, and then we built a steel tank for the actual pool that we dropped. That was the swimming section of the pool. We dropped that into the concrete tank.
Wow. That’s fascinating. I think it’s also kind of interesting that this is an action movie, but our lead is a brainy guy who doesn’t want to do hand-to-hand combat. In terms of creating these stunts, how do you balance this guy’s inherent intelligence with his somewhat novice skill level in terms of being in the field like this?
Yeah, that was definitely the brief in the production meetings. How does it all happen? How does the pool happen? Why does it happen and how does it happen? We had other effects like the scene with the ventilation fan. It’s very similar, using his brains to get away, to complete his goal. That was definitely part of the brief. It was how we were thinking about all the effects we had.
Aside from the pool, do you have a favorite or second-most-technically-challenging stunt that you did for The Amateur?
I think it was the ventilation fan. There was a combination of air, mortar, pyrotechnics, and timing. That was a good one to do. That was a good one we had to think about.
What keeps you coming back with each movie? What makes you excited each time you start a new project?
You get very excited at the start of each project, reading the script and visualizing in your head as you’re reading it. What could this be or how could we do this? Sometimes you read something and you’re like, oh, how am I going to make that one work? It’s great. The problem-solving is definitely one of the most interesting parts of my job.
As you have the ability for stunts to get more dangerous, how are you ensuring that things are safe for everyone on set?
We make sure everything is thoroughly tested before it comes on set. We keep the crew well away when they have to be. When we do use any debris, we use all very soft debris. I’m constantly thinking, what’s the worst thing that can happen with what we’re doing and trying to eliminate all the hazards. Safety is absolutely paramount.
