Interview: Director Victoria Mahoney Talks The Old Guard 2

Victoria Mahoney directs the upcoming sequel The Old Guard 2 which will be released on Netflix July 2nd. Victoria stopped by to chat with me about joining the world of The Old Guard and more. 

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Hi there, my name is Eoin Friel from theactionelite.com. Thank you for taking time to chat with me today.

Hi, how are you, Eoin? It’s nice to hear your accent.

 

Thank you very much, I am very well indeed. How are you?

Good, thank you so much.

 

Well, we’re going to be talking about The Old Guard 2 today. What was it that drew you into the world of The Old Guard?

Probably equal doses of action and drama, incredible cast, strong crew, emotion, point, purpose; any one of those, or all of them.

 

Yeah, it’s awesome to see Charlize facing off against Uma Thurman in this movie. Can you talk about putting that final showdown together?

Oh, there was so much care put to that and of course, I mean, the moment Uma said yes, it was like boom. I mean, it happened before then obviously, because it was just the hope that she would do it and just visualizing contextually how that could unfold and then it was really great just for Charlize’s wishes and Uma’s wishes and how they could play off of each other. I was very, very clear about how to find ways to honor both actors, both of their talents, both of their skill sets, both of their characters’ needs and then audiences’ wishes, which was similar to my wish. Being a fan of the first film and being a fan of both of those actors, it was really clear the goal was to help elevate the sequence and by the time you’ve reached this point where Andy and Discord fight, Charlize and Uma, you have experienced so much in the movie, So, we had to figure out how to take that and rise it and meet the wishes of anyone who is hearing, oh my God, Charlize and Uma having a fight scene, so what I’m proud of is the dramatic beats and storytelling in the middle of the fight. I think it’s just lovely and the rhythm and pace of it, where they fight, talk, fight, so it’s emotional, psychological battle as much as it is a physiological battle.

I speak with a lot of stunt coordinators and fight coordinators, obviously working in the action genre, but one thing we always say is an action scene or a fight scene should usually push the story or characters forward and basically tell a story in itself, and that’s kind of the case here, would you agree that should be the case?

I believe it’s the only case; when it’s not the case, it could be broomsticks swinging in the air, because the duty of every storyteller is to push the story forward, that’s our job, full stop. Then the second duty by way of the first duty is to push characters forward, and it doesn’t mean that a character isn’t facing a unilateral hurdle, so it isn’t just that they actually move forward; it’s that if they’re in a unilateral hurdle, what did they learn in minute two that they didn’t know in minute one? It doesn’t mean their body moved or their storyline progressed, but did they progress? Do they have a different purview within the same situation? So, I think for me it’s always whether it’s a fist fight, knuckle fight, knife fight, gun fight, something must be revealed about progress by way of individual internal and external strength, fortitude, goal, objective and hunger. What I love about that fight is that to a degree this victim assassin, so it becomes one upper hand and lower hand, and that swaps, and that’s why the blocking too, when they move their positions and the prowling of it, but the mental prowling that occurs, where they’re studying each other, and then the physical study, and then the fight.

There’s a great choice of music in this film as well; can you talk about the process of choosing what kind of songs work for for each scene and also getting the score to work with the film as well?

That’s great, you’re the first person to note the music in that way. Aamina Gant is the music super, and she’s really wonderful; she’s young, she’s fresh, she has incredible ideas, she knows film back to front. She is an avid film lover, she’s well versed, she makes it her mission to learn what’s current versus everything that she knew and was raised on. Her father was a musician; she has an incredible wealth of knowledge, and through different genres of music, and through different centuries of music, and I find her an incredible joy, and I could say anything to her by wish or want, and she could go chase that. She had a great task of getting different countries for different scenes and sequences, but there were things that I didn’t want to be on the nose, and so how to get something, and then for me, I’m very conscious in different scenes of when it’s the vocalist, who is the vocalist? Is it a man? Is it a woman? Which is the character? Who’s it speaking for? Which characters are speaking for? and then if you have two women in a scene, you have a woman vocalist, if there are lyrics, and what are the lyrics saying that help elevate the scene or disturb the scene? The care that she had, and the understanding, and she went through a lot that this film does not have as many needle drops as the first one by way of what the characters were going through. So, Lorne Balfe came in, Lorne Balfe the composer; everyone said he was busy, and you’re never going to get him, and I called him, I sent him a note, an email; I wrote a love letter to him about his work, and his labor, and what his work has done to me as a viewer, and then I kept sending it, I kept sending it. I keep saying, “hi, it’s me again, hi, can I talk to you? Hi, can I?” and he called one day, and we sat on the phone for 45 minutes. We just talked like, kids, geeks, about movies, and why we made movies, and why we chose to become storytellers, and then he said yes, and he brought in Ruth and Stefan, and I played for him Graham’s Theme from Manhunter. Do you know Graham’s Theme?

 

Yes, one of Michael Mann’s best.

Yeah, it’s one of the absolute greatest character themes ever, I think, ever. There are some other ones done really beautiful, but this is so full-bodied, and muscular, but vulnerable, and painful, but rock and roll. It’s so sad, and then strong, and ferocious; it just has so many turns, and I played that for him, and said, “I believe Andy should have a theme, and it’s important, and how do we go about that?” He was great, I played that for Charlize too, one of the first times we sat down; it was just something that was important. It didn’t necessarily work out in that way, like, there was no real estate to have that verbose kind of, long-tailed cue, but we have a cue that lives for Andy, and it repeats in very specific ways. It’s very subconscious and it’s something that I enjoy, so it’s almost as if, in the way that you utilize a cue. So, the audience, when you hear that cue, what it’s meant to do is cue you to something that you are familiar with to a degree in an individual, so then you understand, and you have a connection to that individual. Sometimes before they come on screen, but, I enjoyed the riddle of trying to solve the when, where, and why of music, and then the when, where, and why of needle drop versus composition. Then that last song, Danielle Ponder, is something that, to the end of my days, I’m grateful that Danielle gave us that song. Aamina found it, and the crazy thing about that song is, it’s called Roll the Credits. Isn’t that great? That’s our closing song. I actually snuck a piece of that that I put into the motorcycle bit when they first arrived, because that bit of the music kept playing in my head, and so I went in one day and asked our music editor to drop that in when the bikes come over, so again, you have like an amuse-bouche before they go, and then for trivia, there’s a little bit of it that Lauren did from the stems in the beginning of the film. There’s a tiny bit of it that plays in the beginning, first act.

 

Wonderful. We’re out of time, I’m afraid. Lovely to chat with you, and all the best with the film. Hopefully chat with you again soon.

Thank you. It’s nice to meet you. Be well.