EXCLUSIVE: Keith Powers Discusses The Tomorrow War, Director Chris McKay, Stunts, & More
Keith Powers lends his amazing acting talents to the upcoming Amazon Prime Video film, The Tomorrow War, and we had the opportunity to discuss with him about his new film. In the upcoming movie, Keith plays Major Greenwood, a military officer from the future.
On the family dynamic: “I always think it’s super cool when a film like this does have all those elements. It always reminds me of underground music being on a radio type of thing. It’s like underground music meets that radio song. It’s like a radio song with great lyrics. It’s like you’re getting all of it. You can listen to it every day, but you’re getting some game every single time you listen to it. That’s how I feel about this.
On his reaction to reading the script: “When I first read it, a lot of stuff didn’t even hit me and as I kept reading the script and as we were shooting, I was like, ‘Whoa, that whole environmental aspect’, and after the crazy year we had, just the parallels between the pandemic and us fighting a war tomorrow in the present, all of it just hit me like, ‘Oh, wow, it’s crazy. God’s timing is crazy, the timing of this coming out and where we are in the world,’ and it’s much needed. It’s definitely needed. People need something like this, and it’s dope that it gets to be this way, that summer blockbuster, fun, action packed sci-fi, all that.”
One the most difficult scenes to film: “The main one was being on top of the tower. We were like 100 feet up, and I had to shoot the 50 cal on top of it. I’m truly afraid of heights, but in-between takes, I had to stay up there because it would have taken too long for me to go down the ladder and come back up in-between takes, so I had to stay up there. I just remember it had an open surface, so you could see through it. I just remember looking down, and I was just like, ‘Yo, no, this is crazy.’
Chris [McKay] would check on me and Chris [Pratt] would check on me too. Yvonne, checked on me a couple of times too. I’m going to be real, I was like, ‘I’m good,’ but that was because it was like the first or second day, I’m like, ‘I can’t go out like that, I gotta get through this.’ I got through it, but it was terrifying”.
On Chris McKay helping him act in front of a green screen: “Chris [McKay] really helped me though with how he directed. He would direct how he wanted my body to move. He would come in and be like, ‘No, really pull it.’ I was like, ‘Okay, I look nice, you’re right. Let me do that.’ I felt like that’s probably what was used, but that’s when it felt– It feels awkward, but when you watch it, it just makes so much sense. I was like, ‘Oh, it really looks like I really have a resistance that I have to play with here.'”
The Tomorrow War will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on July 2.