EXCLUSIVE: Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard Talk What Drew Them to The Gray Man
The Gray Man is out on Netflix now and we got the chance to hear from two of the stars of the movie, Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard.
During the chat, the duo talked what brought them to the movie and Thorton talked shooting a particularly intense scene with his castmate, Chris Evans. Check out what they had to say below.
Alfre, what drew you to wanting to be a part of this film?
“The big draw for me was that when I read it, I was excited. It reads just as exciting as it is on film, and I wanted to impress my grown-up children with the cast.”
What about you Billy, your character faces a lot in this film?
“Well, that’s the thing that really interested me about the character is that here’s a guy who’s a high-level spy, and there’s a part of that that you have to be sort of cold-blooded in a lot of ways. I mean, you have to make life and death decisions all the time, but then when you bring in the personal relationships, it’s like, ‘How do I remain a human and yet do my job?’ That interests me about those kind of people in general but, also being the protector of my niece and everything, it comes naturally because I’m a parent myself.”
Billy, you have a particularly intense scene with Chris Evans’ character, Llyod, can you talk about that scene a little?
“That was a really interesting scene. What’s great is that the way Chris was playing this character, it was so… As opposed to playing him, like the typical bad guy, he was so just casual about everything, you know? He could say the worst thing to you and be so casual about it. I had to really work myself up, because I would sometimes get lost in his funny sort of way of being this guy.
And so, for that scene, it’s like, ‘Okay, well, the only way to do this is to tell him to take a hike, basically.’ That I just have to say, ‘I don’t care what you do,’ and you know, show no pain, that’s what you’re trying to do. So, I chose to just growl at him, and tell him that I didn’t care what he was doing to me, you’re not hurting me. That’s kind of the way we did the scene. “
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Photo credit: Netflix