Manipulating the people you come into contact, and form relationships, with, in a determined mission to obtain what you want, isn’t always your unwavering intention, but other people’s emotions are often tampered with as a result of your actions. But how you contend with the implications of your decisions will influence the way others will come to view and interact with you, most importantly in their decision in whether or not they can trust your motives. That powerful consideration in how to best connect with the people you wish to work with in order to achieve your goals is grippingly explored in the new action crime movie, ‘Hitman: Agent 47.’
The thriller, which was released in theaters today, is the second film adaptation of the popular IO Interactive video game, ‘Hitman,’ and powerfully explores the characters’ morality, especially when considering the effect it has on the people around them. While promoting the rebooted film franchise, ‘Hitman Agent 47’s director, Aleksander Bach, and actors Rupert Friend, Zachary Quinto and Hannah Ware generously took the time to participate in a press conference at New York City’s Crosby Street Hotel. During the discussion, they spoke about the characters’ increasing reliance on their humanity, which they learned to use to their advantage as they strived to obtain their goals.
‘Hitman: Agent 47’ follows the ruthless title character (Friend), who’s known only by the last two digits on the barcode tattooed on the back of his neck, as he was genetically engineered from conception to be the perfect elite assassin and killing machine. He is the culmination of decades of research and forty-six earlier Agent clones, which provides him with unprecedented strength, speed, stamina and intelligence, which he utilizes to hunt down his victims.
Agent 47’s latest target is a mega-corporation that plans to unlock the secret of his past to create a new army of killers whose powers surpass even his own. So he begins working with Katia (Ware), a young woman who’s been in hiding for most of her life, as the corporation has been looking for her. Agent 47 is determined to protect her, as she unknowingly has a link to Litvenko (Ciaran Hinds), the missing scientist who helped launch the hitman program by creating the physical and emotional attributes that create the assassins. While Agent 47 is resolute to use Katia in his quest to find Litvenko, as the scientist may hold the secret to overcoming his enemies, including corporate agent John Smith (Quinto), the assassin confronts stunning revelations about his own origins, which finally pushes him to fight his deadliest adversaries.
The director intriguingly divulged the process of adapting the popular IO Interactive video into the action crime thriller reboot while at the film’s press conference, beginning by noting the challenges of bringing the title character’s struggles and story to the big screen. While discussing the potential of making a video game into a successful film adaptation, Bach noted that filmmakers need great actors to bring the story and characters to life. “When you have this and you combine it with great action, then you have a chance to put the puzzle together in a very nice way, and you create something which feels right,” he also said.
Bach added that he feels the most important thing in making a film is crafting characters that the audience begins cares for as the story unfolds. “When a film is based on “‘Hitman,’ and you have this cold assassin Agent 47, you need to care for this guy. When he’s just too cold, it doesn’t work,” Bach also divulged.
The actors also commented on the difficulties of stepping into their respective roles for ‘Hitman: Agent 47,’ and crafting their characters for a film whose source material is so beloved. Quinto revealed that he thought the most daunting process was maintaining the stamina to film his stunts, particularly in an effort to stay engaged with his co-stars. But the Emmy Award-nominated actor noted that “It was good fun to work with these two,” referring to Friend and Ware, the latter of whom conceded that the characters were very physical roles for the entire cast.
Ware agreed with Bach’s idea that “the human component is what really brings the film to life, and doesn’t leave it as a crossover” from the ‘Hitman’ video game. She explained that she thinks ‘Hitman: Agent 47’ works as a standalone film because it was “extremely well-written, and we have some multi-faceted characters,” she explained.
The English actress also described Katia as being “introduced as a girl who’s seemingly normal and not genetically modified, so the human component is there from the outset.” Ware added that she “always want to see films that reflect universal feelings and themes…I think people watch movies to, in some way, identify with the characters.” She further elaborated, saying that if there weren’t any human components to the characters, viewers wouldn’t connect with them, and therefore wouldn’t be compelled to watch films.
But Friend noted his appreciation for being able to explore the video game to help build Agent 47, stating that he “found the games very useful, particularly the later absolution game. The game-makers clearly used an actor for the character, because there was a motion-capture element I could feel.” Quinto’s fellow Emmy Award-nominated actor also discussed how he found his title character’s movements to be very interesting, as “There was something very graceful about him. This is a guy who takes such pride in his clothes, including the iconic suit and tie. Yet he’s able to fight very efficiently in a very inefficient kind of uniform.”
Besides embracing the opportunity to portray the fascinatingly complex character’s physical form, the English actor revealed he was interested by the notion that Agent 47 has been genetically engineered to be perfect, and yet “the flaw in that perfection might be his humanity.” While his programmers might consider that morality “to be a real rogue bit of programming…if you look at it from the other side, that could also be his greatest strength. The idea that this guy who’s not supposed to have feelings, vulnerabilities, hopes and dreams, which would be considered flaws by some, could actually be his greatest strength, was interesting.” Friend noted that theme “opens up real wonderful questions about what humanity is.”
When asked how he prepared to play the title assassin once he signed on to star in ‘Hitman: Agent 47,’ the ‘Homeland’ actor joked that he “went on a killing spree.” The performer admitted that he often gets asked, “What is it about you and playing people who kill people for money, because I seem to do it a fair bit.”
While he doesn’t know why he’s drawn to play such seemingly heartless killers, he does embraces the opportunity to stretch his imagination. “I think the world (actors are) lucky enough to work in is one of wonderful make believe,” he noted. He relishes in the challenge of imaging diverse situations on a daily basis, adding that “It’s the single most fascinating element of the job for me. You can’t really literally prepare to play an assassin unless you want to be thrown in prison. There’s a few things you can’t prepare for other than in your mind, and in that respect, it’s a leap of imagination.”
Friend also chronicled how when he was first cast as Agent 47, he began training with “Zachary in a boxing gym here in New York. I was doing this very brutal, efficient, Israeli self-defense technique, and trying to marry that with something a lot more balletic.”
While Quinto noted that New York is one of his favorite cities, he also enjoys visiting Berlin, where they filmed part of ‘Hitman: Agent 47,’ and thrived on living there during the shoot. “It was an incredible experience to be in a city that I’ve known so well for such a long time. I’ve been going there a while, as I have friends that live there,” he added.
Quinto also thrived on shooting other scenes for the action thriller in Singapore, and appreciated the fact that it’s the first studio film from Hollywood to shoot in the city. “It’s an incredibly, stunningly beautiful architectural city. The way that Aleksander and Óttar Guðnason, our incredible DP (Director of Photography), brought that to life and put it on the screen is really sleek and dynamic. It goes a long way to satisfy the appetite of gaming fans who are really used to this cinematic immersion.”
Check out Shockya’s exclusive pictures from the ‘Hitman: Agent 47’ New York City press conference below.
Written by: Karen Benardello