Joel Kinnaman as Murphy/ RoboCop in RoboCop

Brazilian filmmaker Jose Padilha directs The Killing star Joel Kinnaman as RoboCop, the remake of the 1987 box-office blockbuster on a cop who turns into a cyborg law enforcer. t2 caught up with Padilha on the Friday film.

Were you excited at the prospect of helming such a big franchise or did you feel a huge sense of responsibility?

I actually wasn’t asked to direct RoboCop. Around three years ago, I went to a meeting at MGM because they wanted to talk to me about some projects they had. They mentioned several movies they were interested in doing, but that didn’t really appeal to me, until I saw a poster of the original RoboCop on the wall and at the end of the meeting I said to them: ‘Hey, would you guys want to do RoboCop instead, because that’s the one I want to do!’ They asked me what I felt about it, and I told them my take on the core idea of the movie. Two days later, I got a call from my agent saying: ‘I don’t know what you did, but they want to offer you RoboCop’.

What memories do you have of watching the 1987 RoboCop film for the first time?

I was a real fan of RoboCop. I saw it with my father, but not in the theatre. I remember seeing a shooting sequence at the start where he (Peter Weller’s Murphy/ RoboCop) shot a lawyer in the movie, and since there onwards, I couldn’t stop watching it. It was different and shot like nothing else... so graphic yet so ironic. It was fantastic and I loved it.

Why did you choose Joel Kinnaman for the lead role of Murphy/ RoboCop?

I spent a lot of time trying to find the right actor for this role and Joel Kinnaman — after delivering a great first audition — was the one that kept coming back and doing it better and better. And even though we didn’t have a finished script then, but only a couple of scenes for him to read, every time he returned, he just nailed it. And that kept on happening until the moment I said: ‘Guys, let’s stop looking. We have him!’

Also our RoboCop is a little different... he’s got more emotions and he isn’t completely shut down. In our movie, he suddenly wakes up in China, and when he sees what’s left of him he wants to die. So in a character that goes through all this transformation, you need a great actor and not necessarily a movie star. Joel is an excellent actor and he played this character brilliantly.

Is RoboCop 2014 a faithful remake of RoboCop 1987 or have you introduced new elements?

One thing that’s very different in the movie is how RoboCop becomes RoboCop. He wakes up one morning to become a machine, and we show all the drama and we show what happens when he goes through with that transformation. Another big difference in our film is the family... we show what’s going on over there and the changing relationship with his son and how it’s awkward and impossible for him to have a normal life again.

You said that your RoboCop has been invested with emotions. Does this film also focus a little more on Murphy’s humanity?

A big part of the movie focuses on the on-going human drama and Murphy’s humanity as he is half-man and half-robot. He cannot make love to his wife, he cannot touch his son and his life has been changed forever. He has to finally manage it with his emotions because that’s what’s left of him, that’s all. The movie is about human ambition and what would it be to be human again.

Was it intimidating or a learning experience to work with veterans like Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Samuel L. Jackson?

It was a great experience. It’s a great way to converge with great actors... I could be the coach of a basketball team that has the best players... and then you can’t be beaten. Gary Oldman, Micheal Keaton, Samuel Jackson, Abbie Cornish and Joel Kinnaman are all such great actors... they are so good at what they do and so capable of improvising... of changing a scene... of coming back with a new outlook and making their characters so believable on film, it’s just great. The worst thing that could happen to a director is if you have an actor that cannot perform, and I had actors who were amazing.

Gary is one of the most talented actors alive, who has complete control of the set and of the craft of his job. And on top of that, he has this amazing talent to turn it on and off in a split second. He is so good that he can even make bad lines in a script work, which is something you have to be careful with because then you might not realise they weren’t bad lines in the first place… but Gary, of course, will tell you so!

Micheal Keaton plays our villain, but it is important to say that our villain is kind of grounded, manages a gigantic corporation and is also a genius. Michael created a character that was on the border between right and wrong, which was very smart. His performance in RoboCop is one of my favourites.

Samuel Jackson is just a force of nature as this media guy. When he steps onto the set, every single camera looks at him.

Is it possible to keep a futuristic film like RoboCop real?

RoboCop as a concept is merging mankind and machines and it’s very present now. If you go on to the Internet and google, you’ll see that ships are able to procure gigantic chemical vials just by beeping and you can see for yourself that all of this is possible, it’s all on the Web. The future brings a concussion of integrating man and machine... it’s unavoidable, it’s happening right now and it’s going to be ever-present more and more and that’s the fact of the matter.... Robots and machines are here to stay and they are going to get better and better.

How would you compare the creative freedom in Brazil to the studio system in America?

Let me explain this to you in a very simple way... in a Brazilian movie like Bus 174 the freedom is massive, you have it from the beginning. In a studio movie you have to fight for it!

What would you want the viewer to take back from the RoboCop experience?

The challenge was to make a movie that touches key ideas about politics and about what it means to be human while still reaching a broad audience. You have to strike a balance between the drama and the fun, which you do by finding the right tone.

How much of the satirical elements of RoboCop have you retained and how relevant is its theme today?

Paul Verhoeven (the director of the 1987 RoboCop) created an iconic character that embodied the philosophical concept that automated law enforcement could lead to fascism. Funnily enough he did this in 1987, but now we are very close to this actually happening.

What is the future of the RoboCop franchise?

I think we have started RoboCop beautifully, we have action in it but at the same time we also have politics, irony... and so whenever another RoboCop movie follows from this one, whoever is doing it will have to keep those things in mind.

FILM FACTS

Michael Fassbender, Matthias Schoenaerts and Russell Crowe were in the running for the lead role. Swedish-American actor Joel Kinnaman was finally signed on.

Miguel Ferrer is the only actor to star in both RoboCop 1987 and RoboCop 2014.

Black Swan maker Darren Aronofsky was initially supposed to direct the film.

Sean Penn turned down the role of Novak that is played by Samuel L. Jackson in the film.

Priyanka Roy
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