[Reporter Xu Shiying/Taipei-London Connection Exclusive Interview] The seven-day series of the movie "Diggers" has reached its fourth day. Today, we continue to dig into the movie in the eyes of European movie queen Sandra Wheeler, and how she, "Tom Cruise" Tom Cruise and director Ariando González Inarritu found the true tone of the characters and the story in a world without established answers.
Actress Sandra Wheeler (left) plays Tom Cruise's sister in "Diggers" and seems to be on the opposite side of her brother. (Reproduced from YouTube)
When Sandra first came into contact with "The Diggers," she was faced with a movie script that was not easily categorized. She knew that the director was Iñárritu and that the opposite actor was Tom Cruise, but what really interested her was the unique and indescribable tone of the film.
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"'The Diggers' is really interesting because it is a tone that I have rarely used in the past." Sandra said bluntly that this work is neither a pure comedy, nor a traditional tragedy, nor a disaster movie that the general audience is familiar with, but allows absurdity, humor, crisis and character emotions to coexist. Because of this, she knew very well that she could not directly use the performance methods she was familiar with in the past, but had to re-find how the character should exist in this world.
Sandra Wheeler believes that "The Diggers" is full of unique and indescribable tonality. (Reproduced from YouTube)
Director Iñárritu did not pretend to know all the answers from the beginning. Sandra revealed that Iñárritu told her very early on: "We will find out how it works together." This sentence is very important to her, because it means that after getting the role, the actors only need to complete the answer in the director's mind, but must really participate in the creation and explore together where the characters, relationships and scenes can go.
In the end, this became one of the most important working methods for Sandra when filming "The Diggers". It was not to decide what was right first, but to slowly find the most suitable state for the film in rehearsals and shootings.
In the film, Sandra plays Emma, the sister of Digger (Digger) played by Tom Cruise. Dig is a powerful oil tycoon with huge resources; Emma runs an ecological enterprise and seems to be on the opposite side of her brother. However, the relationship between the two has not been simplified to "who represents justice and who represents evil." Because Emma's own career can also be dangerous, she is not an unambiguous idealist.
Sandra Wheeler recently attended the London world premiere of "Diggers". (Courtesy of Warner Bros.)
This makes the really interesting thing about the brother and sister in the film not just that they have different positions, but that both of them believe that they are doing something meaningful for the future. For Sandra, this also means that Emma cannot just be played as an "environmentalist" character. She must believe in her choices, and at the same time let the audience see the possible problems behind these choices.
When it comes to establishing this brother-sister relationship, Tom Cruise is not the kind of rival actor who just waits for instructions from the director. When Sandra talked about the cooperation between the two, she specifically mentioned that he would take the initiative to know what other people think, "He would want to know what other people think." Therefore, the two were able to collaborate and create together on the spot. "We are very able to work together, so we create things together."
In other words, Tom Cruise does not lock himself into the role of Diggle and then ask other actors to match his rhythm; on the contrary, he will bring in other people's opinions and let the scene gradually take shape as they collide with each other. Recalling the entire shooting environment, Sandra described the atmosphere on set as very special, "always very positive and playful", and even made her feel "as if she could keep filming forever".
This free but highly committed way of collaboration also extends to director Iñárritu, who Sander praised as being very energetic and leading everyone forward almost the entire shooting day, giving the actors a natural feeling of "wanting to keep up with his speed." He will continue to share his ideas, and will actually try his ideas on the spot, instead of settling on an answer and never changing it.
Sandra observed that sometimes the same scene was shot the next day, or even in a completely different way, because Iñárritu was always looking for the "best result." For her, this process of constant experimentation is not chaos, but part of the director's creation. He knows what he wants, but he is also willing to let the actors, scenes and even what is happening at the moment change the final appearance.
This also echoes Tom Cruise's observation of Iñárritu's creative method. He described that every detail in the director's work has been carefully considered, but in the end it was presented as if it had not been deliberately designed at all. Sandra proved this from the actor's point of view: instead of designing all the answers first and then asking the actors to follow the instructions, Iñárritu pulled the actors into the creative process and let everyone find the answers together.
For a film that constantly switches between absurdity, crisis and emotion, this method prevents the characters from being fixed in a single image.
Therefore, when Sandra once again mentioned what Iñárritu originally said to her, "We will figure out how it works together," it was actually more than just the director's work instructions to an actor, but more like a microcosm of the entire "Diggers" creation.
No one knew from the beginning how this story should be performed, and no one could simply put a genre label on it; from Digg to Emma, from the relationship between the actors to the overall rhythm mastered by the director, everyone had to keep digging during the filming process. It was also during this process that Sandra and Tom worked together to explore the characters and relationships with each other, while Iñárritu led everyone to dig out a tone that had never been seen before, and finally formed this "Digger" that is both absurd and dangerous, both crazy and full of real emotions.
"Diggers" will be released in Taiwan on October 2. The 2D, IMAX, Dolby Cinema and Dolby Vision Atmos versions will be released simultaneously. A limited word-of-mouth screening will be launched on October 1.
~The fourth day of the seven-day series of interviews with "The Digger", to be continued~
