With directorJaume Collet-Serra’sBlack Adamgetting ready to open in movie theaters next week, I recently sat down withSarah ShahiandMo Amerto talk about making the highly anticipated DC movie. As most of you know,Dwayne Johnsonand his team have been working on theBlack Adammovie for a decade and the film is the first time Black Adam has been featured in a movie. In the film, you’ll see his 5000-year-old origin story and why he was imprisoned after using his powers for vengeance. Now freed in the modern world, he’s ready to unleash his unique form of justice, but he’s challenged by modern-day heroes who form the Justice Society: Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher and Cyclone.
During the interview, Shahi and Amer talked about what it was like watching Johnson transform into Black Adam on set, seeing him deliver really harsh lines like “just kill them,” what it’s really like fighting creatures that will be added in during post-production, and things fans might be surprised to learn about the making ofBlack Adam.
The film also starsPierce Brosnan,Aldis Hodge,Noah CentineoandQuintessa Swindell.Black Adamwas produced byBeau Flynn,Hiram Garcia, Johnson andDany Garcia.
Check out what Sarah Shahi and Mo Amer had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below.
COLLIDER: I want to start with congrats on the movie. It’s going to be a huge hit. I’m sure everyone knows that already. What I was really surprised was that I wasn’t sure with Dwayne, how hard he was going to go, because of his family-friendly kind of personality. But he kills a ton of people in this and really isBlack Adam.
SARAH SHAHI: He commits.
He’s full on. And so I’m just, for both of you though, were you a little bit like, he really kills everyone. All the bad guys are just done.
SHAHI: Yeah. No, we like that.
MO AMER: Yeah.
SHAHI: Because we want him to eradicate inner gang. We want him to kill the bad guys.
AMER: Sure.
SHAHI: But yeah, I think his performance as Black Adam is just seamless. He’s got such a great body of work behind him. But in my opinion, he completely disappears in this role. You don’t see Dwayne Johnson. You don’t see The Rock, you don’t see that. You see a full on mythological character, a comic book character come to life, in my opinion.
AMER: And the dead pen delivery is just like, as a comedian, I really was pleasantly surprised. Right? I didn’t know how he was going to play it, how he was going to go. When we filmed this scene in the apartment, that was the first thing we filmed together. And just seeing him deliver such really harsh lines and things to say, “Just kill them.” Like what? Hold on. It just took me a second to recalibrate and be like, “Oh wow, this is going to be amazing.” Just to see him in that. And you’re right, he just completely, he obviously has a body of work, but you don’t see The Rock. You see Black Adam, truly.
I love learning about the behind the scenes of the making of a film. What do you think soon to be fans ofBlack Adamare going to be surprised to learn about the actual making of the movie?
AMER: Ooh, that’s a really good question.
SHAHI: I know. That is a good question. Let’s see.
AMER: I think the years that it took to get there is really fascinating to me. Just as a creator, it is. People just see the final product and they’re like, “Wow, you know, you did that.” And then when they understand that this is for DJ has been a 10 years in the making. Somebody who’s had the level of success that he’s had, for him to still struggle to work through it and have the patience to assemble such a great team and a cast together with all the producers at Warner Brothers is a testament to them. And I think that’s really, to me, the meat of the story. In the background, we just had a ball. We had a ball making it. We were jamming to music all the time. People hanging out in my trailer regularly, raiding my snacks, sleepovers, barbecues. I think the secret to making anything great is the chemistry and truly being a family. And man, we’re very, very close.
Is there anything that you wanted to add?
SHAHI: I mean, everything that he said, yes. Just sort of the manpower that it takes to get something like this off the ground. But then also, I myself was pretty tickled to learn what it takes to film a movie like this. I’d never done anything like this before. So just the green screen element, it’s a lot. We had fight scenes to do, but there was nobody in front of us either, because they were going to be skeleton CGI’d in later. So it’s going “Huh, huh,” over and over again-
AMER: I had a blast. I ruined my wrist. For months, I was just throwing that collie stick everywhere. I was like, somebody’s got to be there, “Ahh”. I was like a child. And then it’d be cut and you look around, there’s like 500 people staring at you just-
SHAHI: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
AMER: Do make believe you’re like, “That was awkward, wasn’t it?” But it was so much fun, too.
SHAHI: But yeah, just stuff like that and the green screen and then the wire work. And a lot of, there were a couple scenes where my character, we were in an ensemble scene where everybody was there, but for whatever reason, we didn’t have time to shoot my coverage. So we shot everybody else out. And by the time it came for my closeups, nobody was able to be there for me. So I had to do a lot of my scenes to a wall, basically, or just a golf ball that somebody would move around to play-
AMER: Tennis balls.
SHAHI: Tennis balls. And so that’s also something that was like, I don’t know, but-
AMER: That’s really challenging and as a testament to Sarah just being such a phenomenal artist and-
SHAHI: Well, I don’t know about that, but I’m just-
AMER: Well it’s true.
SHAHI: I don’t know about that.
AMER: No, you do, you have to use your imagination while you’re pulling something like that off.
SHAHI: I’m saying that’s something that I feel like if, had I seen that in a behind the scenes, whatever, I wouldn’t have thought. “Oh wow. So she was by herself when she did that. Huh? Cool.”
I have to wrap. I’m just going to say people would be … people don’t really realize what it takes behind the scenes with scheduling with that kind of stuff. It’s just crazy how movies are made.
SHAHI: I know, I know.
AMER: No, there’s a ton of moving parts, ton of moving parts. And you have to just go with it and you don’t have any time to be like, “Can I have a second?” No.
SHAHI: No.
AMER: It’s gonna cause a domino effect.
SHAHI: Yeah.
AMER: You better be ready.
SHAHI: Your second’s going to cost me a million dollars. Let’s go.
AMER: Exactly.
On that note, congratulations. I know it’s going to be huge hit.
