Warner Bros.
While sequels are often seen as a largely economic, profit-driven endeavors, there are the rare few that stand as true elevations of their predecessors, movies like The Godfather Part II, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Dark Knight, and, in my humble opinion, Blade Runner 2049.
Directed by acclaimed Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049 was a box office disappointment when it was released in 2017 but has stood the test of time and is now considered to be among the best sci-fi films of the 21st century, if not all time.
Speaking to BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast ahead of the release of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, I had to use my first and potentially only chance to talk with Ana de Armas about Blade Runner 2049, one of my top five favorite movies of all time, and began by asking if she played her character, Joi, as a regular woman in love, or added any layers to her performance to account for the fact that she was artificial intelligence.
“To me, it was always real. Everything was real. I felt it as much as I would have with any other character. She was a real woman to me. Very much in love. Very much suffering from her limitations. She was very aware of what she could do and what she couldn’t,” de Armas told BroBible about her performance as Joi.
“In the end, she just makes the ultimate sacrifice — she lets him go. She knew it was not going to be possible. But what a beautiful drama, right?”
When we asked de Armas if there was a specific moment when she realized how special the film was, it came to her in two waves: once when she first started shooting, and again after Blade Runner 2049 came out.
“Definitely when I was shooting. Working with Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins — I mean, I was blown away. We would walk on set and it was all practical sets. Roger Deakins did all the lights. Flying cars and all that, for real. These were things — like, when we’re at K’s apartment and you see lights moving out the window — those were for real. Just the way he lit the set and the rain and just everything — it was magical. Like the scene with Mackenzie Davis, when we’re merging…”
Having just watched the film a few hours before speaking to de Armas, I had to cut in to tell her I’ve never seen anything like that scene in cinema before or since.
“I know! I know,” the Oscar nominee replied. “And you know what? It’s one of those moments where you’re like, ‘I just can’t believe I’m doing this.’ But even then, you’re not fully aware of what you’re doing. I think it took me a year — by the time the movie came out — to actually understand what it meant for me, and for the history of cinema. To be a part of that movie is something I will never forget. Every moment.”
In addition to de Armas as Eve Macarro, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina — hitting theaters in the United States on Friday, June 6 — also stars Keanu Reeves, Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick (in a posthumous role), Gabriel Byrne, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Norman Reedus.
Content shared from brobible.com.