The biggest turn for the series?
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In many ways, Statham is the superior driver to Skrein, with his own rough persona imbuing his character with a backstory.
The Transporter Refueled opens in theatres Friday September 4, 2015 and stars Ed Skrein (“Game of Thrones“), with Ray Stevenson (Thor, Divergent) and Loan Chabanol (Fading Gigilo). Where he shines best, though, is the interactions with The Transporter Refueleds MVP, Ray Stevenson.
But before that he worked on “The Transporter” TV series as a second unit director, and in the editing suite of “The Transporter 3” and “Taken 2″. Between their heavy accents and Skrein’s pudding-thick Cockney delivery, I could barely discern half the dialogue. He added that he had a couple of bruises and scratches after filming the fourth instalment of the “Transporter” film franchise but he had “nothing some Ibuprofen can’t cure”. So it was important for me to familiarize myself with what came before.
“It always felt like a pair of shoes that would be comfortable and I could fit into”.
ES: Not in the slightest. I want to grow and improve and be around people who have been in the business. I’d love to play Panthro! I try to learn from every film I watch and actor I work with.
“In a world… where Hollywood keeps re-purposing familiar brands… comes a movie so unnecessary… you won’t even recognize the name of the actor playing the title role!”
Skrein is buff and tough, but he more or less sleepwalks through the movie; a movie packed with the usual half-dozen boring, and not so creative, auto chases, and half-dozen badly edited fight scenes and places where bullets aplenty fly. That remote-control door sure is cool, and handy for many different things, and also, did you know you can launch it into an airport?
Just looking out at this attractive scenery, I wish I had more time than 24 hours here. One of those would be taking on a superhero role himself, as he isn’t all about the bad guy.
LP: What was your favorite sequence to shoot or most memorable experience on set?
“It wasn’t really daunting it all”, he says of following in Statham’s footsteps.
His client Anna (Loan Chabanol) proves to be the leader of an all-female gang of crooks in identical blonde, bobbed wigs, who force him to help them exact revenge on some human traffickers (a favourite Besson theme).
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LP: Speaking of the stunt team, how much training did you do for stunts? I’m still at an early stage of my career.
