Polish-born actress Izabella Scorupco is no stranger to action adventure films. She's co-starred with Pierce Brosnan in GOLDENEYE and tested the VERTICAL LIMIT with Chris O'Donnell.
This week she returns to the silver screen in REIGN OF FIRE, a post-apocalyptic tale of what happens when dragons run amuck in London. Although her face is familiar to genre fans, Scorupco herself is not as keen a fan of sci-fi.
"I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I've never been into science fiction," says Scorupco. "I've never seen a STAR TREK. Of course, I've seen the X-FILES on television, and I'm aware of [director Rob Bowman's] talent and background. I liked that, with dragons, we move into the future because the only way you've ever seen a dragon is with the knights going into the caves."
Izabella Scorupco, Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey in REIGN OF FIRE
© 2002 Touchstone Pictures
Scorupco's character, Alex Jensen, is an ace chopper pilot and scientist. Given the roles that Scorupco has been cast in, you would think that she is completely comfortable in this kind of role. Think again.
"Well, to be honest I really don't mind being a sex object," says Scorupco. "I'd like to be weak. I think it would be a challenge. I'd like to play a boring housewife because that would be more about acting, because I would have all those emotions. I believe that this is something that I already know how to do, so I just do it. To be honest, I've never been the sexy or cute girl."
One would think that being a Bond girl would be sexy enough for just about anyone. But Scorupco doesn't feel that way.
"Yeah, but even then I was like the nerd Bond girl," says Scorupco. "All the others got to be in all these different outfits and I was in one outfit and was a nerd. People were like, 'What a loser.' I was excited because I thought I was going to wear all these great shoes, but I didn't. In the end, I suppose it's better this way. I don't know what makes directors think of me for all these roles. I guess I have a tomboyish side that not even I am aware of. Most of my friends and people I know ask why I keep getting these masculine roles and I don't know. I guess it's my Polish temperament that comes out from underneath."
REIGN OF FIRE held a particular challenge for the crew involved in production, as the dragons used in the film were added in post-production. The crew came up with some imaginative ways to visualize the dragons in action and create emotions that would be convincing onscreen.
REIGN OF FIRE
© 2002 Touchstone Pictures
"On set, we had a picture and we were shown how it would be moving and thinking and fighting," says Scorupco. "We, [were living in] a huge fantasy, so we had to rely on that and know exactly where we were in the script and keep it real. We had to make sure that the reactions were not cartoonish because people wouldn't believe it. You had to think of the dragons as you would think of a biological weapon, or an attacking plane. This is real. This is the end of the world. That's how you have to react. Forget about the word dragon; just think of this huge reptile attacking you."
For his role as Van Zan, the dragon slayer, co-star Matthew McConaughey completely became his character on and off the screen, something that Scorupco certainly admires but can't completely commit to.
"I'm not a very hang-out kind of person," explains Scorupco. "I like to go home. I have a daughter. Both [REIGN OF FIRE star Christian Bale] and Matthew [were] very into their characters. I [didn't] know Matthew McConaughey [before shooting]. I came in and he was Van Zan. He had the shaved head and the whole thing, so I don't know the real him.
Scorupco has a tremendous amount of respect for McConaughey and the level of immersion he committed himself to, however.
"[He's] extremely driven," says Scorupco. "Especially [for] this part. He was so prepared. He was just doing his thing. That's very lonely, but it's extremely impressive to me because I couldn't do that. I'm a woman and I'm a mother and that's the most important thing to me. I have to be able to go home or else I wouldn't be able to do this. I was blown away to see actors work like that.
Although Scorupco didn't immerse herself in character to the degree of her co-stars, she did do some helicopter training to prepare for her role.
"I did a lot of helicopter flight training with one of the top, most famous helicopter pilots in the world," says Scorupco. "He was a veteran helicopter pilot in Vietnam and he was actually shot down 19 times. I can't fly a helicopter. I really can't. I just wanted to do the best I could and look like I knew what I was doing as an actor. I could feel the beard growing on my face during [those] five months [of filming]. It was never a question of, 'Are you with us? Are you OK?' It was just '1, 2, 3, go!' and it was uniforms and bags and it was heavy shoes because we had authentic military clothes."
Izabella Scorupco and Matthew McConaughey hunt dragons in REIGN OF FIRE.
© 2002 Touchstone Pictures
With all of the physical activity that was required of Scorupco, it seems a little less than a miracle that the actress only injured herself once on the set and the injury seemed to hurt her pride more than anything else.
"I actually twisted my ankle," admits Scorupco. "It was pretty embarrassing."
The injury was far from the most difficult part of shooting, however. The fire that was a very real and necessary part of shooting was daunting for the Polish actress.
"It was scary,'" admits Scorupco. "And sometimes you didn't think you were going to survive, but they would tell you, 'It's OK, we've tried this. We've done this with stunt guys seven times.' But the eighth time is always the one that goes wrong, so you're like, 'OK, this could be the last time I see my family.'"
Given recent world events, it seems natural to try and find metaphors in the movie to fit into those experiences. But Scorupco insists that the story was completely creative and is more about instincts than world events.
"We shot it before Sept. 11," says Scorupco. "This is about animals, not about any kind of vendetta. This is about animal instinct."
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