WARNING: This interview with Thomas Kretschmann contains SPOILERS!
In PART ONE of our interview with Thomas Kretschmann, the actor talked about escaping Germany, landing the role in 'Wanted' and doing stunts for the film. In this installment, Kretschmann talks about doing the hard stuff.
One of Kretschmann's most emotional scenes occurs hanging outside of a moving train car thousands of feet in the air. Was it hard to reconcile pure dramatic acting with the physical needs of a scene?
"That was the easy stuff. That was an easy scene for me to shoot. All the stuff, which comes easy to me, is dramatic stuff. This film required a little bit more like coming around the corner looking cool. My concern was I was facing Angelina Jolie who is an expert in looking cool, being cool. I never did films like that.
Dramatic stuff, everyone comes to me when I have to cry. The most difficult stuff is comedy and when you create a presence out of nothing; that is more difficult. The dying scene was easy, that was an easy scene in the film."
Besides the cool factor, Kretschmann did have a lot of difficulty with heights. "I was hanging out this window and the train cars were hanging on the ceiling and I walk on this piece of glass where I am supposed to lay down and there was nothing underneath me," the actor said. "I yelled if it was safe and of course it was safe. I asked them who was responsible and so a couple guys were jumping up and down on the glass and I said, ‘well now it's really not safe because you have been jumping on it.' I'm a little pussy regarding heights and stuff."
Kretschmann was familiar with the graphic novel, but chose not to read it.
"I like to keep it simple like I said. I had a lecture from (Roman) Polanski when I did the Pianist, which is based on a book. I read the book and he didn't want me to read the book, but I read the book of course. I said, ‘Did you know he did this and this and this means that and that.' He said, ‘Yes Thomas I read the book don't you worry about that. Can you just forget about the book and do my film right now?'
With regards to the cast, Kretschmann spoke incredibly highly of the ensemble especially his co-star James McAvoy.
"James McAvoy is the perfect actor. It doesn't get better than that. I saw him in three or four films and in two performances I think he deserved an Oscar nomination… I could see in a film like this…it could be a little but difficult because he is a dramatic actor and not an action star.
"I think the arc he achieved in the film starting as a geek and becoming a man, he did such a beautiful job ya know. As an actor just sitting there in awe working. There are some people that just have it and instinctively they are so right. He never did a wrong take. It doesn't happen with McAvoy and on top of that he is very smart, knows what is important and is a nice person. We could sit here for days talking about how great he is, at least I could."
Up next for Kretschmann is starring opposite Tom Cruise in Valkyrie and he's currently shooting a film in the Bahamas called Seewolf Der.
In the meantime check out Kretschmann as he battles James McAvoy in 'Wanted' in theaters nationwide June 27th.
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