ComingSoon spoke to The Amateur director James Hawes about the film’s digital release, which includes some great bonus features. Hawes discussed making modern torture chambers for the film’s key set pieces and working with Jon Bernthal & Rachel Brosnahan. The Amateur is now available on digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home. It also arrives on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on July 8.
“Charlie Heller (Malek) is a brilliant, but deeply introverted decoder for the CIA working out of a basement office at headquarters in Langley, whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack. When his supervisors refuse to take action, he takes matters into his own hands, embarking on a dangerous trek across the globe to track down those responsible, his intelligence serving as the ultimate weapon for eluding his pursuers and achieving his revenge,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: My favorite aspect of the amateur was getting to see all of Charlie’s death traps because he’s not really the type to take people head-on. How is it coming up with all these Saw-style almost scenes? In the special features, we see the extent to which some of these are done practically. What was this process like?
James Hawes: Some of it was in the writer’s room. The writer’s team, along with a couple of the advisors, turns out we’re all really dark because everybody had really good ideas about how somebody should be taken out and killed. Um, there were moments that Rami was a bit upset that he didn’t just get to pull a ninja move or draw a gun. But you are exactly right. The point was that he’s got the smarts. He’s got a way of turning the environment against somebody. So, coming up with things like the asthma test in that cubicle, that is inspired by the book, where the version of that is in the 1981 novel. We just made it feel like a modern torture chamber.
That connection between Rachel Brosnahan and Rami’s character is seen shortly in the film, but it has to make an impact because that sets everything in motion. How was it working with Rachel and making sure you made the most out of that limited screen time so that viewers were really caring about the relationship?
Well, you’re putting your finger right on something that worried us a lot, even at script stage. So, for instance, I came up with that little scene where he follows her out in the Uber, and she’s taking pictures as they’re running up the street. Because it felt like the fun and the banter and the love between them. So there wasn’t a lot of time.
Rachel is just brilliant. She’s such a charming person anyway. She and Rami just had a chemistry. So it was about giving them the space to show us that warmth. So you’re really invested in what is an unusual little relationship. You believe that these two quirky people deserve to be together, so you would really hurt for them when Rachel’s character gets killed.
Somebody else I wanted to see more of was Jon Bernthal. He has such an electric presence. When you do only have a character like that for a couple of scenes, how is it working with Jon to really make sure it was satisfying?
Well, I think it’s the way where he comes in the script that you get this, you’re right, this little detonation when he was there in the lobby of Langley, and wow, it’s Bernthal, and what’s he gonna do? You feel what Charlie feels, which is, “This guy’s cool, I want to hang out with him,” and then he’s taken away from you.
So when he arrives later in the movie and you get to sit and have a coffee in a dangerous Russian cafe and you don’t know if this guy’s come to save or come to kill, it makes it really exciting. So I think it’s one of those occasions where keeping it so slim and so sparse gives it added value. With somebody like John, who comes with his own incredibly inventive ideas about how this character is gonna be, he riffs on the words, he plays with the script. It’s electric.
Thanks to James Hawes for taking the time to talk about The Amateur.
