26 February 2017
Newsdesk
Scarlett Johansson learnt to fight like “a machine” for her role in Ghost in the Shell.
In the upcoming science fiction movie based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Masamune Shirow, the actress plays cyborg counter-cyberterrorist field commander The Major, who is devoted to stopping the most dangerous criminals and extremists.
To portray the cyborg, Scarlett shares that she had to get in the right mindset for the unusual character.
“She’s tactical, so there’s a militaristic aspect to it, and she’s incredibly efficient,” she told Total Film magazine of one major sequence. “But she’s not indestructible. She doesn’t have superpowers. She’s a machine. So she fights in a different way.”
The 32-year-old added that at first she wasn’t sure exactly how the original anime would translate to live-action shooting. But she assures viewers that the movie includes poetic visuals as well as action scenes, for which she trained in a very specific way.
“We fight to the death….,” said Scarlett of one sequence. “I had this f**king enormous weapon, and I’m running around with it. I learned to love it, but I felt like I was getting my arms ripped off. I think I burst a bunch of blood vessels.”
Meanwhile, director Rupert Sanders shares that while audiences may be expecting a lot of computer generated imagery in the flick, that isn’t the case. In fact, he claims the movie is around 80 per cent practical and 20 per cent digital.
“We did a lot with Weta Workshop (a special effects and prop company) where we built exploding animatronic geisha heads, rooftops of buildings. We built so much stuff, I think people will expect it to be visual effects. We wanted that feeling of authenticity and reality, rather than doing it in a green vacuum,” he explained.
Ghost in the Shell, which also stars Michael Pitt and Juliette Binoche, begins to hit theatres from 31 March (17).
