the meg
take A Bitew w w.sci fi n ow.co.u k
Jason statham takes
on a prehistoric giant
shark in The Meg
WORDS abigail chandler ADDitiOnAl inteRvieWS Jonathan hatfull| (^037)
There are soMe movie concepts that
just can’t fail, Jason Statham versus a 75
foot shark is one of them. As soon as the
first trailers and posters for The Meg landed,
filmgoers knew they were in for a treat. Even
if this movie is terrible, it will be great. And
in case you’re afraid that The Meg will take
itself too seriously and ruin the fun, we’ll
let director Jon Turteltaub put your mind at
ease: “People can expect exactly what they
think they’re going to get. It’s just better than
they thought,” he chuckles down the phone
to us. “They’re going to get a movie about a
really effing big shark, doing what really big
sharks do... And then some Chinese people
get eaten.” As film synopses go, it’s strong.
There is an actual plot to the film,
surrounding the re-emergence of the
prehistoric (and giant) megalodon shark,
which has lain dormant in the deepest, most
unreachable part of the ocean for millions
of years, until some pesky humans come
along and poke it with a stick. That’s where
Jason Statham’s Jonas Taylor comes into the
mix. “Jason in the film is kind of a washed
up former hero who was a deep sea rescue
diver,” Turteltaub explains. “No-one believes
his story that a giant sea creature caused the
destruction of a submarine and he ends up
washed up in Thailand. He’s brought back to
help save his ex-wife who’s trapped in a sub
deep, deep, deep down.” But Turteltaub is no
lover of neat synopses, being quick to assure
us that “some really cool shit happens before
and after that”.
It was that very same ‘cool shit’ that
attracted Statham to the role, as well as
the chance to work in the water. “I love
scuba diving, and because there was so
much underwater work, I knew I could do
justice to this role,” says Statham, a former
member of the British National Swimming
Squad who dived for England in the 1990
Commonwealth Games. “If you can get
footage of him at the Commonwealth
Games,” Turteltaub says, “I think I can
safely say his career diving for Great Britain
was probably the last time Jason Statham
disappointed audiences.”
As Turteltaub laughs his arse off, we start
to get a sense of the sort of lighthearted
on-set tone the film must have had. “He’s
a much better movie star than he ever was
as a diver, and yet still pretty impressive,”
Turteltaub adds. As much fun as it is to
make fun of his leading man, Turteltaub is
clearly a big fan: “[A]ll that tough guy stuff
comes with a mix of dignity and humility.
You never feel he’s ambitious. Other action
heroes, there’s a glory element to them. You
never feel that with Jason. The only way this
character was going to be able to deliver on
the humour this film needed was if you also
believed the strength and the capabilities
of the hero. Jason brings both. He’s really
funny, but he’s a genuine bad-ass.”
The rest of the film’s large – and very
international – cast were similarly excited
to work with the man we know as The
Stath. “Jason is such a great guy, he’s very
charismatic,” says Masi Oka, who plays
Toshi. “The first time I met him, [he had] a
much smaller frame than I thought because
every time he’s on screen he looks so huge
but I guess that’s just his personality. And
that’s what’s great about Jason, he’s very
humble, he has a great work ethic, has a
strong mind, is very charismatic and he’s a
great leader and a professional.”
Li Bingbing, who plays marine biologist
Suyin in the film, had a stranger first
impression of Statham: “When he smiled, I
thought ‘oh, he has the nicest teeth!’ because
I had never seen Jason smile in his films.”
This, clearly, is not your average Jason
Statham film. “It’s probably the first movie
I’ve done in a while where I’m not running
around with a gun,” Statham laughs, hitting
the nail on the head.
“What makes this movie so bizarre
in terms of an action movie and a Jason
Statham movie,” Turteltaub tells us, “is there
are no car chases, there are no guns, and
there are no fist fights. What else is there?
That’s what’s so crazy. I remember watching
the movie through once and thinking: ‘This
is really exciting, how is that even possible?’
We don’t have any of the things movies
always put in, especially Jason Statham
movies. And yet it works pretty well.”
Which isn’t to say that the film isn’t
stuffed full of thrilling action and incredible
water-based stunts. The cast – and even
hundreds of background artists – were put
through extensive training to ensure they
were strong enough swimmers to cope with
the rigours of the shoot. Rainn Wilson, who
plays money man Jack Morris, a character
he describes as “part comic relief and part
villain”, describes some of the training: “We
had to swim through a hoop, participate in
swim relay races, pull ourselves out of the