‘I Wasn’t Acting’: Olga Kurylenko Loved Playing Crazy in Wild New Movie Turbulence | Interview
Tyler Treese spoke with Turbulence star Olga Kurylenko about the unique hot air balloon thriller movie. Kurylenko discussed filming in a partial hot air balloon, getting to play crazy, and the fan response to Taskmaster’s death in Thunderbolts*. The film is out now in theaters, on demand, and on digital.
“Zach and Emmy’s romantic retreat aboard a hot air balloon takes a terrifying turn when they are hijacked by a sinister third passenger with a link to Zach’s past. As the mystery of their secret relationship is revealed, their spectacular ride becomes a brutal mental chess match and a lethal battle high in the sky. Kelsey Grammer leads a brilliant cast in this psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last moment,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Olga, I imagine this was a really fun role for you to play. There are a lot of twists in the film. You get to be charming and seductive at first, and then you get to play very unhinged later on. What did you like most about just the pure variety that you got with this one rule?
Olga Kurylenko: Well, that’s what interested me, and why I agreed to the film. Because I wanted to explore this fully, and this craziness of the character, and this emotional wound that she had, and this obsession. Because you can see she’s so obsessed with the vengeance that she becomes sick. It makes her sick. She is not well. For me, there are things that she does in the basket that don’t make sense. Because a normal person or non-deranged person would not do it. For example, you don’t grab the only guy who knows how to operate the balloon and tell him to stop, right? But she’s at that point. She’s not rational. She has gone into a panic mode where she’s completely possessed by this hatred, by this vengeance that she has towards Jeremy [Irvine]. So, for me, this is what I wanted to explore. The insanity is always very interesting to explore [laughs].
I spoke with your costar Kelsey Grammer, and he had such praise. He said it was so easy to work off you because you really had crazy eyes while you were acting.
I wasn’t acting [laughs].
That’s pretty high praise, where he just found it so natural because you were fully in that character. When you hear that praise from your co-star, what’s your reaction to that?
Oh, wow. It’s really touching, especially coming from Kelsey. Wow. I mean, he is a legend, and he was so lovely. He is so lovely. It was great to work with him. He also brought this class to the whole film. The screen loves him, and he has such a presence. But yeah, I’m very touched and happy that he said that. Thank you.
It’s a bit funny out of context. He is like, “She just looked insane,” but he meant it in the best of ways for sure.
I don’t know if it’s complimentary [laughs]. I once had a director who told me — I was supposed to play a schizophrenic lady — and she said, “Well, you know, you don’t have to act. You can just be yourself,” and I said, “Thank you very much.” Of course, she said it as a joke, so we were laughing, but I thought, “Hmm… There is a truth in some words.”
The film was shot very interestingly because they built this replica hot air balloon rig they had a crane. Obviously, it’s not practical to go into the actual air. What stood out about this very unique filming circumstance? Those hot air balloons are not very big. So you have all these people in one small area.
Yeah, it was the tiniest set I worked on. Literally, we couldn’t step out. There’s a sense of a bit of claustrophobia. Even though, of course, we’re not totally locked in, we couldn’t get away from each other. We were just stuck with each other. It was challenging to film as well because the action scenes, when we were all like on top of each other, grabbing each other and swinging, it was very hard for the cameraman because he needed to go to the basket, and that added one more person in the basket. He also has the other guy who is with him, and we just couldn’t fit. At some point, it was challenging for them to get us and certain angles they couldn’t pull because they ended up getting out of the basket, and they said, “We can’t do it because it’s just too small.”
So it was challenging. They had to really find ways for all of us to fit. Not only actors, but also some technical crew so I don’t know how Claudio [Fäh] pulled it off. It was amazing. Everything was done so smoothly at the same time, and we still managed to have fun, laugh, and make jokes. But yeah, it was blue screen, and we were hanging, I don’t know, 50 centimeters off the ground. I was very fine with that because if that thing had gone up into the air, I would’ve not said yes to the film. I was like, “This is good enough. Please don’t go high.” I’ve never flown on a hot air balloon, and I don’t think I will, especially after this film [laughs].
I saw you were at the Red Sea Film Festival, and I saw some lovely pictures of you and Johnny Depp together. Is that somebody you would like to work with on a film in the future? I thought that would be such an exciting pairing to see.
Olga Kurylenko: Well, yeah, I bumped into him. Obviously, my son is a fan of Jack Sparrow, so for him, I said, “Oh, Johnny Depp is there. I promise you, I’ll get a picture.” Of course, my son, because I brought my son with me, actually to the festival, but he couldn’t go to the events, so I did it for my son. As you can imagine, Pirates of the Caribbean is very popular amongst children. But yeah, I don’t have any projects with him, but if there was one, then why not? He’s an excellent actor.
You’ve been busy this year. You’ve had five movies come out. It’s always funny when all these long-in-production projects all come out rapid fire. How crazy has that been, just having all these staggered releases through the year? Because it’s been nonstop for you.
Yeah, it’s nonstop. To the point that I forget what I’ve done. I really don’t remember, and I had to look it up on IMDB. Actually, some things are not even on IMDB. For some reason, they didn’t get it yet. So, yeah, I think I’ve worked too much, and I’m gonna take a break because it’s too much [laughs]. But look, I enjoyed doing every movie. I just shouldn’t do this every year [laughs].
One of the most passionate fandoms in all of entertainment is the Marvel fans. After Thunderbolts* came out, there was such a groundswell of organic support for your character. There was that whole Justice for Taskmaster movement going on.
Olga Kurylenko: I saw that.
What did that mean to you when you saw such passion from the fans, and that it came from a real place? Because it is not like you started that hashtag. They decided that, and this was trending for months. I constantly saw it popping up.
I was surprised, and obviously, because I think that guy who started it tagged me, so now I know who he is. So I constantly see him posting, he’s still posting, and I mean, it touched me. And of course, you know, I put likes to thank him because he didn’t have to do this.
It comes from his heart, and he says that he will fight for it. And that, and he’s gathering all these people. I mean, it’s really heartwarming, and I appreciate it a lot. And of course, you know, my love goes out to all those people.
But, sadly, we don’t decide. So we just have to see what Marvel is preparing next. And they will decide what’s gonna happen next. We’ll see.
Yeah, thankfully, almost anything can happen with Marvel. They definitely listen to the fans. Do you feel like the opportunity for return has gone up a bit just because there is that groundswell of support?
Oh, who knows? I don’t know. I don’t know how many people they need for that to happen. It’s hard to tell how Marvel really rates the success or not, and what exactly they need and what their plans. ’cause I know they’re changing everything, and which is why, you know, the last movie was the way it was. Because they are rethinking characters and changing characters, and I think they took off quite a few characters, just like throwing them away because there were too many. So whatever’s going on, there’s a big reassessment, or how you call it… big changes. I really don’t know where they’re gonna go from here. They’re trying to do something new, and I don’t know what that is.
Thanks to Olga Kurylenko for taking the time to speak about Turbulence.
Source: Comingsoon.net