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Exclusive Interview With Non-Stop Director Jaume Collet-Serra

Whether he's fighting on land, in the air, or at sea, people just can't seem to get enough Liam Neeson - or that's what studios are hoping, at least. Ever since his role in Taken, Liam has seen his skyrocketing action hero stock grant him numerous ass-kicking roles, most recently in the upcoming airplane thriller Non-Stop. Guiding Mr. Neeson on yet another deadly adventure is director Jaume Collet-Serra, a frequent collaborator with producer Joel Silver. You know Jaume from films like House of Wax, Orphan, and Unknown, but now he's taking to the skies to conquer his fear of flying once and for all - by trying to kill passengers and blow up a plane. Maybe it's just Jaume's way of getting revenge on his most hated enemy?

jaume collet serra y liam-neeson en el set de sin identidad unknown

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WGTC: So what does Liam bring to an action role that makes his presence so memorable?

Jaume Collet-Serra: I think you just feel like you’re in good hands. You feel like you’re about to watch a good movie, with good acting – he doesn’t do bullshit. He’s a big actor who really pays attention to the script and makes sure everything works. Everything he gives is real. His fights, everything comes from a real place. He’s a man of his age and doesn’t want to be younger. He wants to be who he is, and I think everyone respects him for that.

WGTC: Were you influenced by any disaster films like Airplane 1975? Certain elements really call back to that chaos…

Jaume Collet-Serra: Not really, I didn’t even watch them. I’ve seen Airplane! because I like comedies, but other than that, nope. I just did what I could. I do a lot of thrillers, and I didn’t want this to be a disaster film, I wanted this to be a mystery that becomes a disaster movie a little bit. Once you deal with the mystery, you still have the plane. You could have made a movie where the terrorist is dead in minute two, and then the bomb explodes minute five, then you have ninety minutes of dealing with a hole in the plane. You could have done a movie like that, cutting to the tower, helicopters, planes trying to rescue – that’s another movie. You can do that version, but I’m not good at that.

WGTC: If you look back to Joel Silver’s early work, movies like Die Hard and Predator, and if you compare those films to action movies of today, how would you describe the evolution of the action genre?

Jaume Collet-Serra: I wish that there were more 80s type action movies. I think in the 80s, I don’t know why, but the movies then had character, interesting plots, and audiences were also not as sophisticated back then – they were easier to fool with new surprises. Now everyone has seen Die Hard, we’ve done that twist many times. The movies back then had real scope. Now it’s hard to get that scope. Things are so expensive now that you can only get that scope if you’re doing a superhero movie. In a little movie like this, we’re not out of the plane because we can’t afford to be out of the plane, which is a good thing and you have to use it, but it was a golden era back then. I hope it comes back, and the only way it will come back is for these types of movies to do well. The studios need to start making these movies for $60 – $70 million again instead of $20 – $30 million. If they do well and you have more actors like Liam…

WGTC: …Like if you were to look at the Expendables movies of today. I feel like those movies are trying to bring back that 80s style of over-the-top action…

Jaume Collet-Serra: But you can do that with stars of today. Liam Neeson wasn’t an 80s action star. I love Bruce Willis but Non-Stop with Bruce Willis would be a completely different movie. You’d be like, “What, is he trying the same thing again?” You need new people, other than Liam, you need younger people to step up and want to do those movies. I hope they do.

WGTC: You mentioned you’re not a fan of flying – what’s your biggest problem with it?

Jaume Collet-Serra: I just can’t understand how we stay in the air. [Laughs] I fly a lot so it’s a pain in the ass, turbulence, I hate that. I’m on a plane every week, and I take weird flights. Stockholm to Warsaw in the middle of the night? You’re like, “This could be the one. Stockholm to Warsaw goes down, of course! It makes sense that it happens to that one.”

WGTC: Non-Stop has such a wonderful cast, from Liam to Scoot McNairy to Julianne Moore – even Lupita Nyong’o – so I’m wondering how the dynamic was on set? Was it easy with so many phenomenal talents?

Jaume Collet-Serra: It definitely helped the process because it was very close quarters. If people hated each other, it would have been a nightmare. People happened to love each other, where they kept thanking me for casting a group of good people, not only good actors. All of the cast really became good friends. Michelle Dockery and Lupita really became friends with Jason Butler Harner who is the co-pilot – they all became the best of friends because they were there all the time, and usually not having relevant scenes. They had to be there every day, even just being in the background. Sometimes they wouldn’t have a proper scene for two weeks so they were able to be more relaxed off camera, and I think that relaxation made for a great energy.

WGTC: I need to know – was it your idea to display the auto correct feature on screen as Liam’s character is texting? We see the text bubbles floating on screen, and I died the first time auto correct kicked in even when we weren’t looking directly at the phone.

Jaume Collet-Serra: That was me. [Laughs] It was always becoming a thing. When you do a film, you have to always be up with the newest technology. I’m a little bit of a geek in that sense, and I’ve always wanted the technology to mirror when the movie is going to come out. I had an argument with someone because he was saying, “In texts, it doesn’t tell you exactly what time you received a text. Why would a text have the time?” I was like, “You’re wrong. OS7 is coming out in a month, and it tells the time. By the time the movie is out, telling the text time will be possible. Now while we’re making the movie it’s not, but in the future it will be.” You have to make the movie for when it comes out. You always have to be aware of that, and I’m a little bit of a geek that way – I’ll always have every detail.

WGTC: So what can we expect next from you, or more importantly, how are things coming with the Akira adaptation you’re still circling?

Jaume Collet-Serra: I’m still fighting with Akira. The studio is hot on it again. I left the project two years ago, they waited for me, they’ve been like, “We want you to do the movie,” and so I’m writing again. One of the issues why it stopped was the script. We all understand we need a script we can actually afford, and so that’s what we’re doing – we’re writing.

WGTC: So to confirm, you’re still attached?

Jaume Collet-Serra: Oh I’m very attached! The problem is whether they’re going to seriously go ahead and do it, but that’s me pushing it. I’m pushing and pushing Akira. I want to be able to do the movie and go to Japan to film it!

I’d like to thank Jaume Collet-Serra for this exclusive interview opportunity, and be sure to catch Non-Stop when it opens Friday, February 28th!

For more on the film, check out our video interview with Jaume.