Were you the one who really wanted to get dirty making this?
CH: Yeah, absolutely. Actually, I’d forgotten this incident until I was talking about it earlier… there were definitely hardships and a tough environment, but for me, every single time we encountered a challenge like that, it just amplified the work and the experience and helped whatever we were doing.
There was this one day that we got a little overly ambitious and were gone about a hour and a half up this river, and a place that was going to take an hour and a half to get out of. And we got caught in a really severe storm. Torrential rain and lightning crashing down all around us. I just thought it was exhilarating and exactly the reason we had gone as far as we had. I was saying, “F**k it, let’s just keep shooting! Even if we’re not [acting], let’s just shoot us going down the river or under a bush, being caught in the storm. Let’s shoot, this is what we came for!” But the producers had gotten very nervous because we were on this river, there was lightning and potential for flash floods. They said, “We’ve got to evacuate now. We got to out.” But I said, “F**k it, that’s not what I’m here for. I’m not going.”
So, everyone is loading onto these boats and I’m just refusing to get onto a boat. I wouldn’t leave. And [director] James [Gray] sort of started to get panicked, realizing I was really serious about this. He’s imploring me to get on the boat. And I was screaming at him, “Dude, you’re f**king up! This is a massive wasted opportunity! You, me, Rob [Pattinson], a cameraman… let everyone else go and we can shoot!” And then a bolt of lightning hit a tree about 15 feet from me. The power of it was extraordinary and it knocked me bam! right down on my back. It sort of knocked the wind out of me. I jumped back up on my feet and James is like [makes a shocked face]. I said, “Yeah, maybe we should go. Maybe we can shoot this tomorrow instead.” Just amazing to have that type of experience, though.
That’s crazy!
CH: You have a sense of your mortality. I just couldn’t envision an scenario in which my mum getting a call that I’d been killed because I got hit with a bolt of lightning. It just didn’t seem practical or feasible.
Hollywood would have eaten it up, though.
CH: It would have been a good story… for about 15 minutes. [Laughs]
Speaking of your adventurous spirit, you’ve also got King Arthur coming up. Did you have any trepidation in taking on something that has been done so many times?
CH: You know, I feel like we tell the same stories over and over again, and this is a classic. It’s one of true origins of the hero journey narrative. And so, I really didn’t. I also immediately understood, just from the one line pitch of Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur, I felt a little bit of what it was. It was going to be fresh and vital and cheeky and fun. I’m a huge fan of his. And you know, it’s not like I have the access to every great script and every great director. It was a wonderful opportunity for me, and I was incredibly grateful for it. So, taking it was a no brainer and then we just set about trying deliver on the promise we were going to do something that felt fresh and original. And that people wouldn’t feel like it was a waste of time.
Would you ever want to play a superhero?
CH: No, not really. I just grew up being really interested in narratives that surrounded real people. That found themselves embroiled in doing extraordinary things. That’s the sh*t that excites me. That’s relatable and accessible and somehow deals with the truth of the human condition. Even Arthur, there’s some really deep, interesting stuff in there. Not just the Arthur writ large and the Arthurian legend, but just the stuff we tried to imbue in this film. It’s all about tackling one’s internal demons. Only by overcoming our personal demons, could we ever be strong enough to face our external challenges. That’s really the thematic of the film, which is something that I’ve thought of and been really interested in my whole life.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Charlie very much for his time. Be sure to check out The Lost City of Z, as it’s now playing in theatres everywhere!