Paul W.S. Anderson talks about casting PompeiiPosted by Wilson Morales
February 20, 2014
Coming out this week is Paul W.S. Anderson’s latest film ‘Pompeii,’ which stars Kit Harington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Browning, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Paz Vega, Jessica Lucas, Jared Harris, and Kiefer Sutherland.
Set in 79 A.D., “Pompeii” tells the epic story of Milo (Kit Harington), a slave turned invincible gladiator who finds himself in a race against time to save his true love Cassia (Emily Browning), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant who has been unwillingly betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts in a torrent of blazing lava, Milo must fight his way out of the arena in order to save his beloved as the once magnificent Pompeii crumbles around him.
At a recent press conference to promote the film, Anderson, who’s more known for his Resident Evil films, spoke about the casting of the film, which includes Harinton (known as Jon Snow from HBO’s Game of Thrones), Browning (last seen in Sucker Punch) and Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko on Lost and Simon Adebisi on Oz).
Can you talking about the casting process for this film?
Paul W.S. Anderson: The first person cast in the film was Kit and I had missed ‘Game of Thrones.’ I was working and my wife (actress Milla Jovovich) had said to watch it. I had missed the first two seasons and then I watched both seasons in about 36 hours. I did a Game of Thrones marathon. I watched the first one and was just addicted. It’s an amazon show and it’s got an amazing cast, but for me, Kit just leaped off the screen. This guy is like a movie star waiting to explode, so I was very excited to work with him.
I had known about Emily (Browning) for a long time. There’s a special relationship between England and Australia. We get a lot of Australian movies and Australian TV. When you’re looking for a young actress, it’s very rare to find someone like Emily, who has an incredible body of work behind her. She started acting so young. I really wanted someone who had the chops to bring this character to life. She was an easy choice for us.
With Adewale, I’m a huge fan of his character for ‘Lost.’ He has such a huge kind of charisma. He really brought his role to life. The casting process was fantastic on this movie. It’s an ensemble movie and I got to cast who I wanted. I couldn’t more happy with the end result.
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