From filmmakers, James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez come “Alita: Battle Angel,” an epic adventure of hope and empowerment.
When Alita awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido, a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past. As Alita learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious history while her street-smart new friend Hugo offers instead to help trigger her memories. But it is only when the deadly and corrupt forces that run the city come after Alita that she discovers a clue to her past – she has unique fighting abilities that those in power will stop at nothing to control. If she can stay out of their grasp, she could be the key to saving her friends, her family and the world she’s grown to love.
We caught up with actor Ed Skrein to talk about the ever-growing love for comic book and science fiction movies and his chatted about his preparation for this role.
The Knockturnal: I love Alita: Battle Angel, I saw it last night. It’s pretty incredible. I imagine it was pretty physically demanding. What kind of prep did you put into this?
Ed Skrein: You know what, it wasn’t that physically demanding, you know, to be honest. It was one of the lesser physically demanding roles. I didn’t have to get into any shape for it, because what you see is my face. So I just did the mo-cap suit, and the whole time the CGI body, so you know, as the shoot went on and on, my pot belly just got a little bit bigger ’cause of the Texas brisket and the Texas barbecue. So yeah, I mean, in that regard it was actually like a big pressure taken off. It was the first time I’ve ever done an action movie that I didn’t have to train like a psychopath and diet and think about the physicality all the time. I was able to just go inwards and just find emotion, and then that kind of dictated whatever physicality was there.
The Knockturnal: You didn’t do any prep work on the face, no extra moisturization or exfoliating? ‘Cause it’s really about that face.
Ed Skrein: They made me pretty every day. Yeah, it was four hours in makeup and prosthetics, man. I mean, normally … it takes four hours to make me presentable, you know?
The Knockturnal: What about Alita’s story did you identify with? What attracted you? What about the script made you say yes?
Ed Skrein: Well, I mean, everything … first, you can look at projects from your own character first of all, and it was a delicious prospect to take on such a fun character like Zapan, such a badass character. To be able to explore vanity and ego and power in the way that I was able to was a great proposition. But then every project kind of lives and dies by its lead character. And from the beginning, I loved the character of Alita. I loved her innocence, her empathy, her natural empathy towards people and her natural love and trust. And I was real pleased, when I saw the movie, that that really came across on the screen. I think people will really feel that from her.
The Knockturnal: The world of sci-fi is so ever-growing, and we love it. Why do you think people are so engulfed in this world of comic book nature and sci-fi?
Ed Skrein: You know, the question is a kind of loaded question because it is to suggest that comic book intellectual property is a lesser intellectual property … It’s because there’s truths in them. And in comic book literature, in the same way, like novels, of fictional novels and such, there’s human truths in them, you know? We create these stories for escapism, but also to document and find our own truths in our resistance … in our existence, in our behavior, and in the way that we interact. And so, of course, comic books have truths that we can explore and tell, and I think it’s really just that people are realizing the depth of stories. And we haven’t even scratched the surface. People might be getting sick of comic book movies, but it’s like things just need to keep evolving. There’s so many great stories out there, and I’m so excited to see them all be realized.
The film is now playing.
