Free Fire star Brie Larson is the only female in the action shoot out flick in a sea of male co-stars. Sure, everybody is trying to kill everybody else in the 1978 film that finds an arms deal gone bad, with gender playing absolutely no role. But for actress Larson, fresh off her Oscar win for Room last year, being the only lady among a group of men didn’t faze her. After all, she was just in Kong: Skull Island with the same dynamic.
“Yeah, story of my life. It happens to every woman. It’s this weird thing that keeps happening. I don’t know when it’s going to change,” Larson said to us at a recent press day for the action packed must-see movie.
As soon as director Ben Wheatley yelled cut, it was all wine and roses for the sole female. “They were all gentlemen. This was like an ideal situation because every dude on this was married or engaged or have kids and so I was like everyone’s little sister. It was the safest I have ever felt in my life.”
Part of that set charm involved hysterics of the humorous kind. Larson is becoming quite the veteran of the moviemaking process and seem to appreciate the Free Fire UK shoot more than any other experience prior. “I just had the best time making this movie. They are all so funny and I also think they are the funniest when they are all together. Making movies is really, really hard. That’s just how it goes. But this felt like the time flew by and I think by the end of it all of us were like, “can we get this group back together every year for two months and do this over again?” It was just like the perfect group,” Larson said.
“One of my favorite things too is that when I am making a movie it brings people from different walks of life together. All of us are from such completely different places hanging out together. We got along so well. I just had the time of my life.”
Free Fire two distinct groups who are brought together in Boston in 1978 to conclude an arms deal, all orchestrated by Larson’s Justine. Weapons are to be sold to an Irishman, Chris (Cillian Murphy), who is seeking to get them to his comrades in the IRA. The leader of the faction who has the guns is Vern (Sharlto Copley) and he is joined by Ord (Armie Hammer, as you’ve never seen him before), a man who seems to know everyone on both sides of this transaction. In the mix is a hopped up on heroin driver Stevo (Sam Riley), the muscle Frank (Michael Smiley), Harry (Jack Reynor) and one tough bad ass named Martin (the awesome Babou Ceesay).
The problem arises on this already tense situation when Harry realizes he recognizes Stevo from the night before. Seems Stevo took a bottle to a young lady’s face and Harry is none-too thrilled about it. Our situation goes south quickly and by the end of things, the audiences is going to wonder, “Will anyone make it out of this alive?”
Larson found the idea of exploring the seventies one more reason to jump into action with Free Fire. “I think the seventies are just so beautiful. It was such an iconic period of time in the world and also just in cinema, and a lot of my favorite movies are from that period of time,” Larson said.
Being the only woman in the room wasn’t a challenge, as Larson stated prior. But, getting her head into the mind of the lone female in this type of exchange was another thing. This character had to be something special and years ahead of her time. Not many women in the arms dealing business in 2017, much less in 1978.
“I’m fascinated by where we have come and where we have been as women in action movies. I think it’s a tricky line to balance because the easy way to do it is just to be a man, act like a man, but be a woman. But I don’t think that’s where this conversation ends,” she said. “I think it’s much more complicated than that. I think women can bring a lot of different things to the screen that are also interesting and are innately female. I think what Justine brought to that whole film was yeah, she’s a bad ass but she’s also really compassionate and really empathetic and it’s coming from her loving and wanting to do right by a child. That’s pretty cool.”
What stands out too is that Justine seems to be the connection to everyone there. This is one ahead of her time enterprising equal opportunity black market entrepreneur.
“She is kind of the quiet leader of that group in a way. Every other dude in that is peacocking and so much ego and they are all fighting for power and fighting to be the most amazing, the most interesting, the funniest, the coolest, the strongest in the room,” Larson reported.
“And she is like, ‘I’m not playing that game.’ In her head she thinks she’s the coolest and the smartest. She’s just not saying it out loud. She thinks she got them all fooled.”
Lastly, we had to ask Larson about where she stood on the John Denver appreciation meter. A couple of the Rocky Mountain High singer’s songs are on the soundtrack of Free Fire and let’s just say you have never quite heard them used in this manner before. Is Larson a fan? “I am for very specific reasons though. I can’t listen to John Denver now without some very strong visuals,” Larson said. “Is there anything better then John Denver in this movie? I’m not sure. I think it’s the best usage of his music in a movie.”