Interview: Joe Anderson Talks THE GREY

Special thanks to Open Road Films, I recently got to interview Brit actor Joe Anderson (Across The Universe, The Crazies) who’s part of the cast of Joe Carnahan-directed survival film THE GREY (starring Liam Neeson) which opens this weekend.
Joe talked about the experience shooting the film in the cold weather and about bonding with the other guys, I also asked him about his role in THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2.
Check out the entire interview below..

RS: How cold was it on the set?

JA: “I think it got to 35 Celsius below zero, so it was cold enough, I remember stepping out of the plane for the first time and it was so cold as I breathe in, the moisture in my nostril, on my nostril hair froze. So that was a bit of a shock. The first day, every one literally went straight from the plane, there was a cold weather clothing store straight across the street from the airport, and everyone just went straight to the clothing store and just loaded up on cold weather gear, so it was freezing, it was really really cold.”

RS: Was that the coldest environment you’ve ever been in or does it get even colder in England?

JA: “We don’t get that in England, being in Ireland and all that, surrounded by warm water, although we’re pretty much on the same latitude, which is funny. I’ve shot in Lithuania and that got pretty cold, I was there in the middle of winter, that got pretty cold but I think that’s the most extreme and the longest I’ve spent in that environment. Definitely the toughest thing I’ve had to do so far for work.”

RS: I understand the wolves in this film were a combination of practical effects and CG, have you seen the film? What did you think of the wolves?

JA: “I think the wolves looked fantastic, I thought Joe did a fantastic job, he made a decision very early on in the shooting that he wanted to mix it up between animatronic and CG and go back and forth, so I thought it was really interesting. I thought it was great, I thought it was an interesting component to the movie, it looked natural.”

RS: If your plane crash landed in a cold weather environment much like the one in The Grey, and you’re the only one alive, what would you do to survive? What would be your first survival tip?

JA: “Unfortunately I would say ‘do not leave the plane wreck’, you’ve got shelter, you’ve got a bunch of stuff there, you can melt snow, you’ve even got bodies there if you get hungry, there’s even wolves, as well. So you have everything you need at the crash site and they’ll be able to spot you. So if you’re lost, stay put.”

RS: So no running to the trees like the guys did in the movie?

JA: “No running to the trees. It didn’t work out too well for them, so ya”

RS: Liam Neeson asked director Joe Carnahan if he could keep his Irish accent for his character in The Grey, did you get to do that? To ask if you’d play your character British or was he written as an American?

JA: “He was always written as an American character. And I think it’s one thing to say ‘ok, I’d like to do it as an English guy’ but then, I don’t sound like Liam Neeson and Liam Nesson just got this wonderful Irish tone, there’s a quality to his voice that is like ‘ok, absolutely do it in that accent’. And it’s always a challenge because I’d like to do things in different accents so it’s always a challenge to do it, as an American and not just as a Brit.”

RS: What was it like working with the great Liam Neeson?

JA: “He was such a sweetheart, he’s such a pro and I’ve been watching his movies since I was a kid. So for me, it was extraordinary to get to work with him. The guy’s so big and so tall and when he walks into a room, you definitely know he’s there, he has this sort of thing because of his character, because he’s Liam Neeson, because of the situation in the movie, he was very embracing, and he became sort of fatherly in a really sort of just a genuine decent way and I think it made the guys feel like we were doing it together, there was no competition, there was never going to be much rubbish, a bunch of guys doing it together, surviving it together, that’s what the film’s about, and it’s what we had to kind of do and he was definitely a true pro and the instigator of that throughout the filming of the movie, I take my hats off to him, because he’s just a lovely man, a nice guy and a fantastic actor as well.”

RS: What I noticed about the film was that it dealt with questions of mortality and faith and life after you die, what is your take on that?

JA: “That was one of the things that I loved about the piece. The battle and the question and ultimately the logic questions and especially the end of the movie, without giving it away, with Liam calling for help essentially and what happened and I think that speaks volumes, it really struck a chord with me, I’m not particularly a religious person, one way or the other, and there was something about the nature of human being on the planet or being here where they were, they don’t belong, they don’t belong in the snow, they don’t belong in the forest, it’s almost alien, they shouldn’t be there and yet they are, and why and is there anyone ever going to help you, wonderful questions that just spiral out from the end of the movie and that’s one of the things that I loved about it, in terms of that as well as being a movie that is scary and just awesome to watch, it is beautifully shot.”

RS: What role do you play in THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2?

JA: “I play a character called Alistair, who is a vampire, he’s of the European coven. And he’s a close friend of Carlisle. He is basically brought in to help, there’s gonna a bit of a situation that might require some backup, and some help so Carlisle called upon some old friends and Alistair is one of these vampires that comes to the rescue.
Nobody really knows him, nobody really likes him, he’s a little strange, he’s a wise old soul, he was a fun character to play, he didn’t have too many rules he had to abide by, so I was quite free to kind of just do what I wanted with him really, which was fun. I still haven’t seen it, I’ll be interested to see it, I can’t wait.”

RS: Liam Neeson told us at the press junket that you guys, the cast members of The Grey, spent time together and bonded like brothers, can you tell me a bit about the experience?

JA: “We did. It’s hard to explain, you know what you’re going to face and you’re not in your hometown and you’re staying in a hotel somewhere and so immediately you start to socialize and get together and I think because of the nature of the movie and the subject matter of the movie, we’re not shooting a comedy, we’re not shooting a light-hearted film so then the discussions, we’re going to talk about the movie and I think the nature of that discussion, the honesty amongst us, and I think because of that we suddenly found out a lot about each other very quickly and just became friends and it was that simple. A lot of the times we were just helping each other out. We all had different relationships and they’re all fantastic, we do still see each other quite a bit, so it’s nice.”