When Josh Duhamel first appears on screen in Allan Unger’s new action comedy “London Calling,” he is barely recognised. A good looking first class man forever became alded in his first few scenes.
“It was about me trying to become Jason Statham,” Duhamel says. “OK, Alan, I got the idea. I really want to be bald, so there’s a visual difference when I meet him a year later. I want to be bald, I want to be a bad person, I want to be like a bad hit guy like Jason Statham.” But we quickly realized that we’re not that guy.
Duhamel plays the former Pat assassin who flees from his London home base in Los Angeles after the crime boss (Aidan Gillan) accidentally kills one of his family and then gives him a hit. When he decides to return to London, his shady LA boss (Rick Hoffman) agrees to help keep him safe if he agrees to bring his son (Jeremy Ray Taylor) to strengthen him.
Did you say Duhamel’s anti-hero vision is a little far away as you need a new glasses prescription?
I spoke with Duhamel a few days before he was scheduled to film the second season of the hit Netflix series “Ransom Canyon.”
How fun is it to play an action hero who doesn’t know where he is filming?
That action hero who lost his fastball? That’s what makes this movie fun for me. I love the idea of characters that don’t have it all together, not perfect, they have to face these insecurities that have been apart for years. He must face the fact that he is not like he once was. It just gives you other rooms to play.
Your character is also facing age.
It’s like that moment for every athlete who’s ever played professional sports. There are moments like you say, “What do you know? I’m too old for this now.” It’s a difficult medicine to swallow. I think for him he hasn’t done many other things in the last 20 or 25 years. What does a man do for himself when he is really good at contract killing? This leaves him hidden in Los Angeles. But the irony of this film is that we start in London and he has to run away from London and go to Los Angeles. I left Los Angeles and flew to Cape Town to shoot a film in Los Angeles. There’s something wrong with that. We’ve come to understand this. Let’s bring these crew back to work in Los Angeles.
How does the industry shoot in Los Angeles?
I think there needs to be more incentives. I think we need to encourage that more. There are so many obstacles to achieving that now. He directed a film in London called “Preschool.” It is the two fathers who are fighting to take their kids to this last place in this super-priced, overstated kindergarten. Originally scripted to take place in Malibu, it was not possible to film there. It was just too expensive. We rearranged it for London and made it like a 500 year old kindergarten with a very respected Hogwarts-esque style. It’s very cost-controlled in so many different aspects and I’m all for the union, but it just blows your budget. We have a lot of friends who are struggling to find work, so we have to find a way to get it back.
You can feel it in the air in Los Angeles. It seems everyone has an advantage for some reason, especially due to industry uncertainty.
Next, add AI to the mix. This makes it even more difficult as it really reduces the need for many of these main crew members. I hope that somehow I can find a way to make it work. There is actually no stopping AI. You can put Guardrails in, but if you can make a $100 million movie for $10 million, they’ll do that.
It makes no sense that films are not made in the world’s capitals.
I think we need a real push to get it back. We were able to do that. We can definitely do that. Does it give more incentives or whether it will work with unions to encourage them more. I don’t know what the answer is, but working here is fine so you don’t have to travel much.
Even if you have a disability, how much do you like?
I really do. I love being able to shape the story in the way I see it. I trusted a young director or something many times, but at one point I was like, “Hey, that’s what we did. What is that?” I was like, “What do you know? At least I want to see what I can do with the story I saw in my head and at least try it.” It turns out to be a lot of work. It’s all consumed. It’s long.
Would you like to direct an episode of “Ransom Canyon”?
no. No, I’ll let them do that. If we get another season, I don’t mind doing it. Maybe if they let me do that next year. I really love the show. From what I’ve read so far, I think the new season will be that good, even if it’s better than the first.
What should we expect from Season 2? How many scripts did you read?
I’ve only read two of them. I can’t say much without getting spanking from Netflix, but that’s really good. A few things have happened since we last left. Minka Kelly’s character, Quinn, went to New York. A lot has happened on the ranch, and a lot has happened in New York. You will see when she comes back. I loved working with my father, Brent Cullen on the show. He’s heavyweight and brings it to him. Our characters don’t make eye contact at all. There will be a lot of that.
Did you think the show would be such a hit? I was shot to number one on Netflix within days of dropping.
It’s great if something like that happens. You just don’t know what people are trying to react to because you have so many things. I felt they might have been because it had all of those elements and what I saw felt in some way like old jeans or comfortable food. I was like, “This might really, really work,” but you never know. People decided, and they did this for 26 years, 27 years, so it’s hard to win. When you get them, you’re really grateful for it.
We all love good soap time and cowboys.
And tight jeans.
“London Call” is currently in the theater.
This Q&A was edited for length and clarity.
