‘The Creator’ Director Gareth Edwards Explains Why He Cast John David Washington: “I Didn’t Want A Hero’s Hero”
John F. Trent
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The Creator director Gareth Edwards recently explained why he cast John David Washington as the lead actor in the film.
John David Washington as Joshua in 20th Century Studios’ THE CREATOR. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Edwards discussed the movie with film critic and scooper Grace Randolph who asked him why he chose to cast John David Washington.
Edwards explained, “I just wanted to have, I guess you want to call your lead character the hero, but that was the whole point, I didn’t want a hero’s hero. I wanted someone who had a crack in the armor that wasn’t afraid to show emotion and feel defeated.”
“Like a lot of these characters in these kind of movies, I never worry about them because I always think they’re going to be fine, you know what I mean,” he continued. “And I wanted someone who was kind of broken. And as an actor was not afraid to put that all out there. Didn’t care how they looked. Didn’t care how it came across.”
Director Gareth Edwards on the set of 20th Century Studios’ THE CREATOR. Photo by Glen Milner. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Edwards went on, “We shot so much material. The first cut of this movie was 5 hours nearly. And John David would just like improvise and keep going, like 25 minute takes and had all this great stuff to pull from to kind of build this character.
“So I just needed someone that agreed with that approach and would run with it and he was 150% like dived right in and never complained once in really difficult circumstances like it was crazy hot and tropical, like jungles and things. And he never snapped once. I kept waiting for it, but it never came,” he concluded.
John David Washington as Joshua in 20th Century Studios’ THE CREATOR. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
In the production notes for the film, Edwards shared how Washington approached the role, ““He really wanted to have kind of transformative experience like Joshua, not just as an actor, but as a person. He went through the crazy stuff that Joshua went through, like holding on to a boat for an hour and going to these temples and chatting with monks. He was sucking it up because it helped his character, but also as a person he wanted to have that experience. He just happened to be making a movie while doing it.”
He continued, “The sort of journey that Joshua goes on in the film is a journey you don’t want to go on. When you take a character and you chuck him into a situation he just doesn’t want to be in, every bone in his body resists going on that journey, but it’s the journey he needs to go on to become a better person or to fix himself. So, going into making the film, John David knew this was going to be hard, but he dove into it wholeheartedly, ready to let it hit him.”
John David Washington as Joshua on the set of 20th Century Studios’ THE CREATOR. Photo by Oren Soffer. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Earlier in the interview with Randolph, Edwards rejected the idea that he was building a franchise with the movie, “Well, to be honest, tried not to build a franchise. Sometimes the producers might ask you like sequel stuff and you go, ‘No, no, no, no. No, we’re not doing a sequel. This is not about a franchise. It’s a one off movie. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end.”
“It’s a high class problem to have,” he continued. “If someone at the end of this taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘We got to do another one’ then like we deal with it then. I just wanted this to be its own little thing.”
Edwards elaborated, “That’s what I love about films versus television is that it’s a one-off story that just, you know, begins and ends. My favorite part of storytelling is the ending so I kind of live for those moments when it cuts to the credits and you just go, ‘Oh my god!’ and you wake up and realize you’re in the theater. It’s kinda what it’s all about.”
A scene still from 20th Century Studios’ THE CREATOR. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
As for what the film is about the official synopsis states, “The Creator is set amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence. Joshua (Washington), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Chan), is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war…and mankind itself.
“Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory, only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child (Voyles),” it concludes.
John David Washington as Joshua in 20th Century Studios’ THE CREATOR. Photo by Glen Milner. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
What do you make of Edwards’ explanation for why he cast John David Washington?
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