Atomic Wick: how Charlize Theron sparred with Keanu Reeves to toughen up for secret agent role in Atomic Blonde
Actress says she learned ‘things I never thought I’d be able to do’ working with eight fight trainers, the fruits of which Atomic Blonde audiences will see in a dazzling fight sequence director David Leitch had been itching to film
At a place like the South by Southwest Film Festival, movies are one thing; movie stars are quite another. And so Austin’s Paramount Theater bubbled over with energy this week night when Charlize Theron took to the stage to introduce Atomic Blonde alongside director David Leitch and co-star James McAvoy.
In the film, adapted from a graphic novel – The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart – Theron plays a British secret agent being sent to Berlin just ahead of the fall of the Berlin Wall to retrieve a sensitive list of clandestine contacts. The story is told in flashback, as she is debriefed by superiors played by Toby Jones and John Goodman, which renders everything the work of an unreliable narrator and provides any number of surprises along the way. The cast also includes McAvoy, Eddie Marsan and Sofia Boutella.
Leitch had previously co-directed John Wick , and from that film he brought along cinematographer Jonathan Sela, composer Tyler Bates and editor Elisabet Ronaldsdottir, along with new collaborators in production designer David Scheunemann and costume designer Cindy Evans to create the specific look of the film, a mixture of old-world grime and new-world shine awash in garish colours and decadent anything-goes vibes. The film’s soundtrack buzzes with 1980s synth pop, including New Order’s Blue Monday 88, David Bowie’s Cat People, George Michael’s Father Figure and Falco’s Der Kommissar, to further burnish the film’s sleazy, dimmed neon sheen.
Theron wholly owns every moment she is on screen, strutting through the film in a series of finely cut costumes with a leonine presence. The film hits the bull’s-eye of being a tough action thriller without taking itself too seriously, enjoying the playful twists and turns of its storytelling.
When the movie was over, Leitch, McAvoy and Theron came back out for a Q&A.
Asked about the oddly prescient timing between the movie being set against the fall of the Berlin Wall and the recent re-emergence of cold-war-era tensions, Leitch said: “It’s pretty interesting with the Russians. The Russians are back in. Perfect timing.”
“He’s Trump,” Theron said, pointing at McAvoy, who in the film plays a British agent of shifting allegiances and uncertain motives.