ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Rebel Moon stars Charlie Hunnam and Michiel Huisman about Zack Snyder’s new space opera. The duo spoke about their characters and how Snyder writes a role. Rebel Moon – Part One is now playing in limited theaters and will be released on Netflix on Thursday, December 21.
“A peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius,” reads the film’s synopsis. “The desperate civilians dispatch Kora, a young woman who has a mysterious past, to seek out warriors from nearby planets to help them challenge the regent.”
Tyler Treese: Charlie, I was reading that you initially were asked to read for another character, but once you saw the script, Kai really caught your attention. What was it about the character that you felt particularly drawn to and that you asked to actually play him instead?
Charlie Hunnam: Everything about him. I read the script, and he just leaped off the page to me. I just loved him and thought he was unpredictable. I felt like, simultaneously, I really knew him. I knew exactly who he was, and yet he kept surprising me, which I thought was a really remarkable feat that Zack had achieved on the page. I don’t know; it was just something about him that I felt like I understood and that I wanted to offer myself to Kai to be a conduit, to let him show up and create mayhem on this set.
Michiel, Gunnar’s very interesting as a character because he makes a mistake early on, and that sets him toward this path of redemption. What really intrigued you about going on that journey?
Michiel Huisman: Gunnar has a big heart, and I think that is what really attracted me to this character. I also think that he stands out from the ensemble in the sense that he’s a bit more relatable, I guess. He’s more of a normal guy, a humble farmer, very naïve in the beginning, who goes on a massive journey.
Charlie, what I liked about Kai is that we get such a great piece of backstory later on in the movie that informs his chaotic nature and how he views the world. When you have that in the script, how much easier is it to connect with the character?
Charlie Hunnam: Sometimes, with a character that’s not well-written, there are holes in the logic, there are holes in the psychology, and you have to work fairly hard to fill in the blanks and to make sure it feels like a real character and a fully realized human being. None of that was true in this. I don’t think, for any of our characters.
Although a character description might be brief or they might not say very much through the course of the film, it was very evident that Zack knew exactly who that person was in the context of the human condition. They were real people that were peppered through this larger-than-life universe that he created. So I just trusted that. Honestly, I didn’t really do anything, to be honest. I’ve never had an experience like this where I just knew who the character was so well when I read it. It was a collaboration between me and the character where I offered my body and he did all the work. [Laughs].
Michiel, you noted that Gunnar is that everyman that we can really relate to as the audience. One of my favorite moments is when Nemesis is introduced, and Gunnar helps save that girl. Can you speak to Gunnar becoming more of a hero and showing that bravery and natural heroic nature that he maybe didn’t know he had?
Michiel Huisman: Well, that moment that you described was obviously a moment that I was looking forward to playing. It was so satisfying because he’s amongst a group of super heroic characters, and he’s really the softie of the bunch. So not being able to help yourself and put your own safety at risk to save someone else, that was a very satisfying moment to play.
