Boys Will Be Boys – Johnson & Kitsch Talk SAVAGES

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The press machine has hit high gear this week for Savages, and though that sort of thing generally gets on one’s nerves, this case is a little bit special because a) we all love the original novel by Don Winslow and mostly love the work of Oliver Stone and b) Savages will likely take a box-office beating from The Amazing Spider-Man.  So anything to even those odds.

Over at Collider, Aaron Johnson, who will portray Ben, talks a lot about working with Oliver Stone and the character he plays and it’s all kind of dull, really.  I don’t mean to rag on Johnson at all, but at this point in my life, I must have read/seen/heard thousands of interviews with actors promoting their new films and they all say the standard, “Oh, the director was so great to work with,” and “Oh, my co-stars were so great to work with,” that it’s gotten to the point where I don’t fin it so great to work with.

Johnson also discusses the sequel to Kick-Ass, wherein he will reprise his role of the title character, and the interview further tests my eye-rolling technique.  For openers, the interviewer asks if there will “finally” be a Kick-Ass 2.  Because it’s been two whole years since the first.  Two years!  A guy could finish up his community college credits waiting around for the sequel to a fairly average comic book.  He might even have to read the already published comic-book sequel!  Insanity.  Then there’s further talk of the sequel as though it was ever in doubt that they’d make one, which I find a bit more insulting (grant you, I’m kind of a crab-apple in general).  The first one did very well, to my understanding, and writer of the comic, Mark Millar, is a machine when it comes to translating his comics properties into film properties.  I dunno, maybe that’s not common knowledge to those who don’t collect comics, but there’s going to be a sequel to just about everything Millar does.

Anyways, the Taylor Kitsch is pretty much more of the same, except the guy comes off as a little less gosh-wow about the whole thing, like he’s kinda got more of a sense of humor.  I’ve yet to see a movie featuring either of these doll-faces, but Kitsch seems like a guy I could hang out with.  Especially toward the end of the interview when he talks about how Savages gave him a chance to do some real acting, and not so much jumping around in front of a green-screen like he did with John Carter.  He diplomatically stresses that he enjoyed working on the blockbuster action pictures he’s done, but I think it’s apparent he’d rather do a character-driven, still-quasi-action flick like Savages than another big, dopey CGI movie.

Savages opens Friday.  Go see Amazing Spider-Man next week, it ain’t going nowhere.