Miles Teller and Jai Courtney are no strangers to the Hollywood movie making machine. Miles has won critical acclaim for roles in films such as “The Spectacular Now” and the upcoming Sundance hit “Whiplash” as well as candidly charm audiences in mainstream fare like “Footloose” and January's “That Awkward Moment.” Courtney is an Aussie TV veteran who was “showcased” alongside Bruce Willis in “A Good Day to Die Hard” and had supporting roles in “Jack Reacher” and “I, Frankenstein.” Both men will be seen next in Neil Burger's “Divergent,” but it goes without saying that most movie fans are interested in their next big projects.
Courtney was recently cast in the “Terminator” reboot “Terminator: Genesis” as Kyle Reese, a character previously played by Michael Biehn and Anton Yelchin. Teller has become a somewhat controversial choice to play the stretchy Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic) in 20th Century Fox's revamp of the “Fantastic Four.”
While it hasn't been around as long compared to those classic genre franchises, “Divergent” has a huge fan base almost (but not quite) a kin to “Twilight” or “The Hunger Games.” Speaking about the dramatic thriller this past weekend, I asked both gentlemen whether they thought dealing with the fan's attention to detail on “Divergent” prepped them for the microscopes they are about to go under for “FF” and the new “Terminator.”
“I think that being aware of the following is such a different than preparing to shoot a movie and getting into the character and all that,” Courtney says. “I really don't know if there is any correlation between the hype of 'Divergent' and going to play Kyle Reese. It's not something I considered.”
He then admitted, however, “When something has a built in fan base you open yourself up to a whole lot of other challenges and experiences.”
“What this movie did give me an experience with was a movie of this scale, this size and this budget,” Teller says. “Because before this I'd really done smaller movies. 'Footloose' was really the biggest thing up until this and I have a newfound respect for guys who do these movies that take five, six, seven months. It is a slow pace and you're not getting to do a couple pages of dialogue. It is very micromanaged and a lot of different set ups. That is something I did take into account when I was figuring out this 'Fantastic Four' thing. If I wanted to jump into something that was going to be four or five months.”
To hear their complete comments check out the video embedded at the top of this post.
Look for more over the next week or so from Teller, Courtney and their “Divergent” co-stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James on HitFix.
“Divergent” opens nationwide and in IMAX on March 21.