One thing I've learned about doing these on-camera junket interviews is that anything more than three people in the room can lead to chaos. In the case of this interview with the young cast from “The Expendables 3,” I had four people to interview together, and it was just on the verge of devolving into total chaos.
To complicate matters, there was no way I was going to jump in and try to assert any sort of control over that group of people. I was talking to Glen Powell, Ronda Rousey, Victor Ortiz, and Kellan Lutz, who all play new characters who are recruited by Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) to replace the older Expendables, since Barney's worried that they'll get killed on an upcoming mission.
If you don't know Ronda Rousey's work, let me explain. I am terrified of her. I saw her most recent MMA fight where she reduced her opponent to a pile of weeping hamburger in 17 seconds. She is a brutal fighter, and she certainly fits right into the testosterone-and-blood soaked world of the “Expendables” films.
By far, the funniest thing about our interview was watching what happened when she introduced the concept of the “ho-box” to the rest of the group. For those not familiar with the term, it means a box where you put all of the things that were left at your house by someone you had over for sex. It's a player's term, which makes it even funnier that the only other person who seemed to know the term was Kellan Lutz. Lutz doesn't say much of anything during the interview, but as one of my editors pointed out, the one comment he does drop is both very quiet and very funny.
I won't ruin it for you, but you should watch the piece and listen closely. Bonus points to Lutz for his timing, and to everyone in the room for being game for whatever happened.
“The Expendables 3” opens in theaters everywhere on Friday.