Greg Ellwood assures me that the buzz about Jack Reynor and his work in “MacBeth” later this year is very positive, and I'm glad I got a chance to ask Reynor about it. When I asked him if there was a culture shock that kicked in going from “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” right into Justin Kurzel's film version of “the Scottish play” with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard starring, he got real serious real fast.
He lit up when it was mentioned. “It's a step in my career that I'm incredibly proud of,” he said, “and I am… fortunate to be in a position to do something like that… it was an amazing experience, and I worked with people who I have just the height of respect for.”
Discussing the insane on-set conditions of making a Michael Bay “Transformers” film, Reynor was all smiles. “Not doing it is not really an option.”
Reynor and his co-star Nicola Peltz discussed the practical effects and stunt work that even the primary actors in a Bay film are called on to do. It's a mark of honor to survive one of his sets with all four limbs intact, I'd even say. Bay likes to create a very real environment for these incredibly complicated effects, and part of what makes me laugh in the theater is seeing how huge the scale is this time of some of the practical builds and mechanical rigs and the way they marry things together. The next-level slick that is on display is ridiculous. That's what I can't really get past with Bay. He's diabolical in the way he stages things. He may well be a madman, and if that's true, then the “Transformers” films are even more important as they document his swing into this kind of wild, over-the-top kinetic destruction, played at a volume and a size that's just not possible for anyone else to do.
“There are things that Nicola and I were called on to do that we will never ever do again in our lives,” Reynor said, almost wistful about it, even as he laughed at the memory in disbelief.
For the full video interview, watch the embed at the top of this story.
“Transformers: Age Of Extinction” opens everywhere tomorrow.