It Doesn’t Really Stop. It Doesn’t Tie Up

Summary

• Uma Thurman, Charlize Theron, and KiKi Layne spoke with Steve Weintraub ahead of The Old Guard 2.

• The fight sequences in the second film required perfect timing and precision to complete.

• The movie’s ending might leave the door open for more, but is that on Theron and co.’s minds right now?

Back in 2020, comic book writer Greg Rucka adapted his hit graphic novel, The Old Guardinto an all-action Hollywood blockbuster, alongside director Gina Prince-Bythewood. Featuring the likes of Charlize Theron (Fast X), KiKi Layne (Don’t Worry Darling), Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Man Who Fell to Earth), and many more, the movie earned a fantastic reception from both critics and audiences, highlighted by an 80% critics’ score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Fast-forward five years, and The Old Guard 2 is right around the corner, with Rucka returning to pen the script and a new face behind the camera: Victoria Mahoney. The sequel is set to follow Theron’s returning Andy as she struggles to come to terms with her newfound mortality and must rise alongside a group of immortals in hiding to fight a threat like nothing they’ve experienced before.

Joining Theron in a stacked sequel ensemble are the likes of the aforementioned Layne and Ejiofor, as well as A thurman, Matthias Schoenaerts, Henry Goldingand more. Ahead of the movie’s release, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat with Theron, Layne, and Thurman to discuss the making of The Old Guard 2including the film’s incredible action sequences, that cliffhanger ending, and even the trio’s favorite movie theaters.

Action Movies Are an Important Part of Charlize Theron’s Family Life

“She loves watching action movies with me.”

COLLIDER: Charlize, I’ll start with an individual question for you. It’s probably the most important question you’re going to get today. If Andy were to fight Connor MacLeod from Highlander, who wins that fight?

CHARLIZE THERON: I can’t answer that because it’s me. But I can’t say that because then I’m just…

UMA THURMAN: She would win.

THERON: It’s Andy.

It’s definitely easy to ask because that would be a great crossover movie. I love Netflix. I’m all about it. But I’m also really obsessed with getting people to go see movies in movie theaters. So, for each of you, do you have a favorite movie theater?

THERON: I have children, and we live right over the hill from Universal, so we just always go there because it’s five minutes away. My 10-year-old loves to do day movies with me, and she loves watching action movies with me. It’s like a cute thing that we’ve just now started to do. On a Saturday, I’ll be like, “There’s a 10 a.m. of…” and she’s like, “I’m in, Mom. Let’s go.” We’ll just hop right over and watch it.

KIKI LAYNE: I don’t have a favorite theater. It’s all about Showtime for me.

THURMAN: I mean, most of them are closing that were my favorites, but there’s still The Paris Theater in New York. Still there.

Which Netflix now owns.

THURMAN: Oh, wow. Plug!

To give props to Netflix, they do a lot of cool retro screenings at The Paris in New York, and I’m grateful. They also rescued The Egyptian in LA, and they do a lot of cool screenings there. So again, thank you, Netflix.

Action Sequences in ‘The Old Guard 2’ Require Perfection from the Cast

“This was seriously one of the craziest things I probably have ever done.”

There are some crazy action set pieces in this film. We could talk about the fight between Uma and Charlize. We could talk about that window sequence. In fact, I’d like to talk about all these things. Charlize and Uma, if you don’t mind, can you talk about that sequence?

THERON: It was fun.

THURMAN: She gave me a few good bashings, but she’s a great fighter. Only the best.

THERON: It was definitely the sequence in the film that we talked about the most, that we worked on the most, because we really wanted it to earn what we wanted it to be. So, I’m really proud of it. It was hard. It was a really tough sequence to pull off. We kind of interchanged a lot of things in the last month, great ideas that came to us, and we were grateful to Netflix that they were open to some bigger ideas, and that we could actually lean into them. It was towards the end of the movie. I was messy, not going to lie. Sorry, Uma. [Laughs]

THURMAN: No, you were great. You were great. At one point, I think I was glad because it wasn’t just me that was like, “Oh, the knees! We’re on our knees!” [Laughs] It definitely wasn’t choreographed to accommodate any of our frailties.

THERON: Yeah, definitely not. We were like, “We’ll take one more pad.” [Laughs]

I also want to talk about that window sequence, because it’s pretty cool. I’ve never seen that before. I love seeing stuff in movies that I’ve never seen. Can you talk about filming that sequence?

THERON: It was intricate, but also it was so well-thought-out that it was actually really simple for us. A lot of just lay over, clean plates. But we actually had to do a version where she came swinging through that window, and I had to roll right past her. We didn’t have glass, but we had to actually do the movement. It was unbelievable. I have to say, this was seriously one of the craziest things I probably have ever done. You too, right?

LAYNE: Yes.

THERON: It was insane. I was lying with this giant stunt guy on top of my foot, and on “action,” we timed it out that I would roll and throw him out of the open window, and she would come swinging as he was dropping, and I had to roll out of the way for her. We collided once.

LAYNE: One time.

THERON: One time, but we never did it again because it really hurt. But she would come right through. I would roll up, she’d pulled a gun, and that we did as one. Just minus the glass, which I was pretty proud of.

LAYNE: Yes, same, same.

THERON: We did a few more at the end, and we couldn’t hold it together. We were like, “Oh my God, we just did it! You okay? We did it!”

LAYNE: Because the timing has to be so perfectso it was a team effort that came together perfectly.

‘The Old Guard 2’s Ending Leaves Room for More Carnage to Come

“It doesn’t really stop. It doesn’t tie up.”

I was surprised the movie ends on a cliffhanger. I wasn’t expecting that. Can you guys talk about how it was figured out that there was going to be a cliffhanger, and who is writing Old Guard 3 right now?

THERON: I think the first one ended on a cliffhanger. I can tell you this from all of us as producers: We weren’t sitting there thinking about the third because this one was more than enough to think about. I think it truly came out of the organics of where these characters ended up being, and it was just too much. There’s nothing really to tie off in these worlds. I feel like it’s just too much mythology. The characters are just too complicated to tie all of us up. So, the nicer way to finish the Old Guard movies is not in saying, like, “Hey, there’s another one coming,” because I’m resting — I don’t know what these ladies are up to, but we’re going to take a beat — but it is just to make it feel a little bit more organic to the world, which is constantly existing. It doesn’t really stop. It doesn’t tie up.

The Old Guard 2 is available to stream now on Netflix.