From Netflix and director J.C. Chandor (All is Lost) comes Triple Frontier, a modern day Western about a team of soldiers who go rogue to takedown a South American drug kingpin and steal his fortune: hundreds of millions of dollars in cold hard cash.
Netflix assembled an all-star cast to play the rugged protagonists: Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal star as the squad of hardened special forces operators who risk losing their lives and their souls in the name of profit and personal glory.
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During a recent press junket for the action/adventure film, we spoke to the stars of Triple Frontier. In this interview, Oscar Isaac and Ben Affleck talk about the philosophical differences between soldiers and mercenaries, the bonds that form between members of the armed forces, and – of course – Oscar Isaac's particularly tight jeans.
Screen Rant: I want to ask questions for both of you, but first, I need to ask a question to you, Oscar Isaac. There is a scene, very early, where you are running up a flight of stairs, and you are wearing these gorgeous tight jeans. So, um, regarding training...
Oscar Isaac: Were you looking at my butt?
Screen Rant: I was looking at your butt!
Ben Affleck: I was. I love those jeans!
Oscar Isaac: Oh, thank you, guys... I had to compete with Adria (Arjona), because she had a nice tight jean thing going as well...
Ben Affleck: I don't have anything to say about that.
Oscar Isaac: That was just The Running of the Butts, that's what I call that scene.
Screen Rant: It's fantastic.
Oscar Isaac: Thank you, thank you very much.
Screen Rant: I want to talk about the camaraderie that forms when you play a unit of men on a mission. Can you tell me about bonding before production and that kind of process?
Ben Affleck: We did training, we worked together, we worked with people who trained us and tried to learn as much as we could. Also, we heard a lot about how people don't die for a flag; they die for the guy next to them. We understood, that level of of bonding and commitment to one another was gonna really drive the story, drive the plot, drive the character stuff, so it was kind of essential to it. You know, we just put in the time and genuinely like each other.
Oscar Isaac: And trust, too. I think, often, what you see in these kinds of movies is a lot of forced chemistry and forced stuff. I think the fact that we kind of let it be its own thing... A lot of other people bring themselves to it, as opposed to, you know, too many back pats and things like that.
Screen Rant: I think a big thing in this movie is the difference between civilians, soldiers, and, later, mercenaries, is a big part of the movie. There's a very early scene with Charlie talking about not going into the private sector. Can you talk a little bit about the philosophical, fundamental differences between those three walks of life?
Ben Affleck: One of the things I think is interesting is, you have a group of people who serve a cause with great commitment and devotion, oftentimes for many years, at great risk to themselves. They're asked to do things that are excruciatingly difficult, and they're doing it for a purpose, and for an ideal. Then, when that time is over, the skillset they've developed, spent their whole lives doing, the only market for that is in the mercenary world. So you're faced with a choice, of doing something I've never done, like jump into real estate, or jump into whatever pedestrian commercial activity you can do, or sell your skills to the highest bidder. That's a dilemma that's faced by a lot of former servicemen and women. It's not something that I've dealt with myself, but I can imagine that it would create some particular stresses.
Oscar Isaac: Especially when there are some very intense injuries. How long can anybody withstand jumping out of helicopters and running and gunning?