The latest film from EON Productions isn't No Time to Die – Daniel Craig's final outing as 007 doesn't hit theaters until April. Before that, the new spy movie from the studio behind nearly 60 years of James Bond adventures is The Rhythm Section, a provocative new thriller that exchanges the flashy aesthetics of 007 for a gritty and realistic approach. The result is no less spectacular, but completely different from what audiences might be expecting.
Blake Lively stars as Stephanie, a woman whose entire family are killed in a terrorist attack. After spending years drifting aimlessly in her grief and spiraling into a painful depression, she gets renewed purpose from a hardened spy (Jude Law), who reluctantly agrees to train her to become skilled enough to deliver brutal retribution on everyone involved in the death of her family. Director Reed Morano is best known for her Emmy-winning work on Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, and she brings a depth and frantic intimacy to The Rhythm Section's numerous high-octane action sequences.
While promoting the theatrical release of The Rhythm Section, Lively and Morano, as well as legendary producer Barbara Broccoli, spoke to Screen Rant about the film, from the responsibility of taking the spy genre in a new direction to Blake Lively's absolute fearlessness in even the most harrowing of adrenaline-fueled setpiece moments.
The Rhythm Section is out in theaters now.
This is a spy movie where the hero does not wear a leather black catsuit and have lipstick that poisons people, or any of that. Could you talk a little about the responsibility of making a spy movie that moves the needle in terms of gender representation?
Reed Morano: When I first got a hold of the script, before Barbara even knew I had it in my hands, I was reading it and it felt like it was on the page. It was inspired by the story the way that Mark Burnell wrote this character, and the way that he and Barbara had honed in the script. She felt like a real woman. I just thought, when I read it, this is an opportunity to see the embodiment of what a woman in an action film, what I've always wanted to see but I've never seen; not sexualized, but practical, realistic, grounded, raw, gritty, messy. It doesn't all go right. The action is real. It's like, not every bullet hits, and not every punch lands. It's much scarier, the stakes are way higher, and emotionally, you're more connected to her. It's not about what she's wearing; it's about what she's feeling and how she's feeling when she's doing it.
There's some really tremendous action. The scale is very intimate and very realistic, but you still have that hand-to-hand, let's call it a sparring session... I've never seen anything like that before! And even diving in the water. My mom is a Coney Island Polar Bear.
Blake Lively: No way! Oh, cool!
She goes in the water ever week. I can't wait for her to see it, because she's gonna be, like, "Wow, that's cold."
Blake Lively: It was six degrees. They had to cancel it two times because it was too cold to get it. There were paramedics on set. It was very exciting! But yeah, there's so much action in this, and Reed really wanted to trap you with the character so you never see anybody else's... You're in her experience the entire time. You're in nobody else's perspective. So, as the audience, you really get to feel it. And the fact that she is a very real, very grounded human being, it's very easy to connect with her, because you're putting yourself in that scenario, and she's keeping you there. So when you're in a car chase with her, you're stuck in the car the entire time. You get to experience it, not only with her, but as her. This is such a special movie, I think, because the audience isn't getting to witness this woman's journey; they are experiencing this woman's journey as her. That was a really cool thing to shoot. And just, like, you know, the action... I wasn't with a stunt double, I was with Jude Law! And we had to beat each other up in one take. There was no faking it. There was no stitching it. That was truly one shot where we're fighting each other. And that water was genuinely that cold. What you see on screen, we really experienced. It was a neat thing to shoot.
Reed Morano: Blake went all in. She went for it.
Barbara Broccoli: She was only supposed to do it once! And we got it, it was perfect. And then you (to Blake) were like, "I'll do it again!"
Blake Lively: They were like, "We have a hot tub for you," and I got in the hot tub, and it was like, the temperature of my saliva. It was not a "hot tub." I imagined Jacuzzi and Cabo Spring Break. It was a lukewarm tub.
Barbara Broccoli: It couldn't be extreme because you'd been in such extreme cold... And also, she wasn't supposed to go all the way in! They said, "You're only supposed to go up to your hips." And we're all standing there, and she's in the middle of the tank and kept walking and walking and walking, and then you went all the way under and we were like, "Oh no! Get her out! Get her out!"
Reed Morano: And everybody freaked out.
Blake Lively: They did give me warm soup before, and I was like, "Why is this?" And they said, "To give your internal organs longer in the water." And I was like, wait, what?! ...It was fine. I'm alive.
And it's all worth it.
Blake Lively: Just for your mom!
