Joe Taslim Talks The Furious, Naveen's Emotional Journey, Action Films & His Favorite Role Yet

[00:00:08] Joe, how are you? Thanks for joining me on Press Day. Thank you. Thank you for doing this for us. I enjoyed the movie. I love the action, but I also love the storyline with it. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. You get both.

[00:00:23] I want to start with the movie is like, I want to say, relentless in the best possible way. But the one thing that I loved about your character too, Naveen, is like, I don't want to call him a straight up action hero too, because there's a lot of emotional weight underneath them. When you first read the script, what pulled you in about this character? What grabbed you?

[00:00:43] Well, Elias Giannakopoulos, it's very hard to find a role that has strong balance, like beautiful balance between storytelling, dramatic and action at the same time. So this one, Naveen, I found that he's very interesting because he's kind of like the storyteller because the other character with, you know, unable to be verbal to tell the story.

[00:01:13] The story, the plot. So from that perspective, I realized that this is something as a dream role that I can do both. That I can do both and working with the great, with great people, those legendaries action maestros, Kenji and Kansuke. And then I'm huge fan of Shamiao and grew up watching a lot of his films and he started, he was a child actor. And then I was back in, I was, I don't know what I was doing when I was a kid.

[00:01:41] And then it's such a great team. And it's a dream role. And that is impossible to say no. And especially a huge fan of Kenji looking like I've been like following him for the last decade. And then my dream is to work with him. And that happened. And he, he, he came to Jakarta to have a meeting with me and then proposed me this film. And it was, it was super easy decision. That's a dream role.

[00:02:10] Hmm. For you as an actor, how did you approach balancing, you know, the emotional side of this character with all the physical intensity? Because we see him, you know, like in the beginning of the movie, he's like very controlled, you know, doing his job, investigating it. Then he starts to see the layers of the trafficking operations and it gets more personal with him too. Yeah. I think it's all about to understand the motivation of the character first. I think the action will definitely flow after you understand the character first.

[00:02:37] I think that's probably how I never really put action first in whatever I do. I always try to understand who is this guy and what he's fighting for and what, in terms of physicality, he, is he a, like a master judo guy or is he like, he trained judo in the background when he was young. So understanding that, you know, his capabilities, what kind of, the amount of work he can deliver with also gotta be honest with this character.

[00:03:07] And then I believe Kenji and the writer wrote this character beautifully. And he, you know, if you've seen the movie that he probably the only character in the movie that he always in danger, he always kind of like you, you see him, he could die anytime, but he kept just, he kept going because he believes in something. He's looking for his wife at the same time. He's trying to fulfill the dream of both of them trying to save those kids.

[00:03:36] There's a moment in the film too, where like, you know, he realizes how deep this corruption, this whole operation is. Like, you know, he shifts from like, he turns on a switch cause he's got to go to like a survival mode in a way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did you, did you and the director like go back and forth about like how much darkness and brutality to bring into like some of these scenes, later scenes going forward?

[00:03:57] I think gradually, gradually, because I think there's a beautiful moment that you see this character, even though he understands he's fighting bad people, but he has limitation in terms of empathy, even to, to the bad, bad, the bad guy. You know, there was this moment that Xin Miao went crazy to Brian and then, and then he stopped him.

[00:04:25] And he told him that he doesn't know what he's doing. He grew up a bad guy, raised him and he doesn't know what he's doing. So you see this character has, has control in terms of empathy that even though he's not blinded because bad guy, you gotta kill all the bad guy. That's, but he understand the situation. I understand there are things that we don't understand because these bad people doing things because of something.

[00:04:51] And then, and then throughout gradually you see him getting darker and darker until the end, he becomes someone that he understand in order for him to survive is to trade something so valuable for something. I like how, you know, the chemistry too, between Naveen and Wang, you know, how do you pronounce his name? Xin? Xin? Xin Miao.

[00:05:16] Okay. How was it like building that chemistry, you know, with that like intense environment with these two characters? Well, I mean, the good thing, like I'm very lucky. Xin Miao is a great person, such a great human being, very humble. So that's a lot more easier for you for actor to work out with another actor because you just gel in the first couple of days and then you trust each other and then playing a role.

[00:05:38] Xin Miao, I believe there's a beautiful fight happen in the beginning of the movie that they don't understand each other. And then they trying to read each other motivations. And then in that fight, after that fight, they kind of started something going on that they know to have to work together. But throughout the journey of their together, you realize there are like things that happen that gel them even more.

[00:06:04] And then he understand that he's losing children and he understand that this daughter means a lot for him and he's losing someone at the same time. So that kind of resonance between both of them understand that they're both losing someone and then they're fighting for something even bigger than that. And then the friendship, it just happens without exposition. You don't see them like having drink drinking beer together, go to bar together like, you know, in a common way.

[00:06:33] They have to survive one fight to another to understand each other, to gel to each other. That friendship going in a storytelling is so unique that they have to, you know, kind of always in risk their life together to understand each other. So for me, that's beautiful. So out of all these action movies you've done throughout your career, where do you put this character? This is my favorite character so far because it has strong balance.

[00:06:58] It has strong balance of performance and also in action. You know, I'm not complaining, but I'm grateful that I, you know, so far in my career, people trusted me to do, you know, a beautiful, beautiful role in action movies.

[00:07:17] But this is the first time for me given a role that has both, you know, that I, it challenged me as an actor to do something, not just physicality, but also something else.

[00:07:31] And then for me, they're both important because they're connected and understand Naveen as a person, understand Naveen as a character also for me to understand how he fights and how, what kind of motivation when he's fighting and then what emotional level he's, he's been through. So, um, it's a, it's a gem. And for an actor, this is something you really want to do, you know, to have both. Yeah. Last question.

[00:07:58] Uh, if Naveen can end up in any other action movie, which movie would you pick to survive in? Well, he barely survived this one. I know. I know. Um, if Naveen is, uh, is a, in a, in a different action movie, I think the rate one, probably something that, you know, he needs to work even harder to get out of that building. There you go. Joe, I want to thank you for giving me a few minutes today. Good luck with the, with the release and everything.

[00:08:27] And I hope we see you more down the road. Thank you, Elias. Thank you so much. Thank you. Have a great day.