Actor Stephen Lang has been quite busy lately. Horror fans may know him best as the Blind Man from Fede Alvarez’s Don’t Breathe. That scene will forever be seared into my mind. He’s also appeared in each Avatar film as the villainous Miles Quaritch; Battled murderous punks in VFW; And played a mysterious individual with a dark secret in Lucky McKee’s Old Man.
Next up, Lang will appear in Sisu: Road to Revenge, the sequel to writer/director Jalmari Helander’s hit 2023 film about an ex-soldier (Jorma Tommila) who single-handedly takes on a battalion of Nazis. In it, he plays Igor Draganov, a brutal Red Army commander hellbent on tracking down our hero and putting an end to the legend that he has given rise to.
For someone who has played some of the last decade’s most intimidating villains, you’d never expect it just by observing Lang. He greets me on our Zoom call sporting a beanie and wearing a warm smile that could melt the icy heart of the Grinch. Well-aware of his on-screen presence, I’m admittedly a little nervous going into the interview, but Lang’s kind demeanor instantly evaporates those nerves. If anything, it speaks to how brilliant an actor he is that he can become almost unrecognizable when he steps into the boots of the villains he plays.
And believe me when I say, Draganov is quite the monster.
While I won’t dare spoil the character’s connection to Sisu’s protagonist, I will say that we understand from the get-go just how vicious Draganov can be. He’s the sort of man who has no issues cutting women and children into pieces with a shovel. No qualms with killing whatsoever. I ask Lang what it’s like to play such a monster. “If I need to ground a role in a certain type of truth and authenticity, if I need to validate this role for my own self, then it’s necessary…to find the history of the character”, says Lang. He goes on to add, “What is it that turns a man into this kind of callous and cold killing machine? Totally unrepentant. Remorseless. How does that come about?” Lang calls it an “intellectual exercise” that he conducts to get him to where he needs to be for such a role.
But Lang makes sure to clarify that while he may bring certain elements to a project, Helander laid all of the groundwork. “Jalmari is all of the characters.”
No doubt, the filmmaker has a talent for creating fascinating individuals. Sisu caught the attention of audiences everywhere, in part thanks to Tommila’s portrayal of a one-man army facing impossible odds. That’s the kind of inspirational film hero that viewers have good reason to crave these days.
Lang hadn’t watched Sisu before he was offered the role, but once he did, he was impressed. “I was blown away by it…just a spectacularly cool movie. I’d never really seen a film quite like it before. It had a fragrance of certain things that I recognized, [but] it’s very much its own animal.”
Animal is right. Sisu follows a Mad Max: Fury Road type of formula, a gritty road movie packed to the brim with bone-breaking fist fights, breathless action, and cheer-worthy gore. For those of you hoping for more of the same from the sequel, don’t worry, because Road to Revenge has got you covered. It’s the sort of pulse-pounding, bloody as hell beat ‘em up that makes ninety minutes go by faster than you can say, “hell yeah”.
In her review for Dread out of Fantastic Fest, Sharai Bohannon described Road to Revenge as feeling, “like one of the ’90s arcade games that were just no-holds-barred fights in different locations”. From beginning to end, Sisu: Road to Revenge pummels the viewer in the best way possible. Vehicles explode into breathtaking fireballs. Body parts fly through the air. Blood rains down like it’s the finale of Evil Dead (2013). All leading to a showdown between Lang and Tommila that’s worth the price of admission alone.
As far as Lang is concerned, Jalmari is a filmmaker, “who’s making films in his own distinct way, in his own unique way with his own vision”.
Having seen that vision on-screen, I can not only agree with Lang’s assessment but attest that Road to Revenge is a wonderfully cathartic film made more so by a phenomenal (and malicious) performance from Lang.
Experience the wild madness of it all when Sisu: Road to Revenge roars into theaters on November 21st.
Categorized: Interviews News
