In a roundtable conversation with the director-duo for the release of their upcoming film ‘The Gray Man’, we asked them how they got about writing a tailor-made role for Indian superstar Dhanush, almost to a point where it could pass off as his grand entry into a desi film. What they had to say surprised us…
Joe began explaining, “It was interesting that while we were working on the Marvel movies, we would research action sequences from other films as inspiration and look for ideas. We have a very good stunt team that we have worked with for years and everyone brings ideas to the table. A lot of times, we’d look at clips from other movies. I noticed that we would see a lot of clips of Dhanush in action.”
“After seeing two or three clips, I was like ‘Who is this?'” Russo said and added, “That’s how we came to know Dhanush… it was while working on Marvel films. Dhanush inspired a couple of sequences and hand-to-hand combat scenes in those movies.”
Revealing how they went about scripting (as Chris Evans would say) “My Tamil friend” into Netflix’s most expensive film to date, Joe added, “When we were working on the Gray Man, it was the perfect opportunity because it was such a global story. The concept is that assassins from all over the world get hired to stop the Gray Man. We thought it would be fantastic to get Dhanush to play the deadliest assassin of them all who is the one who actually does stop him.”
“We had no idea if he would respond to the script or if he had any interest in working on a movie like this. We are so grateful that he did because we wrote the part for him and it would have been really sad if he said no,” he quipped, earning a laugh from the actor himself.
During his interaction with the media, Dhanush got candid about letting his fists do most of the talking in the film. “I was really thrilled. The lesser lines were good for me as the accent is different. I am not so fluent in English and I come from a different world so I found it less stressful.”
Less stress and few lines to memorise mean more time for fun and learning from the famed directors. When ETimes asked him about his biggest takeaway from the sets and something he would like to put into practice in his own films, he said, “Their (Russo Brothers’) patience! It is unbelieve how patient they are to get what they want and get it absolutely right, the way they want.”
“Working with the Russo Brothers is really fun. They make it really simple and easy. They walk you through it, talk to you about their character, and tell you how and what they want,” he shared.
During the discussion, the actor was also asked if at any time he was nervous on set. “I was not nervous at all,” Dhanush said while adding, “But, I felt that I had a responsibility. Now that the West is watching talent from India, I felt the responsibility to deliver so that they come for more talents from India. That’s the only thing I had in mind.”
Dhanush’s casting in ‘The Gray Man’ comes after the directors worked on projects with Indian talents such as Randeep Hooda in ‘Extraction’ and Priyanka Chopra in ‘Citadel’. Are the Russo Brothers just big Bollywood fans, or is there something more to these castings?
Joe admitted, “Anthony and I have a special love for Indian talent. There is only one other country in the world that creates movies on the scale of Hollywood and that’s India. When you have a really robust film community, it produces a lot of talents who have a lot of experience. We are also working with Priyanka Chopra on our television show ‘Citadel’. We think we are on the cusp of an explosion of Indian talent around the world.”
Anthony said in agreement, “We think that is an amazing development in film and world history. It is an amazing time to be an actor and creative person who wants to make movies and the people who love watching them.”
‘The Gray Man’ which also stars Ryan Gosling and Ana de Armas, begins streaming on July 22.
