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[ThisstorycontainsmajorspoilersforthefirstseasonoftheNetflixhit[ThisstorycontainsMAJORspoilersforseasononeofNetflix’sMan on fireincluding the season finale.]
As John Creasy, the deranged main character in the new Netflix series Man on fireHe says it’s a solo act.
The former Special Forces agent, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, doesn’t trust anyone until he’s sure they’re not involved in the terrorist explosion that occurs at the end of the first episode — and that means no one. It’s a strategy that ensures the safety of Beau Rayburn (Billy Bullitt), the surviving daughter of his colleague Paul Rayburn (Bobby Cannavale), who died in an explosion. But it’s bad news for Creasy’s CIA contact, Henry Tappan (Scott McNairy), who, in a plot twist, turns out to have been the driving force behind the murders of the Rayburns and everyone living in their high-rise apartment building.
After Chrissie uncovers all layers of the international conspiracy, while combating the efforts of Tappan’s accomplices to kill the girl, a deadly confrontation occurs in the seventh episode, when Tappan pursues Chrissie. An agonizing fight ensues before Cressy snatches a scalpel and slits Tappan’s femoral artery in the biggest “mermaid moment” of the season, as McEnery puts it. Hollywood Reporter I recently spoke with McNairy over Zoom to find out what attracted him to the role, the highlights of filming in South America and what happened behind the scenes while filming that epic showdown.
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I last saw you in Completely anonymouswhere she played Woody Guthrie. Of course, this is a completely different type of project Man on fire.
It certainly was, two very different ends of the spectrum. Look, any time you head to Brazil or Mexico to go to work, it’s always a joy to be in the environment with those different communities of people. There is something fun about making films in South America.
One of the things I love about the show is how they get into the slums and get to know the people there. Did you feel like you really got to experience that?
This is really what they were after. There was a lot of talk before the show to really get to know that culture and music and really push you into that, as well as the movement and all that stuff. Of course, when we were in Brazil, Alice Braga [who plays Melo]This is her world, you know? There were a lot of interesting things we did outside of work to see that culture, but the filmmakers did a great job of portraying it on screen as well.
Your character, Henry Tappan, is not what he first seems. What attracted you to this part?
At first, I didn’t really know where his character eventually went. They said they wanted this to be a surprise, and that you wouldn’t expect it to happen. Part of it is that they wrote a really great pilot, and I also got to work with it [executive producer and director] Steven Caple Jr. before and I’m a big fan of his. He’s so great at storytelling and action, and he’s also a lovely person to work with, as well as Stacy Persky, who was [executive] Its production, and who I worked with Narcos In Mexico. Part of it was just the team, and Netflix, I love working with them. And after working on Narcos – You don’t know what to expect when you get there, and I think that’s probably the most exciting thing about it.
Was it fun to play that character with that kind of development? It’s like you didn’t even know what to expect until you actually got into it.
I kinda knew, but [the surprise came more from] Filmmakers and the process that really leads you to it, so it wasn’t necessarily something I He was doing it. But as a viewer, I love surprise. I like it when there’s a twist at the end, so yeah, it was fun to build on that. And the character as a whole, playing the CIA guy, was all interesting based on all the factors involved.
The battle of wits between Tappan and Chrissie is one of the big dynamics of the show. Early on, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for Chrissie to distrust him, but he doesn’t show up for the extraction that Tappan has planned to bring him and Bo back to the States. Why do you think so?
I think this is kind of a foreshadowing of the tension between these two people and how they hung up on each other. Chrissy is in a place where he doesn’t trust anyone, with the PTSD and trauma he’s going through, and he’s still an incredibly skilled soldier and a really smart human being. Working with Yahya is very enjoyable. He tells a lot of jokes – he’s a really hard worker, but he was a lot of fun working with him.
The biggest hurdle I had in my way was the fight sequences [in the hospital in the finale]. We’re very different in size, so I think the stunt crew put together a really cool scene that made it believable, [to show] What would happen if these two people matched. That was on my mind a lot during this shoot, making sure it looked realistic. But when I think of Yahya, I remember playing on set more than filming. (chuckle.)
Can you talk a little more about filming that fight sequence? This looks like it could be a real challenge or a lot of fun, depending on how you look at it.
Yes, and I give full credit to the stunt coordinators because I wasn’t a part of it [the planning]But the idea was that I was younger than him, so we tried to make things happen [Tappan] faster. This is where they come in with some sort of Krav Maga background. It’s much faster, but not stronger. We rehearsed for two or three weeks for this fight sequence. I had a great actor, Brett Sheerin, who I had worked with before. He came in and obviously did a lot of bigger things. Overall, looking at it now, I thought the directors and editors did a great job of putting this together and making it feel authentic and real.
When Creasy stabs your character with the scalpel and kills you, did you feel like that was a good send-off for your character?
Yes, I think so. I hope it will be an exciting moment for the audience. This is what it was designed to do. She died on two projects. (He laughs.) You are always trying to come up with a different way so as not to repeat yourself while dying.
Until the hospital scene, it was more of a mental battle of wits between your characters. They are both very smart. What do you think made Chrissy come out on top?
This is a great question. I just think he was always one step ahead. Tappan overestimated his abilities by thinking that he was smarter than him and could outperform him, and I think that was the death of him, thinking that the training he gave Chrissy, or that he received together, meant that he knew how to… [Creasy] belief. He fell into this trap, and in the end, Chrissy is smarter than him, more thoughtful, more planned, more methodical, and what Tappan was doing was a crime and a scandal, so in the end you will be caught. As we see today, there are a lot of crimes that happen and yes they do happen, but it is almost impossible to carry out anything these days.
Chrissie believes that isolating himself and mentally distancing himself from the problems he is trying to solve will help him succeed. But in the end, he gets a lot of help from the friends he makes along the way, like the character Alice Braga.
I can’t speak freely about it, but I know that Kyle [Killen, the showrunner] I researched a lot about people with military backgrounds with PTSD, and found that people had a sense of resistance to returning to a similar situation, and it was therapeutic not to resist but to live within the experience, rather than returning to the experience. [traumatic] It happened. I feel like those relationships that you see Chrissy has throughout his journey reflect that in some way. It is experiencing experiences versus returning to experience. I don’t know if it’s on the clock, but I realized that this kind of therapy that he’s getting through these other characters is part of his journey to get better.
Even though your character died at the end of the season, he had a long history with Creasy. Do you think Tappan might appear in another season?
I love profitable projects, especially when you have paved the way for them. Sure, who knows, there might be an introduction. They can come up with anything, so I will Totally open to that. I love working with this crew over there in Mexico City, so I’ll gladly come back.
Was there anything else you wanted to mention about the show?
It was a feat. There were big action scenes, and the stunt team and VFX team did a great job with that. There’s a great story there, but it’s also incredibly exciting, incredibly exciting, with great car chases, fight sequences, and shootouts. [The name] Man on fire Hat tips it. It’s a different story from the book [source material]a kind of sidebar. But she is doing a great job surviving in this world. I’m excited for everyone to see it.
All episodes Man on fire Season 1 is currently available on Netflix. He reads THRInterview with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Steven Caple Jr. here.
