Prometheus (2012)

Ridley Scott and Noomi Rapace talk about the sci-fi film of the year.

For anyone who remembers the alien exploding out of John Hurt’s chest, or Harrison Ford terminating replicants, Ridley Scott will need no introduction. The man is a living legend amongst the film world, having directed some of the most influential movies of all time (see Blade Runner, Alien, Robin Hood, Thelma and Louise etc). This year sees the return of Scott to the enduring world of science-fiction, with a new crew, a new leading lady, and a new ship, namely: Prometheus.

“I loved going back to science fiction and I really loved being in the studio too,” says Scott “I hadn’t done a studio film for a while because Robin Hood was almost entirely shot on location and I really loved being in the studio for Prometheus. It all went very well indeed and I’m very happy with the result.” Having been released on June 1st, the wait is very much over, but the excitement continues at cinemas across London, and the world. The film follows the journey of a scientific crew, aboard the aforementioned ship, going in search of answers to the universe, only to come across a terrifying alien threat. The film tackles some weighty scientific notions and themes, as Scott reveals:

“We’re exploring some big ideas here. For us to be sitting here now had to have so many elements occur in the right way over the millennia, three billion years or so, and for that to happen, was some entity…involved? So the question becomes ‘God or not God?’. Or are we simply a Petri dish? And if we’re a Petri dish, we’re a Petri dish of something. If we are a Petri dish of something, who was that? It’s much larger than we are.”

Whilst Scott’s return to science-fiction was heavily desired amongst film fans, there are similarities between Prometheus and some of his earlier films. One of which comes in the form of Swedish actress, Noomi Rapace, playing the Scott-style leading woman. Rapace talks about the influence Scott had on her personally, “I remember when I saw Thelma and Louise and I was so young, I was like, ‘Oh, what is this? I’ve never seen anything like this.’ I was 12 or something. I think it’s incredible how he works.” She continues, “He has a very clear vision but at the same time he’s very open and if I would come up with a better idea, he would say, ‘Well, yeah, let’s try that’. It’s like we were creating something together every day and that was just amazing to be part of.”

This camaraderie forms an important part of the film, and the bonding between the actors is clear to see. “Ridley found a fantastic mix of people for this project and it was pure joy to work with them because they are amazing actors.” Says Rapace, “We did a lot of ad-lib and every scene came to life with this amazing group of people. I certainly don’t see myself as the lead. You know ‘here comes the lead and this is my scene.’ It wasn’t like that. It was very much what we all created together. There was Idris Elba and Michael (Fassbender), who are both fantastic, and I felt very lucky because I was surrounded by people who are just amazing, incredible actors.”

Indeed, the performances in Prometheus rival any of Scott’s previous films, including the notorious portrayal of lead woman Ripley (of the Alien films) by Sigourney Weaver. Rapace takes on the lead role of Elizabeth Shaw, a woman dedicated to faith as much as science, and commented on the differences/similarities between her and Ripley; “I think Shaw is more feminine in a way. She’s a scientist, an archaeologist. I think that Ripley was, in a way, harder from the start and from the beginning and she was a loner. Shaw starts this journey with Holloway [Logan Marshall-Green] and she loves him. They’re a team and they’re doing this thing together. In the middle of the movie, something happens and she becomes harder, more like a warrior. She has to cut off some emotional attachments to be able to survive.”

Aside from the great performances, there is also the great lengths which Ridley Scott is famous for embracing, in order to achieve a brilliant movie.

He said, “I like to build sets and reproduce as much as I can because it’s there; it’s something real for the actors to work with. And ironically, it turns out to be more economic. Everything I did was more economic. I’ve watched these other films that are clocking up around the sky, which is ridiculous and I don‘t know how that happens. I think it happens through indecision and it also happens when you don‘t know what your story is, and you shoot before you have a script and you are making it up on the spot and the you digitally try and fix it afterwards and then you realize you haven’t got it, and you come back and you have to re-shoot again. We knew exactly what we wanted. Absolutely, I had it locked down.”

This definitive view of how the film would ultimately look is what separates an artistic director like Scott from others. The precision in his techniques and the confidence in his choices keep the film from being sloppy, and instead, a vivid and compelling action/horror. One choice he made was a constant source of trepidation for fans, shooting Prometheus in 3D.

“3D is absolutely right for Prometheus. It’s straight-forward and simple and it enhances the spectacle, there’s no doubt about that. And it was simple partly because of the cameraman that we used, Dariusz Wolski who was just great. I had the best time with Dariusz. He had done one 3D movie before, the last Pirates of the Caribbean film (On Stranger Tides) and I said to him ‘I think we should shoot it in 3D because this film lends itself to it.’ and he said ‘yes I agree.’ Everyone was very wary about how much extra we would throw at it because of 3D but it didn’t happen.”

The result is phenomenal, bringing together some of the most loved aspects of Scott’s previous films and presenting them in an enduringly contemporary way.