Joe Carnahan is a veteran action director whose latest thriller, The Rip, starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Kyle Chandler, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Sasha Calle, is out now on Netflix. He made his directorial debut at Sundance with Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane in 1998 and established himself as a force within action filmmaking with his second feature, Narc, starring Ray Liotta and Jason Patric. His notable Hollywood films since then include the star-studded crime caper Smokin’ Aces (2006), his big-screen reboot of The A-Team (2010), with Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper, the Alaskan-set The Grey (2011), also starring Liam Neeson, and time-loop thriller Boss Level, starring Frank Grilllo, Naomi Watts and Mel Gibson. (Photo by Claire Folger/Netflix.)
Three Great Things is Talkhouse’s series in which artists tell us about three things they absolutely love. To mark the current release on Netflix of writer-director Joe Carnahan’s new thriller The Rip, starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Kyle Chandler, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Sasha Calle, the veteran action director shared some of the things he loves most in the world. — N.D.
Espresso Martinis
I’ve already got one espresso martini in me right now and I’m about to get another one, so espresso martinis have to be my first choice! I don’t remember when I first drank an espresso martini, I just remember it being like, “Oh, this is exactly what I need right now!” For me, espresso martinis are the cure-all, the drink that sorts me out best. It’s the perfect drink if you’re working long days or if you’ve gone too hard in the paint the previous night and you have to recover and snap back into form.
I’ve definitely drunk espresso martinis during production on a movie. I’ll get to the point where I say to myself, “OK, I’m an adult – I’m gonna let myself have an espresso martini as a nightcap, so I can just finish the day with a little bit of a blush.” That’s always a wise tactic for me toward the end of a 12- or 14-hour day. It would probably keep a lot of people awake, but for some reason, it makes me sleepy. I’ll punch out after drinking one and sleep like a baby.
I’m certainly not advocating for a misspent adulthood of consuming substances, but I’ve written scripts when I was totally sober and I also wrote a film when I was heavily into scotch, and the prose on that one was better. A couple years ago, though, I challenged myself to write as well or as lyrically in the absence of booze, and I did it. It was a good feeling.
I think a lot of filmmakers have a romanticized view of the old guard, the hard-drinking directors of the Classic Hollywood era like John Huston, Howard Hawks and Sam Peckinpah. I vacillate back and forth between drinking and having dry periods. Once I get off this press tour, I’m going to go back to staying off the booze. I’ve done seven months off the stuff before, and now I just want to dry out and do the right thing.
“Fat Sniper” Movies
My son Rockne and I have a tradition of watching “fat sniper” movies, which are mostly movies starring Steven Seagal where he plays some variation of a fat sniper. He doesn’t move. He sits at what appears to be a kitchen table on the ground floor and yet his POV is 17 stories up and he’s overlooking a square. His lacquered, shoe-polish, ventriloquist-dummy hairline is immovable. We will watch those movies and just laugh insanely. Seagal made probably five or six fat sniper movies already that are called something like Code of Honor, Honor Code, and Code Name: Honor. It’s just stupid, stupid titles for stupid movies, and we’re waiting anxiously with baited breath for when he’ll bless us with one more in the canon of fat sniper movies.
This wasn’t a fat sniper movie, but the other night we watched McBain with Christopher Walken, from 1991. My brother Matt was there too, and whenever he’s involved, it’s that much more fun. The reason we watched it was that John Gilroy, who cut Narc for me and is just a phenomenal guy, worked as an assistant editor on McBain. He cut the film in Manila, in the Philippines, and the driver who picked him up from the airport there was called Bravo. As they were driving into town from the airport, Bravo fell asleep at the wheel and lost control of the car. The car drifted into the opposing lane of traffic, went down to a grassy median, rolled over, and then wound up right way up again. In his shock and dismay, all John could think to do was to say, “Bra-vo!”
Victor Argo, the great character actor, is also in McBain, playing “El Presidente” – it’s hysterical. When one of the other actors saw his character’s costume – a military uniform with all these bars and a big sash – they said, “Vic, don’t you think that outfit’s a little over the top?” Vic says to him, “You think this is over the top? Wait till you see my acting!” He already just knew the film was a dog, and when you watch Walken’s performance, he obviously knows it’s a dog, too.
I love to watch movies like McBain with my son, but my daughter does not have the same appreciation. She doesn’t get it. She’ll say, “You guys are wasting time,” and I’ll reply, “No, honey, we’re not wasting time. We’re enhancing time – I promise you!” We have a lot of fun. The next one we’re going to watch is Bulletproof with Gary Busey, because that just looks like a dog on skates. I can’t wait, man – I’m just dying for that one!
My Girlfriend Ari
This is a personal one. My girlfriend, Ari, who I’ve known for 23 years, came back into my life in a uniquely wonderful way, and spending this time with her now – versus what it would have been years ago – is so valuable, because I’m not a kid and she’s not a kid. As corny as it sounds, it’s so nice to be in love like this and feel this way at 56 years old, and share this time with someone so special. In The Rip, Matt Damon’s character says, “I wake up thinking about time, man,” and that’s very true of me, too. When you’re young, time is just blowing by you, and that’s fine. You think, I can’t wait till I’m grown up! At my age now, though, there’s a much more profound sense of sharing time with someone you love and being around them and experiencing them and wanting to hang out with them. Ari and I make each other laugh, and it’s never boring. With her, I’ve finally encountered someone who reminds me of me, in the best ways. She has all of my strengths, none of my weaknesses. And that’s a really special thing for me right now. I love her very much.
We first met back in 2003. I directed her in, of all things, a Coors Light commercial, the first one they did with the train. She’d recently arrived from Venezuela and her English was not that good yet, but we struck up an immediate friendship. She was married at the time and I was coming out of a relationship. Then when I got back in a relationship and was married, she was getting out of a relationship. So it was like Sliding Doors, where we were two ships passing in the night. Finally, right around the time The Rip happened, I had gone through a really bad breakup and somehow Ari knew that I needed help and she reached out. We got together, and we’ve been inseparable ever since. She got to take the whole journey with me of making The Rip and my folks love her, my kids love her, and she’s just a really exceptional human being. I’m so fortunate to have her in my life.
Featured image shows Joe Carnahan (right) directing Steven Yeun and Matt Damon on the set of The Rip. Photo by Warrick Page/Netflix.
