PopHorror Let's Get Scared
While I’m not someone who watches a lot action films, sometimes one comes along that catches my eye and I end up really enjoying it. SAS: Red Notice is one of those films. It’s a smart thriller/action film that is non-stop from the very beginning, and my jaw kept hitting the floor. I was lucky enough to attend a press day for the film, and chatted with Actress Ruby Rose who stars as Grace.
PopHorror: Hi Ruby! Can you tell us about your character, Grace, and what intrigued you about the part?
Ruby Rose: Absolutely! I play a character called Grace Lewis in SAS: Red Notice. She is her father’s daughter. My father is played by Tom Wilkinson, an amazing, amazing actor. And we basically work for a private contractor group called The Black Swans, and we’re ex-military war criminals, depending on which way you look at it. We work to essentially help whoever else is hiring us to get rid of communities or get rid of villages so we can get gas lines, oil pipelines, whatever it is our organization is hired to do.
In this particular case, we’re hired to get rid of a couple of villages so they can get a gas pipeline through and things don’t work out exactly the way that they were planned. It becomes very public information, and a red notice is put out on me and my team. It goes on to be quite a dramatic action thriller, psychological film. But all in all, I think it’s the interesting cat-and-mouse dynamic of not really knowing who’s right, who’s wrong, who’s good, and who’s bad. Is everyone bad? Is everyone good? What’s happening here? And that’s what I found fascinating.
PopHorror: It was definitely very thrilling; I agree with that! And the role was pretty physical. How did you prepare for it?
Ruby Rose: We did a lot of training with some great stunt coordinators. Often, you don’t get to train with the actor you’re with. Sometimes with the schedules, you train with a stunt person while they’re filming, and then you exchange. This time, Sam [Heughan] and I got to do a lot of rehearsing together. We also were so cold in the snow that we would just keep rehearsing and didn’t stop. We didn’t want to stop. “Let’s go again! Let’s do another take! Let’s try that again.” It was the only thing that was keeping us warm.
But Sam’s so fantastic as well. For some reason, our heights and our strengths and everything matched really well. He had to pick me up at one point and throw me around, and he had no trouble doing any of that, so it was really great.
PopHorror: That’s so awesome! What was your favorite part of filming?
Ruby Rose: I would say it’s a close tie between working with the director and the producer and with Andy McNab who wrote the book and is a psychopath. He was able to tell us anything we needed to know at any time. That was fascinating and awesome. But also the cast. I knew that Sam was going to be a doll. I just love him. But then, they also ended up having Hannah [John-Kamen] and Jing [Lusi] and Andy Serkis. All these amazing people. And Tom Hopper, and Owain Yeoman. How did we get these guys? It was really amazing. And the location as well. It might have been cold, but Budapest and Hungary and some of these places we went to were just stunning.
Thank you so much, Ruby, for taking the time to speak with us. Be sure to catch SAS: Red Notice on VOD on March 16, 2021.
