Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy have been shooting their new film “Sacrifice” most days by hiking beside the volcano in Santorini, Greece.
“You’re just looking around the majesty of the world,” Evans said of the panorama. “It’s easy to lose yourself completely, just like there’s no film crew to capture your every move.”
But, of course, Evans and Taylor-Joy are not only there to enjoy the scenery. The “sacrifice” by Romain Gavras (“Athena”) and director of the script (“Inheritance”) written by him and Will Arbery is a bold distribution of celebrities, wealth and radicalism. In it, Evans plays a movie star who goes through an existential crisis when he is tapped by Taylor-Joy's cult leader to stop the volcano from sacrificing prophecy. It's a prerequisite – bold, original and, borrowing a “weird” term from Taylor-Joy, has left the actor struggling to deal with severe climate change anxiety symptoms, considering his own fear of the planet.
“I got really frustrated at the party,” Taylor-Joy said. “The script passed and I realized, ‘Oh, that’s how you feel about big. You walk away and do art about it.” Even if it might not change the outcome that plagues you, it can make your release differently. ”
Taylor-Joy said shooting the film – shot in the caves and caves of Greece and Bulgaria for 10 weeks, as well as some of the dilemmas filmed above the aforementioned volcano. “This brought me into a better place. All the time spent outdoors brought me a lot of peace. Understanding my scale, staying in front of me for a long time around the scenery, and for a long time after me, I would relax me.”
Evans and Taylor-Joy didn't know each other until they made the film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 6. They once met at a party where they played a running Charades game. (“He takes that shit seriously, I’m as an Aries, connect with it,” Taylor-Joy laughs. Evans agrees, “I’m a big fan of the game.”) Then, around the time the “sacrifice” script approaches, they keep bumping into each other at events in Hollywood. Evans thought: “Maybe the fact that we continue to cross the road may have some facts; maybe it is fate.”
The actors quickly signed up to star in and execute the project (from the March mid-media, film 4 and heresy independent work) with the filmmakers to improve the story, destiny – or faith – is the central purpose.
Evans’ film work is full of superhero movies, and he longs and anxiously plays a role close to home. “What resonated with me was that he was not an actor who fought his own industry,” Evans said as an action star who played the action star. “He's an actor, and on the surface, he's doing very well. But when something unexpected happens – the father is dying – it makes his sense of stability turn him into a tail, and suddenly, he becomes unrecognizable to himself.” Taylor-Joy's Joan is a fierce radical leader who operates with childlike beliefs – keeping him awake. “The second time she collapsed, it felt like Joan was a parable manifestation of Mike's soul. When your soul breaks through the noise to save you.
This is a profound story full of visually explosive pop packaging. The action takes place at a star-studded event at the environmental summit hosted by the pragmatic billionaire (Vincent Cassel) and his charming wife (Salma Hayek Pinault). Sam Richardson is Mike's agent, John Malkovich, Joan Malkovich, Joan Malkovich, Joan Yung Lean's brother Jonatan, plus Charli XCX and Ambika Mod, who performed the role of Climate Change (as “Mother Nature” and “Daughter Nature”).
Evans said of the line between allegory and absurdity: “In every scene, there is this kind of drama and comedy and comedy.”
The actor sees “sacrifice” as a Rorschach test, with complex themes revealing the audience's psychology more than the filmmaker's intentions. “That's its beauty. It's one of the movies people want to take away different meanings.” In Evans's mind, it's a fable about self-death.
“Volcano represents transformation,” he said. “Surrender. It's peace. It's freedom. Realizing that true liberation does not come from money, power, or even control; it's about letting go of what we think defines us.”
Like Taylor-Joy, Evans felt changed after shooting. “Sometimes, the movies you make do speak to your soul,” he said. (“Sometimes you don’t,” he quipped, interrupting his own thoughts.) But “sacrifice” is extraordinary: “We have to put ourselves into this project, actually asking a lot of us every day, and end up being very proud of the product that I am deeply, deeply proud of and deeply connected with.”