How the Bad News Bears and the Carpenters Influenced the Agitators

“I’m an amateur carpenter. I have a million hobbies, but one of them is carpentry, and the saying goes, ‘Measure twice and cut once, because once you cut a piece of wood, you can’t unscrew it.’ I wanted to apply that thinking to Matt Damon’s character in Iron Man.” The instigators“I rarely do a shot list when I make a movie,” director Doug Liman says excitedly as we discuss his latest film. “But if you see me in my woodshop, I pull out my pen and write everything down. I wanted to bring that quality to Matt’s character.”

The instigators Damon plays Rory’s desperate father opposite Casey Affleck as ex-con Coby, who find themselves reluctant partners trying to rob a corrupt politician played by Ron Perlman. Things don’t go as planned and the duo find themselves on the run from angry cops, bureaucrats and crime bosses. Not only that, but Rory’s therapist, played by Hong Chau, gets tangled up in legal proceedings and ends up accompanying him as things spiral out of control. The instigators The film has been released in a number of theaters and is now available to stream on Apple TV+.

“The instigators It’s a heist movie at its core, but my inspiration was bears carrying bad news“I haven’t seen it since I was a kid,” Lehman explains, “but I’ve always had a soft spot for this movie and its underdog nature with the inept Little League team. The Instigators is the anti-The eleventh oceanFirst and foremost, it’s a straight comedy. Matt and Casey are the most unlikely thieves and have almost no chance of success.

“Casey is a loser, and Matt and I created a character for him that you don’t see in a heist movie. He’s a guy who’s spent his whole life following the rules. He polishes floors for a living and works an honest job for an honest dollar, but things just don’t work out for him, and that’s why he’s suddenly thrown into this. The thing I love about what we created together is that his character still follows the rules throughout the movie, and you don’t see that kind of character in a heist movie before.”

The instigators Lehman, also known for directing, sees The Swingers, He goes, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Edge of Tomorrowand the last one Restaurant on the road Reboot, reuniting with Damon for the first time since 2002. Bourne IdentityIt’s been a long time since the first installment of the franchise grossed $1.64 billion.

Some parts of working with Matt Damon in The instigators It reminded me how much has changed since we made it. Bourne Identity“Others reminded me of how little has changed,” Lehmann reflects. “In terms of how little has changed, you look back Bourne Identity With the rose-colored glasses that hindsight gives you because the reality is that when we were making Bourne IdentityMatt Damon was by no means an experienced movie star. In fact, he was coming off two box office flops. Matt told me at one point during Bourne Identity“If this doesn’t work, my career is over.” In hindsight, you might say, “Oh, you both had promising careers,” but that wasn’t how we felt or how the industry felt while we were making the film. Bourne Identity“.”

“We challenged the system when we created it.” Bourne IdentityTo make an omelette, you need to break some eggs. While making it, Bourne IdentityThere was a lot of friction with the studio because they didn’t always understand what Matt and I were trying to do, and when they did understand it, they didn’t necessarily think it was a good idea. We certainly didn’t have a track record that we could rely on to say it was a good idea, but we stuck to our guns. The flip side is that we now have a track record that we didn’t have when we made the movie. Bourne Identity“Matt is a huge international movie star, and I have a proven track record, so I would say the system and ‘the man’ trust us more.”

What also helped The instigators The reason the film was made was because the production company Artists Equity, founded by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, was doing it. “So there wasn’t a system that we were rebelling against, because suddenly we were the system,” the director adds.

Here’s How and Why The Instigators Cast Came Together

Although the duo were involved in the film, their appearance together in the lead roles was never in the plans.

“Casey wrote this book for himself, so it was supposed to be him,” explains Lehman. “Casey is an excellent writer; for me, he is the giant discovery of The instigatorsCasey is obviously an Oscar winner, but there was so much more to discover about him when I made this movie. He has the potential to be greater than Matt or Ben. The instigators “It shows how multi-faceted his talent is. If it wasn’t already obvious, I love Casey to death.”

“I loved editing what I shot because it gave me so much to work with. Some actors do the same thing, take after take, which doesn’t really help you in the editing room. Some actors, like Casey, say, ‘Well, I’ve already given you this version. I’m going to give you something completely new,’ and then you go again, and he gives you something new. At that point, you feel like you want to keep shooting because every time I do it, Casey gives me something else great, but we also had to be aware of how much time we’re going to spend shooting.”

Along with Damon and Affleck, The instigators The film features a great cast, including Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, and Jack Harlow, to name a few. Almost everyone Liman and his leads have agreed to the film, and they bring something new and unique to the film.

“I don’t really believe in acting because somehow there’s something fake about it,” he explains. “I try to find actors who can convincingly portray characters. There’s a difference between playing the role. If you watch a movie, SNL “They’re playing the role, and obviously they’re not when you watch a sketch. When you watch a great movie, you think the character is real even if you know a movie star is playing them. It’s honest. I’m always looking for that honesty. It’s not like I have a wish list of actors I want to work with, and I’ll put them in anything.”

These parts are in The instigators “The characters were so specific and new that I had to search the city and ask, ‘Who would be perfect for this role?’ Especially when you think about the role of the psychiatrist who runs away with them. When you find the right person, as we did with Hong Chau, they inhabit the character in a way that you can’t imagine anyone else ever playing.”

Another thing Lehman was able to exploit through photography The instigators The legacy of the Affleck brothers and Damon in Boston was the film’s legacy in the city. Without it, the film’s epic action sequences and car chases would not have been possible.

“Thanks to that, we were able to film the car chase for real,” Lehman says enthusiastically. “Other filmmakers wouldn’t have had that opportunity. We had the governor and the mayor, who welcomed us and said, ‘How can we help you do this? What do you need to do this?’” The instigators“What we did, in a safe way, would not have been an option if it weren’t for our love for them.”

“The number of cars involved in this operation was enormous, because the police were not only chasing them in Massachusetts and Boston, but they were chasing them in Rhode Island and Vermont, as well as all the surrounding states. And to do this on the ground here in Boston was a real luxury.”