flagellate nostalgic: Watch: 'Looper' Director's Exclusive Trailer Commentary

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Watch: 'Looper' Director's Exclusive Trailer Commentary

'Joe had a lot of fun working with Bruce on the action scenes,' Rian Johnson tells MTV News of Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing a young Bruce Willis.
By Kara Warner

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "Looper"
Photo: Sony

Thanks to the highly anticipated debut of the "Looper" teaser trailer Thursday, there is almost two minutes of brand-new, action-packed footage to overanalyze and dissect. We've already highlighted five key scenes to watch out for in the teaser, and now, MTV News is proud to bring you exclusive expert commentary from the film's writer/director, Rian Johnson.

Johnson was visibly excited for fans to see the teaser, particularly the first glimpses of the gritty future reality of the film's setting and star Joseph Gordon-Levitt in action as a young Bruce Willis.

"The beginning here is just setting up the premise," Johnson explained. "We take some time to get you into the world. You can kind of tell from the look of it that the world is a very grounded science-fiction world; it's not a big CG world. We did lots of practical stuff and tried to keep it feeling very real and near-future."

With regard to Gordon-Levitt's makeup to look like Willis, Johnson said, although he looks impressive in the teaser, he can't wait for fans to see the "Dark Knight Rises" actor's physical performance in the finished film.

"I really can't wait for people to actually see Joe's performance in the movie with the makeup, because if you see a picture of him ... obviously it's not like he looks exactly like Bruce Willis, but once his performance plays out in the context of the film, it really works."

Johnson also hinted that, despite the blink-and-you-miss-it appearance of co-star Emily Blunt, there is more to her role than you think.

"You see a quick clip of Emily Blunt, [but] there's a whole sequence where she had to do some action work and she just kinda kicked ass. I'm excited for people to see it," Johnson said. "Emily really held her own when it was time to get out the shotgun and do some blasting."

The "Brick" director went on to say that he just had a plain old good time making the film, particularly the action sequences, for which veteran star Willis proved to be a very key component.

"It was fun for me. You see flashes of a lot of action in the movie, and this is the first time I've been able to do it on that scale, which is really fun, especially working with a veteran like Bruce," Johnson said. "Joe had a lot of fun working with Bruce on the action scenes. Bruce kind of showed us the ropes. It was pretty awesome."

Check out everything we've got on "Looper."

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