The Jennifer Lopez-led action movie The Mother premieres on Netflix this Friday, May 12. Ahead of its release, ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to director Niki Caro (Mulan) about the movie and her approach to action.
“A deadly female assassin comes out of hiding to protect the daughter that she gave up years before, while on the run from dangerous men,” reads the logline.
What really impressed me is that I don’t really think of Jennifer Lopez as a big action star, but she was completely up for this task here. What convinced you that she was going to really excel in this role and be a great fit for this character?
Niki Caro: Look, it’s her legendary skill and precision as a physical performer. But it was also how deeply talented she is as a dramatic actress, and the role required both.
What really was interesting about this film was that each act was very distinct. Can you speak to using different locations to tell this overarching story that is complete thematically but feels so different in each part?
I was really drawn to kind of the epic scale of it and the global nature of the story. So we had to be in Afghanistan and Cuba and the United States and Alaska, of course, for the snow. So the great filmmaking challenge to find all of those locations in a very short period of time. But I think in terms of watching the movie, for me, I wanted the movie to keep getting bigger as it went on. So that every action sequence needed to be followed by either a bigger or a more surprising action sequence all the way through to really hold the audience’s attention.
I really enjoyed all the action scenes throughout, so I was curious what your kind of approach to action is because it was very visceral. You weren’t afraid to go for the violence in spots, which was really fun to see. So can you speak to just how you approach action?
How I approached action in this particular film is for all the action to be very authentic to the character. We are talking about a character who is a mother as a primal protective force, also a combat veteran and a skilled sniper. So she brings all of those character traits to the action, so the action gets designed around those ideas.
For me personally, I love to design action sequences. I love to be in collaboration with stunt coordinators and directors to make those sequences as thrilling and exciting and visceral and real as possible. So they’re not just bang, bang, explosion, explosion. This would be cool, but they’re all really anchored into the point of view and the intent of the character all the time. I love that.
What did you find most interesting about exploring motherhood in this movie in a very particular circumstance?
It’s endlessly interesting and fascinating to me and to Jennifer, who are both mothers, ourselves of teenage children. It kind of felt bold and dangerous to put a mother front and center because… Normally, when we think about mothers in movies, if you imagine where they are, they’re usually in the kitchen or in the store or in the car. It was really nice, really satisfying to have a mother front and center in a global action movie doing the thing that I most relate to as a mother, which is protect my children.
ComingSoon thanks Niki Caro for taking the time for our The Mother interview.
