How many of the stunts did you do yourself? Was that really you in the train scene at the start?
James Badge Dale: Oh man, that was wild. Here we have this train, and we’re running on top of the train with Armie [Hammer] and Johnny [Depp] and Gore [Verbinski] is sitting there going “can we make this thing go faster?” And we were like “ah, well, 35 MPH is probably the safety limit.”
There was a lot of that scene that we could do ourselves but of course, at some points, the stunt guys had to step in. And they had worked on that sequence for months. It was a life or death stunt, no room for error, but they pulled it off. The train transfer scene that you see in the film, that’s actually a composite shot of two stuntmen and then myself. Those guys are incredible. What I love about this film is that there isn’t a lot of CG. The stunt guys were just so amazing and they did a lot of the stuff that you’ll see in the movie. Hats off to our stunt crew, they just really made this movie work.
What’s it like working with a mega movie star? Someone like Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt or Robert Downey Jr.?
James Badge Dale: It’s interesting. In my experience, the people who are difficult to work with aren’t movie stars. Johnny Depp is extremely humble and kind and giving and he’s always so well prepared. He loves his job. Same goes for Brad Pitt and same goes for Robert Downey Jr. They are professionals to the utmost degree. Denzel Washington too. These guys are the real deal and for a young actor like myself it’s a privilege to work with them. You sit down, you shut up and you learn from them and talk to them.
Tell us a bit about working with Gore Verbinski.
James Badge Dale: I love Gore, I’d go to the end of the earth for him, because he would do it for you. He’s so passionate and he understands the craft of film so well. He has an interesting way of talking to you too. At one point he came up to me and was like “Badge, just put a bit more sauce on it.” [laughs] They don’t teach you that in drama school. [laughs] I’m standing there like “sauce? what’s sauce?” But you know what, you get it, you just get it. You get what he’s saying and what he wants because we’re on the same page with the story. Everything you see in this film is Gore Verbinski to a T. He has his stamp on everything and that is the mark of a true filmmaker.
So you have three huge films that you shot back to back over the course of two years but did you get any downtime to just be by yourself?
James Badge Dale: Yeah, the last two years, they’ve been a sprint. This, right now, is the most downtime I’ve had in a while. I went from The Grey straight into Shame to have two months off to go into World War Z, then to lose weight while I was doing World War Z so I could do Flight. Then I had a moment to gain the weight back and learn how to ride a horse for The Lone Ranger and then I went off to do Iron Man 3. I’m a workhorse though, I don’t do well with time off. So that’s an actors dream, doing all these films. I love my work, and I’m lucky to do it.
All these roles you mentioned, they’re these really great character roles. Is that something you look for, character over story?
James Badge Dale: It’s a combination of both. The story has to work on one element but I enjoy strange characters. Sometimes movies come across my desk and everyone tells me I should do it but I just don’t see it, I’m not the right guy. An actor can’t be good at everything and sometimes, the part just won’t be for me.
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