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How Do You Reimagine a John Woo Classic? The Killer's Nathalie Emmanuel & Omar Sy Reveal All
As you'd expect, Peacock's The Killer is full of signature Jon Woo visuals.
Before action stans were worshipping directors Zack Snyder (300) and Derek Kolstad (John Wick), there was John Woo. The maestro of cinematic violence has been working in beautiful blood and bullets since his modern Hong Kong classic, A Better Tomorrow (1986). Following that up with Bullet in the Head (1990), Face/Off (1997), Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) and Woo's original Hong Kong version of The Killer (1989), the director literally changed the tone and artistry of the action genre in both Eastern and Western cinema.
Now, Woo is back with a new Peacock exclusive movie, a reimagining of The Killer. Now streaming right here, the film stars Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, Fast Saga) as a gifted hit woman, Zee, aka the "Queen of the Dead," who goes on the run after showing sympathy to one of her would-be targets. Rounding out the cast are Sam Worthington as Zee's Irish handler, Finn, and Omar Sy (Jurassic World) as Parisian Inspector Sey, who helps Zee outwit the underworld goons who've been tasked with her demise.
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In a recent sit down with NBC Insider, Emmanuel and Sy waxed poetic about Woo, who they said encouraged their chemistry and creativity, and gave them a sequence that they agree they'll always remember as their classic "Woo" action moment.
Flipping Genders for The Killer
The 1989 version of The Killer was an original story written and directed by Woo, featuring Chow Yun-fat as hit man Ah Jong, and Danny Lee as Detective Li Ying. When Ah Jong accidentally blinds a night club singer (Sally Yeh), the killer and the cop circle one another in a classic game of cat and mouse.
For this remake set in Paris, Woo changes up the entire tone of the film by swapping the gender of the titular killer to a female hit woman (Emmanuel). When Inspector Sey (Sy) first meets Zee, a mutual admiration is formed, but she doesn't reveal her true occupation. A moment too late, he discovers she's been lying to his face, and the chase is on.
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Asked about how much Woo wanted them to play up their character's rapport, Emmanuel tells NBC Insider, "We [her and Sy] met and we had great chemistry. We just got on as people, and we were like, 'Oh, this is really fun!' so we could play with how much we leaned into that, and how much we pulled back.
"And that was really dictated by the situation, the story, and the character's point of view, or state of mind in that moment," she continued. "We had a lot of freedom to play and explore that. John was just very supportive of our choices, which was just lovely."
Sy added, "The special thing with [Woo] is he knows exactly what he wants. At the same time, he let us do our process. He trusts our creation and our feeling about the characters. So that was very interesting as we had a lot of space to create between that stuff."
John Woo sequence that will live with The Killer's Omar Sy & Nathalie Emmanuel
No doubt about it, The Killer is stuffed like a macaron with Parisian-flavored action beats set near the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, and more scenic sites around the City of Light.
But the story of Zee and Sey has a lot of percolating feelings happening just under the surface, too. "John spoke a lot about heart and about the emotions of things," Emmanuel said. "I think that's where he lives, and that's what he really wants to infuse everything with: the emotion and heart. The storytelling that can happen, even in the high energy parts, you can't help but feel that in there and infuse it in there. That was probably something that I thought about a lot, even in the action moments."
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But when the action kicks in, it kicks in hard with Woo's signature slow-mo birds in flight, bullets raining down on characters, crazy body contortions, and withering destruction. Asked if they could pick one frame from the film that they would forever remember, both actors were in agreement.
"The scene at the hospital, when we meet each other for the second time," Sy offered. "We have our gun scenes where we shoot and we come back to each other... that's the best. I loved it."
John Woo’s The Killer is now streaming exclusively on Peacock!
