411 Movies Interview: Director Shawn Levy of Real Steel Posted by Tony Farinella on 01.20.2012
411's Tony Farinella sits down with Shawn Levy, director of Real Steel , for an exclusive interview!
Shawn Levy has worked on a number of big Hollywood films in the past, such as Night at the Museum and Date Night. He knows his comedy and how to get great comedic performances out of his actors. This time, he worked in the sci-fi action world of Real Steel with action star, Hugh Jackman. The film is a futuristic look at robot boxers. In my interview with Shawn Levy, we talked about his approach to this film, the reaction of critics, and his role as a director. I hope you enjoy my interview with Shawn Levy. Real Steel will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on January 24th.
TONY: This was quite a project to take on, in terms of the budget, the robots, and everything else. How was your approach different for this film compared to other ones?
Shawn Levy: It's interesting because my wife frequently points out that my approach to every single movie I've made is literally the same as when I was directing episodes of television for Nickelodeon. I take everything that I do with equal seriousness and commitment. I dive in with equal enthusiasm. Frankly, my approach was really the same as what brought me to the party, but I had to get educated in the visual effects and the technical paradigm. That was utterly foreign to me. Part of it was foreign because I had never used it and part of it was foreign because it did not exist three years ago.
TONY: The underdog story, of course, has been done before but never with robots. How did you incorporate the robots to make the underdog story unique and not a cliché?
Shawn Levy: For starters, as you say, it takes that underdog paradigm, which is not new, and it puts it against the backdrop of a sport that we had never seen before, and I thought that was an interesting combination of almost old fashioned storytelling in a world that is futuristic and science fiction and unfamiliar. I thought that was a nice blend of old and new. The truth is that I'm a sucker for underdog stories. When done well, they get me every time. I hoped to do it well and in a fresh light.
TONY: You have done an action comedy before in Date Night. With this film, you have action, humor, and some heart as well. How did you blend those three together effectively?
Shawn Levy: I guess the combination of those tonal aspects is largely initiative and instinctive. I didn't really sit down and plot it out. I will say that I never really thought of Real Steel as being comedic and yet as I shot the movie, I suppose you can't totally change what you are. As someone who does enjoy humor on screen and humor in life, when I saw an opportunity to add in a little levity or a little humor, I found myself doing so. The blend of emotion and action was always something that I knew was critical in this movie, and I felt the combination of spectacle and heart is what would make the movie unique. Whether people loved it or not, that I could never control, but I knew that that was the version of this movie that I could make best.
TONY: Shawn, you've talked in previous interviews about how you like to make movies that have certain feelings that you would want in movies. What did you feel when making and then watching Real Steel?
Shawn Levy: They're kind of the same because all of us would like to see our dads, and maybe more generally our parents, in a light filled with respect and nobility. All of us as parents aspire to earn the pride and respect of our kids. For me, the heart of this movie is in round five when Charlie is shadowboxing outside the ring and we witness his son watching his father's return to greatness, his father's redemption. That moves me. I think that's kind of a universal aspiration of us as both children and parents. I wanted to capture something about that. I also really do believe in the ability to turn anything around. This character, whose life is shit and his relationship with his kid is in tatters, whose relationship with the sport that he loved has been compromised and ended, the fact that he finds his way back to another shot, in all those aspects of his life, that's moving to me. It was engaging to me as a filmmaker, and it's moving to me as an audience watching Real Steel.
TONY: You mentioned earlier that you really can't control how people are going to react to this film. The reaction, at least critically, has been mixed. I know you can't control that, but how much, if at all, do you listen to what critics say?
Shawn Levy: Maybe it's because I come from comedy, but from early in my career, to Steve Martin to Ben Stiller to pretty much everybody that I've worked with, nobody reads reviews. We're not in the business of making movies for that hundred and forty people. We're in the business of making movies for that millions of people. The truth is most of the stars I know, they don't read reviews. I stopped reading reviews a while ago. It's just not what I place the highest value on. The fact that my movies have found broad audiences, that's what I do it for and that's what I hope to accomplish. The truth is that on Real Steel, there were a few reviews that were so positive and more to the point, so kind of on the mark that a friend or a colleague would send it to me. In general, my movies got mixed reactions, some more mixed than others. What really has been meaningful for Hugh and I is our colleagues or our friends or strangers who have sent us emails or letters saying I went to see this movie with my kid, or my dad, or my buddy, or my wife, and none of us expected to be as swept up in it as we were. Really, that's who we made it for, real audiences having a visceral reaction, not a cerebral, appraising reaction.
TONY: In terms of the broad audience, what is it like for you to be able to put a smile on someone's face, and brighten up their afternoon or evening with your films? What thrill does that bring you to have that kind of influence?
Shawn Levy: It means a great deal to me. I have no cynical, jaded answer for you, only an honest one, which is I really do believe in putting good feeling, entertaining, warm-hearted stuff in the world. If it can land in the spirit of those traits, and if it can affect an audience in the name of those traits, it makes me feel like I did my job well, and that means a great deal to me.
