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LOS ANGELES, July 15 (UPI) -- Cast members of The Gray Man, in select theaters Friday, said they found a way to bring humor to their roles, be they heroes or villains. Ryan Gosling, for example, said the action film harkens back to movies of the '80s and '90s, in which action heroes made funny quips.
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"It's not often that you find yourself falling through a trap door and end up in a well in some guy's Czechoslovakian apartment," Gosling, 41, said at a recent Zoom press conference. "You can say in the movie, 'OK, this was unexpected.'"
Gosling stars as Sierra Six, a former CIA agent pursued by his agency and assassin Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans). Gosling trained with former Delta Force member Chili Palmer, from whom he learned quirky details he added to the film.
"He's like, 'You should always have Skittles on you,'" Gosling said. "Or, 'If you're going to go to sleep, tie your shoelace to the door because if someone comes in, you'll know."
Rege-Jean Page, 32, plays Denny Carmichael, the man who hires Lloyd to assassinate Six. Page said Deny relishes being evil.
"My favorite villain in literature is Iago in Othello," Page said. "People enjoy watching him enjoy himself being bad."
Page, who is British, starred in Netflix's series Bridgerton. He kept an American accent as Denny throughout the Gray Man production. He said he added more to Denny's backstory.
"I wanted there to be something blue-collar in his background, something East Coast, something aspirational into why he's pushing himself so hard," Page said. "All of that comes into the melody and the nuances of that accent, but I do the same in British accents."
As Lloyd, 41-year-old Evans plays a villain for his Captain America and Avengers directors, Joe and Anthony Russo. Joe Russo adapted Mark Greaney's book with screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
Evans said he enjoyed the switch from Marvel hero Captain America, and got some of Gray Man's best lines.
"Playing a villain is always a little more fun," Evans said. "You have a little bit more freedom. You get a lot more jokes."
Lloyd terrorizes Six's retired handler, Fitroy (Billy Bob Thornton) to try to get to Six. Thornton, 66, said he approached that confrontation by countering Evans' gleeful torture.
"The only way to do this is to tell him to take a hike, basically," Thornton said. "So I chose to just growl at him and tell him that I didn't care what he was doing to me; you're not hurting me."
Meanwhile, Six also receives backup from fellow agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas). Having played a more glamorous action heroine in No Time to Die, the 34-year-old de Armas said she appreciated Gray Man's emphasis on Miranda's capability.
"I'm not Ryan's love interest," de Armas said. "It's about her power in a different way. It's important to put women in action films in that light, have that vision of it and accentuate that part of badass women."
De Armas also trained with Palmer, adding that she looked funny the first time she tried on Miranda's equipment. But by the time she appeared on screen, she looked the part.
"I started running around like a chicken at the beginning with this vest around me," de Armas said. "I didn't know how to move or squat or do anything. I could see myself improving, thank God."
The Gray Man premieres on Netflix on July 22.
