‘The Wrecking Crew’ Interviews: Morena Baccarin and More

The film stars Jason Momoa (‘Aquaman’), Dave Bautista (‘Guardians of the Galaxy’), Morena Baccarin (‘Deadpool’), Jacob Batalon (‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’), and Stephen Root (‘Office Space’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Morena Baccarin, Jacob Batalon, and director Ángel Manuel Soto about their work on ‘The Wrecking Crew’, Soto’s first reaction to the screenplay and the challenges of balancing the action and comedy, how Baccarin prepared for her action sequences, and Batalon’s experience improvising with Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista.

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(L to R) Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa star in ‘The Wrecking Crew’. Credit: Jason Laciste/Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

Moviefone: To begin with, Ángel, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and the challenges of balancing the right tone beteween comedy and action?

Ángel Manuel Soto: I think the first reaction when I read this screenplay was that the action and the comedy was very well laid out. Jonathan Tropper is an amazing writer, he has mastered that, but what really convinced me to take this movie on was that the action and the comedy, the way I saw it,  those were honestly masks that our characters were putting on to hide their childhood trauma. I saw that as an interesting approach to add some subtext to the humor and the action. Also, given that I love of these high testosterone, alpha male driven action movies that avoid emotion, with this movie, the cathartic moment between the brothers, it embraced their vulnerability. I felt like it’s an important aspect of human nature that needs to be further exploited so that we can see that yes, you can be a bad ass, you can be funny, and you can be crass, but you can also have a heart. For me, that was very important because in this world that we’re living in, being able to find points of connection, even within our differences, I think it’s an important topic to tackle. But also finding a story that might inspire people to make amends with other folks or their family members. I feel like that was cool and just the fact that on a different level, it also talked about the displacements of the indigenous people of Hawaii, which is something that I can talk personally about as well because we face the same issues in Puerto Rico. It felt like a great excuse to be able to talk about a topic that affects millions of people worldwide.

(L to R) Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista star in ‘The Wrecking Crew’. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

MF: Morena, can you talk about preparing for your action sequences and having the chance to go toe to toe with Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista in those scenes?

Morena Baccarin: It was so fun. It was one of the things that really attracted me to this part was she’s so bad ass in her own way and they don’t expect it or nor do you see it coming. In the preparation for this movie and how she dressed. We wanted to make sure to not reveal that she had a ton of tattoos, or she was as bad ass as she was until the moment it comes out. I was a little surprise. But I have to say prep wise, it was minimal in the sense that we shot all my driving action sequences in a studio in a car that was static, which had its own challenges. I didn’t know simple things like your thumbs stay up when you’re driving that fast because you don’t ever want the wheel to really turn and break your thumbs. I had an amazing stunt performer who was a driver, and she taught me so much about making it look like I was really driving. It’s counterintuitive, but if you’re in a car and you’re turning, you got to remember that your body goes the opposite direction when you’re driving then when you’re in the passenger side. So, little things like that were helpful, and I could have used maybe five more days for that, but I didn’t have it. So, if you see something that looks wrong, it’s not my fault.

(L to R) Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista star in ‘The Wrecking Crew’. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

MF: Finally, Jacob, can you talk about your onscreen chemistry with Jason and Dave, and did you improvise a lot in those scenes? What was it like riffing with the two of them on set?

Jacob Batalon: I think we improvised a lot. I think I barely said anything on the page. But at the same time, Ángel allowed us to go off and they’re fun. I am literally like their little brother in a literal sense because I’m short compared to them. But they also love to get into the game and play around and joke with each other. I think that made it easy. Again, everyone’s so professional and so fun that it just seemed very simple to go in, do our thing and just make it fun.

(L to R) Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista star in ‘The Wrecking Crew’. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

What is the plot of ‘The Wrecking Crew’?

Two half-brothers, a loose cannon cop (Jason Momoa) and a disciplined Navy SEAL (Dave Bautista), must work together to unravel a conspiracy behind their father’s murder in Hawaii.

Who is in the cast of ‘The Wrecking Crew’?

• Jason Momoa as Jonny
• Dave Bautista as James
• Morena Baccarin as Valentina
• Jacob Batalon as Pika
• Stephen Root as Detective Sergeant Karl Rennert

‘The Wrecking Crew’ premiers on Prime Video January 28th. Credit: Courtesy of Prime. Copyright: © Amazon Content Services LLC.

List of Ángel Manuel Soto Movies:

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