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Congratulations onSafe House.
Are you pleased with it?
Im proud of it.
But when you make a movie, you get stuck in a hole, right?
So its cool that you liked it.
So that makes you more focused.
You have to approach it diligently, and you have to be well-prepared when youre on set.
So in that sense, yes, it was terrifying.
But, I mean, making a movie is terrifying.
Its an absurd trade.
You have to let the rest of the world judge you or applaud you.
So making any movie, in Sweden or in America, doesnt allow me to eat or sleep.
My anxiety levels are high.
Im equally terrified by projects in America and Sweden.
So what attracted you to the project in the first place?
In the movie I did in Sweden [Easy Money], it was my third feature.
That, to me, was interesting.
How was that storyboarded?
Or did you have a different approach?
I tried not to storyboard at all.
Not even the action sequences.
Because what can be the problem with American cinema, sometimes, is that everything can be so planned.
There are no surprises, and that can create a lack of curiosity for the audience.
Youd probably move behind them, to give them space.
And thats where you should put the camera.
Because as an audience, youre almost trying to sneak around.
Theres a lack of spatial awareness…
Definitely.
And when it comes to action sequences, I always tried to shoot them in public places.
Because one of my core inspirations for the action sequences was the bank robbery inHeat.
I think its quite brilliant.
That was in our reality, you know?
I almost wanted Cape Town to be a character who pushed these people towards a change of personality.
Youre in a place you know a football stadium, or its the middle of a populous city.
Theyre in an area thats completely desolate, almost like a cowboy movie.
I thought that was interesting.
Was that one of your big considerations when planning the film?
Its Per Hallberg who did that.
He did the sound design in Ridley Scotts movies andHeat, and theBournemovies.
Hallberg was actually the first guy I hired.
He has a realistic way of portraying sounds.
The sound design and cinematography work well in tandem, too.
Theres one sequence with two characters crashing through a window that worked particularly well…
Yes, yes, yes.
The cinematographer [Oliver Wood] is a great man.
So theyre pretty much going to let you do whatever you want.
And I thought, thats my cinematographer.
Thats the guy I need.
The logical question to wrap up, then, is what are you going to do next?
I think Im looking for something different.
The movie I did before was a gangster movie.
This is an action movie.
Both have very strong character stories in the background.
I want to challenge my cinematography and my editing.
Daniel Espinosa, thank you very much.
Safe House hits UK cinemas on the 24th February.
You canread our review here.
