NZ actors hitting the mark

A pair of strapping Kiwi actors are making a killing in Hollywood.

In the opening scenes of new spy thriller The Bourne Supremacy, a Russian hitman packing an arsenal of weapons pursues Matt Damon's character, Jason Bourne, through a bustling seaside village in Goa, India.

Midway through the film, in a house in Germany, Bourne engages in a fight to the death, using kitchen utensils, with another hitman.

There's a theme here - it's not Bourne's regular run-ins with European killers-for-hire and it has a New Zealand flavour to it.

The hitman in India, an assassin named Kirill, is played by Wellington-born Karl Urban, and Marton Csokas, who hails from Invercargill, plays the German killer, Jarda.

It begs the question, why does Hollywood think New Zealanders make great assassins?

"There must be something in the water down there," laughs Brit Paul Greengrass, the film's director.

AdvertisementAdvertisementCsokas came up with his own theory when the Sunday Star-Times tracked him down in Berlin on the set of his new film, Aeon Flux, offering an adaptation of Greengrass' explanation.

"It's the vodka, not the water," Csokas chuckles, referring to the world-acclaimed 42 Below brew. "In New Zealand they're making vodka these days. Or maybe it's too much time alone, the distance thing, being isolated."

Csokas and Urban, both striking men with rugged, dark features, have emerged as two of Hollywood's favourite bad guys.

In 2002, Csokas was the villain in Vin Diesel's action film XXX, playing a former Soviet army officer and head of a gang planning biological attacks on the world's largest cities. Csokas was also a standover man in last year's shocker Ocker comedy Kangaroo Jack.

Urban is a henchman in Diesel's latest project, the science-fiction film The Chronicles of Riddick, screening in cinemas in New Zealand.

"I enjoy playing the villain," Csokas says. "Some of the best roles are the bad guys. It depends on the film how I play them. In The Bourne Supremacy I tried to play him as a friend to Matt Damon's character so I tried to play that aspect of sympathy and like-mindedness.

"Something like XXX was more black and white, but I still try to bring different dimensions."

The Bourne Supremacy, a sequel to 2002's The Bourne Identity, both based on Robert Ludlum's best-selling novels, received positive reviews when it opened in the US last month, especially for the raw action style that Greengrass, an award-winning documentary maker, created.

The fight scene in Germany between Csokas and Damon resembled a pub fight, not the typical choreographed Hollywood joust. Greengrass did not want stuntmen involved, so it was down to just Damon and Csokas, with the scene taking two weeks to prepare and five days to shoot.

"It was exciting at the beginning and exhausting at the end," Csokas says.

At a recent press conference in the US, Damon told journalists how he ended up with a fat lip and an injured back during the tussle with the much taller Csokas, who at 1.91m wouldn't look out of place at the back of an All Black lineout.

"He got the best of me," the rather stout Damon, just 1.77m, conceded. "I got whacked in the face once."

Csokas chuckles about this as well.

Damon, apparently, dished out plenty of bruises and cuts.

"He hit me plenty of times, by the way," Csokas laughs. "But Matt's a warrior. He did put his back out, went away, got an injection and then came back that afternoon and got straight back into it.

"It was a tough scene to shoot, but we had a lot of fun. We fooled around, which created a relaxed environment."

Urban's Bourne Supremacy character, Kirill, pursues Damon's Bourne throughout the film. While Csokas learned a special form of martial arts for his fight scene, Urban and Damon became highly proficient with firearms.

Damon trained in Los Angeles with S.W.A.T. teams and Urban worked with arms experts in Berlin, where much of the thriller was shot.

"I had to handle several fire-arms, including handguns like the .38 Special and a 9mm Beretta and a .308 rifle," Urban says.

"My weapons expert had me so well trained that those became integral tools for my character."

There is a danger in Hollywood of being typecast after a string of similar roles, but Csokas and Urban aren't worried the studios will sign them up only as villains.

Urban played the heroic Rohan warrior Eomer in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Csokas recently completed a number of nice-guy roles audiences will see in the next year, including the action-drama Aeon Flux, currently being shot in Berlin, co-starring Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand.

In the recently completed Ridley Scott-directed epic Kingdom of Heaven, about the crusades of the 12th century, Csokas plays a "realist opportunist" opposite Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson, while in the drama Evilenko, Csokas is a Russian detective tracking a serial killer.

"I've had a run of bad guys, but of late I played some virtuous people as well," Csokas says.

"In Aeon Flux I play the romantic lead, so it won't be long until I'll be able to talk about good guys."

Greengrass and Bourne Sup-remacy producers Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley - two of Hollywood's most prolific producers - say the casting of two Kiwis as European hit men was a coincidence.

"They've got a great look, haven't they?" Greengrass says. "But I didn't actually realise they were both from New Zealand until someone brought it up the other day." The British director, a 2002 winner of a Golden Bear award from the Berlin Film Festival for his documentary-style feature Bloody Sunday, about the 1972 civil rights march in Northern Ireland which resulted in 13 deaths, says he hired Csokas and Urban because they had the personalities and physical talents needed for the roles.

"They were both incredibly ambitious for what they did," the director says.

"I think Kiwis have the same mindset as Brits in Hollywood. You have to be on the front foot and believe and try.

"This movie alone indicates quite a depth of the talent coming from New Zealand.

"I guess it's a generational thing, just like football. (It's like) why do you get a sudden crop of good footballers at one period?"

Marshall, a producer of more than 50 Hollywood films including Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Color Purple, Cape Fear, The Sixth Sense and Seabiscuit, says executives at Universal Pictures tipped him off about Urban's acting abilities.

Urban also gave the key bad guy role in The Bourne Supremacy a relatively fresh face.

"Karl Urban had done Riddick for Universal," Marshall says.

"They said, OYou need to look at this guy. He's really great in the movie', and we wanted somebody who fit in the mould, the Clive Owen mould, that people haven't seen before."

Greengrass adds Csokas' look and personality fit perfectly for the German killer-for-hire role of Jarda.

"Marton is quite brooding and intense and that shows."

Crowley, a producer of Sleepless in Seattle and Legends of the Fall, says the burgeoning New Zealand film industry has put an inter-national spotlight on Kiwi acting talent and the global nature of modern film-making has created a bigger pool of actors for Hollywood producers and directors to choose from.

"Five years ago there were no movies being made in New Zealand and now there is one being shot all the time," Crowley says. "Almost the same goes with Australia.

"So suddenly there are all these new people who come around and they're fresh faces, or they're involved in movies people have seen and want to see more of those actors.

"It's great for us because it means there's more talent out there."