Kathryn Bigelow ('The Hurt Locker', 'Strange Days', 'Near Dark')

Actor Anthony Mackie asked his wife to FedEx his dignity back to him. The inexperienced Jordanian crew gave the actors real liquor for a fight scene (which wasn’t discovered until well into the shooting, thanks to the actors). And temperatures soared sometimes above 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite that, and shooting one million feet of film, director Kathryn Bigelow’s new action film The Hurt Locker, out June 26th, 2009 in theaters, is an awesome display of intensity and fireworks (read our review). Director Bigelow (Near Dark, Strange Days) and screenwriter writer Mark Boals talk to Pretty/Scary about working with actor Jeremy Renner on the newest action movie about the Iraq War and the men who diffuse bombs in the streets of Baghdad...

'The Hurt Locker' itself is a term that means a ‘Place to put the pain, a place you don’t wanna be,’ explains Bigelow.

This is Bigelow’s first feature action movie since K19: The Widowmaker in 2002 (she did a short sci-fi thriller called Mission Zero with Uma Thurman a few years ago), and she is right back where she feels comfortable: directing the action. Set in Iraq in 2003, The Hurt Locker is a story about three soldiers who diffuse bombs planted by hostile Iraqi insurgents in Baghdad. The story is based on writer Mark Boal’s own experiences as a US Army Bomb Specialist much like the one in the film.

“Back in 2004 there were not too many bomb disposal units,” says Boals. “I wanna say there were less than 500 for all of Iraq, so they had quite a bit of work on their hands. We’d dismantle 10 or 20 of them in a 24 hour period. People ask me if the movie exaggerates this… it doesn’t.”

These specially trained squads were wanted by the Saddam Hussein’s government, and a bounty was placed on their heads. Any insurgent who shot a bomb specialist could expect a hefty reward, and bombs were often set as bait to make sitting ducks of these soldiers, while gunman would wait for them to arrive at a planted bomb site.

“The bomb squad was the army’s first line of defense against insurgents.”

Kathryn Bigelow didn’t just fall into this script – she was eagerly waiting for it when Boals arrived back in the US. “I was familiar with Mark’s journalism before he went on his deployment,” she says. “Actually one of his articles I had turned into a TV series with Fox and Imagine. When he told us he was going to Iraq, and being incredible curious and eager to hear his stories when he got back, I felt that provided that he survived, that there might be an interesting story in this.”

And she felt that there was one.

Completely avoiding politics, the movie is more about danger, action, and tension as we become involved in the day to day lives of these bomb specialists in a hostile environment.

“What attracted me was the fact that I do think the public needs to be made aware about the conflict and what’s going on on the ground, “ explains Bigelow. “His [Mark’s] observations made us look at the conflict through the eyes of a bomb tech, and I thought that they had the hardest job in the world and at the same time it’s a volunteer military. So I thought that was kind of an interesting paradox to frame the story and the characters…

“I was really drawn to the idea that these men are here for the war. They deserve attention, they deserve recognition, and their sacrifice deserves more awareness. At the same time their there saving thousands of lives potentially by every bomb they disarm. And some times they sacrifice their own. I was going to look at the price of terrorism, obviously. It comes with a price.”

The bomb techs, like the ones played by Jeremy Renner, Andrew Mackie, and Brian Geraghty, have to pass a series of intense tests, explains Boals. “You have to have strange ability to think clearly under pressure, which is a rare trait.”

Jeremy Renner, who plays Staff Sergeant William James, and who spends the majority of his time in the film wearing a bomb suit under crazy heat temperatures, says that the soldiers need “mental toughness, brilliant guys. I don’t have the courage to do it.”

Renner’s character is extremely complicated and the one most audience members will spend their time identifying with. It’s a really amazing and subtle performance surrounded by amazing action sequences that never feel ‘unreal’ or “Hollywood’. Sergeant James often makes mistakes based on rash emotional decisions, and despite the awful day-to-day nerve-wracking bomb diffusion, he loves his job.

“You’re just good at it, you love what you do,” explains Renner about Sergeant James. “I feel like I know what I’m good at; I feel like I know what I suck at. I’d rather do something I’m good at. He feels pretty kick ass at one thing.”

“I was very fortunate to get Jeremy,” admits Bigelow. “It just became my mission to cast extraordinary talent and that was my personal mandate. “

Calling the environment ‘punishing’, Bigelow admits that it made things hard on the cast and crew.

"We shot in and around Jordan in the summer. Average temperature 110-115 degrees."

They had local extras, a local crew, and a short amount of time to shoot. Not ideal Michael Bay–type filming for action. This was a hard movie to make, but it looks brilliant and has a tremendous impact both visual and emotional.

“The extras were wonderful. They were all refugees from the war, so that was kind of a great gift,” says Bigelow. “I shot as much as I could in a relatively short shooting season. We shot a million feet of film... somehow we managed to make sense of this epic pile of file.”

As far as how her audience reacts, Bigelow has only one thing to say to you:

“I hope all of you enjoy it!”