Why Sofia Boutella & Ed Skrein Found Rebel Moon's Violence And Nudity So Challenging - Exclusive Interview

While Sofia Boutella and Ed Skrein are no strangers to sci-fi and action-adventure films, the dynamic actors admit they had no idea how riveting their rocket ride would be on director Zack Snyder's gritty new space opus "Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire."

Boutella, of course, has brought her electric presence to several films since her big screen career began in earnest with her turn as the menacing blade-legged villain, Gazelle, in the 2014 hit "Kingsman: The Secret Service." Since then, Boutella's been a dominant force in such films as "Atomic Blonde," "Star Trek: Beyond," and "The Mummy" in the title role. Meanwhile, Skrein has also made huge impressions in the past decade, starring in such notable films as "Deadpool," "Alita: Battle Angel," "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil," and "Midway."

In "Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire," Boutella stars as Kora, a mysterious resident of the peaceful farming settlement on Veldt, a moon located in the far reaches of the galaxy. However, Kora and her fellow residents' lives are plunged into chaos with the arrival of soldiers from the dominant planet known as the Motherworld. Led by the sadistic Admiral Atticus Nobel (Skrein), the Motherworld's soldiers vow to seize the majority of crop harvested by the inhabitants of Veldt with brute force. Their plans are upended, however, when Kora deploys her lethal fighting skills and forms a band of rebels to fight back against the tyrants, even if it comes at risking her true identity — and ultimately, her life.

In exclusive interview with Looper, Boutella and Skrein discussed their work on the first part of "Rebel Moon"— which is playing limited theatrical release before debuting exclusively on Netflix the evening of December 21 — including the challenges they faced with the film's violence and nudity.

I was lucky to see "Rebel Moon" on the big screen, and it kicks ass! The interesting thing right now, though, looking at you two sitting together — you're mortal enemies in the film. Presumably you're enjoying each other's company today.

Ed Skrein: We are.

Sofia Boutella: Yes.

On set, did you purposefully ignore or try to keep yourself separate from each other to help build the tension for those scenes together — especially when combat is involved? Did you keep out of each other's way?

Boutella: I made sure I annoyed him. [laughs] I made sure I went into his trailer and asked him, "Hey, do you want this jersey instead?" This is a true story — we exchanged T-shirts. He said, "No problem." There was one [day] ... We all had gray T-shirts, and there was one pink one. I don't know what happened. Then, [I said to him], "Do you want to exchange? You want this one? The pink one?" I'm like, "He is probably so pissed with me right now."

Skrein: No — I said to you, "Pink's my favorite color."

Boutella: No. [laughs] For me, it's that last scene, that last fight scene — I will never forget that. To have to hold a gun and be in a scene of such violence at 7 in the morning is ... You have to really tune your brain to a certain place and do that continually for so many days. It's quite something to condition your mind to go there. That was a lot for me.

That's why in that fight scene that we have at the end of movie number one, in between takes, in order to stay in that element, I would try to ... It was hard. We had to rehearse it together and everything, but I tried to maintain the focus to be able to stay in that level of violence internally. Otherwise, I wasn't going to show up. But we did find, within that, ways to still make it fun. I'm not going to say that I could not make it light, personally. It was hard.

Ed, apart from that intensity, Admiral Noble endures some pain, getting tubes and hoses attached to your body in a crucial scene. Was it as painful to act out as it looked? It looked like you were really writhing in torture there.

Skrein: That was an interesting five days because I was pretty much by myself. I was the only cast member there, although we had some [actors in costume as] priests, Semitic priests. It was a strange thing. Also, we were right at the end of COVID restrictions, so we were all still doing COVID testing. The irony is that I was really sick that week, but I didn't have COVID so I was allowed to work.

I was in there and I was naked. They would cover me in K-Y jelly so I was all shiny and slippery, and I was sick. It wasn't fun ... and then pretending to be electrocuted and all of that stuff on that metal grate — that was actually metal; it wasn't like a soft plastic to pretend. It was challenging. But as an actor, the challenges are what you want. That's what was so incredible about Noble. I think I would've felt the same reading Kora's lines with the view of playing it, although I don't think I would've been quite right casting for Kora.

Boutella: With the right haircut, you can ...

Skrein: And prosthetics. But with Noble, I was like, "Wow, look at all this stuff he gets to do." There [were] seven pages of dialogue with this thespian forked tongue, and then there's other scenes where it's just action — these huge, action set pieces. Then there's this sci-fi. There are scenes on end where I don't speak that you're alluding to at the end of the movie, but they're so physical. There was so much range and experience to the role that it was part of the allure that was so challenging. But by the same token, it was tough.

Also starring Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Michiel Huisman, Cleopatra Coleman, Staz Nair, E. Duffy, and Ray Fisher, "Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire" is playing in limited release in theaters before it debuts exclusively on Netflix the evening of December 21.

This interview has been edited for clarity.