Guy Pearce is well known for his dramatic work in movies like Memento and The King’s Speech. Viewers will see his physical side in Lockout, as the action hero Snow. Pearce has a strapping body with arms exploding out of a tank top.
“It was a lot of serious working out in a Belgrade gym,” Pearce said. He shot the film in Serbia. Snow has to go to a space prison to rescue the president’s daughter (Maggie Grace), and he looks like he can handle himself.
“I just went back to the gym. I used to work out in the gym a lot when I was younger. I was a competition body builder when I was 16 or something crazy like that for a short period of time. So, the gym is quite familiar and I know what I’m doing there. It was really about taking lots of protein and buffing up as much as I could, which stopped the day we finished shooting. But it was good for me because it was a physical role. It was good to feel strong and feel like I was in shape. It was a healthy regime of – I say ‘healthy’ sarcastically – healthy regime of protein powder and lots of Serbian meat and you know, lifting weights at a Serbian gym. ”
In Serbia, Pearce did not have much time to explore, considering the physical task he took on. “I didn’t really have much off time. I was in a lot of the stuff. Obviously, there are a few scenes that Maggie does that I’m not in. But I was at the gym. Pretty much I was at the gym. I generally love Eastern Europe anyway. There’s an artistic, intellectual and psychological view of the world that I find really alive and engaging.”
When he wasn’t working or working out, Pearce played music. “I stayed in the old town in an apartment. I had this fantastic apartment. I had a guitar with me, so if I had any free time, I could play the guitar. If I wasn’t too bruised, I had something to play.”
There was a very multicultural cast and crew. Guy Pierce said: It was fascinating! Absolutely fascinating. Surprisingly though – I don’t know why I should be surprised, but all the Serbs spoke very good English so they were most accommodating. Trying to understand some of the translations…I would see the Irish director say something to the French first and then the French first would say it to the Serbian lighting team and I would think ‘no, that’s not what the Irish director said.’ Or he’d say it to the French stunt team and I’d say ‘no, I reckon that’s gone a bit wrong.’ I’d have to go over to the French stunt team and go, ‘that’s not what he wanted. What he wanted was you to do this and this.’ So I was the translator.
