The Kristian Harloff Show - IAN MCSHANE INTERVIEW! Ian talks American Star, John Wick, The Ballerina, One Piece and Star Wars?!

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

PATREON: Become a Patron!: https://www.patreon.com/TheBigThingShow Join Kristian Harloff as he sits down with the legendary Ian McShane, known for his iconic roles in Deadwood, John Wick, Pirates Of The Caribbean, and more. In this exclusive interview, they delve into Ian's new film, 'American Star', and discuss his involvement in John Wick, Ballerina, and his experiences working with Len Wiseman. They also touch on One Piece, Kung Fu Panda 4, Hellboy, and answer the burning question - has Ian ever read for Star Wars? Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more exclusive interviews and pop culture news! 🔔🎬🍿 #johnwick #johnwick4 #ballerina #kungfu #kungfupanda #onepiece  OUR MERCH STORE IS LIVE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/the-... FOLLOW KRISTIAN + FIND HIM ON CAMEO https://cameo.com/kristianharloff https://twitter.com/kristianharloff https://facebook.com/harloff https://instagram.com/kristianharloff AMAZON WISHLIST: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls...

What's going on, everybody? You got a bonus episode today. You got a bonus episode, and I'm so excited that you get this bonus episode, because as you saw, as you clicked on the title, I had the opportunity of sitting down with the great Ian McShane. Yes, Ian McShane. We all know from whether it's Deadwood or whether it's Pirates of Caribbean or obviously John Wick. So much that this guy has done. He's got a new movie coming out this weekend. It's called American Star.

and I really enjoyed this movie I hear about it more when I talked to Ian about it but he's like he's a hitman which I thought was interesting too but you see kind of what his journey is and this story about this guy

so I talk more I talk more in depth with Ian about the movie itself so you can learn a bit about more and of course I ask about the ballerina and I ask about a few other things so I hope you enjoy it I hope you check it out. Like I said I was very happy

to be able to sit down with him and talk to him and just obviously tell him what a fan I was, but also to just get an opportunity to have a conversation with him. So please enjoy my conversation with the great Ian McShane. Please leave your comments. Please hit like. If you're brand new to the channel, you're just finding it, hit that button right there. Subscribe to the channel. Helps us out tremendously. Appreciate you. See you soon. All right. Thanks again to Ian McShane. What an amazing, amazing gentleman he is and go and check out American Star, by the way. I think you really like it, especially as I've been kind of going on a highfalut and

about how smaller movies should get more support and how more people should see movies with kind of in-depth characters. This is one of those movies. So please go and check it out. Again, leave your comments, hit that subscribe button. It really helps the channel out. I appreciate it and we'll see you soon. All right.

I am very excited for my next guest, everybody. You guys know him from Dead would you know him from john wick pirates of caribbean hellboy i can go on and on and on and on as a legend ladies and gentlemen in january 26th american star is being released and i have the star of that film the one and only mr ian mcshane hello ian how are you hey christian how are you uh it was a pleasure to speak to you i've been fan for such a long time and and i just watched this movie and i have to tell you um what i really dug about it was that it was just a very it was a simple story about a guy who just, this is his job. This is what he does. And he's going to do this job

in this nice little place. At him, he doesn't even seem like he wants to be there at first. He's just like, I'm not getting off a plane. And I've been there. I've been there. And he gets there. The guy he's supposed to kill isn't there. And so he's got to spend time in this town. And he wants up really falling in love with the town. Where did you first come into contact with this particular story? Because it's probably also, oh, good. I can actually be the hit. me in and I don't have to go and tell the hit me on what to do this time. I've worked with, first of all, I've, the director, Gonzales Lopez-Gaegro, Gonzalo Lopez-Gayegro,

who I did a movie with six years ago. You might not be familiar with it, called Hollow Point. Okay. It's a terrific little non-Western noir movie with me, Patrick Wilson and John Leguizamo. And he didn't get, he was one of, I love, it's really good. I'm John Belushi's in. Jim Belushi's in. It's a really good little movie, but it never got any kind of,

it got screwed up as a lot of films do by distribution, whatever. But we remain friends, and I had enormous admiration for this director. And we've remained friends, and about a year after we've made it and it was out, whatever, and he called me up and he got this idea for a movie. He only added the time. He's got, well, this idea for this film, Wilson. And he also lives in the Canaria Islands, and he knows this true story of this ship,

the American Star, which is an actual ship, that disintegrated on its way being commissioned by the American government on its way to be told and they only actually disappeared under the waves a couple of years ago in Puerto Ventura, the island where it could only be seen

and he had this, you know, he said the metaphor for life and death and this guy going there and becoming intrigued and he brought on Nacho Ferner, the writer and I was involved so I was involved in the beginning and then we talk about

We didn't want to make a, you know, the genre's always great. It's what you do with it. Everything's been done before. But it seemed to me that, you know, he images his own cardinal mistake. The first day, you know, he's there. He should leave. The intelligence has been screwed up. But he thinks, no, and it is a fascinating place.

But they're beautiful islands. This particular one lives up to his name. Where's Deven Furo? Violent wind. And it's windy every day. and we talked about the film for a long time, got the script we wanted to make, it went out, and I made a film called Jawbone,

which is a very good, excellent English independent movie with Johnny Harris and Ray Winston and I did with his producer called Mike Elliott, with his emu productions. And Mike loved it, and a couple, it took us about a year and a half when we finally came up with an investment. We had this window to make it in 22, and Gonzalo and Jose David Montere, he's cinematographer.

We all found ourselves. Suddenly, you know, we appeared on this island. They'd be preparing it. We came on. We had three days, camera tests, prep, whatever, rehearsal for the cast. We went on and made it. And there's nothing like making an independent movie, you know, because you've got no boss.

You're making the movie you want to make. Right. And the trust that I have in Gonzalo was, you know, apparent. And it was like a... It was smooth. It was just a really great five weeks, working concentrated every day. It was not like a, you know, the end of the day, you had a nice meal, which you do in your nice meal, went to bed, got up the next day, and did the thing,

and it turned down a movie that we can all be very proud of. And we're perhaps, I, the IFC liked it, you know, delivering it here. And here, I'm talking to you about it. Yeah, absolutely should be proud of it because it was, as I was going into it, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't watch a trailer. I didn't do it. I did that on purpose.

I just wanted to go in. Like I said, I know I've seen so much of your work that I always know what you bring to it. And to see this. And I was very curious because of the John Wick side of it. And because of the, yes, it's a hitman, but this is such a dramatically different in tone, obviously, because you have this, the music in this film, by the way, the music in this film is almost like a separate character. And it sets in motion what Wilson is going through in even when he's relaxed. The music's relaxed, you're relaxed.

But there's even if he's sitting at the bar, is like, is there any music that I can deal with from my century? Can I go? Can you point me somewhere and I go? Because that music, to me, kind of dictates it. Was that a conscious choice to make sure that the music was? Oh, yeah, that's Gonzalo. That's his, I mean, I give, I give it all up for him as a director. I mean, we talked about things beforehand, but you have to have trust in something like that.

He's made, you know, and he's, yeah, his idea for the music was the choice, was the guy who did it all. And then I think, but I think the sort of the opening, being in that hotel there, on those hotels on that island are all those hotels that you have to book up like all in, they're package tours. Yeah. It's a package tour hotel, you know, on this, so the very thing of getting into that person, when you see him sitting in the, in the whirlpool, yeah, get out there wandering around the, hotel and then you have the sort of, you know, the musical act at the hotel, you know, the honoring the final, I love that, the final count. That was the best. I know.

And then he goes out and he walks around the island. But he's kind of like, and he makes his own cardinal mistake that he stays. He says his own, you know, as the kid says to him, Adam Negatus, who was wonderful in the movie. And it's funny though you say that, though, too, because even though, because I felt like, yeah, I made the mistake of sticking around. he has and then he has that conversation. But, and again, I'm not obviously going to spoil anything.

But when you go through the movie itself, you're like, for what this character has gone through and kind of seems kind of almost like the mundane of his job. And then when these particular things happen, I wonder if he reflects on it down the line if it was a mistake. Maybe it was something, I mean, granted, there are things that happen that probably is regrettable. But for the most part, this kind of seemed to awaken him a little bit. Oh, I think, yeah, he stirred into life by the fact that he,

You know, the relationship with a little kid, which I loved, a little Oscar. And then with the girl who were in the bar, whatever, when he realizes the link between her and the girl in the beginning and the thing, and he thinks, Jesus, I shouldn't be here, but then American Star, she takes him by surprise. And there's no kind of, it's not a love interest,

but there's a spark of something, and she invites him to lunch with her. Mother, he thinks, well, you know, he goes, he does it, and he gets and he realizes that his you know the son of his of his best friend who's involved in the organization is there but he thinks oh yeah listen to me knowing that he's made his own mistakes but he's having sort of like a semi good time if you like on this island and then it all falls apart i know i know i felt so bad yeah i felt so bad for him at times because he's like he's just like they're like the relationships but it's like but it's like but you're like you're like relationships but it's like but you're you know, though, even when he starts to get settled at all, it's like, up there's someone who's going to snap him right back and go, no, no, no, remember what you're here for or no, no, no,

and you're like, oh, yeah, he's, you almost forget that he's on, that he was there for a job in the first place because he's in doing. Well, yeah, because it's, the fact that what his job is and whatever is really not, it's not, it's just, that's not really, it could, you know, it could be a, could be a travel agent and whatever. It doesn't matter. It's just that he commits his own, he knows he's made his own, States. But he's feeling human for the first time in a while. You don't need a backstory.

And I think it's kind of that movie. As you say, you don't know what to expect. You walk in. It's a great location. I mean, we arrived there. It was an amazing. Yeah, it was great to be in the location, make the movie you wanted. You felt like you left at the end of it.

You know, we made a movie. Yeah. Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I think that there was also. though there was no wastage of extra shots. You didn't need stuff. You know, we had a really good, like, civilized time. We get up, you know, make the movie till about,

till the light went down, whatever. Then we go up, have a nice meal, talk about each other, and then go to bed and meet the next day. And nobody over your shoulder, they're telling you what, you know. Yeah, I'm sure. Well, do you, let me ask you about that then, because, like, if there is, you always hear about the, when it comes to, whether it's actors, directors,

it's like the one for you, one for me type situation. Do you have like when it's just obviously you've been in so many big budget movies, you do great. You do movies of this scale as well too. Do you have a preference or is it like no, it just kind of depends on the script and what comes across? How do you do you have a preference of what you really like to enjoy more? Because like you say, you're not taking any orders from anybody on this one.

And in the studio, obviously you've got to stay exactly what they want to do when you got to deliver it. I'm curious about that. My perfect day has sand, salt, water, and friends. But my moderate to severe plaques psoriasis can take me out of the moment. Now I'm all in with clearer skin thanks to Sky Rizzi. Risenkizumat Rizza, a prescription-only 150 milligram injection for adults who are candidates for systemic or phototherapy. With Sky Rizzi, most people saw 90% clearer skin and many were even 100% plaque-free at four months.

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Visit Skyrizzi.com or call 1866 Skyrizzi to learn more. I've been lucky enough to work on, I mean, with working, on the John Wick movies when you're working with really good people as well as critically talented people like, you know, Keanu and Chad, the director, when you've worked with them over 10 years on, it gets better and better

and the budget gets bigger, but you know it'll be spent in a good way. And you know what you expect. I never, you know, I never sort of ask when they go, oh, John Wick for, whatever, and it's not like I've ever said, and this is what I want for my character. They go through all that, and at the end of it, I'm there,

to help. I'm there age in every way to make it a better movie. On a movie like this, which you're involved with in the beginning, you have more, if you like, more saying it. But once the filming starts, it's over to the director. It's over to Gonzalo.

He's the guy you've given. So every day was like, yeah, what do we do? And he's also... He's shooting it in a very formalistic style. You know, you know, he's going... It's not like, oh, we need to grab a closer pin. None of that much. Right. And that's all well that's... It's not that kind of a movie. This is a mood movie, whatever, and trusting in him and his cameraman.

And you know the move. So it's like... But at the same time, the acting has come from the surprising because you're working... I'm working with Nora and Fanny Ardant who brought this wonderful enigmatic quality to it, the movie, even in a brief scene. And the kid who was great, working with a kid, Oscar, which obviously you've improvised a lot with a kid.

But you get the essence of the... scene than the actual last scene with the kid because you've only got you've only we shot that at mangygar okay you know you can only do it once right yeah right right so it's but it doesn't seem like extra pressure he seems like extra wonderfulness that you've got this time only to do it and it's fun and yeah and it's fun it's kind of right right right right i'll tell you though max's parents i mean because he obviously wilson's relationship is just pure like it kind of brings you brings the kid out of him when he's with him and teaching him about the things that he did for sure. But I'll tell you, in those kids' parents, terrible, terrible, those parents.

Like, they're letting him run around outside. There's a hitman outside with my son. What's he doing? He's giving him cash. You know, it's funny when we were talking about John Wick, I have to ask you, I saw something that Baisal Ironwick had given an interview and said that, and I don't know if you've addressed it to about the fact that you got, I know that you entered the John Wick franchise kind of late, the first one. And he said that was kind of, there was a free trip to New York,

New York that was offered because you could go there on Thanksgiving. Is there, was that, was that true? No, that's kind of what, that came out as the line. I think it was everybody. But I mean, once they, you know, one of the money give, I mean, you to get the cast of the first, an independent movie. It's pretty good. I mean, there's Willem. Willem. Me, the girl.

I mean, you've got, you know, terrific Alfie played the kid. You got Michael, sadly, the Michael Nickoves, the Marvel Swedish actor played. It was a very good movie. Hell yeah. But it was a good script.

It was a great, tight script. That's, otherwise, you wouldn't have got people out to be in it. But the added thing was, we wouldn't have come to New York for Thanksgiving for four days, put you up at a great hotel because they had a budget. Everybody.

But you know, I think like Defoe and like me, your experienced actors you understand, there's a good script there, it's tight, and you've got Keanu playing a character, Keanu's got a, you know, he's just buried his wife. They kill his dog, they steal his car, and he's an ex-hit man. He boasts, for goodness.

It both, you know, it's like I say, if they do this right, it could be a great new movie, and it was, and it's built, it's coming to something else, which is the luck of the draw. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, and it just happens, I think. The last John Wick was a really,

you. Great big, fucking great movie. Crazy movie. Crazy. Yeah. So, you know,

and it ain't over for you yet when it comes to that because you've got a big year in general. You got this one, obviously coming out. You got, you got ballerina.

Yeah, I got ballerina. That's a, yeah, that was interesting to make with my dear friend, Mr. Redding. Yes.

Yeah. So, you know, we worked together on that last year in, in Prague. Yeah, I mean, it's very much.

We have a few scenes, the Continental. And obviously, we provide a, as we say, a safe haven for the marvelous Miss Anna De Anas. Yeah. Did you see, do you see like the kind of the big difference with, because Len Weissman is directing that one, the difference between? No, I think Len, I think Len was very, very aware, very aware and very, very much in sync with what Chad done. And I know they were talked a lot before that, and I found him a delight to work with Len. And then you're coming back to Kung Fu. Oh, Kung Fu Panda.

Yeah, that's... Yeah. With Viola Davis playing the comedian. So she... That's the lead sort of villain that. That's where they bring us all back. And, yes, Tai Lung.

It was nice to reprieced Tailung again. Yeah. The smooth... Yeah. How long ago that was, yeah. I know. It was exciting to see you coming back for that one. And then it actually kind of leans into the...

My question about, you know, when it comes to... Because your voice is just so iconic as well, too. And I... So this year, I'm not a big... anime guy, never had been my daughter's into it. And I started getting a request from my audience to check out one piece. And I had, and I had never seen anything. I know that's got this vast lore and all this stuff.

And then I watched the live action series. And I loved it. I loved the series. And you, of course, narrate in the series itself. Did you, did you know that this thing was going to be as big? No, I tell you, I only knew about it, Michelle, because I called, when they got the call and they said, Then when you do this, I said, one piece. So I thought the person, aha, my grandson.

My youngest grandson. For the time, this is like last year. And I phoned him. I called him. I said, do you know about the show? And he went, oh, he said, GD. GD. He said, I've been watching this since I was a kid. He said, first of all, it started off as Magma, then Anim, and then went into Magna.

And then it's now, he said, it's great. He said, I've just been watching something on it now. I said, well, they've asked me to do the boy. You said, oh, you've got to do it. There you go. Yeah, and then is that, so are you doing anything with season two? I've no idea. They come back again.

I've no idea they come back or not. It was a pleasure to do it. I mean, it's like those things. Yeah, you do the voice and they carry on from there. But apparently it was very successful. I think good show. Well, obviously, they're doing the second series. Yeah.

So jumping back real quick, I wanted to ask you, and I didn't ask you before, and I'd be mad of myself about American Star, is that What I really loved about Wilson, by the way, is the way that he gives information through, like, knowledge. Because he's kind of closed off. But when he has this relationship with Gloria, he's giving, he like, there's one particular thing, like when they're talking about, like, prisons. And he mentions the prison in Belfast. And she just, she asked him a question. She's like, are you, are you an ex-con? And he just goes, do I look like one? No answer. Just to look at it. It's certain things that he says in the way this. So like, how did you, I guess a two-part question here. one is did you, how did you approach and really want to approach Wilson of how you wanted to approach his character, but in the same way, were you hesitant at all to be in the hitman world

after coming off of doing the John Wig stuff? No, I don't, wasn't because it's a completely kind of movie to John Wick. I just, you know, all I knew, all I knew was that I wanted, this is a guy that's been closed off and life a lot. So when he's with the girl, it's like, you know, it's difficult to answer questions. He answers obliquely, but without lying in a sense, but obliquely, and he's alone and whatever, he's,

it's, it, yeah, I mean, that was the nature of the script, too, because Nacho's natural, I mean, don't forget, it was written by, it was written in Spanish revision, and I think they did a great translation of it, you know, I mean, Nacho is a, and Gonzalo, are both Spanish,

screenwriter and director, but obviously they're fluid in English, but I mean, and they left it to me and I always said from the translation which was pretty good actually from the first time out to make his answers as oblique and as

short as possible without revealing too much about himself but without putting her off because he likes it. He doesn't quite know why she did but she loves the ship and her mother says and her father is in the military and her mother knows something about I love that scene with the mother

I love that same with the mother. I love that. Or shall I I say, you know, a widow of the great, of the great French director. I mean, you know. Yeah, it was, it was a really, that was a very, it was a really good scene. Oh, yeah, that, no, it was, you know, it was,

but also, you know, it's funny making, it's, it's great being in, you get a more intimate sense when you're making a film like that because you get to know the crew, I love it, you know, because you spend all your time together. So it's an incident that becomes a more, every day a more intimate relationship and you feel free to do whatever

and they're involved not that films on a big level like John Wick aren't involved but you are more involved you've only got five you know a minimal camera crew a perfectly good one everybody but you're all together all the time

and you travel and location together you're in the state you know it's it was a great it was a great experience and luckily it's turned out to be a good movie that we can all be proud of. Yeah, I recommend the audience to definitely check it out. It's on, again, January 26th, American Star.

And, you know, again, thank you for spending the time with me. But before you go, I'm a, as, I know that you had worked on the remake of Hellboy, and I just wanted to get your overall thoughts on how you thought all that went. You know, I was, I thought David was great now, David Harbour. But something happened on that movie, the end of it, and they're trustworthy. and it all got changed around in production. It wasn't the movie they wanted to make. So I only saw half of it.

I thought, you know, they killed it, I think, critically. Not me, but I mean, I was... No, no. I wanted to do it to play homage to John, my friend, who died, John Hurd. You know? Yeah, yeah. But he played the original character. I thought it would be great, David.

But it was often, it was a misguided attempt to remake in the movie, I think. Yeah, I can see how something like that happens for sure. You know, if I can switch subjects for a second, I have been waiting for you to be in a Star Wars movie. How you have not played either a Jedi or a Sith or anything along those lines. It's my last question here. Have you ever been in talks for Star Wars movie? Are we going to see you in one because we need to see you in a Star Wars movie?

That's very kind you tell them. They've never asked me. Really? You've never been in. Maybe I'm too much in the other genre to be in a... I don't fancy the outfits. Thank you very much indeed for promoting me, Scott. Christian.

but I don't like the, you know, and dressing in all this really, the costume in science fiction, don't put me up. I did one in the 60s called 1999 with Martin Landau, which was a huge success. And yeah,

we all wore these, you know, sort of sandex outfits, which were like, oh dear, no. But anyway, there you go. But it was a pleasure,

it was an absolute pleasure to have you. Congratulations on the movie. Again, I really enjoyed it, and I really enjoyed my time being able to speak with you. So thanks again, and I look forward to talking to you.

you again. Thank you, Paul. You have a good 2024, yeah. You too. Bye, all right. Thanks again to Ian McShane. What an amazing, amazing gentleman he is, and go and check out American Star, by the way. I think you really like it, especially

as I've been kind of going on a highfalut and toot about how smaller movies should get more support and how more people should see movies with kind of in-depth characters. This is one of those movies. So please go and check it out. Again, leave your comments, hit that subscribe button really helps the channel out. I appreciate it and we'll see you soon. Bye.

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