Video:The Book of Eli - Ray Stevenson Interview
with Rebecca MurrayRay Stevenson's no stranger to action roles, and as Gary Oldman's chief enforcer in 'The Book of Eli,' Stevenson once again gets to show off his physical prowess. But the film is not your standard action fare, and touches on some pretty deep issues.
Transcript:The Book of Eli - Ray Stevenson Interview
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the LA Premiere of Warner Bros Pictures' The Book of Eli.
Ray Stevenson – 'Redridge' in The Book of Eli
You're like the enforcer in this, but you're not necessarily a bad guy.Ray Stevenson: "No, not necessarily. I have this weird thing about bad guys. I kind of think nobody wakes up in the morning, 'Oh, I'm going to be a real bad guy today.' He's trapped on the cusp of what is either the final throes of the death of society as we know it or the birth of a new one. And he's got his own quiet turmoil going in, and in a weird sort of way, he's kind of instrumental on the outcome. So, I haven't seen the film but it'll be QED - quod erat demonstrandum – however, I hope it comes through. This is what we were trying to put through. A strange sort of character to put in the middle, but in a way you've got to lose things in order to gain things, in a sense."
Right. What was the appeal of something like this, set in that kind of a world with this type of theme?
Ray Stevenson: "Quite honestly my own feeling is that everybody is born with faith. We have faith that there's something over that mountain, faith that there's something under the sea. Faith that having children is the right thing to do. Faith does not [note: it's hard to hear exactly what he says here. It may not be 'does not'] normally mean an organized religion. That's how faith gets constructed and formed and sort of grouped together or whatever. And then it's an accident of birth as to how your faith is put into which structured religion. They all at their basis have the same premises and tenants. They believe in seeing the goodness of people and the belief in something other than the corporeal self. And then it just gets expanded and confused, and damage is done and mistrust and fear. It leads to that. When you're faced with the fact all that structure is gone, how dangerous is it to structure faith. Or how should we review it, or should we review the quality of what actual faith is? Not take it down or revisit orthodox roots but maybe find a new way of accepting it, not through structured religion but through an acceptance that everybody has exactly the same faith."
It's interesting.
Ray Stevenson: "Ask a child. I mean, you know, kids have faith. They get enchanted, they get wonderment, but they're also aware there is more to us – there is more to everything. They invest in so many things that they play with. And we forget, we stop investing. If it doesn't look like a car, it can't be a car. You get a kid with a rock going, 'V-room, v-room, v-room.' It's a car."
Wow, that's pretty cool.
Ray Stevenson: "It's pretty deep."
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