A couple of weeks ago we the incredible opportunity to speak to the Netherlands’ Sylvia Hoeks who stars as Luv in BLADE RUNNER 2049 with Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford and Jared Leto. 99% of the time when we do interviews, we actually see the film beforehand, but in this case we were only able to view 30 minutes of selected scenes, as the filmmakers didn’t want certain plot points to be leaked prior to the film’s release, which is understandable. Nonetheless, it was fantastic to speak with Sylvia and you could hear her excitement in being involved with a film of this scale as a change from working on smaller European television and movie projects.
After seeing the film last night, she does have a prominent role and there’s definitely some questions we would have loved to have asked her! Now, you can either read the interview below or hit play to listen depending on your preference. Note: This interview is also available on iTunes Podcast, just search for Accessreel.
BLADE RUNNER 2049 is now in Australian cinemas. Enjoy!
Accessreel.com: Where are you at the moment?
Sylvia: We’re in Berlin doing press junket for Blade Runner so we have a whole day ahead of us
Accessreel.com: How’s it all going so far?
Sylvia: Its good, it’s exciting I have to pinch myself a couple of times to realize I’m in a movie like this with these people around me.
Accessreel.com: Blade Runner 2049 is obviously a huge Hollywood film how different did you find this film to the other features you have worked on before?
Sylvia: I think one of the most important things I really enjoyed working on this film it has a budget of a blockbuster film internationally but working on it felt like an arthouse film. You work with Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins it really felt free and creative and able to search and improvise and tell the story the best way possible… take risks and for me that was the most important thing.
Accessreel.com: Did that make you feel more comfortable on set?
Sylvia: Yes, I think everybody felt more comfortable because of that sort of film making I think there was a lot of respect on set, Denis and Roger were the ones that I think really did that they bought the respect and the way to work with the actors and the rest of the crew was wonderful to watch and wonderful to be a part of and I really felt there was space and possibility to be vulnerable and creative.
Accessreel.com: Not too much is known about your character, can you tell us about Luv?
Sylvia: A tiny bit… it’s all so secret! My name is Luv and I’m the right hand of Niander Wallace played by Jared Leto in the film, their relationship is very complex, its conflicted and intense and one other thing that’s important for Luv as for others in the film is her quest for her identity.
Accessreel.com: What was Jared like to work with because I know he can go a bit method?
Sylvia: yes, ha-ha yeah, he’s all method its very intriguing and interesting for me because I have never worked with a method actor like that before. Usually you would meet an actor before you go on set and talk about the scenes or maybe you prepare or rehearse and we didn’t do any of that because we met each other on set in character and that brought a different and extra element to the scenes we had together because it was so intense and complex actually not knowing each other only in our characters brought a certain distance and a certain type of tense awkwardness to the scenes I feel that it actually you know got us somewhere even further not knowing each other so it was interesting.
Accessreel.com: So, have you met the real Jared now, ha-ha?
Sylvia: Yeah after we finished shooting together we met each other had fun and a drink so yeah, I did meet him…
Accessreel.com: What’s the casting process for a film like this?
Sylvia: It was a funny process in the beginning because I was working on a German film here in Germany it was me and another actor on set just the two of us so it was like 15 hour days so I didn’t really have time to do a self-tape so I did it in the middle of the night in my little Airbnb apartment and I remember sitting right in front of the door on the ground because that had the most contact to plug in the lamps and I put some candles next to them because it was pitch black and winter so I didn’t have a lot of light so I was stuck between the camera and the door fiddling with the scenes and just seeing what I could do and having fun and I sent the scene off to the director and I got a really positive response and after I was done shooting the German movie I went to Montreal to meet Denis and have a working session with him and I was really nervous of course..
Accessreel.com: I would have been nervous as well…
Sylvia: yeah I was so nervous because suddenly I actually had a shot at it right… it was pretty nerve-racking and I remember driving back to the airport in a car and telling my agent I just fucked this up just forget about it and lets go out about some other things so he was like oh well we know not to trust your instincts too much young lady so just relax and we heard some positive rumors but it was such a big secret who was going to be in the film so after about two and half months I actually heard I got the part so that was also pretty intense to wait for a final answer.
Accessreel.com: For your role it looks like you get rather physical what kind of training did you have to do to get into the role of Luv?
Sylvia: So yeah right after I got the word I was in this film and got the part I was told it was a very physical part and I got to meet my wonderful trainer she’s a champion triathlete I think she just won another Iron Man she’s insane, very small, only muscles her name is Lesley Patterson she got me through the whole training we started training six hours a day six days a week for three months they wanted me to gain 15 pounds of muscle and while I was shooting for 5 months we still trained to keep the muscles going so a full body working and martial arts training next to shooting.. weight lifting, cardio and martial arts.
Accessreel.com: Lastly, there’s a lot of secrecy around the film… critics can’t even see it prior to interviews which is rare so what’s going on with the secrecy around it?
Sylvia: yeah, I just think don’t you think it would be so much more fun if you saw the film and didn’t know any spoilers because you have to on that journey with the character with Ryan and if there’s any spoilers it would just be less fun.