'Out of the Furnace:' Casey Affleck Talks Training For Fight Scenes for Scott Cooper Film: 'It's Pretty Grueling' [VIDEO]
Casey Affleck and Scott Cooper spoke about their upcoming film Out of the Furnace at an Apple event at its SoHo store on Nov. 19.
The film, which also stars Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Zoe Saldana, Forest Whitaker, and Willem Dafoe, follows the story of Russell Blaze (Bale) and his younger brother Rodney Jr. (Affleck), who stay in the economically bleak Rust Belt in Pennsylvania. After Blaze is released from prison, he has to look out for his younger brother who has gotten involved with one of the most dangerous crime rings in the Northeast.
The film is essentially an exploration of violence, which is one of its main themes. Affleck talked about preparing for those scenes and if the cast had to undergo a lot of training.
Affleck said that he never liked violence and added, "I am not much of a fighter."
While the 38-year-old actor watched some bootleg videos of backyard fights as part of his preparation for the role, he said in the end it was just about training.
"You've just got to get up and train," he said. "It's pretty grueling if you're not built that way."
Affleck's character in the film is back from serving in Iraq, and that seems to be crucial to explaining his waywardness and getting drawn to this crime ring. The actor believed that the fact was actually very important to note: "Although it is subtextual, it is an underlying theme."
He went on to talk about how war veterans were ignored in the country, emphasizing on this sense of "betrayal."
"We can't even give our veterans food stamps and proper care for their mental health," he said.
Affleck suggested that he took this bit about character's background seriously when researching his role. He told the audience, "I spent time figuring out how much his military history factors into his present."
The actor spoke to war veterans, his grandfather, and other people who served at Vietnam and Desert Storm. During his research and interactions with these individuals, he found out that many of them suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Affleck also watched documentaries and focused on the physicality of these individuals. He suggested that he saw "before and after photos" of the men, to see how the war had changed them physically. "Either they break down or they implode and become tight wound, I went with the second," he said.
Speaking of working with Cooper for the first time, Affleck poked some fun about the fact that the director was so good-looking.
"He looks like an actor and also behaves like one sometimes," he said. "He is one of the best directors I have worked with."
Affleck particularly lauded the director's imperceptible control over the team: "You're wild and you never quite know you are in the zoo."
Out of the Furnace will hit theaters on Dec. 6.
Watch a trailer of the film:
