The Losers

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Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Idris Elba from The Losers tells us what it was like being beaten up by a girl...

(Elba’s leg is in a cast) Was it a good story or something like closing the refrigerator and twisted it and turned?
Idris Elba: I’ve changed it every time I’ve been asked, and I’ve been asked a few times, but the real truth is, I was playing soccer and someone kicked the s**t out of my Achilles.

Jeffrey kicked your shin?
Jeffrey Dean Morgan: I did (laughing).
IE: A joke, I wish it was Jeffrey.

How’s the testosterone rush in a movie like this?
JM: A lot, there’s a lot of action, I think what kind of mellowed out that was the fact that we had Zoe (Saldana). And she is a woman - there is no denying that…

She kicked your ass…
JM: I was going to say, she certainly kept up with us as far as the action is concerned, but look anytime you get to run around with guns and knives it’s a good time and we liked each other so much that we had such a blast making this movie, it was kind of a rare experience.

Let me just follow up with that fight sequence with Zoe, while there are great particular moments, every so often you get a little sexual where you get in those positions like, they’re just about to do something.
JM: When we went into that scene the feel we wanted was that is was very much their foreplay, and in between takes on a particular moment, I was like, “I’m going to try something different on this one, Zoe” and that’s when I throw her up against the wall and I say, “Hi.” And she looks at me with her legs wrapped around me and I think she head-butts me, but that moment kind of encapsulates the scene as far as the sexual tension and the foreplay was concerned.

Did you worry about not hitting her too hard?
JM: She’s tough, man. I am not saying we were battered and bruised after it, but I put her through the wall a couple of times and when she does that overhead backwards kick that landed on my face more than once, so..
IE: But you weren’t complaining.
JM: Nooo, I was like, “This is good.”

So did you two (Jeffrey and Idris) automatically have this easy chemistry when you met then?
JM: Yes.

Did you know each other before?
IE: No, we didn’t.  We didn’t know each other. I know his work, and when we met, we met in a similar room like this reading the script and we just got on immediately. In fact, I think it’s a story you’re going to hear throughout the whole cast, we met each other, and obviously we know what we are doing, we know our parts in the script and we just got on with each other immediately. And interestingly enough, I think with the actors in this film, a lot of our careers are on that upward motion, which is great, but to have all these talented people at this particular time, on this particular script is like a real amazing alignment.
JM: And without egos as well.
IE: We haven’t developed them yet.                                        
JM: Oh no. But Idris and I are both really paid back so we were two peas in a pod in the course of this film. It was a good time.

Any injuries on the set?
JM: I ripped my hamstring in the first week of filming chasing the helicopter up the hill.

Were you in any way a loser in school?
JM: Yeah, I was a little bit. I think I didn’t come into my own until 10th grade, so I got picked on a little bit.

Were you doing anything in particular?
JM: Not in particular, just kids were mean (laughs). That’s why I had to be scrappy. But I kind of came into my own later in life. I was a little bit dorky as a kid.
IE: I was a loser, but in a sense that I didn’t fit in with everyone, because I was so tall, and I went into this new secondary school like halfway where everyone had got to know each other, so I turn up and I’m tall and everyone wants to try it with me.

Jeff, just wanted to know how are you doing with your sex symbol status.
JM: I didn’t know I had any sex symbol status (laughs).

Any nicks or cuts from the movie?
IE: Yeah, one or two actually, because we had real knives, the ones we played with, especially in the fight sequence, but we swapped them out for blunt knives so I didn’t hurt Jeffrey’s beautiful face here.
JM: I stabbed you in the eye the first day of rehearsal.
IE: You sure did.

The World Cup is coming up and England’s been kind of a loser…
IE: You know, Beckham called me and said “I can’t play unless you play for me.”
JM: He imitated Beckham and got the same exact injury.

The Losers is in cinemas May 27.