Eric Bana Talks Training Teen Assassins in "Hanna"

When we first see Eric Bana in Hanna (and yes, that rhymes), he's attacking a teenage girl (played by Saoirse Ronan). It's only through the course of their fight that we realize he's training her -- because peppered between the blows are instructions and advice. And over the course of the fight, we realize that though she is tiny, she could take him, had he not snuck up on her. This is no ordinary girl, and he is no ordinary father. Bana talks about beating up little girls, swimming across oceans, and learning to diagnose hypothermia in his cast and crew.

Q: When you were learning the fight choregraphy, did you actually ever hurt each other?

A: You know, it's scary when you're fighting without a whole lot of rehearsal time. We had a lot of fight scenes, and we had to learn choreographed stuff really, really quickly. It's more important that you get proficient at the fighting, and then learn the choreography right before you do it, so it's fresh, versus learning it two months before. And we tweaked it on the day as well. But you do get paranoid about it. Not so much hurting each other but getting sick, getting an injury. Because you can't do these fight scenes if you've twisted an ankle, or for me, your back. You have to remain in shape throughout the whole production, and you have to come into contact, but it's more about tweaking an injury than bruising, especially for Saoirse. I wanted to be careful with her, because obviously it has to be convincing, but you want to be careful. That's the balance.

Q: Especially in that fight scene that's all in one long tracking shot...

A: That was a huge challenge, but it was one of the most exhilerating things I got to do in this film. It's scary when the director tells you the fight you've been learning is going to be all in one shot! It's kind of the antithesis of how these movies get made. It's that rare moment in moviemaking where it becomes like a sport, and the crew is your football team, and everyone has to be bang-on for a take. We rehearsed that all day, and then we only had about an hour to nail it. I think we did six or seven takes, and I think [director] Joe [Wright] used the second or third take.

Q: What was the hardest part about the fight scenes? The cold?

A: The cold was something I'm completely not used to, being from Australia. But we were well looked-after. The funniest thing is that we got issued a memo of how to diagnose hypothermia -- not in yourself, but in your co-workers. Apparently it's easier to diagnose in someone else rather than yourself. You're not actually aware that it's happening. And one of the symptoms was erratic behavior. And I thought, "Shit, we're on a movie set! Everyone's got hypothermia if you define it by erratic behavior!" [Laughs]

Q: What did you think of the score by the Chemical Brothers?

A: I haven't seen the finished product, but the temps I saw made me think of the music as a character in the movie. Joe obviously knew how he wanted to use them, because it's more than a score. I remember hearing Ridley Scott once say that when he hears directors say that they're not sure yet what kind of music they're going to use for their movie, then they don't really know what kind of movie they're making. Because here, the director is so clear on how important a role the music is going to play. It makes the movie read bigger.

Q: You haven't seen it yet? So do you know what happens to your character? Do you think he died, or did he do a Jason Bourne?

A: The last I knew, I was on a Ferris wheel contraption, but no one told me I was dead. Maybe I'm not! But if you've seen it, how long is that swim in the movie? Because that tracking shot we were talking about, that's the first time we see him in the city after a very long swim.

Q: It wasn't that long...

A: Is it in the film?

Q: Briefly?

A: I didn't do it for nothing, did I? Ah! So I did swim for nothing. OK.

Q: Well, think of it as part of his journey...

A: Yeah, I liked the fact that there was a journey for my character as well. While it's kind of a loss of innocence for Hanna, there's a redemptive storyline for Erik. He's going through it a second time as a human being.