“Nothing against Legally Blonde or anything like that, but I guess I wasn’t in the mood, and I walked out of Legally Blondeand walked into Training Day when it was out in the theaters, and it was one of those completely unexpected moviegoing experiences that I’ll never forget.” A fan of Fuqua ever since, it is that director’s humanist touch that makes his action movies stand out from the pack. In this vein, Pascal confides he was all too eager to go through the rigorous audition process for this part, as he has been a fan of Fuqua’s gritty aesthetic ever since he made an early exit from a screening of Legally Blonde in 2001 and wandered into Fuqua and Washington’s first collaboration, Training Day. Returning to Boston-a homecoming Pascal welcomes after his years of regional theater there-Pascal plays McCall’s ex-partner and protégé from the agency… one who has been led to believe McCall is dead until the mentor shows up on his doorstep with information that their handler (Melissa Leo) has been murdered. In the case of The Equalizer 2, it is by providing a new vantage on Denzel Washington’s enigmatic take on Robert McCall (an ex-CIA spook/full-time fixer who was created by a 1980s TV show of the same name). “Everything in threes, I guess.” But it makes sense because, like on Game of Thrones, Pascal’s energy can re-contextualize what viewers might have otherwise taken for granted. “I’m all about the sequels, huh?” Pascal says with a sheepish chuckle. Prior to The Equalizer 2, Pascal played a whiskey-swigging American spy in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and he’ll appear in an undisclosed role in Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 2. For Pascal, it led to landing-through extensive audition processes-the chance to shake up one movie franchise after another. Much a citizen of the world, Pascal cut his teeth as an actor in New York University’s coveted Tisch School of the Arts and the many regional theaters of New England before he helped create the last genuinely amazing new character on Game of Thrones, Oberyn Martell.Īppearing only in the fourth season of the HBO fantasy flagship, Pascal made such a striking impression over eight episodes that the show mourned his loss by trying (and failing) to recreate his dead prince’s energy in the next season with the misguided introduction of his character’s daughters. Appearing as something like a franchise disruptor, writers and directors have learned a little secret: All stories seem to benefit from throwing Pascal into the proceedings and seeing what magnetic chaos ensues. And yet, once we started rolling, it felt like I was with a classmate.” He adds with a chortle, “A superior classmate.”ĭespite any self-effacement, Pascal has more than proven himself in recent years. “Here I am working with one of the greats, and I was more nervous than I’ve ever been and, consequently, more prepared than I had ever been. “That was what was so surreal,” Pascal continues. But it was their ability to connect as actors-as opposed to action figures in an elaborate franchise of stunts and explosions-that made working with Washington and Fuqua unique. The final shout-out goes to director Antoine Fuqua, whose effortless style makes this a graceful and thoroughly entertaining viewing experience.Washington has famously said he considers himself a stage actor, and that theater will be his first and last love it’s something Pascal vouches for after seeing Washington in August Wilson’s Fences on Broadway. Aside from the excellent Washington, we get a fine bad guy performance from Martin Csokas, equally intense and the finest I've seen from him, and Chloe Grace Moretz is wisely kept off-screen for most of the running time, which I was fine with. The extended set-piece ending might be described as 'DIE HARD in B&Q' and loses the realism a little but, but until that point this is tough and gritty film-making. It's not an action filled movie, but when the action hits it's hard and heavy, not shying away from crowd-pleasing violence meted out to the villains. It's the execution where this film excels. Let's be honest here: the plotting in THE EQUALIZER is nothing special, and the Russian mob make for clichéd villains. It's supposedly a big screen version of the '80s TV series with Edward Woodward, although think of it as your usual vigilante movie and you'll be closer. An intense and towering performance from Denzel Washington as one of cinema's best-acted action heroes is what makes THE EQUALIZER stand out from the crowd, although as a film it's also a very decent thriller.
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