Interview by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor for RadioFree.com
February 14, 2025

An aging hitman is forced to train his young, cocky replacement in the action comedy Old Guy.

When veteran professional Danny Dolinski (Christoph Waltz) is forced to partner with his effective but careless junior Wihlborg (Cooper Hoffman), his hedonistic life of minimal work hours and maximum debauchery is upended. But with some diplomatic discipline from the pragmatic Anata (Lucy Liu), the two contract killers learn to work together in the midst of a dangerous assignment that is bigger than either of them could have expected.

In this exclusive interview, storied action director Simon West (whose works include genre classics like Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) talks about the elements that distinguish Old Guy from his previous films, and discusses technology's impact on the ever-evolving business of moviemaking.

Old Guy is playing in select theaters, and available on digital platforms including Amazon and Google Play.

RadioFree.com: What would you say sets Old Guy apart from the many action films you've done in the past?

SIMON: I suppose there's a little bit more restraint in terms of the reality of the action. It's not so outrageous and outlandish as some of the films I've done, where the audience knew that they were going to be big and funny and exciting, and that's what I wanted to give to them. This is a little bit more realistic in its world setting. It still has humor and it still has high stakes, people live and die. But it's really a character-driven action comedy. And so everything in it you believe could really happen. And the discussions that the characters are having are real world, normal, everyday discussions about age and relationships and things like that. On the side, they're going out on contract killing missions. So that's part of the humor, in a way: that they're so casual about it, and that's their kind of day job. And Christoph's character only does it two days a month, probably, to finance his outrageous lifestyle of partying, and generally being a degenerate, and living like he's 25 years old even though he's 60. And the uniqueness of that, the setting, instead of the usual driven, mechanical hitman that even I've portrayed in the past, is probably more realistic--someone that's just doing it for the money and really just wants to have a normal, fun life. And the rule book that I stuck to in this was making it very realistic.

What qualities were important for the three lead characters and their dynamic, and what made Christoph Waltz, Cooper Hoffman, and Lucy Liu ideal choices for the roles?

Well, Christoph is an incredible, accomplished actor. And I chose him obviously because of his acting skills, but also because he hadn't done something like this. And I knew it was going to feel fresh to the audience that they were seeing Christoph in a completely different way. He may be a two-time Academy Award-winning actor and you know he's going to deliver the emotional scenes, but they haven't seen him being outrageous and clubbing and drinking too much and cracking jokes and generally showing his sense of humor and looser side. And the opposite of that is the young guy, which is what you wouldn't expect as well--that the young guy played by Cooper Hoffman is actually the more straight-laced one. Even though he dresses completely gender fluid Gen Z, he actually doesn't drink alcohol, he goes to bed earlier, and he exercises. He's more of a professional, in some ways, because that's all he wants to do. He wants to be a hitman. He doesn't want friends, he doesn't want family. And those two are exact opposites. And then, Lucy Liu...Another very experienced actor, and also someone who's done a lot of action films. But in this, she's really kind of the referee between these two generations, the boomer and the Gen Z character. She brings a lot of experience to the acting part of it, but she's also got this kind of mysterious past, and she's a very powerful woman. And that triangle of characters is what attracted me--seeing those three play out together, and having three terrific actors do that. So I end up being like an audience member, really just having fun watching them.

In keeping with the theme of different generations having different ways of doing things, and there being pros and cons for each, what are some contemporary techniques that have radically changed your own business of filmmaking over the last 25-30 years?

There's certain pieces of equipment that have come in that have helped. We use drones all the time now as very quick, simple aerial camera platforms. You can do anything with them--fly them through windows, get aerial shots, use them in action sequences. So drones have really brought on filmmaking and given them a dynamism, and made it [possible] to get very interesting shots in a very affordable way that you could never do in the past. CGI still seems to be expensive. [laughs] That's the strange thing, is that it's been around for years and years now, but if you really want really good, high-end, believable CG, it's still very expensive, because it's still operated by talented technicians who are costly. You know, AI doesn't seem to have solved that yet.

Any thoughts on the advent of AI becoming a useful tool in filmmaking?

Some of the production design is now very AI-orientated. But it all comes down to, really, does it make films better or more interesting? Probably not, because humans still want to watch humans. A very animated film with a lot of CG is great in the animation world, and I'm a huge fan of animated films--pure CGI films, they're usually done to a very high level. But for me, I still try and do everything in camera. And I think if someone's saying something funny or emotional or interesting, the audience is usually hooked. And that's the thing they're interested in. Even if there is no CGI or if it's bad CGI, they're still watching the people. And I still think there'll always be a market for that. The writing will always have to be good, and I still don't think any AI has written anything good yet. So, we'll see! [laughs]

When new technologies like drones and AI become available, is there a steep learning curve required to effectively implement them into films?

It's such a fast-moving business and there's so many talented people in it. As a director, I don't necessarily have to learn how the equipment works--you know, somebody comes along who's an expert in that. So there's all sorts of new pieces of equipment coming along, but the trick is, how do we push it to its absolute limit? How do we do better than the last one? How do we use this in a different way? You can learn by watching other films, but there's nothing like actually having a go with it yourself. So sometimes it's a steep learning curve and it doesn't work well, and other times, it does work well. But I've had pieces of technology that have been said to be fantastic, and they've not performed. Sometimes they come out too early, before they're ready. But yeah, I mean, it's a rapid, evolving business, and there's always ten people using that piece of equipment at the same time. So one of them's going to work it out and pass on the knowledge to everyone else.

What made Ireland your location of choice for this production?

Strange enough, Old Guy, to me, could have been shot anywhere. It could have been shot in the States. It's actually one of the few films I've done that isn't about a place, really. It's about the characters. Part of it was just, I'm based in the UK and so I need somewhere that was a good one-day travel from London. And Northern Ireland, in particular Belfast, has a great film base. You get the support with the crews and the technicians there. Most of the time, people go to Belfast and shoot it for something else, and cover up that it's Belfast, and just use the talent there but say it's New York or wherever. But I got the opportunity to shoot it just as Belfast, and I think the locals really appreciated that. They didn't have to cover up the signs and [got to] see their city as it is. [laughs] But it could have been many other cities. It could have been Liverpool [or] Glasgow. It had to be one-day travel from London. And Belfast won out because of the technical support there, I suppose.

Thanks for your time, I appreciate it. Have a great day!

You too. Nice to see you, Michael.

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