Jungle Cruise: exclusive interview with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt

2021-07-24T20:35:16.030Z

The film, which adapts the popular Disney park attraction, arrives this week and its stars did a Zoom with Clarín.

Pablo O. Scholz

07/24/2021 12:03 PM

Clarín.com
Shows
Movies

Updated 07/24/2021 12:03 PM

They are together for the interview with

Clarín

, via Zoom.

They have not given individual grades, and it shows during the 10 minutes granted to

Clarín

that

Dwayne Johnson

(49) and

Emily Blunt

(38) get along as well in daily life as seen in

Jungle Cruise

, the action comedy that premieres Thursday 29 in theaters and Friday 30 in Disney + (plus additional cost).

The film adapts the popular attraction that is in Adventureland, in the Disney theme parks.

Inaugurated on July 17, 1955 (it has just been reorganized), it consists of a ride in a small boat and lasts 8 minutes.

Well, the film is something else, another story and it has other dimensions.

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt: he guides her with his boat on the Amazon.

Disney Photo

Blunt, born in London, seen in

The Devil Wears Fashion

The Return of Mary Poppins

and in the current

A Silent Place Part II

, was the girlfriend of

Michael Bublé

, today,

Luisana Lopilato's

husband

, from 2005 to 2008. For Emily, Bublé wrote the hit

Everything

Well, in the fiction of

Jungle Cruise

Emily is the doctor Lily Houghton, who leaves with her brother to the Amazon, at the beginning of the last century.

You want to find a mythical tree with healing properties, which would imply a breakthrough in medicine.

Emily and The Rock shared their favorite games at DisneyWorld.

Disney Photo

Dwayne Douglas Johnson, known as The Rock, with a Canadian father and black, with a Samoan mother, was an American football player and later specialized in wrestling.

In 2001, he took a hiatus to participate as the Scorpion King in

The Mummy Returns

, and since then he has earned millions ($ 20 million for

Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw

, and for the first

Jumanji

He is also the producer of

Jungle Cruise

, where he plays Frank, a tour guide on whose ship he will take Lily, where they will face supernatural forces.

The Amazon River scenes were shot in Hawaii.

Disney Photo

-Hi both, how are you?

What do you know about Argentina?

Emily Blunt:

-Do you know what I want to learn one day?

The Argentine tango.

I am desperate to learn that dance.

It's the sexiest dance I've ever seen.

And if I learn, I'll show you later.

Now, I wouldn't know how to tango if my life depended on it.

Dwayne Johnson:

-I should have let you do it.

Dwayne Johnson with the Catalan director Jaume Collet-Serra ("The orphan").

Disney Photo

-What is your favorite attraction at Disney theme parks?

Dwayne:

-Here we go then!

At Disney, yeah yeah ...

Emily:

The teacups

Dwayne:

-Yeah, the

teacups

… I would say, well, it sounds remany, but it was always

Jungle Cruise

And I love

Space Mountain

Action, adventure, comedy and the supernatural come together in the film.

Disney Photo

Emily:

-Yes, I like

The Haunted Mansion

The Tower of Terror

…

Pirates of the Caribbean

Dwayne:

Pirates of the Caribbean

, that's what I was going to say.

It's a great ride.

It was always fun, you know, to see that final

Pirates of the Caribbean band coming

, and when you see the character of Johnny Depp, almost at the end ...

Emily

: -Yes, yes.

It's great.

The doctor and her brother (Jack Whitehall), arriving in the Amazon.

Disney Photo

Dwayne:

-It's a kind of animated animatronic thing, but it's great.

They will have to, perhaps, add it one day to the jungle cruise.

That.

Emily and Dwayne are already planning other films together.

Disney Photo

-The movie is not exactly in the action / adventure genre, and without spoiling, it has a lot of twists and turns.

How is it different in itself from the action genre?

Emily:

-Well, I think our goal was to bring audiences to this nostalgic and exciting action adventure movie.

You know, in the spirit of Indiana Jones and in the spirit of

After the Lost Emerald

But at the same time I think we want to bring you into this era that we are in now.

And so this tends to contour, it is an adventure film, very multi-layered action.

You want something light, you want humor, but you have to have something deeper, which has to be rooted in the human.

And yet, you want how to kidnap the viewers and take them to some exotic place.

So we were very careful to give a story of love, and blood, and sweat and tears to make sure that every layer was there, present.

And then we hit you with all this experience.

The film had to postpone its premiere for a year, due to the coronavirus.

Disney Photo

Dwayne:

-Yes, we are also very aware that we made a movie that was like a real adventure.

In today's cinema, and we both make entertainment movies, there was a real need for a nostalgic adventure movie that had the DNA of a

Raiders of the Lost Ark

And as she was saying, from

After the Lost Emerald

Like indiana jones

"A nostalgic adventure movie was needed," Dwayne told Clarín.

Disney Photo

-And who feels more like Indiana Jones of the two?

Emily:

-What a question.

Dwayne:

-Emily.

Emily:

-He drives the boat ...

Dwayne:

-Emily (laughs).

Emily:

-He is more Indiana Jones.

The Rock charges US $ 20 million per film.

And on "Jungle Cruise" he's also a producer.

Disney Photo

Dwayne:

-But by the way, again, that's the cool part.

One of the cool things about the elements in our film is that you take what is typical in the movies and you flip it, you turn it.

And when you think, oh, it's inspired by Indiana Jones, maybe that means I'm the character from Indiana Jones, when actually she's Indiana.

Jones' character in the movie is seen through her eyes and meets my character, who has a unique skill set, who knows the Amazon better than anyone, who could also help her unlock the keys to these legends and these curses as we see them.

So we both bring courage to each other in this, as she said, roaring adventure.

Dwayne and Jume Collet-Serra got along so well that they already shot "Black Adam" for DC Comics.

Disney Photo

-Emily, what does it mean to play a brave and tough woman at the moment in which the film is taking place, so ahead of her time?

Dwayne:

-It's a real stretch for her ...

Emily:

- (Laughs) It was exciting, she had a great character.

He noticed it when he jumped from page to page when reading the script.

She was funny and reckless and she had this bluntness to her, and a bluntness that was like… (looks at Dwayne) Really?

Are you preparing a joke for me?

Dwayne:

-No, no, no ... (laughs)

A backstage image of the film, the new Disney blockbuster.

Disney Photo

Emily:

-Because I have to let you know… OK.

Stay still.

But I love that it was ahead of its time.

I think it is important for every girl, to dream big.

And that's why I want that character to be like that, that girls can look up, and think that it is good to be rebellious sometimes.

-What was it like to act with a moving capture of a jaguar?

Dwayne:

-It was a lot of fun.

That's one of the challenges, I think, of a movie like this.

I preferred to work with a real jaguar.

I had told our director (the Spanish Jaume Collet-Serra, the same one from

La orfana

and with whom Dwayne just filmed

Black Adam

Shazam

spin-off

) ... Sorry, why are the two of you laughing so much?

They had to shoot several scenes with a jaguar ... who was not on set.

Disney Photo

Emily:

- Would you rather act with a real jaguar?

Dwayne:

-That's right.

Emily:

-You wouldn't last ... 10 seconds.

The guide, the doctor and her gay brother.

Disney Photo

Dwayne:

-I preferred it, and Emily wasn't there, but we actually had a real jaguar on set.

And, you know ...

Emily:

-It's not true.

We had a very nice man named Ben, and he was dressed in a suit, to do the motion captures.

And he had very pretty eyes.

And he was so handsome ...

Is the sequel coming?

-Do you think "Jungle Cruise" can be a franchise?

Are there plans?

Emily:

-From a sequel?

Yes, we really hope so.

Conversations are increasing, Disney has been very supportive of the film.

We would love.

For me it would be great to see the next chapter for everyone.

Dwayne:

Of course, it all depends on the audience, and the viewers dictate whether something becomes a franchise or if you are lucky enough to get a sequel.

But in this case with

Jungle Cruise

, what has been good is that people have been starting to see the film, journalists like you, and viewers in general, as we are testing the film around the world.

And thankfully everyone really, really likes the movie.

They love the movie, they love the movie, they love me in the movie.

Emily:

-I knew you were preparing something ...

Also in the cast are Paul Giamatti, Jesse Plemons and Edgar Ramírez.

Disney Photo

-Will you work together again on “Ball and Chain”, based on “Le Boulet”, the 2002 French film?

Emily:

-We don't know.

Dwayne:

Ball and Chain

Possibly.