How ‘Predator: Badlands’ Recontextualizes the Other Films, According to Its Stars

It’s not every day that you can sit down and talk to all the stars of a big Hollywood movie in a single interview, but not every movie is Predator: Badlands. The latest film in the sci-fi franchise that started in 1987 flips the script on the tried-and-true formula, not only by making the Predator himself the hero but also by not featuring a single human character in the whole film. In fact, in terms of actors, there are really only two main ones who appear on screen: Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi.

Fanning, you know. The younger sister of Dakota Fanning has been in incredible movie after incredible movie for over 20 years. Super 8, Maleficent, Neon Demon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button—she’s been everywhere. And, in Predator: Badlands, Fanning does double duty as Thia and Tessa, two Weyland-Yutani synthetics sent to the evil planet Genna to do some shady Weyland-Yutani shit.

Schuster-Koloamatangi, on the other hand, is a newcomer who you might not recognize even after you watch Predator: Badlands. That’s because the New Zealand-born actor, making his American film debut in the film, plays Dek, the main character whose real face you never see. Because he’s a Predator. But every emotion and subtlety in the performance is all him, as he made the film using CGI facial capture.

But that’s how, earlier this week, io9 ended up across from every single big star of the excellent film from director Dan Trachtenberg—all two of them—to talk about franchise films, how this one changes the previous installments, how Schuster-Koloamatangi got the role, and who from the franchise they’d like to appear with next.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Germain Lussier, io9: Joining a franchise has got to be a big deal for an actor. You have so many things to consider beyond just a movie. It’s, “Are we going to be in sequels? Are we going to be toys? My likeness,†things like that. Did that come into play for either of you as you decided to do this role?

Elle Fanning: Yeah, you think about those things. But, for me, I always look to the director. I look to the script. And also, why are they making another one? Like, what’s the reason behind this? And reading this script, you completely understand that reason. Because Dan Trachtenberg is completely opening the franchise up and pushing it into this bold new direction. It’s a big swing. I love a challenge. I like to surprise audiences. And I feel like that’s exactly what it’s going to do. It’s about time that we put the Predator in the protagonist’s role and kind of learn about his history. And also, I’ve always wanted to be an action figure. I’m like, I love that.

io9: It’s one of the few things you haven’t done, right?

Fanning: Exactly.

io9: There are so many awesome creatures in this. One of my favorite things was discovering what could possibly be next. Do you have a favorite story of a creature that was either interesting to work with on set, be it practical or digital, or something that, after you saw the movie, you were like, “That is not at all how I expected it to be�

Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi: Wow. I think my favorite creature was this android that was strapped to my back.

io9: [Laughs] Okay, present company excluded.

Fanning: I mean, I love Bud. And Bud, there was a man, Ravi [Narayan], who was in a suit that we could look at. And there was a cardboard cutout of Bud to see what he would look like. I mean, the Kalisk? I did not know that the Kalisk was going to look like that.

Schuster-Koloamatangi: Yeah.

Fanning: Dan was helpful in showing us renderings of the creatures and things, so we kind of knew what we were looking at. And we weren’t in a studio. We were on these locations in New Zealand. So that helped. Everything was kind of tangible. But the creatures, yeah, they were created [digitally]. The Kalisk I was like, “Whoa.†I saw it in IMAX just the other day, and that was scary.

Schuster-Koloamatangi: Yeah, the scale of it was crazy to see, like, fully edited. They tell you, “Look at this, the eyeline is all the way up there,†and you’re just kind of in your zone, trying to figure out what your character is feeling. And once you see it, it’s like, “Damn. That’s a bit more.â€

io9: Dimitrius, I read in the press notes that you had to complete an obstacle course to get this movie. You could tell me about maybe the first role in movie history where someone had to complete an obstacle course to get.

Schuster-Koloamatangi: Yeah, man. I felt like I was a kid again, running around on a playground. I remember walking in—because they told us when I had the call back, like, “Oh, yeah, so you’re just going toâ€â€”they didn’t even call it [an] obstacle course. They just said, like, “a movement course.â€

Fanning: I keep thinking, like, Wipeout, Predator-style. Like, I keep thinking about bouncing on these balls or something, dressed as a Predator.

io9: That’s exactly what I had in mind.

Fanning: It was more serious than that, but that’s what I keep imagining.

Schuster-Koloamatangi: I don’t know if it was more serious than that. It was pretty similar. But, yeah, I walked in, and I was like, “Oh, this is like a proper obstacle course that we have to do.†And I’m quite competitive, so I was trying to force myself not to rush and try to finish first. I was like, “Man, I’m going to kill this. Like, I’m going to be so fast.†But then, I had to keep slowing myself down and remembering it was about performance. We’re trying to bring the character to life, play to the camera, and whatnot. But, yeah, if the camera wasn’t there, I would’ve been pushing people out of the way, trying to finish that quick, man.

io9: Elle, you worked with so many incredible directors, and you just mentioned Dan, who is still early in his career. What do you think makes Dan special compared to other directors you’ve worked with? What makes him stand out?

Fanning: Gosh, Dan is so special. He has such a vivid imagination and just, he’s a fan himself of this world. And I think that brings so much passion to the project and the films that he does. And he can balance these epic worlds, completely world-building, a whole new planet we’ve never seen before, and the action has just that epicness. But he has so much heart as a person. He’s so kind and he cares just as much about the emotional scenes and the dialogue scenes that we have. And so when you marry those two things together, it really makes for something special. I mean, I worked with JJ Abrams. I know that they’re friends, but he reminds me of JJ.

io9: Now that you’ve both played a Yautja and been friends with the Yautja, does that recontextualize the other movies at all? Can you watch any of them and be like, “I wonder what’s going on with him?†or “I wonder why they did that?â€

Schuster-Koloamatangi: Yup.

Fanning: We’ve been talking about that. We’re like, “We could go back and watch them. I think maybe I’ll have a soft spot for the other Predators in all the other movies.â€

Schuster-Koloamatangi: Yeah, my family members who just always got killed.

Fanning: Yeah, they always got killed. They always say how bad they are, but they always get defeated.

Schuster-Koloamatangi: They always died.

[All laugh]

io9: Dimitrius, I know you went through the old films and stuff before you did this. Did anything stand out to you? Anything that was like, “Oh, that’s something I want to key in on and remember while we’re shooting this�

Schuster-Koloamatangi: I think the main thing that I wanted to make sure I delivered in my performance was having the presence of the Yautja. You know, when you’re rewatching all the old films, you know when they’re around. You can’t see them; they’re not saying much, but you feel their presence, and you get that anxiety. You feel scared almost, and they’re not even popping up. So I wanted to emulate that kind of feeling with Dek. When he was on screen, you feel that. Like, “Okay, there’s a Predator.†So that was more of the energy that I was trying to bring from all the iconic movies. Have that sense of aura. He’s a Predator. He’s a Yautja. He’s ferocious. But it was cool mixing that with his vulnerability as well and the obstacles that he’s forced to go through in the film.

io9: And obstacle courses. Last thing, the other movie Dan was making at this time, Killer of Killers, establishes that a lot of the people from the other movies are still around. So, do you have a character from the previous movies that may still be alive or not that you would love to see your character interact with?

Schuster-Koloamatangi: Oh, hell yeah, Arnold.

Fanning: Yeah, duh.

Schuster-Koloamatangi: Yeah, he’s the star.

Fanning: Though I did love Prey too, so I’d love her to come back; that would be cool.

Schuster-Koloamatangi: Naru?

Fanning: Yeah.

Schuster-Koloamatangi: Oh true, that would be sick.

Fanning: She’s in Killer of Killers at the end.

io9: Both of them are.

Fanning: [Mr. Burns hands] Hmmmm.

Predator: Badlands is in theaters Friday.

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