Norway-born helmer Tommy Wirkola moves into new territory with the upcoming sci-fi film What Happened to Monday?, starring Noomi Rapace as seven identical twins in a futuristic world where families are limited to one child because of overpopulation. The director, 36, is known for his action-heavy work, including the zombie comedy-horror cult hit Dead Snow and its sequel and Paramount’s 2013 Jeremy Renner-starrer Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. But Monday, which SND Groupe M6 has at AFM, allows Wirkola to dive into a gritty futuristic world, not to mention deal with the challenge of having his lead actress play seven characters. The L.A.-based filmmaker spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how he juggled septuplets and what he thinks about Netflix:
What were the challenges of directing a film where one actress is playing seven characters?
There were many challenges technically and also with story: How can you do this without it being a gimmick? Shooting it would take very long. We ended up shooting in Romania, where we could get the most for our money, and we had a budget of about $20 million. We shot in 94 days, which is an extremely long shoot. The first two months, almost, it was just Noomi alone playing against herself. We had to hire seven doubles, seven good actors from Europe, so we could rehearse with them and could basically block out all the scenes with them. When we shot it, I had a rule that I’d shoot it like any other scene. I didn’t focus on the fact that it was the same actress playing different roles. I didn’t want the audience pulled out of the film. Of course, the technical side is one side of it, but the other is Noomi’s performance — the nuances and differences that she added to the different characters.
The full interview can be read over at The Hollywood Reporter.
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