Matt Lewis talks about “The Rise”
In an interview with HeyUGuys, three of the four cast members of The Rise, known as Wasteland in the US, divulged secrets of the set, how they got into their characters’ heads, and which heist movies are their favorites.
Even though the movie has been advertised as a heist film, Matt Lewis, who plays Dodd in the film, says the film is really more about the relationship between the four main characters. “It’s a heist film, but it’s about the four lads. It was about the relationship between the four guys, which I feel is the most important thing in the whole picture.”
The characters were meant to have known each other from childhood, so the actors spent a lot of time hanging out and playing poker and even formed a band. “We played golf one night, we played poker at [Matt Lewis’s] house one night. We were playing guitar one evening,” says Luke Treadaway, who plays Harvey. “We all seemed to get on pretty well.”
Regarding the scenes in which they were required to destroy property in order to lend authenticity to the “heist” part of the movie, the trio described their hijinks, including having the cops called on them.
“It was basically a scrap yard we were filming on, and we were just hitting [golf] balls toward this guy’s big, old workshop kind of thing,” says Treadaway.
“We hit this guy’s window, and he called the police. And then Matthew pulled out his driver, and I said, ‘See how far you can hit the ball’ and he just whacked it, and it just went,” says Gerard Kearns, who plays Charlie in the movie.
Matt explains why they were hitting the golf balls in the direction of the warehouse. “I asked ‘Are you sure we’re allowed to hit it ’round here?’ and they [production] were like, ‘It’s fine.’ Then we saw this guy going, ‘Are you hitting golf balls at my [expletive] warehouse?’”
To read the rest of the interview, visit the HeyUGuys site here. The Rise is currently out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK and can be purchased in the US via Amazon Instant Video under the title Wasteland here.
