Praya Lundberg talks learning from Bruce Willis and John Travolta on set
Praya Lundberg discusses working with Bruce Willis and John Travolta on "Paradise City," and what she learned from them on set.
John Travolta and Bruce Willis have reunited for a new action film - nearly three decades after they costarred in 1994's "Pulp Fiction." Their young costars in "Paradise City," Blake Jenner and Praya Lundberg, could not hold back their excitement when they found out they would be working with the movie legends.
When speaking with Fox News Digital, Jenner and Lundberg revealed they both grew up watching their movies and look up to them as performers. It was particularly exciting for Lundberg, because this is her first movie in the United States, and she could not believe it was alongside Willis and Travolta.
"What a dream come true. It's my first U.S. movie, and here I am having my coffee on set, acting across two incredible giants." Lundberg said. "I came from Bangkok, I'm not even from the U.S., here I am like, ‘I’m going to move to America, to begin my career, and then like two years later, I'm on a set saying, 'Good morning, John, Hi, Bruce. How are you?’ Yeah, it's amazing."
Jenner was equally excited to work with the iconic actors, but nothing could match his parents' excitement. He said the moment his parents found out he was going to work with them, his "mother was just going nuts" and asking if they could come to set and hang out with Willis. Jenner had to tell them to let him "get there and make friends with everyone first."
Praya Lundberg and Blake Jenner were extremely excited to work with Bruce Willis and John Travolta. (Getty Images)
In the film, Jenner plays Willis' son who is trying to find out what happened to his father after he went missing and was potentially killed. Meanwhile, Lundberg plays a local detective helping Jenner, and is also working to capture Travolta's character, who is an organized crime boss. The two made the most of every moment on set with Travolta and Willis.
"I learned through observing them," Lundberg said. "John is very aware of surroundings, himself, and it's almost like when he acts, it's a net. It flows so naturally, and it's just such an amazing presence to be around on set. He tries things off on the fly and just I watch him, and through watching, you absorb."
Jenner added, "I definitely learned a lot from both of them because, A, I've seen like a ton of their movies as we all have, and then B, it was just kind of seeing them focus. I got jealous, you know, these guys can kind of turn it on, and with me still like kind of coming up and learning things, that kind of gives you something to work toward. I was definitely admiring the two of them the entire time. Their talent and their work ethic for sure."
As much as Jenner was looking forward to meeting Willis and Travolta, he did not want to come off as too green - "like the new kid in school" - so he refrained from asking for any specific advice. However, he told Fox News Digital he was still able to form a relationship with them both.
"With Bruce it was cool because I kind of got to lock in… this kind of father-son kind of scene… So it was really nice to lock in and kind of feel that love with him," Jenner said. "Then (with) John, I have a one-off scene and…we shot it on a night shoot. We had like one go at it. It was just incredible to see him play in rehearsals…you can tell how much he cares when he's rehearsing and how much he loves to play. So I think that was really cool to see."
Bruce Willis plays Blake Jenner's father, a bounty hunter who goes missing. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
In terms of preparing for their roles, Lundberg and Jenner had different processes. Lundberg focused on finding things about the character she related to, as well as getting into the mindset of a female police officer.
"I did many Zooms with my friend's mother who works at the NYPD … And I wanted to understand, like when you enter a room, what goes through your brain first? What does one think," Lundberg asked. "There's a scene where she goes in and makes an arrest in a quite a dangerous situation. I just want to understand mentally, what does someone in that situation think? How do they react?"
Lundberg did not do any real-life ride-alongs with law enforcement out of fear she would get in the way get in the way of a real emergency, but she did take inspiration from other female detectives such as Olivia Benson from "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," played by Mariska Hargitay.
"I always love watching other actors' interpretation of what they see a character like this should be and then with all of the work I do on my own and real life research and examples, I create Savannah," Lundberg explained. "Sometimes you just have to let it go on set. (A) little bit of magic happens when you don't try to make it too perfect."
To prepare for his role, Jenner says he watched "some movies that kind of had a similar vibe" while also trying to get in the mindset of his character and become friendly with everyone on set.
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In preparation for her role, Praya Lundberg spoke with real-life female police officers and watched other on-screen police officers (Photo by Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
"I think we had like a good week of rehearsals, and before that I got my own exercises that I do, like stream of consciousness exercise where you kind of speak from the character's perspective and you kind of turn on hearing what they've been through, and then like working in rehearsals, talking to everybody. I think the main hallmark for any role is just getting comfortable with everybody," Jenner said.
"Other than that, because I'd never done action and stuff, you kind of just have to buckle up and enjoy the ride. Now I know what to expect. If I were to do another role that required this much kind of movement and action and stunts and stuff…you kind of prepare for being prepared and then you just kind of buckle up and then do your best."
When it came to the physical demands of the role, Jenner compared it to being in boot camp, admitting to being sore when he would come home from filming. Lundberg, on the other hand, said her background in martial arts helped her in that area, but it was still difficult to get the choreography right and repeat it take after take.
"Martial arts photography is like a dance, really a very mindful, meditative move. Every kick is thought out to come out cinematically as beautiful and as realistic as possible," Lundberg said. "I do a lot of mindful work, meditative work, because you have to be fully aware of what you're doing so that you're cautious not to injure anyone on set too, and not to overly exert too much energy that if they had to take the same kick, you'd be able to do it."
Jenner, who got his start on "Glee," also said he tries to "soak up the moment so hard…because honestly, like, my first day on ‘Glee’ feels like it was yesterday."
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Blake Jenner got his start on the television show "Glee" (Photo by FOX Image Collection via Getty Images)
When it comes to Jenner and Lundberg's hopes for the audience when they watch "Paradise City," Lundberg wants people to walk away thoroughly entertained by the film, and Jenner hopes they leave with a sense of gratitude for their loved ones who support them.
"A film that has everything together, and it has action," Lundberg said. "It has beautiful Maui, has many incredible actors, action sequences, the local energy of Hawaii, the loving energy, a love story between Savannah and someone, I will not say who, and it's just it's just a perfect action flick."
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"Call your parents and say, ‘Hey,’" Jenner said. "Don't let too much time go by … There's a lot of moments here where my character feels like he's alone. I don't think he expects to be greeted with the help and the love and the care that he's greeted with throughout this journey. So I think it's keep a small circle of people that you adore and trust because they're the ones that will always get you through things. That's definitely what I take away from watching the movie."
"Paradise City" hits theaters Nov. 11.
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