Actor Ryan Phillippe stars in the new movie “The Bang Bang Club,” alongside actors Taylor Kitsch and Malin Akerman, which premeired at the Tribeca Film Festival. The flick is the real life story of four young combat photographers – Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva, Kevin Carter and Ken Oosterbroek – bonded by friendship and their sense of purpose to tell the truth.
They risked their lives and used their camera lenses to show the world of the brutality and violence associated with the first free elections in post-Apartheid South Africa in the early 90s.
The heartthrob spills the beans about what led him to play such a heavy role, his love for South Africa and his safari visit.
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GlobalGrind had the opportunity to speak with Ryan about his time in a foreign country and the importance of combat photography.
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Check out the exclusive interview below.
What did you do on your off time? Did you eat the stuffed bread?
I love the food in South Africa, I really loved it. I got to experience the country from a social standpoint and interact with people. I loved that. I loved the energy and there’s something great about a country that’s still reshaping its identity and there’s something so alive about that for me. I got that from the interaction with people.
I’m going back in July for the premiere of this film there and I’m taking my children and we’re going to go on safari and go to Soweto. I didn’t really have time to do that kind of thing while I was there. It was really run and gun.
There are all these movies about the African cats and you’re going on safari. Do you have any particular animals you want to get a chance to see?
I’ll probably let my kids dictate that (laughter). I remember when we were making the film, the guys went out and played golf and a zebra walks across the golf course. It was completely unlike anything we had experienced here. On the way to work we would see monkeys on the side of the road. It’s fascinating.
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Are there similarities between being a combat photographer and an actor?
Not directly, not in my mind. No. The thing that I would equate it most to in my experience is being a soldier. There’s something about putting yourself in that situation. The preparedness, the risk and the devotion to what you’re doing. I don’t feel like acting compares in any way to being a soldier or being a combat photographer. Far more risk involved, physically.
Did that role as a soldier help you with this one?
I don’t know. I definitely would find myself thinking about how they did. These guys had no protection, no weapons and they were in the midst of a battle and that concept was so compelling to me; the idea that you would willingly place yourself in such direct potential harm without any kind of protection. They wouldn’t wear vests because they found them cumbersome. There’s a mentality there that I don’t think a lot of people can relate to, that I was fascinated by.
What was the most challenging aspect, besides the accent, that you had to portray?
In any adaptation and any movie based on a true story liberties are taken and you have to kind of accept that as an actor. I knew what apartheid was and I knew the dynamics of it, but I did not know the particulars and inner-workings of what was going on with the government, how the government was stoking the infighting and so I did a lot of reading. I read the history of South Africa, I read Mandela’s autobiography.
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What were the moments of trepidation in terms of doing this?
I don’t think of it in those terms because I’m excited by challenge. I’m excited by new territory, so trepidation and fear doesn’t really relate in that regard. When we would shoot in the places where the actual events took place, they hadn’t changed drastically. In terms of infrastructure it looks almost exactly like it did then and I think there was something impactful about that, about how fresh it seemed … to be shooting in those locations where the memories were still so raw for a lot of people.
Do you have a newfound respect for photography now?
Certainly in regards to the light that can be shed on certain social situations and political situations. Absolutely. I think the importance photographically still exists to some extent but now with Twitter and Facebook ― we saw what happened in Egypt and how we were all kept abreast of what was happening there every single second ― it [has changed]. Things have changed technologically so drastically since then.
What do you think makes a photograph great?
If it’s able to tell a complex story in a single frame.
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Ryan Phillippe and the cast on the set of “The Bang Bang Club.”
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Ryan Phillippe hangs with his co-stars Malin Akerman and Taylor Kitsch.
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Actor Ryan Phillippe.
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Actor Ryan Phillippe.
