I’d been fortunate enough to have spent a decent amount of time in New York before this. I had a baseline, but I wanted to be more specific, so we went to Brooklyn. There were a couple of small things, which don’t apply to everyone from Brooklyn, obviously, but I thought it’d be fun to incorporate. Like saying “Haaaarry” instead of “Hairy.” Tiny things that just differentiated it a little.
We never get to see Niki in his home life in the film. What does this guy do when the day is done, when he’s finished tuning pianos or picking locks? He reads to me as a very old-school, pre-internet kind of guy. A loner.
That’s one of the sad things about playing Niki—but also one of the reasons I wanted to play him. He’s forced into a kind of limited life. His condition narrows what he can do even in solitude. What a life looks like outside the script always informs you when you’re playing a character. But for Niki, it was so specific and so unique that I thought about it a lot and to a greater degree than I might otherwise.
Can you give me a detail from that backstory you built for him?
I imagined him being far more well-read than anyone would think. You do get a glimpse of him in his den, smoking endless cigarettes, trying to crack the safe, but I liked the idea that he finds some peace in solitude through reading. One of my favorite films of all time is Good Will Hunting, and there’s that quality to Will: he can just go home and read six books. I liked the idea that Niki has that.
He moves through some pretty distinct groups in this film: Israeli security contractors and Korean gangsters. You’re playing the “straight man,” the dramatic anchor, while the comedy happens around you. What was the energy like in those bigger ensemble moments? I imagine it being a rowdy and funny set with someone like Johnnie Park.
I loved working with them. We’d already shot numerous scenes with just Lior [Raz], Gil [Cohen], and Nissan [Sakira], but doing that sequence was incredibly fun—especially for me, because I got to slightly step back and just watch them come up with new things every take. They’re really good actors and genuinely funny people. The two of them [Park and Rek Lee] already had a great dynamic, but when you threw in the full group, it was just magic. So much of the humor came through the tension between them.
Since I asked about the piano playing, I feel like I should ask if you can crack a safe. Was there research or training involved in that, too?
It wasn’t as extensive; it’s a bit less technical than piano. You can go on YouTube and learn how to crack safes. I haven’t managed a proper one yet, but I do remember, as a kid, having this little lunchbox where I kept my pocket money, with a tiny padlock on it—the kind you could probably just chew through. For fun, I took apart a paperclip, made the little scissor shape, and tried it because I’d seen it in some film. And it actually worked. That feeling was so electric—but I wouldn’t recommend it. Let’s not all go around learning how to crack safes.
