Chris Pratt: Stopping bad men in the 'wild west' was 'sexy'
Face2Face: Chris Pratt and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo discuss remaking the classic western 'The Magnificent Seven' and why the western genre is making a comeback
Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington lead the new reimagining of “The Magnificent Seven” following a group of outlaws out that set out to save the day for a small town in need. It’s a modern take on a western that features a diverse cast and a leading lady who is far from a damsel in distress. During our interviews at Toronto International Film Festival we asked Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Haley Bennet about the film.
FOX411: What are some of your favorite modern updates on the genre here, how it’s a modern take on the western?
Ethan Hawke: …There was something about this, an old fashioned Hollywood western being helmed by Denzel Washington, that felt really exciting and new to me and it allowed us to use a really multicultural cast in a really authentic real way that made the story exciting… People love to talk about how great the original “Magnificent Seven” is but, you know, it does have a white guy dressed up as a Mexican doing a bad Mexican accent as the villain. You know, it’s got seven white guys. I mean, it’s not authentic in that way. There's a certain charm to it and there’s some great filmmaking and great acting but a good story needs to be retold to each generation.
FOX411: What stands out about the film?
Chris Pratt: Oh man, there’s a moment at the end of this movie, well, I don’t want to spoil it… you probably know where this is going. Seven guys defend a town against an army, and there's a moment in the end where, the leader of this seven takes the villain and makes him pray for forgiveness and when you see that, it's poignant. It is something that services today. It's something that makes this movie so relevant to today. And I don’t want to give away too much more but when you see that moment in the movie you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
FOX411: Your character (Emma Cullen) fights right alongside the rest of the cast.
Haley Bennett: Yeah, there really is no differentiation between the characters besides the fact that Emma is a woman. She's right there doing everything, getting her hands dirty, which was really fun. She's wearing the holster; she's leading the pack essentially. She's seeking them out. She's not a damsel in distress; she's running the show."
FOX411: And there’s not this obvious love interest storyline.
Bennett: No not at all, she completely stands alone. She's a woman that, I think, it will be nice to have other women to be able to look up to in westerns that’s something again that's very rare. So she's definitely somebody that I would like to be more like… independent and strong willed and in control of her emotions even in spite of the tragedy that she suffered.
“The Magnificent Seven” rides into theaters on September 23rd.