Every action movie presents particular demands for its stars, but Predator: Badlands was a unique production: neither of the main characters are human – Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi is featured in head-to-toe costume as a Yautja named Dek and Elle Fanning plays Thia, a Weyland-Yutani synth that has been severed in half – and on top of everything else, there are a significant number of scenes feature the two of them strapped together. One would think that it would make for a terrifically uncomfortable experience, but the reality is that the actors got used to it to the point that they opted to stay entwined even when the camera stopped rolling.
Filming on movie sets requires a lot of starting and stopping, as various adjustments need to be made between takes, different camera angles require different lighting, and more. But when I spoke with Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Elle Fanning earlier this month during the Predator: Badlands press day, they explained why they didn’t always opt to get out of their back-to-back positioning whenever the crew needed to work around them. Fanning explained that in addition to not being worth the time it would take to get done, efforts were made to make them as comfortable as possible:
Sometimes we would just... they would ask like, Do you wanna separate us? But it would take time to do that and then get back into it. So sometimes it wouldn't be worth it. We're like, 'We'll just chill here.' We both had little stools. Remember? And it would kind of be different heights that we would just kind of sit and eat our snacks back to back tied together.
In Predator: Badlands, Dek and Thia meet while on Genna, a treacherous world where the former is trying to prove himself in a rite of passage. He is on the hunt for the planet’s most dangerous prey, and while it is against his culture to accept any assistance, the fact that Thia is synthetic creates a special loophole for him. With the damaged android’s knowledge of local fauna and flora as an asset, Dek attaches the legless synth to him like a backpack, using vines as straps.
Because Elle Fanning actually has legs, creating the desired look with Thia on Dek’s back wasn’t easy, but Dan Trachtenberg and his crew went the extra mile to create the effect on set. The actress continued,
It was done in camera. We had these wires and all these different rigs that were created for the film that had never been done before. So it was exciting to be a part of that, but also, you know, it came with its challenges.
While Elle Fanning had the challenge of working without her lower limbs, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi wore a full-body Yautja suit every day on set, and it’s not hard to imagine the difficulty that comes with that work. Predator: Badlands was shot during late winter in New Zealand last year, but the actor still got a good sweat going because of the costume. Fortunately, his memories of the challenges are balanced by memories of collaboration:
It was tough. Yeah. But I had a really good scene partner. We felt really supported, especially by Jake [Tomuri] and the whole stunt team. It was a great crew, so yeah. Not much to complain about, man.
Riding on a wave of positive buzz from critics, Predator: Badlands arrived in theaters earlier this month and is now playing everywhere.
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