Michael Biehn stars in sci-fi thriller The Divide , which is out in cinemas now. Total Film chatted to the acting legend to discuss his sci-fi past, present and future. Here’s what he had to say…
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On working on The Divide …
"It was kind of a unique experience because Xavier Gens directed it, and Xavier's kind of a David Lynch character - he looks kind of normal but has bizarre and wild ideas about things.
“The story takes place in a bunker, my character's bunker, and I play this burnt-out, 9/11 guy. I've kind of given up on the world but I work as a building superintendent and I've turned the basement of the apartment building into a survivalist bunker thinking that something was going to happen, and something does happen.
“There's a nuclear event of some kind and before I can get the door closed on the bunker, about 4,5,6 people squeeze their way in and so what we're left with is a bunker that was built for one guy to last a year or two, and then there's a bunch of people down there, and it's me and Milo Ventimiglia, Rosanna Arquette, Courtney B Vance and a lot of real good actors.
"Food starts running low and radiation poisoning is leaking into the space we're working in, and things go a little bit awry, to say the least. It's a very, very, very dark look at humanity. I call it a psychological horror story, and it's very dark, kind of Requiem Of A Dream dark"
On improvisation…
“It was a lot of fun to do because Xavier gave us a lot of chance to improv and take the screenplay in different directions to what it was originally intended to go, and everyone was really very dedicated, and a lot of the young people like Michael Eklund and Milo just really, really cared about the project.
“And we had a lot of fun. Mostly because we'll never have the opportunity to have that freedom to write… rewrite… We shot it chronologically and I've never shot a movie chronologically before."
Read our The Divide review .
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