Actors Gerard Butler and Mike Colter have defended that «everyone deserves a second chance» when asked about Will Smith’s veto at the Oscars after slapping comedian Chris Rock at the last ceremony.
In an interview with Europa Press on the occasion of the February 10 premiere of the film ‘The Pilot’, Colter notes that he has not given much thought to whether the Hollywood Academy should remove the ban on Smith’s entry to all the events it organizes for 10 years, but demands a new opportunity.
«I’m not part of the academy and I haven’t given it much thought …. I think everyone deserves a second chance,» he expresses when questioned on the matter, a response Butler shares.
A month before the 95th Oscar Awards, to be held on March 12, Butler and Colter arrive in Spanish cinemas with ‘The Pilot’, an action and survival film directed by Jean-François Richet.
The film tells the dangerous adventure of an expert pilot, Brodie Torrance (Butler), who lands a plane full of passengers on an island in the Philippines after suffering damage in a storm. The place is an area controlled by militias and rebels where the passengers will again be in danger and Torrance will have to ally with one of them, Louis Gaspare (Colter), an accused murderer, to save them all.
«It’s an action movie, a disaster movie, a survival movie, a suspense movie, with elements of drama, funny and heartbreaking at times. It’s really a very dynamic film, with fascinating characters (…) that I think are as believable as possible,» claims Butler about the film, which, he assures, will allow the audience to «travel» with them.
HUMANITY IN THE CHARACTERS.
For his part, Colter stresses that ‘The Pilot’ emphasizes the good side of humanity: «Every time there’s a disaster, people embrace each other and just work together to survive. They forget about all those little things like what broke them apart.»
Thus, he explains that protagonists Torrance and Gaspare «couldn’t be further apart at the beginning of the film» but that, after the plane crash, «they have to figure out how to come out of it as brothers.»
On the other hand, Butler stresses about his character (the pilot) that he found it interesting that he’s a guy who «has no talent in the new circumstance he finds himself in» in the «hostile» environment of the island. «He doesn’t know how to cope with the situation, but he’s all heart,» he applauds, to trust that in a similar situation he «would do the same» as the pilot, try to rescue his passengers looking out for the common welfare.
In this sense, he defends that the film invites the audience to «see humanity in all the characters»: «They can understand those who fight, those who are afraid and those who are annoying. They can see how this can happen and how the group’s relationship flows from negative to positive.»
«We can all see ourselves in a situation like this. That’s the kind of movie I like to make, that the audience can imagine themselves there and say, ‘Would I be that guy? I think I would be that guy,'» he concludes.
