Bullet Train Interviews: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry & Hiroyuki Sanada

Bullet Train is the summer’s last big action movie, and we were thrilled to be invited to cover the junket for what’s sure to be a crowdpleaser among hardcore action fans (read our review). Brad Pitt stars as an unlucky private investigator named Ladybug, who winds up on a Bullet Train speeding through Tokyo that happens to be crawling with assassins. We got to speak to a few actors playing the killers Pitt has to contend with: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry and Hiroyuki Sanada!

Taylor-Johnson and Tyree Henry play a pair of killers named Lemon and Tangerine. While utterly ruthless, the two are likeable and redeemed by their obvious affection for each other, which gives the movie a surprisingly emotional current in the last act. While Taylor-Johnson knows his way around a fight scene thanks to Kick-Ass (and will soon be playing Marvel’s Kraven), for Tyree-Henry, this is a first. Having blown up as Paper Boi on FX’s Atlanta, Tyree Henry has become much in demand as a character actor. While he’s been in plenty of big movies like Godzilla Vs Kong, this is the first time he’s gotten to really dig into choreographed mayhem. As he explains in the interview, this was a dream come true – especially with the offer coming at the height of the pandemic, a time when Henry says he was “bored as f**k.”

Both guys talk about trading blows with the always-game Brad Pitt (each had a fight scene with him), while Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays a mysterious grandfather with a connection to another of the killers, also made time for us. I geeked out a bit over Sanada’s fantastic history in cult cinema (he was co-leads with Michelle Yeoh in the Hong Kong classic Royal Warriors), and he talked about the pleasure he got working with director David Leitch’s 87 North crew and what it was like fighting actors who may not have the training he does.

Are you seeing Bullet Train this weekend? Let us know in the comments!