A rookie air force combat controller (Liam Hemsworth) and a seasoned drone pilot (Russell Crowe) support a Delta Force team as they try to shift a mission gone wrong into a rescue operation in the new action-thriller, Land of Bad, which opens in US theatres on February 16.
Filmed in South East Queensland, the Australian based production was showcased as part of the lead up to the 2024 AACTA Festival, in which Land of Bad actor Luke Hemsworth spoke with Nick L’Barrow and Peter Gray of The AU Review about preparing for the role, and throwing a little shade at his younger brother in the process!
Nick: It’ so exciting to see an action film of this calibre being made here in Australia! And it definitely feels like South East Queensland is becoming a filmmaking hub for these kinds of projects. Is that exciting for you as an actor?
Luke Hemsworth: Oh, absolutely. Anytime that I can shoot something where I can go home and sleep in my own bed is a giant bonus! It’s rare that we get to shoot these kinds of films here. The more, the better! The more, the merrier. I’m all for it.
The nature, or the way our film industry works, they [films like Land of Bad] just don’t get made. It’s so few and far between. If you can jump on one of those, it’s a big bonus.
And I was lucky that my brother, Liam [Hemsworth] is in it.
Nick: It’s funny you mention Liam because it’s not just with him in this film, but with the entire cast there is this strong brotherhood on screen. What did the prep for this film look like with this group of actors?
Luke Hemsworth: Yeah, that brotherhood translates onto screen so easily. All of the bullshit was just cut out in between us all. I think that’s a big strength of the film, that the brotherhood is real. And when people watch the film, you feel it like the characters do.
I think we started [preparation for the film] about a month out. And as the other guys trickled in – Ricky [Whittle] and Milo [Ventimiglia] came on pretty late. Probably about two weeks before we started to shoot it.
So, Liam and I had been there for a while. But with Liam’s character, his level of proficiency doesn’t need to be the same as Milo’s, or Ricky’s, or mine. And I was there every day [for prep]! Not to say Liam wasn’t putting in the work [laughs]. You could say that he was the child, and we were the men [laughs]!
Do you find the physicality of a role like this easier now you have had more experience with it?
Luke Hemsworth: I don’t think it’s ever easy. I think there is a level of preparation where you don’t want to do these people, who are operators living day in and day out in these situations, a disservice. So, it’s incumbent upon the actor to be proficient at cleaning your weapon, moving through space, and covering your partners, and know what all the signals are. That’s what we have an opportunity to do.
The exciting stuff is learning these beautiful new skills that you would never get to learn unless you go through BUDS or unless you join the SAS, right? So, you get to taste this tiny fraction of what this part of the world goes through.
And these people are very complex. All of them have varying levels of PTSD, but they’re all functioning in a way that is valuable, especially to us. And I loved every minute of working with these guys, jumping out of cars, and running through buildings. That’s the stuff we all dream of doing!
You do it enough that you get to the screen, and you don’t have to think about it, and you’re changing mags, and it all looks great on screen because it’s become second nature. That’s a great part of the job if you can learn a new skill while you’re doing it.
Thank you to Luke for his time, and to PJ Marketing and Media and AACTA Festival for organising the chat. Land of Bad is in US cinemas from February 16.
