Interview: Ariel Vromen Talks About Criminal

Ariel Vromen is an Israeli film director who discovered Gal Godot just weeks before she signed on to play Wonder Woman. She stars in his latest movie, Criminal, alongside Gary Oldman and Kevin Costner. Costner plays a dangerous criminal whose mind has been implanted with the skills of a dead C.I.A agent. I recently had the chance to catch up with the director while he was in LA promoting the thriller to talk about The Iceman, Criminal and the Frankenstein aspect that drew him to the film.

Awards Daily: One thing I noticed in the film, not only did you shoot in London, but you shot in Croydon, right?

Ariel Vromen: [laughs] That’s right. I was like, “Who recognizes Croydon?” Only people who’ve been in London for a long time and know it very well. Or people who know all about the model Kate Moss, because she was born there.

AD: Was that always the case, for the film to be shot in London?

AV: Originally, when I read the draft, it was set there. The discovery of South and East London was mainly down to the production design when we were scouting locations. I had very specific ideas for colors that I wanted to use so I think that worked better. I also was thinking of ways to shoot London in a different way through a foreigner’s eyes.

AD: I liked your perspective of it. So, I once read that for you it’s about choosing the right story. What made you want to tell this story?

AV: It’s a combination of things. First, how can you tell a story that has many barriers that you need to sell to the audience, but you can fail on any of them and your movie is gone. I thought if you could ride the wave of this one, that the first challenge is over.

The other thing is I have a weird sympathy for anti-heroes, the dark heroes. I found that hit the right notes with me. I felt I could get the same roller coaster they want to root for Costner’s character in the beginning, but then they’re open to that, and before you know it, they’re on this roller coaster. So, that appealed to me a lot.

Finally, the most important thing was that I was so fascinated by the presence and importance of memory in our behavior, and who we are. It was a bit of a Frankenstein experiment.

AD: You also reunited some of the J.F.K cast, but you have a great cast. What can you tell me about how they got on board?

AV: Let’s start with Gal (Godot). I know Gal from Israel. She’s a friend of mine and was doing a few small roles and I saw a TV show she did. So, I told her I was doing this movie, there’s a female lead, and I told her, “I think the studio is going to let me cast an unknown.” So, she read the script and she loved it. We did a screen test and then two weeks after, she got Wonder Woman.

AD: You got her first.

AV: Yes, I was first. Although, the film has come after. We believed in her before anyone knew the movie was going to happen, before anyone knew that she was going to get this franchise, it was all before that.

Then with Ryan Reynolds, that was another piece of luck. We were actually meant to do something else, but that didn’t work out. Then he heard about Kevin (Costner) being involved, and he’s always been a fan. Field of Dreams is actually one of his favorite films, and he wanted to be a part of it. He came along for a couple of days, did the movie, and then he told me he was going off to Canada to shoot a spin-off of some character he did for X-Men, called Deadpool. He did that straight after and we all know what happened next.

[laughs] I doubt he’d come again and do the role again, if I called him about it.

AD: How did Gary get involved?

AD: Kevin went through the casting process and we had a lot of convincing to do. With Gary, he read the script, heard that Kevin and Ryan were on board. He said he loved London and we actually ended up sharing a lot of conspiracy theories and thoughts about the C.I.A. He was happy to come along for the ride. He was also a big fan of The Iceman.

AD: The Iceman is memorable, and look at Michael Shannon now, his career has soared.

AV: I know. It’s funny because I was running with him for three years while trying to finance the film, and no one wanted to give me a chance.

AD: On that note, did The Iceman actually end up opening doors for you.

AV: Yes, absolutely. You just need to do one good film or TV show and you’re humble about it, and grateful. You’re just trying to choose right, you have the chance to work for a long time.

AD: I noticed with this film, you weren’t involved in the writing like your previous films.

AV: In this specific case it was easy because my cousin actually wrote the script. We did a lot of work together. While we were in England, they let me write and they supported me on that. I was actually involved in the script as much as I could be, just to simplify it because it was really complicated.

I’m fine with just the director credit.

AD: How long did this one take to film?

AV: We did it in nine weeks. Some directors get nine months to do a film [laughs], I get nine weeks to do Criminal. [laughs].

AD: What’s next ?

AV: I hope Blanco is going to be exciting.

Criminal is released on Friday