When you think of Kenneth Branagh, you think Shakespeare. You think performances with gravitas, or the operatic comic book fare of Thor, or the tend
When you think of Kenneth Branagh, you think Shakespeare. You think performances with gravitas, or the operatic comic book fare of Thor, or the tender coming-of-age drama of Belfast. You don’t, generally speaking, think of one-man-army action tropes. Despite threatening to stuff John David Washington’s balls in his throat in Tenet, he’s not John Wick. Until you see him in Mayday. The modern buddy comedy from Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley – behind Game Night and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – strands Ryan Reynolds’ US Air Force Pilot, Troy, in Soviet Russia, where he’s befriended by Kenneth Brangh’s ex-KGB man Nikolai. And, against the odds, it’s Branagh who’s the action hardman.
Speaking to Empire, Branagh shared that he didn’t expect to be doing this kind of action. “But I was most certainly up for it,” he says. And his work treading the boards more than set him up for going toe-to-toe with armies of goons. “Frankly, if you do Shakespeare, there are 37 plays, and about 34 of them have a big fight at the end. So you’re always practising.”
For Reynolds, the chance to deliver an unexpected lively between himself and Branagh was the real opportunity of Mayday. “I love when you can come 90 degrees to expectation. I think it’s important,” he says. “I don’t think anyone wants to see me as a one-man wrecking crew in a movie like this, where I’m going in with my, ‘America, fuck yeah!’ voice. It’s not interesting. What’s interesting about this movie is how it examines and unpacks the humanity behind either side.”
Because, against the odds, Nikolai and Troy have plenty in common. “You have this Cold War happening and you have an expectation of what the, quote, ‘enemy’ is, and the enemy has this expectation of what you are, and both are wrong,” Reynolds says. “While we’re subverting expectation, I like that I’m sort of the classical damsel-in-distress in this movie.” Coming next: Deadpool does Shakespeare. If music be the chimichangas of love, play on.
Read Empire’s full Mayday interview with Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds in the Rings Of Power Season 3 issue, on sale Thursday July 30. Order a copy online here. Mayday comes to Apple TV on September 4.
