"Now You See Me," a heist movie with magicians standing in as the thieves, is set to hit theaters this May. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg as the cocky leader of the Four Horsemen, a group of magicians plotting to steal millions of dollars and give it to their audience.
Filmed on location in Paris, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and New York, the picture, from Louis Leterrier ("The Transporter"), pulls together a surprisingly varied cast from Woody Harrleson to Michael Caine to Mark Ruffalo.
At the 5 Pointz urban graffiti showplace last November, the stars of "Now You See Me" sat down for several roundtable discussions with a few select outlets. Below, are sevens things we learned on-set.
It took a long time to convince the cast to join this movie
"We took seven months to cast, so a long time," Leterrier said, "Everybody, anyone, actors, are terrified it's going to be corny and full of visual effects and everything. But when they understood what we were doing, that's how I was able to get these guys, because they understood they would do the real stuff." Enter Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, and Morgan Freeman.
Eisenberg had a personal reason for joining "Now You See Me"
One of the reasons the actor decided to sign on was because of an experience he had growing up. "My mom was a birthday party clown, and so when she was sick, or when it was my birthday and she didn't do the party, she bartered a party for this magician, this guy Bruce," Eisenberg said.
Granted, Eisenberg had some trouble sticking to the code while learning magic tricks for this movie
"I feel very guilty doing magic because you're deceiving somebody. When I am with David Kwong [our magician consultant] and he does magic, people love it and they don't want to know [how he does it]," Eisenberg said, candidly. "But I ... just feel immediately guilty that I tricked them and tell them how it's done and David gets upset and the night ends pretty early."
Woody Harrelson hypnotized Mark Ruffalo during filming
"Woody got very proficient at hypnotizing people. and we were out one night and I don't know if something was dropped in my drink or Woody actually hypnotized me, but something did happen to me," Ruffalo said.
Ruffalo knows why you would sympathize with the "bad guys" in this film
In "Now You See Me," Ruffalo plays a cop looking to take down the group of magicians who are stealing money from banks and giving it to their audiences, so the actor realizes why moviegoers may be backing the thieves. "This has a Robin Hood flare to it and right now there's definitely a populist sort of view of the world that people are being taken advantage of and the big people are taking advantage of them. So the idea of taking from the rich and giving to the poor seems to resonate quite a bit right now."
Dave Franco is very dangerous with cards
According to director Louis Letterrier, "Dave has become amazing at throwing cards. He can take a card and throw it across the room. You met Steve Pope, the stunt guy, he slit his eye, above his eye, with a card across an entire theater." Note to self: Be careful around Dave Franco.
Eisenberg's character has similarities to one he's best known for playing, Mark Zuckerberg in 'The Social Network"
"In terms of characters I've played, he is controlling and probably unsympathetic in the same way that the character I play in 'The Social Network' is."
Eisenberg obviously loved working with Woody Harrleson
"I love working with him, everybody does. He is one of these very unique actors that is as comfortable in a movie like this where there's a lot of effects and where it's fact-paced," Eisenberg said. "To have him there and to see how he paces himself throughout a day, and see how he is aware of the camera angles, knowing to not necessarily expend all of your energy when the shot is nowhere near your body, that's helpful to see."
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