by Robert Sims, Special to TheMovieKit.com
Who said heroes aren’t made? In Kick-Ass, the eponymous costumed crusader isn’t an invincible super-powered being but a physically meek and emotionally vulnerable teenage wallflower trying to make sense of his life and the world he lives in. He’s especially prone to getting his ass kicked by the very crooks he seeks to put behind bars. But he soldiers on in an effort learn more than
His partners in keeping the streets include the vigilante Big Daddy and his daughter Hit-Girl, an 11-year-old lethal weapon with a dirty mouth. Together they fight to take down a mobster, whose son pretends to be the superhero Red Mist in an effort to stop those intent on harming his father.
Behind the masks of Kick-Ass, Red Mist and Hit-Girl are, respectively, British newcomer Aaron Johnson, Superbad’s Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and 13-year-old Chloë Grace Moretz of (500) Days of Summer. This dynamic trio attended SXSW— along with director Matthew Vaughn and Kick-Ass comic-book co-creator Mark Millar — in advance of the superhero satire’s April 16 opening to discuss being onscreen crime-busters, their costumes, and the training required to vanquish a small army.
Step 1: Find the Right Kick-Ass
Matthew Vaughn: “I’m an English director, [Millar’s] a Scottish writer. I was worried we would do a Mary Poppins and have a Dick van Dyke version of an American kid. I just felt I needed an American to help me make sure — I’m not a teenager, either — so I wanted a teenage American boy. But we couldn’t find one. It’s sound crazy. Five hundreds kid I auditioned. I think a lot of the kids wanted to be famous and not interested in having any acting technique.”
Step 2: Accept Your Mission
Aaron Johnson: “When you’re growing up, you always want to be Batman, Spider-Man. This was a fantastic opportunity, to be put a twist on [it].”
Step 3: Find the Right Red Mist
Step 4: Understand that the Costume Makes the Superhero
Christopher Mintz-Plasse: “That was the most badass I’ve ever felt [putting on the Red Mist costume for the first time].”
Vaughn: “Come on, that’s not true. You complained you looked liked Michael Jackson in Thriller.”
Mintz-Plasse: “When we first made the costume it was red on the sleeves and black here [pointing to his chest]. Then you came in and said, ‘It looks like Michael Jackson.’ We completely juggled it and reversed the colors around and it turned out to be really good.”
Johnson: “And you padded him up with muscles and that sort of thing.”
Vaughn: “My 7 year old fits into his costume.”
Mintz-Plasse: “The very first costume, I looked like the Michelin Man because there was fake muscle padding all over. I looked kinda bulky walking around this [arms bent at his hips] feeling very uncomfortable. I’m glad we got rid of that.”
Step 5: Train, Train, Train
Chloë Grace Moretz: “Two months before the movie started…I started training for Hit-Girl. I knew I was going to be really physical, but I never knew it was going to be this physical until I went to this place and did basic training, how to take apart your gun, how to put it back together, don’t point it where you’re not going to shoot it, keep your finger on the trigger …”
Johnson: “Basically she became a marine.”
Moretz: “I did more training that was more technical with the bow staff and the saw.”
Aaron Johnson: “She’s a terrorist now.”
Moretz: “They made me do a thousand crunches a night.”
Vaughn: “In my defense there are no such thing as an 11-year-old stunt girl. We had no choice.”
Moretz: “This man, he pushed me to the limit.”
Vaughn: “But it was worth it.”
Moretz: “But in a good way. I loved it. What would I do without Hit-Girl?”
Step 6: Don’t Faint at the Sight of Nicolas Cage, as Big Daddy, Shooting His Preteen Onscreen Daughter
Millar: “That was the first day of shooting, and I remember they had a stunt child do that fall, and I remember thinking, ‘What kind of parent allows their kid to be a stunt child?’”
Step 7: Go [Adam] West
Vaughn: “When we did the first costume fitting, Nic starts running lines. I was pretty impressed as the costume fitting was six weeks before we shot and he knew all his lines already and he started it he was telling me he with the Adam West style, before we get sued. Performance started and I just encouraged it. I thought it was very funny and I wasn’t sure whether he was going to do it on the day of filming but we went with it. The only thing about Dark Knight that drove me nuts was the stupid voice when Christian Bale spoke, so it was a little bit like we’ll have a silly voice as well but we’ll do it in a way that’s actually meant to be silly.”
Moretz: “My dad’s a big comic guy and he had to tell me who [Adam West] was.”