The new action film “The Mother,” is set to drop on Netflix this Friday May 12th.
In the film, a deadly female assassin who’s on the run from dangerous men, comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she gave up years before.
Starring, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Lucy Paez, Omari Hardwick, Paul Raci and Gael García Bernal.
Includes Minor Spoilers!
Niki Caro directs from a script by Misha Green, Andrea Berloff and Peter Craig. Molly Allen and Misha Green are executive producers.
The script never names the character, she is simply called “The Mother‘’ which Niki Caro says is perfect because, “In every moment and in every scene she is always the Mother. That is her primal instinct. Being the Mother drives every single decision she makes. Her name is irrelevant: she is the Mother to everybody in this movie, and Mom to one of them: the most important person in the world to her.” “There was no other actress that I could see in this role,” states Niki Caro of Jennifer. “It was shocking, really, how viscerally I felt it when I was reading the script. It was Jennifer and Jennifer only.”
In addition to fight choreography the star also did weapons training and learned how to ride a motorcycle and snowmobile for some of the film’s thrilling sequences. “This was a new level of action for me,” stated Jennifer Lopez. “I had done action movies before — fights and things like that, but the snowmobiles and even the fight with the knife with Joe Fiennes that I did was new for me. I think maybe if I had started early in my career doing those types of things, maybe I’d be sick of it, because you get bruised and you get sore and you get hurt and it’s cold or it’s hot. But I could definitely do it again.”
In addition to the action moves, those cold and hot extremes helped Jennifer find her character as well. “We were filming in Smithers, up close to Alaska,” she recalled of the snowy vistas. “It was crazy cold, and all you would see is white. The sky was white. Nothing, there was no color. And it was like, ‘Where are we?’ Everyday I would have to put on layers and layers of stuff to be out there shooting all day and all night. The hoods and the canvases and the leather belts and the knives and all the things. Even in the cabin we’re staying in, there were little critters running around every morning. It was crazy. But it definitely helped get into character and put me in the mindset of who she was the past 12 years at her core: a person who lived alone and was awkward almost around people now and was a woman of very few words until her daughter starts to help her open up again.”
Jennifer Lopez not only stars in the film but also serves as a producer through her Nuyorican Productions imprint. It was an important role for her to play. “I’m at that point in my career where a lot of the projects I’m doing, I’m producing. My partner Elaine and I have really tried to build up our company, trying to get really interesting projects for women, for Latinos, for diverse casts. We have a mission that we are really focused on. I’m also at a point in my career where after a few good projects here and there, I’m getting better material than I ever have in my career, which is funny, being as mature as I am, let’s say.”
Over the course of the film, the Mother encounters four men; Cruise (Omari Hardwick), Adrian (Joseph Fiennes), Hector (Gael García Bernal), and Jons (Paul Raci) — and becomes involved, in different ways, with each of them. “The four men in the movie are wildly different,” stated Niki Caro. “Each of them brings out different characteristics in the Mother.”
Omari Hardwick stars as FBI Agent William Cruise. “The Mother” saves his life in the film’s opening sequence, and she entrusts him with her newborn baby. He is tasked with finding the child a safe, boring home. Twelve years later, when the child is abducted, Cruise teams with the Mother to save her daughter.
Omari stated, “Cruise is an avuncular figure to Zoe, beautifully played by Lucy. He puts it all on the line to keep those people he deems important and cares for protected. He is extremely cautious, but equally dangerous in terms of being a risk taker — you can’t make a difference if you’re playing it safe all the time.” Niki Caro said, “Omari plays a character that is very strong, and very masculine, but in an evolved way. His strength and his masculinity are in his gentleness, his intelligence, and his sensitivity to the Mother and her trauma.”
“I thought he was perfect for this role,” states Jennifer Lopez. “There’s a part of him that has a real softness to him, but is also very tough. You could believe him. He is able-bodied and that kind of FBI agent who has those ideas of what’s right and what’s wrong. She has long ago abandoned all of that stuff and is coming from a different place that is more about survival. I thought Omari and I were so different in that way. And the way he played it and the way I played it really, really worked nicely with his earnestness, almost in a way, and my kind of jadedness.”
Omari Hardwick describes Jennifer Lopez as “passionate and precise. It’s very comforting to have somebody take you in, immediately, as who you are. Jen gets to you. It’s a pretty amazing gift that she possesses. She’s a consummate, classy, high-level professional number one superstar, and it’s been a joy to work with her.”
Producers for “The Mother” are Jennifer Lopez, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Benny Medina, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, Marc Evans, and Misha Green.
Check Out The UB Extended Preview: “The Mother!”
