Silent Night Interview: John Woo Explains Why The Lack Of Dialogue Excited Him & What Sets Joel Kinnaman Apart

The tradition of action Christmas movies continues with the all-new revenge thriller, Silent Night. When Brian Godluck loses his son to a gang war on Christmas Eve and his voice after being shot in the throat, everything changes. Unable to move beyond the tragedy, he dedicates his life to taking revenge against the people who took the life of his son.

Silent Night stars Joel Kinnaman, Scott Mescudi, Harold Torres, and Catalina Sandino Moreno. The movie is directed by John Woo from a screenplay written by Robert Archer Lynn. Silent Night is produced by John Wick producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, as well as Woo.

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John Woo’s New Action Movie Is Something We’ve Wanted For 20 Years

John Woo is one of the pioneers of gun-fu and one of the greatest action directors, and his new movie, Silent Night marks the end of a 20-year wait.

Screen Rant interviewed Silent Night director John Woo. He explained how the lack of dialogue attracted him to the Silent Night script and what he loved about Kinnaman as an actor. Woo also broke down one of the most intense fight scenes in the movie and how he approached it as director.

John Woo Talks Silent Night

Screen Rant: John, this film is incredible. I love Silent Night. You reinvent the action genre all over again. This film is more of a street-level gritty story. What was it about Robert Archer Lynn’s script that attracted you the most?

John Woo: I feel very excited, and what I’m excited about is the whole script. They have no dialogue.

Right?

John Woo: They have no dialogue. I think it’s a great challenge for me. Then I can use more of my own visual style and the sound to tell the story. I think it’s good. And in the meantime, since we have worked a great actor like Joel Kinnaman, then I can make the audience forget about dialogue and put more focus on the actors’ face and getting straight contact with the actors.

I think it’s very nice, but in the meantime, it is really a challenging project. Like Alfred Hitchcock has said, every one of his movie was an experiment, and this is my experiment as well. So I feel great. And before this, I recall the big movie director, but I always wanted to try to do some much smaller thing. Smaller thing, and then to have more freedom.

Sure.

John Woo: To have more freedom to create. So I was so lucky to get this project and also work with Thunder Road, and they allow me to do whatever I want.

That’s amazing. Now, talking about one of your actors, Joel Kinnaman, he’s phenomenal in the role, but this is a different role for him, because he doesn’t have any dialogue. A lot of actors may think that is freeing, but this takes a lot of physical demand and emotional demand for this role. Can you talk about working with Joel to prepare him for that role?

John Woo: Well, I see Joel as a great actor. He’s not a superhero type. He’s not a great fighter, but he is a real man. He’s a real man, and he’s got a real emotion. He’s a very heartfelt actor. So when I work with him, I see him as an actor, not a superhero.

Sure.

John Woo: And he also make believe that he’s the man who’ll take responsibility for the family and love for the family. So when he lost his son and he’s going crazy, and I think he just… I mean the whole story it just make the audience feel it could happen to anyone. It could happen to any family or any man. So that’s why. Besides Joe Kinnaman, it also make me feel, I would like to make the movie more realistic, more real, because I was so scared about society. I was okay about the fair and unfair problem in this world. So I was so much concerned about the people.

That’s incredible. Now, speaking about the realism, there’s this amazing garage fight scene in this movie. It is absolutely incredible. It looks real, raw, and gritty. Can you talk about working with that fight scene and your approach to the visual language in that scene?

John Woo: When I decided the scene, I just asked the scene coordinator, “Okay, we need to attempt to fighting here and there and using every tool in the room, everything they use as a weapon.” And it’s just a real fight. If you grab a knife, then use a knife, you grab a helmet, then you use a helmet. And then I told him I would like to do all in one shot. All in one take, and maybe just one more cut or whatever.

But I want it to look real, and I hate to using that second camera or a fast cut. It looks pretty much like cheating. I don’t want to cheat. I want to be honest. I want the audience to feel the same pain, the same kind of love, same kind of emotion. Let the audience feel more. And then they came up with the idea of how to fight. And then I said to the camera, “All in one take.” Everybody’s so excited to do that, that beside our stunt team, the cameramen are so excited about that. He can capture every strong action piece. So it’s good.

About Silent Night

The story of a father who loses his son in a gang shootout, and loses his voice after being shot in the throat. After recovering, he returns home with his wife but cannot overcome the tragedy he experienced.

Check out our interview with Silent Night star Joel Kinnaman.