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The Bluff Stars Chopra & Urban on Prepping for Historic Action Film

Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Heads of State) and Karl Urban (The Boys) spoke to us about the Prime Video swashbuckling action film, The Bluff.

Playing the swashbuckling Ercell" Bloody Mary" Bodden is the type of historic action role many dream of, and one Priyanka Chopra Jonas embraced in the Prime Video film The Bluff. Set in the 19th-century Cayman Islands, the Frank E. Flowers-directed film sees Ercell trying to live the quiet life at home when she finds her past catching up to her, and among those trying to collect on her pirate past is Captain Connor (Karl Urban), as he and everyone else will find out why she's called "Bloody Mary." Copra Jonas and Urban spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with Flowers and Joe Ballarini's script, the actress's intense physical training in swordsmanship, and the historical female pirates she was inspired by, Urban diving into Connor and the East India Company's history, recreating the Cayman Islands in Australia, and their climactic fight scene together.

The Bluff Stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Karl Urban on 19th Century Action-Heavy Pirate Film

BC: What was it like working with Frank as a creative, and what did you like about his and Joe's script?
Chopra: There is so much to like about that script. It's a novelty, something that we haven't seen recently for sure, and I think the unique world they take us to is set against themes of historic consequence for a lot of countries. It was fun and really fun to play pirates. Frankie's knowledge of the Cayman Islands adds a color of authenticity to this movie, and his leadership. It's unbelievable that his second movie is also amazing.

Priyanka, how did you prepare for this role? Was there physically intense training that you had to go through, or some regimen?
Chopra: Yes, I mean, it really did require a lot from all actors, but for my character, there was a lot that I needed to learn. I'd never worked with swords before, and this required wielding them often. I had to get comfortable with doing that, and that took a couple of months for me. While I was filming another movie, I was training for this as well. Then I think just understanding what it was like for a woman at that time, not just any woman, but a woman who was a pirate, and at a time when she would likely have had to hide her identity as many of her contemporaries did back in the day. I learned about cool women and their incredible lives, like Mary Read, Ching Shih, and so many around the world. I was just taken into a time where women had to be truly formidable, fight for their lives, fight to survive, and fight to protect their own, and I tried to go there in a personal way as well.

Karl, how did you prepare for playing Captain Connor, and how did playing that role challenge you in ways you may not have usually done in your other roles?

Urban: Yeah, well, there are many doors into a character. For me, I guess, initially, it was a period of discussions with Frank Flowers, our director, about the script; then it was researching the period and learning about the East India Company, the times, and pirates, reading real-life accounts of pirates who made confessions before their executions. Then it was reconnecting with that skill set, like sword fighting, the fun and physical stuff, because there was a lot of it in this movie. It's not only an action-packed, fun pirate adventure, but it's also a gritty, far more action-packed pirate movie than I think anybody's seen for a very long time.

I have a two-part question here: What did you enjoy most about filming in that setting, and how long did it take you guys to block that climactic fight scene?

Chopra: Well, the movie is set in the Cayman Islands, but we shot it in the Gold Coast in Australia. We built every set, and we were on location for most of the movie. It's a testament to the film crew that they were able to replicate this place called "The Bluff" in the Cayman Islands, which I had the good fortune to go see and witness. Amazingly, the creative geniuses in every department of our crew were able to recreate it, and we had practical sets to work on. When it comes to the…[turns to Urban], what do you think of the sword sequence? How long did it take to…?

Urban: It was a couple of weeks we worked on that, and obviously, you must make sure that it's done with the utmost safety, and I loved working with Priyanka as she threw herself at it, 1000 percent. I trusted her as a scene partner, and I can't wait for audiences to see what we get up to. It's so brutal and so much fun.

The Bluff, which also stars Ismael Cruz Córdova, Safia Oakley-Green, Vedanten Naidoo, and Temuera Morrison, premieres on Prime Video on February 25th.

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