Interview: Kellan Lutz on Playing the Intriguing Sy Lombrok in THE OSIRIS CHILD: SCIENCE FICTION VOLUME ONE

Sy Lombrok (Kellan Lutz) is an escaped convict, Kane Sommerville (Daniel MacPherson) is an alcoholic lieutenant. They don't really get along, but they both have only hours to get off the planet before it's obliterated in the new sci-fi action film The Osiris Child: Science Fiction Volume One. An ambitious sci-fi story that retains an epic scope without losing sight of its character-centric sensibilities, The Osiris Child is now out on VOD and Digital HD from RLJ Entertainment, and Daily Dead recently had the chance to speak with actor Kellan Lutz about his intriguing role, working with director Shane Abbess, visiting a real prison to prepare to play his character, and much more.

How did this movie come onto your radar, and what attracted you to the character of Sy Lombrok? He is a really intriguing character.

Kellan Lutz: Well, I met Shane Abbess about five years ago for a movie called Seventh Day, and it was another sci-fi project, futuristic, and the characters themselves had quite a bit of emotional depth to them, and you didn't know which way they were going to go, and we just really connected on a human level with the characters, and then also talking about our lives and what brought us to where we are today in this industry.

So Shane is one of those directors who has a very deep connection with people he meets with, and I just knew I really wanted to work with him because there's very few directors who can do that. A lot of them care more about the story, or the special effects, or the camera angles, versus. I've just done a lot of meetings and he was definitely one of them who stood out. And as we were talking about that movie, it wasn't getting funded, it wasn't green lit yet and he was working on it, and then it kind of disappeared for a couple of years, and he randomly hit me up and he said, "Hey, I have this other movie and I think you'd be perfect for the character of Sy."

So I read it, and I was in between possibly doing this other movie, and when Shane presented a shot to me, I just jumped at the opportunity to work with him. I kind of turned down this other movie. I don't do stuff for the money and that one would have been a good payday, but I just do stuff for the passion of the work, and Shane created a storyline and characters that are very deep and unique, and you don't know who's the good guy and who's the bad guy, where the story's going to end, and just to work with Shane himself, I just really wanted to do it. I felt in my heart I really wanted to do it. Sy was going to be a little bit of challenge, and I was up for that.

I've done a lot of roles that are kind of just who I am—an action guy who can go fight and drive cars and shoot guns. In a lot of action movies, there's not a lot of character depth in them. So with Shane, I just really wanted to do it, get over there, and we created these characters and he really allowed us to play. It's probably one of my most proud pieces that I've done, and my most favorite working environment that I've been a part of. It was just a fun adventure through and through.

From the opening scene, it feels like this vast epic story and yet it's so intimate at the same time because it really is about the characters.  You always have a lot of physicality in your performances and this one was no exception, with the prison scene in particular a standout. How fun was that to start a riot and really jump into that scene headfirst?

Kellan Lutz: Yeah, that was our first week of shooting, just jumping in. And what Shane did in the beginning before we got there was not really rehearsals, but I think there was three of us, and he actually took us to a prison in Sydney and he had us stay the night, and there was this old barracks and it was really cool. I've never worked with a director like Shane, and what he had us do was he put us on the stand. So he had me and the other convict characters, like my buddy Bren Foster, and we had to give our story out of truth. So we had to prove our innocence, and the other convicts would just call bullshit or not if we were believable or if we believed, because every bad guy doesn't believe they're a bad guy.

Shane really had us create this authentic friendship, this bond that we would need in that prison scene when we shot it, because what's the backstory to have these convicts want to get out of there? Why would they put their trust in me to lead this rebellion? It was really unique. And then we stayed the night up in these rafters of this barracks and we just told some of our darkest, funniest secrets to create that camaraderie and that trust. So when we showed up on set, we're laughing, we have these inside jokes, and we're doing this scene.

Then it goes into the fights and there was a lot of improv as well. The fights were choreographed, but I really felt like these were my brothers and they'd have my back and they would sacrifice themselves, and I would sacrifice myself, to have them be free as well. So when we lose one of them it is a sad moment, but then you do have to continue with your life.

But when you're doing action scenes like that, I love doing it. I got to fight with Manimal, the character, and when you're fighting with an athlete—he's actually a rugby player I believe, or a footy player—they turn up the action quite a bit, and so he choked me out once. When he squeezed and he had his massive arms around my neck, you get excited when the director says action and you're just going for it and I'm tapping on him, I'm like, "MMNNGG," you know, about to pass out. He's like, "Oh, sorry." But that's just fun, you get this realism with it all and it's just playing pretend. You're playing a superhero.

Yeah, and the way Shane shot that was so cool because it almost seemed like you were in the animal kingdom and there were all these lions, like a pack of wolves or something, circling you guys and it got really animalistic there for a while, so I thought that was pretty intense to see how he shot that.

Kellan Lutz: Yeah, and I had no idea he was gonna turn it down as far as slow-mo, and a lot of those things. So when we watched I was like, "Dang, this is pretty gruesome-looking." I was excited for my mom to see this movie that I shot in Australia because the storyline was really cool and then that scene, I'm like, "Mom, I don't know if you should see this part of the movie." Because she's just not into the gore, and when Bren stabs him, you're just like, "Holy crap."

Yeah it gets a little gritty there for a while, and it's a testament to how many aspects are in this movie. There's the great father/daughter relationship that Daniel MacPherson [Kane] and Teagan Croft [Indi] have, and it's fun to see you and Kane play off each other because both of your characters are not exactly who they seem, and it was a lot of fun to watch you guys reluctantly trust each other and then go on this epic adventure with the clock ticking.

Kellan Lutz: Yeah, trust needs to be gained, and it's just really beautiful what Shane creates on set, because I knew my story, but I didn't know Dan MacPherson's story, so as he's playing Kane, we're going out just talking the scenes as our characters. We went to this bar and obviously my character, and the truth of my character is that he doesn't drink alcohol. Even the scene in the bar, anyone who drinks pisses me off. So Kane is an alcoholic, and so I don't really let in that it really pisses me off, but then when we're rehearsing and he's drinking his drink, I think I threw his drink out or maybe I dumped it out and just walked away because he was just getting so pissed off talking the scene and then drinking it just really pissed me off and I just left.

But it's fun to kind of just create these moments, because that got under his skin, because he was like, "What the hell? What's this actor from America think he's doing?" And obviously it was all cool because we were in characters. But he loved it and we used it, and you have to build that trust. It's like why would I come and help you find your daughter? What's in it for me? But he kind of aims his conviction at my humanity because he does pull on the heart strings, like, "Yeah, I have to find my daughter." It's not just to front to get safety in a selfish way, but his daughter's out there and I can actually sympathize with him.

Do you have any favorite sci-fi or action movies that you thought of when you were filming, or that you were just a fan of before coming onto this project? It's a really fun sub-genre to watch as a fan.

Kellan Lutz: Oh, for sure. The beauty about sci-fi, especially futuristic ones, is that you have creative freedom, and that's the best present for any director or any actor. You can create the characters, as long as the special effects are good, and we had an amazing special effects team. The effects looked awesome when I saw it, especially with the low budget that we had. But with the storylines, even our monsters, you can create homages to Alien or The Fifth Element, which I love. You can create these worlds and there's no law against it. You can be on a planet, you can create your own laws for it, create your own monsters, and no one can say, "Oh, that would never happen," because you aren't living in this world.

And so there's just something beautiful about that freedom that. Yeah, people can say, "Oh your monster looked like crap." But honestly, if you ever saw these monsters in real life, if they really existed, you would run for the hills. Luke Ford calls our monsters massive snapping turtles, but they look so cool on set, and we had people in the suits. We had some of the monsters actually there and you could see them and they're breathing on you and it's just so fascinating. I just love sci-fi, and I would love to do more of it because of that creative freedom. So yeah, I always loved sci-fi, even if it's a good or bad sci-fi movie, it's just new and you don't know what to expect. So that's what I like about entertainment. I like being entertained.

Do you have any projects on deck after Osiris Child that you can tease?

Kellan Lutz: Yeah, I've got one with Neill Blomkamp, who did District 9. He's awesome. That's going to be called Lima. We shot that last year in December and this year in January in Cape Town and we were in Thailand, too. Yeah, so hopefully that comes out. He's really secretive with all of his movies, so every time I email him I'm like, "Yo, when are you gonna drop a trailer for this?" Because I'm just super pumped for that one. And he's just a creative genius. His stories, man... It was really cool. And then we have Guardians of the Tomb, which is a big Chinese co-production with Australia, and that's kind of Arachnophobia meets Indiana Jones, so that was really fun to play that role. And Kelsey Grammer, working with him again—he's just hilarious. I love that man. He's a really kind soul and just really talented.