How did you prepare for such an intense role?
We spent five months on the streets with the LAPD and Sheriff’s department and the Inglewood PD – two or three nights a week from 4pm until 4am or 5am. So by the time it came to making the movie in 22 days for just [Dhs25.7m] it felt like nothing in comparison. It was an intense process, we had little resources and we had little time. But I think we also felt so prepared from those five months that making this movie felt kind of absurd in comparison to the experiences we had. The experiences on the street in the South End of Los Angeles, and with the police officers that do this job every day for their lives, was incredibly intense and it changed my life. It put everything into perspective.
Were you ever scared?
Of course, yeah. The very first ride along I went on someone was murdered in front of me. We were like the second car on the scene and I had no idea what to expect when I went along for the first time. I didn’t know what I would encounter. I think I was scared at times because it’s easy to become complaisant.
So what happened?
It was a gang shooting. One gang member was walking down the street and another one was pulling out of his car and it was some issue between two different sets in a gang. I didn’t see the actual shooting take place, but it was pretty soon after that we arrived.
How was it riding around with the cops?
The officers we were put with were probably some of the best around. They were just on it all the time, but trust takes a while. It wasn’t like we went on one ride along with a set of partners. For four or five months we were with four or five different sets of partners so we were continuously on the streets with the same guys and that takes a while to start to create that kind of trust. I don’t have any intention to manipulate or share stories or anything. I want to get it right and I think people can sense that. If anybody can sense things it’s a cop. They’re the best students of human behaviour I’ve met. Better than the best actor I’ve ever seen – that’s their job, because it’s their life on the line if they can’t do it.
Did you get hurt on the set?
I wasn’t hurt on the set but I was hurt in the process of doing the movie. Every morning, five days a week we would go to Echo Park and I would fight with these 14 to 20-year-old kids. I didn’t have a fight scene in the movie but I needed to get into that sort of attitude of what it was like getting beaten up or beating someone up and getting in a fight, and we simulated that – or not actually. I was constantly sore and in pain from getting hit all over. I mean, they hit me in the face and the body all the time. So shooting the movie was pretty easy.
End of Watch is playing at Emirates Palace, October 13, 6.15pm and Vox Marina Mall, October 14, 3.45pm.
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