Shadow Force stars Omar Sy and Kerry Washington spoke to ComingSoon about their new action movie Shadow Force. The duo discussed their characters, filming a fight scene together, and much more. Lionsgate will release the spy movie in theaters on May 9.
“Kyrah (Kerry Washington) and Isaac (Omar Sy) were once the leaders of a multinational special forces group called Shadow Force. They broke the rules by falling in love, and in order to protect their son, they go underground. With a large bounty on their heads, and the vengeful Shadow Force hot on their trail, one family’s fight becomes all-out war,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Kerry, what I like about the relationship dynamic between you and Omar’s character is that there’s still that professional rivalry despite them being in love. The shooting range scene is so funny. How was it playing into that dynamic?
Kerry Washington: It was really fun. I think Omar and I – and I’ll speak for myself, I have so much respect for Omar, so much admiration for his work. And so it was really fun to be able to lean into a little bit of that competitive nature and figure out how to go from being two people who love each other very much, but who are frustrated with how their marriage has had to live out to kind of then come together. That arc of the relationship was really fun to explore and to figure out. I’m not a competitive person, but for some reason around Omar, I get really competitive [laughs].
Omar Sy: The funny thing about the shooting scene is like… Kerry is a very good shooter and she’s better than me. So that’s why that was so…
Washington: So we were just being honest [laughs]
Sy: She was really funny. We were just honest because she is better, and it took me a long time to admit.
Washington: I appreciate it.
I love it. Art imitating life there. Omar, you and Kerry even get into it physically in the movie. There’s this great fight scene. It’s almost like they’re catching up after all that time spent away. How was it filming that fight? Because Kerry was going blow for blow with you.
Sy: Yeah, that was fun. And I think maybe that was the first action scene that we had on the movie. Yes. Yeah. And we worked a lot on this, but I was really happy because the training session was before the shooting and it was a way for us to know each other more and work together.
It was during that training and that choreography for the fight and that was a lot of fun. Lot of fun. We had a lot of fun. We had a good stunt team around us to help and it was fun to do. And for our characters it was like catching up as, as a couple, but also as spies.
So it was really interesting, and we really went to that scene like it was like a dialogue for the two characters. They were saying something to each other. So it was very interesting and fun to do.
Kerry, I loved your scenes with Mark Strong. He has a real scumbag intensity to him in this movie. What stood out about him as a scene partner? Because he is very intense and in your face.
Washington: I think in order to be real heroes you have to have a formidable villain. And so Mark is such a good villain, which is weird, Omar and I always say, ’cause he’s such a nice guy in real life [laughs]. He’s so sweet. But I think he really gives us a powerful force to be up against. And so I think it helps our performances, Omar and I, and it helps the story of the film to have somebody so evil for us to have to win against.
Omar, Lionel Richie is all over this film, so I have to ask, what’s your favorite Lionel Richie song?
Sy: “Hello.”
Washington: Yes. That’s the one. It’s so good.
