From Turbo Kid to Jonah: A Conversation with Rising Star Munro Chambers for the Home Entertainment Release of HARPOON
With his perfect family and perfect upbringing, Richard (Christopher Gray) appears to have it all. So when he thinks that his long-term girlfriend, Sasha (Emily Tyra), and best-friend, Jonah (Munro Chambers), are having an affair, it sends him into a fit of rage that leaves Jonah a bloody mess. Once Jonah and Sasha convince Richard the allegations are false, Richard tries to buy back their trust by taking them out for a day-trip on his family’s yacht.
Tension boils-over once out to sea, and, to make matters worse, the yacht’s engine fails. Stranded without food and supplies, the trio must set aside their differences in order to survive. One part post-modern Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, one part Knife in the Water with the cast of Seinfeld, Harpoon is a wickedly humorous and bloody deconstruction of friendship and love.
In our interview, The Fan Carpet's Jonathan Hughes in association with The Killer Spotlight Podcast spoke to Munro Chambers about HARPOON. In a interview spot forever known as HARPOONAPALOZZA, Munro tells Jon about working with Emily, Christopher and Rob, his dream role and being in awe of Jovanka Vuckovic...
It was very funny. It was just three teenagers, well not teenagers, just three young people, three young adults who seem to make the worst decisions ever on boats.
(laughs) Yeah they’re not good people and they made the wrong nautical decisions that’s for sure.
Absolutely. So what research did you do when you were getting ready to play this rather uniquely written character?
Yeah for Jonah what we did was, what I loved about was when I was sent the script I was told to look at Jonah and, his name was something different when I first read it, but Mike Petersen, who I did Knuckleball with, he was producing Harpoon and he said “you should look at it?” and I said “okay”, and I just loved the arc. There was nothing, you know there’s research I did for certain psyche’s and certain, you know, it’s not split personalities but just what Jonah does throughout and how damaged he is and how it’s a little PTSD of what he’s gone through in his life and how that translates into a very scary person. But other than that everything was just on the page, like Rob wrote a great script and I just wanted to make sure what was on the page came through correctly and what we were going to do with Jonah with little interruption. I feel like he was happy with it and I was happy to play it.
Fantastic yeah. We’re keeping it spoiler free as it’s released tomorrow as well here in the UK. So what was it like working with Emily, Christopher and Rob?
It was fantastic. It was really really good because it was a very intimate situation not only in the script but but also as a film, because we had a small crew and we filmed in Calgary and Belize and I think we created some very special bonds, Emily and Chris are two people I talk to, who I’ve become friends with and same with Rob. And they’re just, everyone was just 100% committed and when you’re doing a film like this which is very unique and very beside itself and brave you have to be 100% committed and everybody was and we just had fun trying to play with different genres and with different deliveries. It was a blast.
That’s good. What new experiences did you learn from being part of this production?
Oh what new experiences? New experience? There wasn’t anything, honestly, other than filming in Belize which was wild. I would probably say filming in Belize because when we were filming it we were kind of sleeping 50 yards way from where we were filming, where the yacht was, that we where all embarking on. So that an interesting experience just kind of filming abroad outside of the Americas, so that was really really cool and just taking a small little shuttle plane to and from work on a couple of days, that was pretty fun.
That’s cool man. You go through some changes in this film, I mean physically as well, it’s in the trailer anyway, you do have a little accident with your hand, that seems to pick up throughout the movie. There’s some interesting effects, practical effects done on your arm, how long did that all take to put on and was it uncomfortable at all?
Yeah it was a little uncomfortable, you know it’s in the trailer, there’s a fair bit of blood in this and most of the blood was done while we were filming in Calgary and that’s like negative 20/25 in February, so that’s pretty cold and it’s sticky. But it was nothing compared to some other prosthetics I’ve done, when I wad doing Knuckleball that whole prosthetic make-up took a whole 2/2 and half hours and that was a lot more intricate, but, you know, Ashley who was our key make-up, she was so wonderful with it and was such a professional and really made us feel comfortable so it was never an issue.
That’s cool man. I have to ask, would you rather be in a post apocalyptic 1997 getting hunted down by Michael Ironside or stuck on a boat with the less tempered Christopher Gray and Emily Tyra?
(laughs) That’s really hard, especially just given the…..I don’t….it’s hard to turn down the power suit to be honest., it’s hard to turn down the Turbo blaster. I don’t know, I don’t think I can pick, I really don’t think so, you know, I think they both have their positives and both have their negatives. Ironside is terrifying but at the same time Chris and Emily are pretty damn sneaky, so I don’t know, I don’t think I can pick and I don’t think it would be totally fair if I did.
(laughs) That’s cool man. Right I’ve been asking the other two, I’ve been asking Rob and Emily the same question, just a little trivia question. So if you where on a boat and then the boat was stuck and you were stranded, who would you love to be stranded on a boat with and who would you hate to be stranded on a boat with?
Oh wow. Who would I love? I think I’d love to be stranded with Viggo Mortensen because based on what I’ve heard about how he prepares for films I feel like he’s just so prepared for a situation like that, I feel like he’s already done the research. I heard that when he was doing Lord of the Rings he was actually camping on the hillside, so I feel like throughout all of his films he’d be able to figure out….if you watch the film what we do is not the best. The person I would hate to be with, who would I hate to be with? I’m just trying to think of someone who just asks a lot of questions or just wouldn’t stop talking. You know a certain character that would be like ‘let’s just be quiet we’re on a boat for how long, just shut it’ but one’s not coming to mind right now.
It sounds like the same person Rob was referring to. I asked Rob this question and he was referring to he was stuck on a boat once, only for 12 hours, and there was someone on there that he wanted to chuck off, and it sounds like the person you were talking about.
Absolutely. I feel like in that situation you’ve got to try and be as calm as possible and try not to get on each others nerve, but sometimes there’s always that person that just, you know, feels like they have to talk and it’s just like “we could die! Just shut it” but you know, you never know. Hopefully I never find myself in that situation so.
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