Cedric Nicolas-Troyan Interview: Kate | Screen Rant
Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars in Kate as the titular assassin. After she is poisoned and left with only 24 hours to live, Kate embarks on a manhunt in Tokyo with the teenage daughter of a past target to find the person responsible. Alongside Winstead, the cast for the film includes Miku Martineau, Woody Harrelson, Michiel Huisman, Tadanobu Asano, Jun Kunimura, and Miyavi.
Screen Rant spoke with director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan to discuss the Netflix action-thriller, returning to the director's chair after five years and his influences for the film.
Screen Rant: This is the first time that we've seen you stepping in the director's chair for a few years. What was it about Kate that really interested you in stepping back into that role?
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan: Well, two things: there was another female protagonist - those are my favorites - and Japan. I mean, no, [actually] three things. It was [also] R-rated action, so I could really do much more modern type of fighting.
What would you say were some of the biggest challenges for you, creatively or practically, coming into this project in comparison to your last one, The Huntsman?
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan: It's funny, I was not looking at things as challenges. For me it was more opportunities of showing something that was very different and showing more of my influences for Kate as much as myself, in terms of growing up with anime, being a fan of Japanese filmmaking, being a Takeshi Kitano fan. It's much more personal to me. Also because I was really on Kate from the inception of it all the way through, I was able to put much more of myself into the movie.
So what was it then like looking for the right actress to play both Kate and Ani, since they are both so essential to the heart of the story?
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan: So that was my main focus, the relationship between them. That was much more my focus than any type of action or cool-looking imagery because I've been doing that for a long time, whether it was as visual effects or [a] second unit [director] or whatever, so that I can do that. I'm not gonna say I can do it in my sleep, but that is the easy part. [Laughs] So for me, it was really focusing on the chemistry between the two of them. So I was looking first for Kate and who Kate was going to be and when I met Mary, I knew it was going to be her.
She is a great actress, but she's also very physical, she's a dancer, she was completely dedicated to do this. I knew she would come in and give it everything and she's also a very warm and very down-to-earth person and very welcoming, so I knew she would be a great mentor for whoever was going to play Ani - that we hadn't found at that point. When we found Miku and they read together, they clicked right away. We knew from that point on that was going to be the heart and the keystone of the film. That kept on going and they were really good friends together and Mary kind of mentored Miku and took Miku under her wing and it was really great.
I think, in a way, you can see that in the film and I think that's why the film works. Because if you take that away, then it's just a bunch of action, which is fun, but it doesn't make you stay.
Kate is now streaming on Netflix.