The Direct spoke with Cleaner director Martin Campbell and star Taz Skylar in a set of exclusive interviews where the two spoke in detail about Daisy Ridley's latest action film.
In the film, Ridley plays Joey, an ex-military member who is now cleaning skyscraper windows for a living. One day, things go in an expected direction as a hostage situation unfolds inside the building, stranding her on the outside of the building.
Skylar plays a character named Noah, an extreme activist who was Joey's friend and co-worker but is now violently trying to get his message of change across to the world alongside Clive Owen's Marcus.
Martin Campbell's Mission Statement While Directing Cleaner
"I Just Wanted To Make a Film That Was Exciting and That Was Really Entertaining."
- The Direct: "When you were approaching this movie, what would you say your mission statement was? What was your driving goal that you wanted to achieve, to pull it all together?"
Martin Campbell: I just wanted to make a film that was exciting and that was really entertaining. And it's fast-paced; it's all of that. And, you know, go to the cinema, have a good night. Watch it. If you like it, great, hopefully, you like it. If you don't, well, fair enough. So it's really entertainment, is what I want.
- The Direct: "I was gonna ask about just the logistics of filming on the side of a building. Obviously, it probably wasn't a real side of the building. So, could you talk about a little bit how you guys pulled that off on set, and what it looked like in reality?"
Martin Campbell: Well, obviously, there's some plate work there... Most of it takes place at night, right? And unfortunately, well, first of all, legally speaking, you're not allowed up 700 feet. Trying to shoot that at night is impossible, and they won't let you. They simply won't let you. They won't let it happen...
All of the plates are real plates. I mean, they were shot out of from the cradle right where she's standing on, and so forth. But obviously there are visual effects in there and so forth, so. And they did a pretty good job on the visual effects.
- The Direct: "On top of just the entertainment value, there were a lot of themes and messages woven throughout the narrative, especially as it does follow, kind of an activist hostage taker. How did you work to maintain a balance in the narrative, to make sure that it wasn't ever too preachy for audiences that might make some turn away."
Martin Campbell: Well, I think the thrill of the situation where she's outside, they're inside, obviously, permeates the whole thing, but also the terrorist side that I felt was very interesting in the script.
In other words, you know, they're eco-terrorists; for a start, they're a generation apart. Clive Owen and Taz Skyler's characters are a generation apart. They both have different approaches to this and the fact that, as it were, there's a coup d'etat on the terrorist side of it. I thought was a very interesting aspect of it as well.
- The Direct: "What would you say for you personally, what was the most unexpected challenge that you faced while making this movie a reality?"
Martin Campbell: Well, how the hell do you make it on a limited budget? That's the challenge. I mean, we had to pull all sorts of tricks out of the book. We had a tight budget for a film like this, and quite frankly, we had to all put our heads together to make the thing work. I think that was the biggest challenge of all.
- The Direct: "I felt like [when] watching it there was a lot of inspiration from Die Hard. Did you pull from that film a lot personally for you when trying to [bring it to screen]?"
Martin Campbell: Everyone mentions that, but that's one other film that took place in a skyscraper with one guy, the Bruce Willis character, but, you know, if I told you, I could give you 20 examples of people hijacking an aircraft, there's probably people would not say, oh, you know, oh yes, it's another, you know, it's another hijacking film in an aircraft.
But 'Die Hard' was such a great movie. I think that, of course, you're going to be compared to that. Architecturally, it's, the basics the same, but the story is very different.
See the full spoiler-free interview with Martin Campbell here:
Star Taz Skylar on His Radical Activist Noah in Cleaner
"Noah Embodies a Metaphor for Culture Right Now, Especially For My Generation...'
Noah embodies a metaphor for culture right now, especially for my generation
- The Direct: "Can you tell audiences kind of about your character, or at least the person that Daisy Ridley meets at the very beginning of the film?"
Taz Skylar: I know it's so tricky to talk about the character [without giving anything away]. My character is [Joey's (Daisley Ridley)] best friend... Over the course of the movie, he flips and turns into many things that you wouldn't expect him to. And it's back and forth... every time it flips. And you think, oh, okay, it's gonna go this way. It doesn't go the way that you think it's gonna go. And I think the best way to describe my character is that he is a radical thinker, and he does what he says.
- The Direct: "He definitely does [just that]. You have very brief scenes with Daisy Ridley's Joey on the outside and cleaning the windows. What was it like filming those? What were the logistics of doing that?"
Taz Skylar: It was really fun, actually, because I think there was a level of, we just really hope it works. Because we had a really short rehearsal period. And I think there was a hope that once we hung on to the side of the building in the harnesses and the cameras rolled, that it would just happen, that you would believe that these two characters had known each other for a very long time, and meant something to each other.
Not in a romantic way, but in a way that just felt like it had lived prior to this film starting, and those were actually the first scenes that we shot. So, we came into the movie in a very linear fashion, where we got to play the relationship as the relationship evolved. And once we started speaking, I remember going through the first run of the scene while we were on the side of the building and thinking, Okay, I think this is gonna work.
- The Direct: "You play a heavy activist, to put it lightly. Were there any real-life events or people that you used as reference for your performance throughout the movie?"
Taz Skylar: I'm a little bit reticent of actually saying who the real-life references were, just because of the degrees to which Noah goes in the film, I think, is so extreme that the real-life references to them are kind of equally so. And it was a space where I had to try and avoid myself, of what it was that all these people had done and actually just try and hone in on why they did it.
- The Direct: "Would you consider this film kind of like a call to action, of sorts, to audiences, telling the world that you know one person, even like a window cleaner, can make a difference?"
Taz Skylar: That's such a great question because, in some ways, yes, like everyone had hoped, nobody goes to the lengths that my character does to get their point across.
But at the same time, I do think that Noah embodies a metaphor for culture right now, especially for my generation of young people coming into a world where they can't find their place and they have legitimate grievances about the way things are going, and nobody actually listens to them.
And I think more than anything, more than a call to action, I think it's not its message because I don't think that it has any one message, but I think his point is more of a warning of, if enough people go unheard for enough time someone is capable of doing something very extreme about it.
See the full, spoiler free, interview with Taz Skylar here:
Cleaner hits theaters on February 21, 2025.
