The featurettes on the Jumper DVD suggest it was a pretty frustrating experience for you.
I would love to see that, actually. Can you elaborate on some of those, please?

They reveal that you were the only original cast member remaining after the two leads were replaced by Hayden Christensen and Rachel Bilson. There are lots of shots of eye-rolling, some moments of anger… It's basically a montage of your aggravation.
It was tough. I mean, I was on it for a year. At this point, I've made a bunch of films, so I know how it should go. And I felt after a while, Why didn't anyone tell me [Doug Liman] was a nutcase? It was also a particularly bad year personally; there was no light at the end of this fucking long tunnel for me. Jumper was becoming like a joke, so me and my friends were like, "Oh, Jumper again," because we reshot about five times. However—incredibly liberating, great experience. Traveled the world, so privileged, can't moan about anything. Doug is great, I've always wanted to work with him. Hayden is great. Rachel is gorgeous and full of confidence, and Sam is Sam Jackson. It was all good, but it was tedious in the process.

Did this sour you on making big special effects action films?
Yeah, definitely, but that's always been the case. Like when we did King Kong down in New Zealand, we were there for eight months. And the tediousness of running on a treadmill against a green screen… It's a great workout, but it was like, I am an actor, where does the acting start? But that's how it's done.

RELATED LINKS

Interview with Jumper's Director Doug Liman Jumper [Blue-ray] DVD Review

So do directors in general have to be kind of nuts?
I think so. There's always method to the madness. Doug's method is that he doesn't know until he sees it overall. You can start a scene, and by lunchtime have thrown out those pages, started reshooting new pages, thrown out those pages, and be rehearsing a new setup for how it's going to work. It's acting Olympics because you always have to be on your toes, you always have to be unprepared.

Doesn't that kind of screw you up, though?
You're in constant battle to stand your character's ground, because sometimes Doug will see something he likes and won't think about whether it matches up with what the character would actually do. He thinks cinematically. That's tedious, because usually you show up on set and you've done a couple scenes by lunchtime and you've got the rest of the day. Here it's like, "Oh, we're still on the first shot of the day at lunch." That's why it took a year to make.

How do you keep sane?
Lots of drugs. [Laughs] No, no… It's tough, because it really does test your ability to be able to maintain a professional stance on things. In a climate where everyone is becoming frustrated, everyone is like, "What the fuck is going on?"

Did you ever have a moment where even you were like, "Who the hell is this character?"
Every day. But I love that. I like how revolutionary [Doug] is, how rebellious he is, and the fact that we had like four producers on the set just purely watching over him to make sure he didn't do anything to harm himself—because he likes to do that—and just to make sure he's actually shooting what he should be shooting. It's tough to keep your hands on Doug Liman; he tries to wriggle away all the time.

So if Doug came up to you today and said, "Be in my next movie," would you do it?
Absolutely. We had this prop master on the set, and one day he said that making this movie was exactly the same as making [Liman's last film] Mr. & Mrs. Smith. And I was like, "What are you doing standing here right now telling me that?" [Laughs] But people really love Doug. He's incredibly sincere, incredibly thoughtful; and I think people enjoy that from a director.

Now that you've had a bit of distance from the film, what is your take on Jumper?
I wish there weren't so many hands on the film. I feel like it really takes away from what the director originally set out to make. It became candy-coated in a way. It was so linear, so plot driven, and so over, like, "Oh my God, it just ended?" I think that's part of it: get them in, get them out, get the ticket sales, get them out again. I would like to see something a little darker, the stakes a little higher. Get some other characters in there. There is a concept in there that is great—the fight scene with me and Hayden at the end is quite spectacular. If we did another one, I think that would be a good place to start.

The movie does have the feel of an origin story. Any chance it'll continue?
Usually, the ticket to that is $100 million in the box office, which we didn't do. So…it depends. I don't know.