After his critically acclaimed ‘Bullhead’, young Belgian director Michael Roskam is back with urban thriller ‘The Drop’, starring James Gandolfini.
It was Gandolfini’s final movie before the Sopranos star died in 2013 and Roskam cast him true to type as a Brooklyn wiseguy, who runs a so-called “drop bar”, where criminals launder their money.
“You know when I just called my friends and told them ‘Dude, James Gandolfini’s in my movie,’ they were like ‘What?’, I was like ‘Yeah, right.’ He was an amazing guy. He was very humble and funny, a great artist and I think he was very inspiring to all of us,” says Roskam.
‘The Drop’ co-stars British actor Tom Hardy and Sweden’s Noomi Rapace, who achieved international fame with her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film adaptations of the Millennium series. She says working with James Gandolfini was a humbling experience: “Just to see him on set and see how he was and how he worked, that was really inspiring,” she says.
“And Michael said last night actually, for him to discover someone who’s been doing so much and such a big actor, and someone like him coming in and being nervous and trying things as if for the first time, that’s pretty amazing and it shows what a good actor and how brave he was,” she adds.
The film has opened to mostly positive reviews, with particular praise for Gandolfini in his final role and Tom Hardy as the bartender.
‘The Drop’ by Michael Roskam is on global release now.
