NOTHING much happens in Kehoe, a glitzy sky resort in the Rocky Mountains. But when the son of unassuming town snowplough driver Nels Coxman (Liam Neeson) is murdered at the order of flamboyant drug lord Viking (Tom Bateman), the cops suddenly have their hands full.
Filled with rage, Nels sets out to dismantle the cartel one man at a time, but his understanding of murder comes mainly from what he has read in a crime novel.
As the bodies pile up, his actions ignite a turf war between Viking and his long-standing rival, White Bull (Tom Jackson), a Native-American mafia boss.
Directed by Hans Petter Moland, Cold Pursuit is based on Moland’s 2014 Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance, that starred Stellan Skarsgard in the lead.
In an interview transcript provided by TGV Pictures, the distributor of the film in Malaysia, Bateman talks about his role as the antagonist whose actions set the story in motion.
Tell us about Cold Pursuit.
“It’s about a man taking revenge for the murder of his son, and sort of understanding the world his son was involved in as well.
“It’s about grief and dealing with that in a dark comedy, action-packed way.”
What got you into this script?
“The character was the main thing because I saw a potential to give quite a big performance which I wanted to do.
“I thought It will be quite fun to follow that line, and what Hans (director Moland) and Michael (Shamberg, the producer) said [about wanting] it kind [of] big and [wanting] him to enjoy whenever he kills someone and almost draws people into the fun of murder.
“That drew me into it.”
Should we feel any sympathy for his predicament?
“He is still a human being underneath it all, and that’s interesting to play, this idea that where most people get upset, he gets interested at why he’s getting upset, or why he’s confused about these feelings.
“You know, this idea of ‘What are these feelings? I’m not supposed to feel them’.
“And the vanity is there as well, that his wife has left him. She’s so beautiful and glamorous and she leaves him, and that dents his pride above anything else.
“It’s not necessarily that the love of his life has left him and he’s heartbroken. It’s that this wife doesn’t need him any more, and she’s got out from his grasp.
“He likes to hold everyone in the whole world in the palm of his hand and have control over them.
“When they exercise their own independence, he doesn’t like that at all.”
How is it like being in a different revenge film and your new character?
“It’s unlike any other film. There is a lot of comedy in it, it’s very dark comedy. When I first read the script, you don’t know whether to laugh or not ...
“My character comes in, I suppose not completely comic, but he’s sort of an antidote to Liam’s Nel’s grief and gravity.
“And he (Nel) is hunting me down, and you come in to the world, to my character Viking who is this leader of a drug gang. You are introduced to the bizarre world.”
Growing up, did you have a nickname?
“Yeah, I did have a nickname and I have quite a few. ‘T-bone’ was one, and I don’t know where it came from, and ‘Crim’ was another one.
“It’s derived from ‘criminal’ because of the way I climbed over a wall and someone said I looked like a criminal.”
