David Ayer on his favorite beekeeper side joke and making ‘crypto bros’ the villain

Jason Statham’s new action film January The beekeeper is what it suggests on the tin: a tongue-in-cheek, bee-themed action comedy in which Staths metes out punishment to any villain unlucky enough to buzz his way.

It’s classic Statham stuff, but it’s a different kind of project for director David Ayer, best known for gritty crime dramas like Kings of the street And End of watchand for 2016 Suicide squad. Ayer spoke to Polygon about working with Statham, his excitement about taking on a different kind of genre project, and his favorite bee joke from a film that has a veritable beehive of them.

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Polygon: What first drew you to the project?

David Ayer: I have the script, Jason was there. And the script had great character, this really interesting plot structure that just kept rising. I read a lot of scripts and I know what’s going to happen before I turn the page. And this one preceded me. So I knew something was up. And it was an opportunity to work with Jason, who I’ve always appreciated as an actor. Great performer, great physical action guy, I think he’s the best. So the chance to build a fun, soulful movie around him was a no-brainer.

How was your collaboration with him?

What I really needed to understand is that he almost has an unspoken contract with the audience about how he plays and what he’s going to do, and what he’s not going to do, and how he’s going to deliver for them. I had to learn his language as an actor, and then do my best as a director to show that and take it to the next level. He is very normal and modest off duty. He’s an ordinary guy, and he’s kind of quiet. But on set, he’s all A-plus game and demands everyone else bring their A-game.

Ultimately, I learned a lot about action. I’ve filmed a lot of action, but working with Jason Statham taught me more about action than all my other films combined.

As?

He has an encyclopedic knowledge of cinematic action. So you can do a fight choreo, and he can tell you where he saw it in another movie 20 years ago. He knows body kinetics, in how it plays on camera, better than anyone I’ve ever met. And so he already knows if a hit is going to sell – he knows instinctively.

So we’re on set. He’ll do his thing, and he’ll know it’s not up to his standard. And he’ll (say), “We’re going again, we’re going again,” and (I’m like), Yes sir. And then you start looking at the monitor, and it knows when it’s right without looking at the monitor, which is a very rare gift.

Second unit director Jeremy Marinas is one of the absolute best. What was it like working with him? What did he bring to the table?

Jeremy is a great guy. Bay Area kid, just a real martial arts, karate nerd. Of the 87eleven school After hard stunt performances, he has a visual understanding of how to get the look and choreography needed for the camera.

It’s a tricky game now because the bar for action is so high these days. If you go to see a movie twenty years ago, you think: Wow, I remember that differently. The audience is so sophisticated and has such a refined eye. You always try to surpass that. And with Jeremy you can see it. There is a lot of action. There’s a lot of fighting, there’s a lot of stunts, and it’s progressive, getting bigger and better as we go along.

What was the most difficult action sequence to pull off?

I would have to say the gas station scene. We did it early in the schedule. And in every film you’re kind of finding your sea legs, and you’re getting better every day as you work together. I didn’t have much time to photograph it at all. So it was, Okay, how can I creatively compress so much work into so much time? And I didn’t know if I had pulled it off. I was actually really worried about it until I finally saw the scene come together and it played beyond my expectations.

It’s scary sometimes. Sometimes you just suck it up and plow forward and hope for the best. That’s what I don’t think people understand about movies: that they become their own thing. They unfold as they are going to unfold, and you can’t always control that.

One of my favorite things about the action in the film is how prop-based it becomes. You’ve got an old-school, almost Jackie Chan vibe, especially when Statham uses the beekeeping equipment as weapons, or in the call center sequence, with the monitors and keyboards. What brought the prop-based action to those sequences?

That’s all there. Jason Statham plays the beekeeper. He’s not a tactical action guy, shooting the gun. He is more concerned with using the environment and always knowing where to place his hands and what to grab next, and how to use the tools immediately available to him.

And it’s quite fun too. It’s like, Well, we can use a stapler, or we can use the telephone, we can use the chair. And Jeremy was great at building that out. It was also in Kurt’s (Wimmer) script, the idea that a gun is a temporary weapon for the beekeeper, and he’ll find something to hurt you.

You have a tragic revenge story, but it’s called The beekeeper, and there are a lot of silly bee references and jokes in the movie. How would you describe the tone of the film, and how did you balance these two disparate elements?

That was the hardest thing for me. I knew this was going to be my big challenge when I started because I come from a lot of straight, intense, raw drama. I wanted to make a broad film. I wanted to make a movie that grandma would watch, I wanted to make a movie that young people would watch, and everyone in between. I really studied a lot of ’80s films: (Richard) Donner, Walter Hill, (John) McTiernan. You see it in it That hardyou see it in it Lethal weapon, there is room for gravitas. There is room for a human truth that is well-founded. And there’s a place to go crazy.

I think that’s another element where having Statham really helps because he’s such a funny performer. A lot of people have learned that Spy, but for those of us who have been watching his action movies forever, he’s a really funny guy. And he’s able to deliver many of those bee-centric one-liners in a way that few other leads really could.

That’s exactly it. He can say anything and you’re going to believe it, you know? And he has that voice. That voice is so distinctive, and that presence on camera. He has the magic of movie stars. And I feel like so much of that is missing from cinema right now. You know, that feeling of fun and adventure and… Hey, let’s eat popcorn and escape the problems of the world for two hours.

And it’s not just a joke, right? There are many funny action films, but this film integrates that better into the action, which makes it a lot more fun.

That’s the point, it makes everything work together. And you know, I really enjoyed making a genre film. I’m not going to say I wasn’t scared going into it.

Do you have a favorite bee joke or reference in the film?

Oh man. I quite like Anisette’s (Megan Le) line “You’ve been a busy bee” in the gas station fight, because you immediately know who she is, what she stands for, and that there is a relationship.

The film has a heavy yellow-black color palette. Was that something you thought about when you saw the script? Oh, we want to make it feel like a bee thing?

Yeah, I mean, you gotta have the warm honey tones, and the golden light is part of that. And with these, my color palette tends to be a bit more naturalistic. I had a new camera system, the Arri (Alexa) 35, which is just beautiful, the nicest digital camera I’ve worked with. And I wanted to take advantage of it. Because that polychromatic, colorful feel of the film is absolutely a function of the camera. And again, just as a filmmaker, exploring a new look, exploring a new style.

I’m glad you brought up McTiernan because I think there’s definitely some of Hart Bochner’s Ellis in That hard in the call center villain aesthetic, and lots of it wolf of wall street, at. What did you want to evoke in that group of people?

(Big sigh) Crypto brothers. People with too much money, too much to do, too much sense of self. It feels good to be a winner, but it’s not good to win at the expense of others.

Action films with short, almost crazy titles have been popular lately, such as those by Gerard Butler Aeroplane in 2023. What do you think a title like this means for a film?

I think it’s important. It gives you a container to put the world into. It’s so competitive these days and there are so many films. The more you can have a little fun with the audience, be smart about it, but make sure it makes sense for the project itself, make it part of the reality of the film, it’s crucial. And I’m honestly thrilled at how many people have connected with that concept and started working on it. And now it’s like, Catch the buzz!

What you said before: I think people want to have fun at the movies again, right? And something like this promises you that right from the jump.

That’s it, man. It’s like, Just have fun. I want to go to a movie. I don’t want to be taught right now. The world is hard. I want to forget my problems and just eat popcorn and watch people who deserve it.

The beekeeper now playing in theaters.