In “The Grey,” an oil drilling team struggles to survive amidst a pack of vicious wolves after a plane crash strands them in the Alaskan wilderness. Dermot Mulroney plays one said survivors, who must shuffle across a rope that is strung from a cliff into a forest high above a canyon – a sequence that the actor says took several days to shoot.
“In fact, it was almost harder to get the stuff set up leading to that moment, like getting us down to that cliff and getting those ropes rigged,” Mulroney explains. “They built this whole structure that was our cliff edge and had a wire going out into the great beyond. The mechanics of pulling off that sequence alone were fascinating to me.”
Of course, the real meat and potatoes of said sequence came on the second or third day of shooting, according to Mulroney. Believe it or not, the actor was actually hanging onto a wire. Even more unbelievable is that he did not have a harness. Of course, Mulroney was never actually in any danger as he was only 10 or 15 feet above a stunt pad.
“But all of that closer footage of me on the wire took the better part of a day and I found it not to be scary for my safety but deeply exhausting,” says Mulroney, noting that writer/director Joe Carnahan wanted to create a signature moment for each character's “exit,” so to speak. “He was intensely interested in setting up the suspense and then having all hell break loose.”
Although some of scenes set at the site of the plane wreck in “The Grey” took place on a sound stage, most of the movie's blizzard footage was shot on location on a mountain in Smithers, British Colombia, where the cast and crew braved 30-degrees-below-zero temperatures and 60-miles-per-hour winds. They would essentially “stand out there all day and take it” until there was no more light.
“I had just finished shooting 'Big Miracle' in Anchorage, Alaska,” says Mulroney of the family flick about an effort to free three California gray whales who have become trapped in a hole in the ice of the Arctic Circle, due in theaters Feb. 3. “We were working in subzero temperatures there, too. So by the time I shot 'The Grey,' I had already been working in harsh weather for 3 months.”
And while Mulroney – who is probably best known for his role as the male lead in 1997's “My Best Friend's Wedding” – claims that he cannot complain about any of the movies in which he has starred as he has had nothing but great experiences, he ranks “The Grey” among the three projects on which he had the most fun alongside 1987's “Long Gone” and 1988's “Young Guns.”
“They are all guy movies,” Mulroney adds. “Maybe that is not so surprising. But those are more fun.”
“The Grey” (R – 117 minutes) opens Friday at movie theaters throughout the Valley. Visit FirstLook.com for specific showtimes.
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