Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel and more bring their A-game to 'The A-Team'

Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Liam Neeson, Sharlto Copley and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson at the Los Angeles premiere of "The A-Team"

Remaking a TV series into a movie can be a tricky thing. That may be why it took several years to make a big-screen version of the 1980s TV series "The A-Team." The movie was in "development hell" for a long time until 2009, when the casting and production finally came together under director Joe Carnahan, who also co-wrote "The A-Team" movie screenplay. The result? A more adult-themed, action-packed version of "The A-Team" TV series, with plenty of modern-day political references.

"The A-Team" movie keeps the core quartet of Special Forces soldier characters intact, with an entirely new cast of stars: Liam Neeson is A-Team leader Hannibal Smith, Bradley Cooper is womanizer Templeton "Face" Peck, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is muscle man B.A. Baracus and Sharlto Copley is crazy pilot H.M. "Howlin’ Mad" Murdock. New to "The A-Team" story is Jessica Biel, as Captain Charissa Sosa, an ex-girlfriend of Face’s, who must hunt down the A-Team when they escape from prison to clear their names of crimes they did not commit. Neeson, Cooper, Jackson, Biel, Copley and Carnahan recently gathered for an "A-Team" press conference in Los Angeles. Here is what they had to say.

Bradley Cooper, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Sharlto Copley and Liam Neeson in "The A-Team"

Joe, the studio had been working on "The A-Team" movie for years but the plan wasn’t coming together until they started talking to you. What came together in your mind where you thought you could make an "A-Team" movie work?

Carnahan: Well, I was broke. That was job one. Listen, it was one of those situations where I looked at it. I was not the biggest fan of the show as a kid, so I think that probably helped because I didn’t have all these things I thought I had to pay homage to, I guess.

Brian Bloom and I, we sat down to write it. For all the 15 years of all the scripts that they had, we found the central plot device in five minutes on Google. So it wasn’t like there was this tremendous heavy lifting. We literally went on Google and found out that Saddam Hussein robbed the central bank of Iraq 24 hours before Shock and Awe and literally had this guy go in with a stick-up note and say, "I want $600 million in Euros, $400 million in …" And we actually have a copy of the letter. I thought that was a great way to start. If anything, that was kind of the moment of inspiration. I went, "OK, we can probably make this work.

Cooper: That’s good to know.

Biel: I didn’t know that either.

Bradley Cooper in "The A-Team"

Bradley, this is your first big action role, so the fact that you saw "The A-Team" as a kid, did that make it easier for you to make the choice to make this your first big action picture?

Cooper: Well, there weren’t a plethora of action movies that were coming to me, and I fought for this. The reason I wanted to do it was Joe Carnahan and Liam Neeson were attached. [He says to Carnahan] I asked for a meeting with you, and we met and we literally hit it off. We talked for like two-and-a-half hours — it felt like five minutes — and you gave me the script. You took me over to Jules [Daly], the producer, then you gave me the script. I texted you the next day and I said, "I gotta do the guy." And you were like, "All right, bro, let’s do this." It was a testament to Joe fighting for me to get it because this was before "The Hangover" came out or anything …

So you watched "The A-Team" as a kid?

Cooper: Yes, I did.

Bradley Cooper in "The A-Team"

Joe, what did shooting in Vancouver mean for your production? And Bradley, what did it mean for your workout regimen?

Carnahan: For production, I came to love deeply the city of Vancouver. I thought the people were fantastic. You’ve got great crews there; you have great facilities. I can’t imagine with what we had to pull off, everything you see in that movie, there was nothing that wasn’t really shot in the Vancouver, British Columbia, area. It was great because, like I say, you had really professional crews and to shoot what we did in 72 to 73 days I don’t think would have been possible elsewhere.

Cooper: There was a trainer, Ashley Conrad, who was training me for the movie and she came out to Vancouver. They were providing the food regimen of 2,000 calories per day so it really didn’t matter where, hell traveled with me, so it didn’t matter where I was.

Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Liam Neeson and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in "The A-Team"

How did you cast it and know the team chemistry would work? And for the actors, what did you do to get that rapport or did it just happen magically?

Carnahan: For me, I think a lot of what my process is at least directorially is what we all did. We had a number of dinners and we watched the fights at Liam’s house, and it was all this stuff we did before the cameras rolled and after the cameras rolled. And to me, it’s a pet peeve of mine, you can look at a movie and look at a scene and say immediately, "OK, these people met each other a half hour before call." I don’t think you get the best out of people.

You need to know someone socially to have an idea of them, and this is why you see I have great affection and love and warmth for these guys because they became my friends. I think that if you’re only looking at it in a strict professional sense, then you miss the better part of it, which is at the end of the day it’s wonderful to make a movie but it’s better to make friends and some of these people will be my friends for the rest of my life – probably not Rampage but we’ll get to that later …

Neeson: We got along with each other and I think, obviously, there’s a lot of that hoping that it will work when the camera starts rolling and it did. It was just an ease and a generosity between us and something clicked. We all liked each other and liked being with each other and looked forward to going to work every day. It was as simple as that and as complex as that, too.

Jessica Biel and Bradley Cooper in "The A-Team"

Cooper: And it made it easy because when the four of us were together, we were either doing something where we couldn’t see each other because we were doing action or we were locked in the sardine can of a tank or a helicopter for six hours or 15 hours. So we benefited from the fact that we all got along. Everybody is so different, as the characters are, but really the four of us couldn’t be more different and that’s kind of wonderful.

Carnahan: Jessica, why do you love all of us?

Biel: Isn’t it obvious? I have to say I had an incredible experience on this movie. Clearly everybody loves each other. It was literally like being around five older brothers. I was tortured and loved and cared for and picked on, as I should have been. It was a beautiful experience.

Liam Neeson and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in "The A-Team"

Liam, why did you accept the role of Hannibal Smith?

Liam Neeson: [He says jokingly] Well, I was broke, too. [He says seriously] I was just very deeply chuffed that I’d be considered for it. I did this film, "Taken," that’s given me a whole new lease on life at the age of 58. So it was great to flex those different muscles, if you know what I mean. When I met with Joe, I loved him. I thought the script was very, very clever and quite intricate. It was a no-brainer for me.

Did all of you have to sign a deal in case there is a sequel to "The A-Team"?

Neeson: [He says jokingly] Twelve.

Cooper: If it does well, we’ll do another one.

Carnahan: I haven’t signed yet, but I will.

Neeson: You better, Joe.

Liam Nesson and Bradley Cooper in "The A-Team"

You guys went through a lot of stuff in this movie. Did anybody have any on-the-set injuries? Any sore muscles? Anybody get beat up?

Neeson: Bradley?

Cooper: There was one scene where we had just recovered the plates and we were going to celebrate with General Morris. And the Hummer blows up and we ran to that, and I tore my hamstring that night. I found myself discovering new bruises every time I came home at night. Epsom salts were my savior on this movie. I still have a scar from the butt of the M4. I still have it from the training. Yeah, I got banged up on this movie.

Neeson: I tore my rotator cuff in the first week, just bursting through the van on the opening sequence coming to save Bradley’s character. So I had a dead arm for like three months. It was awfully painful. But the guys rallied around. I don’t think you’d notice.

Liam Neeson and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in "The A-Team"

Copley: No, it was like a holiday for me compared to "District 9." I sat in the trailer and changed channels on DirecTV.

Cooper: It’s true. Your trailer was right next to mine and it almost felt like it was lit. There was amber light coming through. I could always smell someone was cooking.

Copley: I had my grill and I had candles.

Cooper: I was so jealous.

Copley: One day I remember Bradley was sitting outside his trailer all by himself and he was playing - he was serenading us. He was playing this music because he was all jealous because my trailer was all homey and …

Jessica Biel in "The A-Team"

Cooper: Mine was like that fluorescent light and that weird Native American …

Copley: Incense. I had incense going. I was like, "This is the way to do it." He lived in my trailer for the first four nights. He seriously did. We were meant to stay in a motel, but it was an hour’s drive away. And, I just jokingly, I was like the new guy, said, "Why wouldn’t we just stay in the trailer? The trailer is nicer than the motel room." He was like, "Ha ha ha ha!"And then I saw Liam and he was going, "Can we do that?" I said, "I don’t know. It just sort of popped up." We had barbecues …

Neeson: We stayed for four nights and we had barbecues.

Copley: Outside your place.

Cooper: Oh yeah, Liam had great barbecues.

Copley: In the beginning that was very cool.

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in "The A-Team"

Liam, as a follow-up to your earlier comment, just like your character in" Taken," Hannibal has a very particular set of skills as well. Does the action choreography that you did in "Taken," "Darkman" or the "Star Wars" movies translate well into skills for this film?

Neeson: I think so. I’m fairly comfortable in fight sequences and stuff like that. I’ve done a few of them. I’m comfortable with that sort of stuff as long as I’m reasonably fit, and it’s fun to do actually. I’m like a kid in a toy shop doing that stuff.

Quinton, how challenging was it for you to do your own stunts in this film? Was it fairly easy since you’re an ex-prize fighter?

Jackson: I wasn’t doing a bunch of stunts. They had some really good stuntmen. I wanted to do more because I’m a physical person, but some of the stunts was crazy. That dude came down off the top of that building like he was skiing on there and doing all that, and I was like, "Good job, dog! Good job!" I ran in front of some cars and stuff like that, but they didn’t let me do too much. I wanted to do that motorcycle stunt, the one where we just rode down between the buildings. That motorcycle stunt was crazy, man. I was like, "I’m OK with these stunts. I’ll just sit back and watch." It was cool.

Liam Neeson, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Sharlto Copley and Bradley Cooper in "The A-Team"

Liam, growing up in Ireland, were you familiar with "The A-Team"? Did you know about the show?

Neeson: It was very, very popular. It wasn’t my cup of tea, to be honest. I was in my 20s and I was in professional theater so it wasn’t my [type of show]. My nieces and nephews were crazy about it. It was hugely successful and popular, and still is in reruns.

Was it fun to be in this movie?

Neeson: It was. It was just great to be in it with these boys. I mean, Joe, he was Hannibal. He was the real guy.

Copley: Joe is basically all four guys and I’m serious. This is pretty true. You’ll see. Watch him. They said when they chose a director, they were like, "We need somebody that embodies all of them." He’s got the craziness of a Murdock. He’s got the alpha male leader, the bossiness of Hannibal who makes the plan. When it’s going wrong, he’s very much like, "Well, we can step outside and sort this out with our hands, Mr. Studio, if necessary." He’s not maybe as good looking as Face, but he’s certainly charming.

Carnahan: But I have Jessica’s feminine touch.

Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Liam Neeson and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in "The A-Team"

Sharlto, growing up in South Africa, did you know about the show?

Copley: Yes, and I should just say, I am a massive "A-Team" fan. And Quinton and I were the two really massive fans of the show. I had an A-Team gang in school when I was 11 years old. Another group, another gang started trying to compete with us to also be the A-Team in my class and so we said, "Look, there can only be one," so I challenged them. We basically agreed to have a war. We went down on the field and had a little fight. The stakes were, if you lose, you are no longer the A-Team. You play some other group.

Carnahan: What about casualties? Sharlto talks about gangs in Jo'burg in South Africa.

Copley: [We were] 11.

Carnahan: Remembering wonderful childhood memories.

Copley: [He laughs.] So we went down to the field and we had a war and we won. We became the only A-Team. I had everything. I had the action figures, the dossier that you got, those trading cards …

Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Liam Neeson and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in "The A-Team"

So this must be a childhood dream come true?

Copley: I never conceived at that point that I would be in a movie based on "The A-Team." Basically, from that stage on, I was very influenced by Dwight Schultz doing the voices and doing that stuff. I made little videos that I would put myself in a little set, and I liked to have sketches or little action pieces where we would try and be like the A-Team. It had a huge impact on me.

Quinton, can you talk about the fight sequences? Were you having to pull your punches? Was it hard to do that and not hurt the other stuntmen?

Jackson: No, I actually did a fight movie before, a couple years ago, and I learned a lot on a fight movie. It taught me how to choreograph fighting. I was really interested in it. I learned a lot. So when I had a chance to do it here, it was on a bigger scale. We had Ben Gray, he’s a lot better than the other people I was working with, and he taught me some steps, like quick, easy stuff. It was so easy.

The only problem I had is when the guys would punch me, I went to defensive mode. I was doing my defense. I remember doing the real fight and he was trying to get me not to do that and it was just instinct. Then, on the day I just automatically did it and he just kept doing this, "Ah, it looks good." So that’s the only problem I had. Everybody was cool and nobody hurt me, so I was happy with that.

Writer/director Joe Carnahan and Liam Neeson on the set of "The A-Team"

Joe, what cool stuff do you have planned for the DVD and do any of the actors remember some deleted scenes we might see later?

Carnahan: We’ve got some great stuff. We were originally going to end the movie with this gag reel that was going to play in the left part of the screen and you get a sense of how much fun we had doing the movie. I think ultimately we decided it wasn’t working and we just ended it the way it ended. But, there’s tons. There’s actually somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 deleted scenes or just stuff that came out of the movie. It was great bit with Sharlto, this electro-shock thing that you’ll see.

That was an Easter egg at the end.

Carnahan: Yeah, but there’s a bigger, longer scene.

Copley: Are you going to do, [He sings] I’m bringing sexy back …

Carnahan: Oh yeah, that was on there.

Copley: [He sings] I’m bringing sexy back ….

Biel: That’s OK, Sharlto, That’s some of the torture we’re talking about.

Did you actually do a performance of the song?

Copley: Something may have transpired in that realm.

Jessica Biel in "The A-Team"

How do you see yourselves similar and different from each of the characters that you play, and what quality you might take from them?

Cooper: I loved Face. We created sort of a childlike enjoyment of what he did. He’s the first guy in and last guy out, and he’d die for his friends in a heartbeat. At my greatest, I’d be one-eighth of Face. I really loved him. I loved playing that guy.

Sharlto Copley: I grew up and the reason I ended up being an actor was that my buddy who put me in "District 9," that I did different voices and different characters with my stuff as a business executive or company ... I don’t know, what have you. So I was certainly able to draw on a lot of aspects of myself. And then the interesting thing about the character, which on the one hand is very comedic, it was just interesting to actually see what I would take away from it is probably there’s a likeness with which when you view the world through those kind of eyes, nothing is actually as serious as you might think.

If you’re going to go down in a plane or in any type of vehicle, and you know you’re going to die, for example, Murdock would probably die laughing. On the one hand, it’s kind of funny to watch, but if you really think about what that means, it’s kind of cool. I would love to be able to say that if I knew my plane was going down, your choice is die in a state of complete terror or just let go completely and go out laughing. It’s weird. It’s kind of a humbling character to play in a way, in that sense.

Neeson: Well, these guys know no fear and that’s really interesting. I mean, I’m scared when I wake up in the morning. Every day is a tale, but I won’t get into that. It’s interesting the scenes these guys do. It’s like they actually do…they are not scared and that’s an amazing quality, I think. I’d love to have that quality in real life.

Biel: I think I feel similarly to what Bradley was saying about his character. If I could be an eighth of her, that would be amazing. I feel like we share a similar quality with, I guess, ambition and career, drive. I feel like I’m probably quite ambitious and so is Sosa. But she also has that quality of not being afraid and of being an adrenaline junkie. I share that a little bit but that no fear, balls-to-the-walls quality that all of these characters share and the people in real life who do these jobs have those qualities. They’re not very serious people. They’re wildly outrageous and fun and smart and witty. I would kill to be like that.

Bradley Cooper and Liam Neeson in "The A-Team"

Joe, when you were shaping the tone, the feel, the nature of the film, were there any personally beloved action films you were thinking of specifically to try and get a sense of how you wanted the movie to feel?

Carnahan: I saw "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when I was 11 years old. It kind of changed everything for me because it was the first time I became aware that there was a force behind the camera. Somebody was manipulating the way I was feeling. You got the greatest of all: Mr. Spielberg. I always thought of what I felt like going into that theater and leaving that theater.

I always say this in interviews. I really made the film primarily for Rampage and Sharlto, because I know how near and dear it was to their heart. I know how much a part of their childhood it was. But, the other thing is that the guy who grew up on that show or whatever and he takes his son to see that movie and they’re going to spend two hours of time together, they’re going to have a good time and they’re going to laugh and they’re going to be excited. So when you see stuff like the tank drop, I think that’s a fantastic sequence. I think it’s something that you see it, you won’t forget about it.

And also going back to the last question, to me, it becomes emblematic and epitomizes every one of their characters at that moment. I think it’s the great confluence of action, comedy, drama, everything in one. So for me, "Raiders" is the big one because I just feel like it’s the penultimate. It sits atop in terms of summer movies, action movies - I don’t think we’ve touched it and I’m certainly not making any comparisons. I’m saying if you’re shooting for that, you’re in the right spot.

Photo credits: Photo #1: Getty Images. All other photos: 20th Century Fox.