Characters are Paramount in Action: A Conversation with ‘Old Guy’ Director Simon West

An aging hitman (Christoph Waltz) is forced to train a young prodigy (Cooper Hoffman) when his employer moves to replace the old guard. But when they learn they are being betrayed, the unlikely pair turns into a lethal team - with their double-crossing bosses in their sights. Lucy Liu also stars in this action-packed comedy from the director of CON AIR and THE EXPENDABLES 2.

Not another hitman movie! Well, folks…Old Guy isn’t just another “hitman” popcorn flick. And do you think that the great actor Christoph Waltz would settle for just another routine “hitman” film, if the script didn’t pop with great characters, dialogue and an interesting world? The film, directed by Simon West, has grit and vulnerability, thanks to the characters at play. It’s a fun world to live in briefly and witness a possible change in the “old” guard, while giving the hitman action genre a breath of fresh air.

Simon West recently spoke with Script about what initially attracted him to screenwriter Greg Johnson’s script, the importance of character and dialogue in action scripts, the benefits of test screenings, and offers great advice and insight into what he thinks makes a great action script.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: How did this script, written by Greg Johnson, come on your radar?

Simon West: Well, lots of scripts come across my desk all the time. And you can usually tell within the first couple of pages, whether it's even if it's not necessarily firing on all cylinders, you might like the world. But this one came across, and the world - even though it's kind of familiar, I've done other hitman movies, and there's been a lot of hitman movies - but this one was different because it had a lot of other things going on in it.

Basically, it's an older guy who is losing his powers and can't really do it anymore. And he's got arthritis, can't shoot straight. And a young replacement comes along that he has to train reluctantly. He doesn't want to do it because he hasn't given up. And also, most hitmen, you see that they're ruthlessly efficient, and they're like machines. But this character was a total degenerate, really. [laughs] He drinks too much, he eats the wrong food, he stays up all night, he goes to clubs, he's behaving like he's 25 or 30 years old, and he's in his 60s, and so he's a really appealing character.

And Cooper Hoffman, who plays his replacement…tries to get along with him, but pretty soon realizes this guy doesn't want to listen. So, they're antagonistic to start with, obviously. And that's where the fun starts - the banter between the two. And Lucy Liu plays a sort of referee, really. She can see these two could be great friends. They could learn something from each other, but they don't want to do that to start with.

It's a road movie, really, with three funny characters chatting about the things that people chat about. And on the side, they're doing hits. And it's kind of scary and exciting and action packed. But you really want to get back to, like, when are they going to get along? When are they going to stop fighting? When are they going to like each other? So that's what's fun about the script, is the mixture of the action adventure, and just the personalities of three great actors as well as three great characters.

Sadie: Dolinski, he's a very sympathetic character, and you definitely feel for him and his age. But what I really appreciate about this film is that character is pretty much king, and the action pieces don't necessarily take over. As a director, how do you make sure to maintain that and not let action pieces override the characters?

Simon: That's the task of designing the action. When I do certain types of film, it's outlandish and out of the world kind of action that is sort of just fun to watch because it's outrageous. But in this one it's all totally realistic, and everything's in camera, and it's what really would happen. And most of the time, these things go wrong, and that's the interesting bit. It's like, OK, what do they do when it goes wrong? And it isn't ruthlessly planned. And if it was, something comes along and they have to switch to plan B.

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And so, it's definitely designing the action in these things - you have to look at the characters. These guys are not going to run up walls and fly and things like that. What would a real 60 year old hitman and a 20 year old hitman do when they get into a tight spot, apart from arguing and blaming each other why it went wrong? They also got to get out of the situation. That's the fun bit for me.

And a couple of times in the script, it was pretty outlandish and big, and on the set, seeing it happen, I would tone it down to make it realistic and discuss with Christoph [Waltz] like, ‘I don't think you should really be able to do this. You're a 60-year-old man, and it takes you out of the story.’ And I think the more vulnerable they are, the more you root for them. So ,when it looks like they're not going to make it, then you’re really on the edge of your seat. If they look like nothing bothers them and they can do anything, then it's not exciting or intriguing to me.

Sadie: There’s a great rhythm and tone locked in at the top of the film. What were those key conversations that you were having your DP [Martin Ahlgren] and your editors?

Simon: I look at what type of film this is, and its genre, and be true to the genre. It's more realistic and dramatic with action in it. So, everything has to be realistic and not detract from what's going on. I don't use crazy lighting effects and crazy camera angles that might take you out of it, and you start watching the filmmakers instead of the characters. You kind of want them to not notice the photography, not really notice the editing. But the only time they notice it is when you've done something wrong, like you've cut a sequence too fast, and they want to stay with these characters and live with them a little longer.

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And I've learned that from test screenings, which a lot of people hate, and I hate them too, but you do learn so much, because I've done things where you think the audience doesn't have the attention span, and you cut something too fast, or you think they won't like this sad scene because they want to end the film on a happy scene. And actually, I've had that have the exact opposite. I've actually cut the whole scene off the end of a movie because they didn't want a happy ending. The audience wanted to stay in this sort of emotional state that the scene before had them in. Whatever you do, though, you can never tell until you put in front of an audience, because you have one version in your head of what's going on, and they have seen just what ended up on the screen. And they make connections that you never realize. Sometimes it's to your benefit.

Sadie: For the writers out there who are writing action scripts, any suggestions from the director’s perspective of what makes a great action script pop?

Simon: Personally, if it's coming to me, I find action very hard to read because it's very complicated and dense. And to be honest, a lot of the time, I don't know if other directors do it, you kind of skip past the action to get back to the character scenes, because you know you're going to reinvent all the action yourself anyway. And I personally do that. I kind of go in the action and create another story within the action sequences.

Like when I did Con Air years ago, the writer, Scott Rosenberg, doesn't even like writing action. And the reason I did that film was the characters and the dialogue. And he wrote these fantastic characters and then would come to the action scene and say, “Director's action scene one.” And then go to the next page, “Director's action scene two. 20% bigger than the first one.” And he would do it again, say, “30% bigger than the one before.’ And you go, 'Ah that's so great, I don't need to read all this he punched him, he jumped down, he fell backwards.' Which is really hard to write and you're going to redo it.

I would say, whatever film it is, whether it's drama, action, comedy, whatever, just concentrate on the characters and the dialogue. Don't worry about the action, because if it's in the hands of a good director, they're going to do that anyway, or they're going to get someone in to do the action. You don't need to write action. You just need to write great characters and dialogue.

Old Guy is in Theaters and on Digital on February 21, 22025.