Why Josh Duhamel Was ‘Custom-Made’ for Role in New Action Movie London Calling | Interview
ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Josh Duhamel and Allan Ungar about the new action comedy movie London Calling. The two of them discussed working together again after 2022’s Bandit, how they approached the LARPing scenes in the film, and more.
“After fleeing the UK from a job gone wrong, a down-on-his-luck hitman is forced to babysit the son of his new crime boss and show him how to become a man,” the synopsis reads.
London Calling will be released in United States theaters on September 19, 2025, from Quiver Distribution.
Brandon Schreur: Josh, I want to start just by asking how it was that you got involved in this project. What’s the story of you being cast in London Calling, and what made you most excited to play this character, Tommy Ward?
Josh Duhamel: Well, [Ungar] had been talking about this script for a few years. He kept talking about this movie, London Calling. I thought that he was going to go make it with somebody else. Then, finally, when it became real, he came to me and sent it to me. I was like, ‘Dude, I’ve got to play Tommy.’ This is perfect. I’m a guy who is just past his prime. I’m a guy whose eyesight isn’t what it used to be. I’m a terrible shot. I’m also a terrible father. So I was perfect.
There you go. I loved the bald look at the beginning, too. That was great.
Duhamel: Honestly, that’s why I love working with this guy. He’s open to ideas. I said, ‘I want to be Jason Statham in the opening of this movie. I want to be this bald, badass killer. And I want an earring.’ No no no, you can’t be bald and you can’t have an earring. I was like, ‘Please, dad! Please!’ And, suddenly, he caved. It’s a good sort of departure, as we move to a year later.
Totally. It jumps into what I wanted to ask you, Allan; I know you guys have worked together back in Bandit, which was released in 2022. What made you feel like Josh would be a good fit for this role in London Calling, and how was it to be able to work together again and play in this creative space?
Allan Ungar: Yeah, you know, Bandit was a really, really incredible experience. I think part of that was getting to meet Josh and work with Josh. I tell people that he really did make me a better director in his approach and the way that we worked together and built this trust. I always try to involve people in different parts of the process, and I really valued his input. Even in the edits, showing him different takes.
Bringing that to London Calling, we already had a shorthand. I knew that his ability to humanize characters the way that he does and bring this sort of levity is what I was looking for in this film. A lot of action movies don’t have heart; they don’t have this anchor point that grounds them. I knew that he would embody all of that really well. And, like he said, he’s a terrible father, his eyesight is very poor. I was like, ‘Just play yourself.’
Duhamel: This part was custom-made for me.
Ungar: Just play yourself.
I love it. You mentioned the heart that this movie has, and that’s something I wanted to ask about next. Josh, you have a lot of scenes with Jeremy Ray Taylor, and I loved the chemistry between you guys. You’re both really funny, but when you get to the end of the movie, there’s a genuine connection there. Like, it’s real, and I love how that was built. Can you tell me a little bit about working with him as a screen partner and how you developed that kind of rapport between your characters to build that chemistry?
Duhamel: Jeremy’s an easy guy to love. I really grew to care for this kid. He’s not really a kid, he’s a young man. But he’s really thoughtful, really talented, and totally committed. I think it was one of those things where we both knew what our job was in this movie. I got to be this grumpy curmudgeon of a guy who just hasn’t measured up in life. He got to be this guy who has never really measured up in his father’s eyes. We’re both sort of failures in our own minds. I really grew to like this kid, and I have such respect for his work, too.
We worked hard on every scene. We never took anything for granted. We just grinded out every scenario as best we could with Allan to try and find the humanity of it and the humor.
Allan, I think that’s one of the things I liked most about this movie, how you approached Jeremy’s character. He’s a teenage kid, he’s into LARPing, and he gets nervous around girls, but there’s never any judgment about any of that. Except from his father, but, you know, that’s played for laughs and part of the dramatic arc. I loved how it was straightforward and not punching down; this is who he is, and we can love and respect that. How important was that, for you, when you were coming up with this character, to make sure his hobbies were cool and not making fun of them?
Ungar: That’s a great question, by the way, and that was something that was incredibly important to me. I’m a gamer. I’ve never LARPed, and I wouldn’t say I was socially awkward, but I know a lot of people who are and who I grew up with that were. I think there’s an incredible community of people like that around the world, who also bond over these kinds of hobbies that are frowned upon by their fathers or the women in high school that they’re trying to go after, but think they might be too cool for them.
I never really wanted to, as you said, punch down on that. It was something that I believed was relatable to a large demographic of people who might watch the movie. Same as how Josh’s character being a guy who is losing his edge and is over the hill a little bit, his eyesight is going, and he’s not in his prime anymore. I think those are the things that make movies like this more enjoyable, and people can get invested in that.
Duhamel: And I LARP for a living, so that was easy for me.
Ungar: He brought his own costume.
Thanks to Josh Duhamel and Allan Ungar for taking the time to discuss London Calling.
Source: Comingsoon.net