Steven Caple Jr on inclusivity in Hollywood: ‘It opens the door more’
With Hollywood welcoming talents with open arms from across the globe as inclusivity and diversity are now under the spotlight, ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ director Steven Caple Jr said that it is important and that it opens the door more for artistes.
Talking about inclusivity and diversity taking centre stage in Hollywood, Steven Caple Jr told IANS: “It feels great. Someone who is considered minority and being able to have opportunity myself to cast Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Michaela Jae (MJ) Rodriguez… It’s great to have black and brown on screen.”
“Of course, like for me I want my movies to reflect the kind of world we live in. What we see on a day to day. One it is important and two it opens the door more.”
The American film director, producer, and screenwriter added: “There are a lot of artistes out there… that are from across the globe and for us to now have a platform and stage to tell our stories while embracing our culture at the same time. Sounds special.
Caple Jr is the latest filmmaker to join the ‘Tranformers’ family. ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ is based on Hasbro’s Transformers toy line, and primarily influenced by the Beast Wars storyline. The film is the seventh installment in the Transformers live-action film series.
It stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, as well as the voice talents of Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Liza Koshy, Michaela Jae Rodriguez, Pete Davidson, Colman Domingo, Cristo Fernandez, Tongayi Chirisa, and returning franchise regulars Peter Cullen, John DiMaggio, and David Sobolov.
Was it daunting for him to step into the world of Transformers for him?
“Little bit more so because we are trying to make this big action film right after Covid. That was tough to live up to shooting at live/real locations. Travelling to Peru. It was all during the time of quarantine.”
The 35-year-old director himself is a fan of the franchise.
He said: “Beyond that, me personally taking it on, no, I am a huge fan of the franchise. It was more like a dream come true. being able to play and design robots and actually choose where we want to shoot was huge for me.”
The film franchise has an ever burgeoning fan base, Caple Jr decodes the reason behind its ever growing popularity.
“Transoformers is loved among al age group because through out time, I felt like the IP … Tranformers is a franchise found a way to evolve from the 1980s to the 1990s. To the early 2000s… Until now. We found fresh stories, we found a way to connect characters and introduce new fashions of transformers. So, it never went stale.”
“There has always been something new to explore, through out the years and Tranformers were keeping up to date with times.
‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’, which is all set to release on June 9 by Paramount Pictures, has a a dollop of humour and great background score.
How much does humour and music help in amping up a film?
Caple Jr: “It helps a lot. You don’t want to take yourself serious with talking robots. So you got to find a way to balance it out. For me, comedy isn’t the thing I am chasing. I am usually trying to chase truth or honest moment.”
He added: “And usually comedy comes about through that… If Anthony is being stolen by a car, how would you react, he’s like playing it up like its drama but it becomes funny. Because it is ridiculous the situation. So that’s how we balance it out. With everything with Pete Davidson playing Mirage only that time we were like how can we top a joke.”