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Borderlands Star Florian Munteanu Talks Eli Roth's Unique Directing Style
Florian Munteanu, who takes on the role of Krieg in Borderlands, was effusive in his praise for the director, likening him to a "lunatic" perfectly suited for the chaotic world of Borderlands.
Much anticipated movie adaption of the game Borderlands has finally hit theatres today with a very low Rotten Tomatoes debut score. Helmed by Eli Roth, whose other works include Thanksgiving and Hostel, this film is going to bring dark humor and intense action to the silver screen. Florian Munteanu, who plays Krieg in the film, sat for an exclusive interview with ComicBook and shared his thoughts on working with Roth. Munteanu also appeared in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and talked about the physical demands of the role but also the friendship he built with his costars.
The interviewer asked Munteanu that, as Roth basically comes from horror movie genre background, does that aspect make any impact on directing this film. To which, Munteanu replied that it definitely did.
For a project like Borderlands, Munteanu thinks Roth's energy and style were perfect. "Regarding the craziness, it was felt that Roth had a unique approach, just tonally perfect for this film," Munteanu laughed and said, indicating that Roth's own weirdness made him the perfect man to helm this adaptation. He further stated that anyone who has played the game would agree that the atmosphere that the games exude is unmatched, and thus Roth's helming was.
The actor also emphasized the importance of staying true to Roth's style—especially in terms of dark humor and violence shown in the picture. According to Munteanu, such a fusion of brutality and dark tones—key elements of the Borderlands franchise—did find an ideal director in Roth. "It was noticed that Roth's experience in horror and his history of scenes of blood-spilling made him a perfect man for the job," said Munteanu.
Florian Munteanu recently in another interview sat down with Screen Rant to discuss the intense process he underwent in portraying the character for Borderlands. He explained that physically, he needed to be extremely prepared for this role and to fight problems in costume design. That would be heavy boots and a costume mask that somewhat limited his breathing. That became possible with Munteanu due to a lot of training and hard work, which really brought out the physical aspects of the character.
He explained that the idea was to get into a body looking very much like Krieg, which required serious work. As Munteanu put it, "It took a lot of training and almost no food. So those were the tough times to get that crazy definition, to get in that crazy shape that Krieg has." The physical transformation was grueling, but it was only one part of the challenge.
Added to this was another challenge: costume—particularly the boots and mask—also proved a hindrance. Munteanu said that it was his first time wearing such heavy boots, which gave him problems in moving about and fighting, while his mask limited his field of vision.
He also specifically underlined the need for an early preparation process. That's because, during the initial stages, stunt choreography rehearsals were done without the mask, after which they realized they needed to do it with the mask. This kind of foresight saved them when they actually started filming, where Munteanu was already used to the constraints the costume would cause.
He reflected on the fact that it wasn't easy, but he still felt the growth that came from overcoming these difficulties. He articulated this by saying, "But once you have a challenge in front of you, you should embrace it, because that's the moment when you are allowed to grow."
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