Kerry Washington and Omar Sy have joined forces as a couple of AWOL agents in Shadow Force. The two tenured thespians portray Kyrah and Isaac, a married couple that flee their life of international espionage in order to raise their son, a decision that makes them fugitives of the United States government.

Bringing Shadow Force to the big screen has been a long time coming. Screenwriter Leon Chills originally penned the project back in 2018 and shopped it around to multiple studios and creatives before it landed with Lionsgate and director Joe Carnahan.

ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley spoke with Washington and Sy to discuss how they each found Shadow Force and how this action adventure challenged them as actors.

Omar Sy Replaced Sterling K. Brown As Shadow Force’s Male Lead

“[Omar] felt like the missing puzzle piece…”

One of those creatives that Shadow Force pᴀssed by was Sterling K. Brown. The Academy Award nominee’s Indian Meadows co-acquired the Shadow Force script along with Kerry Washington and Steven Love’s production companies with an intent to star in the project. Brown remained on as a producer but ultimately dropped out of on-screen commitments with the project, leading to French actor Omar Sy stepping in as Isaac.

“I made it my own,” Sy responded when asked if any of Brown’s interpretation made it into his portrayal of Isaac. “That’s why I did some Frenchness to the character, to have a more universal spectrum of our character and our story.”

Sy was personally recruited to Shadow Force by Washington, who gauged his interest in the project by sending him a message on Instagram.

“When Omar said yes, it was like, ‘Oh, this is the film that we’re supposed to be making,'” ​​​​​Washington added. “This global story, about a family that I think so many of us now [resonate with]. We have family members that live in other countries. Our love goes across borders. I think it just really helped to open the film up and make it bigger and more international, more global and also more fun.”

Shadow Force Takes To The Seas For Insane Boating Stunt

“It makes me think about our training because what a journey!”

Those global elements take to both the land and sea. Late in the film, Kyrah and Isaac find themselves fending off foes in a high-speed speedboat chase.

“It was several days,” Washington said of the stunt. “We did work with our stunt doubles, but we did a lot of it. The biggest thing that our stunt doubles helped us to do was to figure out how to do things safely, and they did work, but we had a blast. We were just up and down those rivers in Colombia, in those back waters. It was amazing. I had to do boat lessons to learn how to drive and park the boat.”

While Washington was leering how to park, Sy was learning how to parkour. The bumpy ride eventually sends Isaac dangling on the side of the speedboat, one hand clinging onto the port side, the other pointing a gun at his adversaries.

“That was the exciting part of it and that’s also why I wanted to do the movie, because there was so much stuff to do, so many stunts, so many actions,” Sy noted of his climactic moment. “So we wanted to be involved in everything that we could do safely, so we tried. So yeah, I had to hang out on that board. I was scared a little bit. It was fun to do and think about it, it’s so badᴀss. Hanging out with one hand and shooting with the other, that was my only way to do that, so I’m glad I did it. Yeah, it was really fun. Really fun to do.”

“It makes me think about our training because what a journey,” Washington added. “I remember Omar and I early on just doing weapons training, just to shoot a gun on land, never mind shooting a gun while you’re hanging off a boat, while you’re driving a boat and the boat is moving 60 miles an hour!”

Source: ScreenRant Plus