The more keenly eyed moviegoers amongst you will have noticed the recent trend of movie’s being titled very literally: ‘Bad Teacher’, ‘We Bought a Zoo’ etcetera etcetera. Keeping that trend up is Man on a Ledge, which advance screened last night at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, hosted by The Cinema Society with Gilt Man & Grey Goose.
The director and stars were all in attendance, including Avatar’s Sam Worthington, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Banks and Kyra Sedgwick. Ms. Sedgwick and Ms. Banks glowed in their gorgeous dresses; in contrast, Mr. Worthington was considerably dressed down, in a casual hoodie and jeans.
“I like it, it’s a simple title,” said Mr. Worthington when asked about the name, “but at least you know what you’re getting when you go in. It’s about a man on a fucking ledge, it’s about how he got there and how he gets off.
Anthony Mackie doubled down on the notion. “That’s all I do, my next movie’s called ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’ what do you think that films about?” he asked The Observer. “Abraham Lincoln hunting vampires?” we timidly responded, finding it hard to believe where the conversation had gone. “See what I’m saying, that’s all I do!” added Mr. Mackie, who vented his frustration at movie’s that were not titled literally. “I hate it when I go see a movie, like ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’, the whole movie I’m like ‘why the fuck… What’s up with the tattoo? Alright, so you’re not going to explain it, okay’”
Director Asger Leth was more philosophical about the title debate. “I like it, sometimes it works better than others,” he explained, “This particular title is not just literal it’s also a term that’s used, its what the cops call a jumper in the city.”
“We actually built a story of the hotel on the roof of the Roosevelt,” said Mr. Leth, who explained how the majority of the film was actually shot on location, at that hotel. “The more confidence I got out there, the more scenes we started shooting and before we knew it we shot the majority of the movie.” said Mr. Worthington.
Confidence is one thing Mr. Mackie did not have on location, “Asger asked me to go on the ledge and I was like ‘that’s above my pay grade.’ Sam is an Avatar and I am not.” Does he have any regrets about not going on the ledge? “Two dudes on a ledge? Noooo.”
