A businessman named Harold puts together a fake kidnapping while traveling to Mexico after learning his boss is planning to do something that will cause him his job. Harold then finds himself in a situation where people are really trying to kidnap him.
Blaine: Growing up, Nash Edgerton didn’t know what he wanted to do in life. Nash decided that he wanted to be a stuntman after having dinner with some friends. The word stunt just came up and all Nash could think about was stunt work and after that he became a stunt man. But stunt work wasn’t the only thing that got Nash’s attention. Nash also discovered he loved editing too, so he did that as well. Nash then made his own short films and a full length feature called “The Square”. A few years had passed since Nash had directed his first full length feature and he had an urge to do another one. There were a lot of different scripts sent to Nash and his wife read them because she loves to read. One of the scripts made Nash’s wife laugh out loud and he was curious to know what was causing it. It was called “Gringo”, although it a different title at that time. Nash’s wife told him that “Gringo" was the movie to make. Nash loved the idea of “Gringo” because the Harold character goes through a lot in the film and you weren’t sure how things were going to end for him.
Finding actors to play Elaine, Richard and Sunny was the easy part of the job for Nash. Charlize Theron was a fan of one of Nash’s short films, “Spider”, and they met each other back in 2008. Charlize wanted to work with Nash and it wasn’t easy to find a project that they would both be attracted to, but they kept looking. Then “Gringo” came along and it was the type of project that got them both interested.
Charlize found Elaine to be funny, but playing a character that can be hard on you wasn’t easy for her because Charlize said she’s a kind woman in real life. It was rough for Charlize to play Elaine during the first three days of shooting, but then it became fun. Elaine may be rude, but she’s got a lot of balls. If something is going down she won’t go down with it. She’ll find a way out of that situation through an act. Elaine is also smart. While doing business with other people, she’ll say the words that will get them to say yes.
Elaine and her co-worker, Richard Rusk, are sort of a thing, but Elaine discovers she’s not the only woman he’s sleeping with. It hurts a little, but Elaine pulls herself together and exposes Richard for what he really is. That's pay back. Elaine was meant to be played by Charlize Theron because Charlize has a record at playing strong bad ass women in her career.
The second actor Nash Edgerton had in mind was his brother, Joel Edgerton, because they make a good team. Joel himself has done a lot with his career like writing, acting. Joel plays Richard, the boss who plans to get Harold fired. Harold’s a businessman and Richard, well he’s a drug lord. Not much to say about Richard except he’s an ass hole. Richard acts nice on the outside when it comes to being around Harold, but really Richard doesn’t care that much for Harold at all.
The easy part was over, so Nash had to deal with the stuff that would be challenging. One of the challenges was who would play the lead character of “Gringo”, Harold. David Oyelowo has played characters that are serious, dramatic, full of heart, but he wanted to do something different where he could show his silly side. The character Harold Soyinka was written differently in the script and when David came on board a lot changed. For one, David made the character Nigerian. The word, gringo, is the Mexican way of saying foreigner and David thought Harold should be a foreigner in a different foreign country. I think that’s how the original title of the movie changed to “Gringo”.
David re-created the character and made it his own and Nash was impressed with the work David was putting into the character. You could say David created Harold himself.
David also was in charge of how the scenes with Harold should go. David thought Harold’s scenes should be different compared to how they were written in the script.
David wasn’t the only actor who had ideas for how his scenes should go. Almost the whole cast had ideas for how things should go and that helped Nash. Normally the director is in charge on how things should go in the movie, but for Nash it was a challenge to figure out how he was going to direct a movie that focusses on different characters. Director’s can also be open minded if anyone else has an idea. Nash had a team with creative minds of their own and they were like his co-directors. “Gringo” was turning out differently compared to how Nash imagined it in the beginning.
Harold keeps bumping into a tourist named Sunny while he’s in Mexico. Sunny is on what she believes to be a vacation with her boyfriend, Stu, but the reason their in Mexico is because he’s in the drug business. Sunny’s trying to enjoy herself while they’re in Mexico, but all Stu can think about is business and he is very impatient with things. Sunny can’t understand what is going on with Stu. Harold is going through a rough time with everyone he knows trying to make his life miserable or trying to kill him. Sunny is the only bright thing that has happened to Harold because she is very kind and becomes the only person Harold can call a friend. It’s also nice for Sunny to talk to someone who listens, unlike her boyfriend. Sunny also thinks Harold is cool because of his nationality and believing he is in the D.E.A. Sunny even gives Harold a nickname, Harry, because he’s never had one before. Amanda Seyfried was one of the three actors in mind at the beginning of the project. It was no question on who would play Sunny because the screenwriter wrote that part with Amanda Seyfried in mind.
Paris Jackson, the daughter of Michael Jackson, is in “Gringo”, but only for three minutes. Paris’ part is informing Stu about the drug deal in Mexico. Paris has a small part and yet it grabs a lot of people’s attention that she’s in the film.
Everyone had fun making “Gringo”, but for Sharlto Copley it was hard work because of the shooting schedule. He would have to be working late evenings and early mornings and it messed with his sleep. Sharlto’s character, Mitch, used to be an assassin, but now he has redeemed himself and is into spiritual things, although he still does jobs that will involve knocking out bad guys. Mitch is like Jason Bourne and Richard Rusk hires him to get Harold back home. Things change though because Richard discovers that Harold’s death will be worth something and now the job is to assassinate Harold. Mitch can’t do it though because he is devoted to his new rule, which is don’t kill. Plus he has taken a liking to Harold.
Before plans change on Harold’s rescue, Mitch learns the truth about Harold faking his kidnapping and Mitch understands why Harold would do it. Mitch actually respects Harold for doing what he did and knows Richard has done terrible things.
Harold prays to God to save him from Mitch after learning he has to kill him. That was another scene David Oyelowo thought of himself. A lot of people ask “do you believe in God?”, but to ask “who doesn’t believe in God?” is new. Someone asks you a question, you ask them what they believe in. I love that line because I find it original.
Mitch gets hit by a car after that and rolls down into water. Nash could have done the stunt for that scene sense he’s a stuntman, but he didn’t because stunt work takes a lot out of you and Nash’s mind had to focus on bringing his vision to life. When you’re a stuntman you know how action works and Nash knew how the action sequences should go in “Gringo”, although it was a lot of work. Before principal photography began, Nash had a lot of tests done on how the action sequences would go.
Two Mexican boys from a hotel keep trying to kidnap Harold and they manage to succeed and bring him to the drug lord of Mexico. The Mexican drug lord is someone who has done business with Harold, Richard and Elaine, but only through his men. One of those men, Angel, a man Harold thought he knew very well, happens to be an undercover D.E.A. agent. Angel may have played pretend in the drug business, but what he feels for Harold is real. Harold’s been nice to Angel for years and always brought Angel a delicious meal every time he would come to Mexico for business. Next to Sunny, Angel is a good friend to Harold. Angel helps Harold escape. Angel doesn’t know all the details on why Harold doesn’t want to go back to America, but he can tell by the look in Harold’s eyes that he has a good reason when Harold says there’s nothing for him back there. Angel covers Harold by saying he’s dead. And Harold gives Angel a hard drive that can put Richard behind bars.
Richard and Elaine thought Harold was a fool, but he’s no fool. Harold was smart enough to fool them in to believing he was kidnapped and now they believe he is dead. Richard goes to jail and again Elaine is smart enough to get herself out of a serious situation.
Harold’s wife, Bonnie was having an affair with Richard and she was going to leave Harold for Richard. Bonnie broke the news to Harold as nice as she could. Elaine exposed Richard for the ass hole that he is in front of Bonnie because like I said he was sleeping with her too. Don’t mess with Elaine. Bonnie was sorry before, but now she is really sorry for doing something stupid. Bonnie was married to a man who was in love with her, even when she had weight on her. Harold accepted her looks in anyway and leaving him for an ass hole is how she repays him? It isn’t till Harold is believed to be dead that Bonnie realizes how much she loved him.
In other news, Stu gets busted for trying to transfer drugs across the border and Sunny discovers the truth about him. Sunny is perfectly fine without Stu because he was no good for her. At least there’s Harold. Sunny and Harold keep in contact with each other because they are friends and she is one of the two people, next to Angel who knows Harold is still alive.
Harold has been through a lot and it’s nice that he can relax in the end. Harold starts a new life for himself and runs his own restaurant.
Harold has succeeded in the end and that’s what you want through the entire movie because everyone he knew was doing things that would make his life miserable. No good comes out at being a bully. Of course Elaine gets away with it because she has her ways. Harold has the brains to find happiness again and that’s what he achieves. Someone fights you, you fight back. When “Gringo” was released, Nash was sitting in the audience and it made him very happy that the audience had positive reactions as they were watching the film. It told Nash he did a good job. Nash’s brother, Joel, was proud of him for the job he did on “Gringo”. Although Nash couldn’t have made “Gringo” without help.
