Thomas Kretschmann is no stranger to Hollywood. Since the 2000s, the German actor has appeared regularly in international productions, from Resident Evil to Hitman and the Avengers. He even looked King Kong in the eye. Now he’s taking on another cinema legend: Indiana Jones. In the new part of the adventure series he can be seen as a nasty Nazi villain.
Thomas Kretschmann in an interview about Indiana Jones 5: “We tried to take everything to the extreme”
Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny begins with a grand flashback sequence that takes us back to the 1940’s. There, a digitally rejuvenated version of the title character tries to get his hands on a powerful item before the Nazis. But the SS Standartenfuhrer Weber (Kretschmann) has long since seized the object of desire and is on his way to Berlin.
What follows is a heart-pounding action sequence, culminating in a train speeding through the night. The Adversary emerges from the steam of the locomotive to strike down Harrison Ford’s archaeologists. I spoke to Thomas Kretschmann about this goosebump moment and more in an interview on the occasion of the theatrical release of Indiana Jones 5.
Disney
Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny
Moviepilot: You are excellently positioned in international cinema. Nevertheless, I can imagine that getting into a Lucasfilm production is not that easy. How did your path to Indiana Jones 5 look like?
Thomas Kretschmann: I had just been shooting in Estonia when a Zoom call came in from [Regisseur und Co-Autor] James Mangold. He asked me to play the role and sent me the script. I agreed immediately. It doesn’t get much better than a film like this. After that we talked about music. He had a lot of records on the shelf in the background. Then it was no longer about the film, but simply about life.
Your big entrance is right at the beginning of the film. You fight with Indy on a moving train. How did you shoot it and above all: who did you shoot it with?
Harrison Ford was actually on set the whole time. I filmed everything with him. He had these dots on his face which will later be used as a reference to change his appearance. Then the young face from the old films is superimposed. During the shoot, I didn’t even ask myself whether he was young or old. We just shot it normally – just like with any other film.
And what about the stunts?
Of course there are individual passages on the train where stunt people were used. For example, if someone flies through the air, it wasn’t Harrison Ford. But that happens in every film production. Actors can’t do all the stunts themselves, except maybe Tom Cruise. He’s the only one who can get away with it. For all others, the insurance does not take part.
Disney
Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny
Did you film this on a real train?
That was a real train and it actually ran. However, there were more trains. A version was recreated in the studio.
Were you sometimes scared on the roof at that speed?
The trains did run, but not at such high speeds. The thing is, the bigger the action in a movie like this, the more chopped up the shots. A second of this, a second of that – it all ends up being put together in the editing room, even though it was shot in completely different locations.
What was it like choking Harrison Ford with a whip?
That was fun! We tried to push everything to the extreme. That is the principle of these films. Making the nasty as mean as possible, the funny as funny as possible and the action as absurd as possible. The charm of the series is that Indiana Jones is never in control. He just barely gets away with it. And Harrison pulls that off great.
The film thinks a lot about time and the past. If you could choose a place in history, where would you go?
I think we live in a period in human history where we are very fortunate. It won’t get any better in a few decades, quite the opposite. If I remember growing up as a kid in the 60’s… and before that, a hundred years ago… everything sucked then too. I have the greatest luck with my lifetime and don’t need anyone else.
Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny has been in cinemas since June 29, 2023.