\n\tIt turns out that Mahoney kept rewatching The Old Guard throughout the ongoing pandemic. And she wasn\u2019t alone, as the film soon became one of Netflix\u2019s most viewed films at the time. Skydance CCO Dana Goldberg then nominated Mahoney to take the reins of the sequel once Prince-Bythewood exited for The Woman King. It was a logical hire given Mahoney\u2019s enthusiasm for the property, but also because she had just made history<\/a> as the first woman to direct on a Star Wars movie. Mahoney\u2019s tenure as second unit director on J.J. Abrams\u2019 The Rise of Skywalker (2019) meant that she was prepared for the scale of her second feature film and first action movie as a full-fledged director.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cJ.J. [Abrams] and Kathleen Kennedy, in their wisdom, essentially handed me a professional, creative, collaborative experience that would allow me to go anywhere and function at a high level without nerves,\u201d Mahoney tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of The Old Guard 2<\/a>\u2019s July 2 release on Netflix. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid in a way that people might think I should be. I don\u2019t have that fear.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Old Guard 2 picks up months after the first film, as Andromache\/Andy (Charlize Theron<\/a>) and her team of immortal warriors known as the Old Guard continue to operate with renewed vigor in order to better the world. That stride is interrupted by the sudden return of Andy\u2019s long lost immortal lover, Qu\u1ef3nh (Veronica Ng\u00f4), as well as the introduction of a mysterious immortal known as Discord (Uma Thurman). <\/p>\n \n\tThe second installment, which is currently reigning atop Netflix\u2019s top ten movie chart, ultimately ends on a massive cliffhanger involving a forthcoming rescue mission, and Mahoney reveals that she\u2019s awaiting closure just like the rest of the audience.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI can tell you that I am not in the room for any of those discussions, but I hope for audiences to have it. I hope for the cast and crew to have it. But I will be long gone,\u201d Mahoney shares. \u201cI have three different films that I\u2019m trying to balance, and however it goes, I hope that it works out in a really fun way whenever the decision is made. It would obviously be exciting to see what happens when they run out that door [at the end]. Who isn\u2019t curious to see where they\u2019re going?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBelow, during a recent conversation with THR, Mahoney also discusses Theron\u2019s character\u2019s practical walk through time, before revisiting an indelible memory of Daisy Ridley\u2019s \u201cDark Rey.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t***\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSo I thought I knew your backstory, but I found out some cool trivia recently. Your Sundance Lab advisor was the man they call \u201cMcQ,\u201d and that relationship continued to the point where you were giving valuable notes on Angela Bassett\u2019s character in <\/strong>Mission: Impossible \u2014\u00a0Fallout<\/strong>. Given that you both stress how important emotion is to action, is Christopher McQuarrie one of the people who helped ingrain that philosophy in you?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tFirst of all, I love that you did your homework in this capacity. That particular piece of trivia is dear to my heart; McQ is a very dear friend. I will say that I am a child of Korean action movies, so my connection to emotion and action comes from the amount of Korean films that I watch. Korean filmmakers and stunt teams do it so well and so honestly and so plausibly and so feverishly that it is just ingrained. So I actually didn\u2019t know we shouldn\u2019t be doing that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhat McQ did for me \u2014\u00a0by way of our geeky spitball discussions that are endless year upon year \u2014\u00a0is [making sure] you preserve the emotionality in action as much as any other aspect of the drama surrounding the action. One of the things I enjoy most about action-drama is having a little bit of drama buck right up against action and have them both stand on their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tCharlize Theron as Andy and Uma Thurman as Discord in Victoria Mahoney\u2019s The Old Guard 2<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEli Joshua Ade\/Netflix<\/p>\n \n\tBoth of your movies shared the same helicopter pilot, Fred North, but did you actually reference <\/strong>Fallout<\/strong>\u2019s helicopter sequence in preparation for <\/strong>Old Guard 2<\/strong>\u2019s helicopter sequence?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tNo, Charlize really wanted to play with the helicopter bit, and Fred North [helped brainstorm<\/a>]. Our building [that serves as the backdrop for the sequence] is false, but it\u2019s based on a Zaha Hadid design that I found. So the area allowed for only certain movements, and what we did was constructed based on the area that we had to play in and the parameters of the story. Dan Bradley, who\u2019s our second unit [director], was a fun champion on that sequence.<\/p>\n \n\tI remember you tweeting a glowing reaction to the first <\/strong>Old Guard<\/strong> well before it came out, so it made perfect sense to me when you were hired for the sequel. Did Gina Prince-Bythewood nominate you to take over once she committed to <\/strong>The Woman King<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tYou\u2019re endearing yourself to me in a thousand ways because I completely forgot about that. I [reacted] raw and real in the moment, so I love that you saw that. Dana Goldberg at Skydance put my name in the hat, and then Gina and I talked before, during and after. I sought her regard in respect to character aspects and the laws of immortality that she had set up in a wonderful way. So I wanted to make sure that I didn\u2019t betray any of the laws, and the opening sequence, which was great fun, was a template for us to run on [in that regard]. So I talked to Gina throughout to make sure that I was staying true to the DNA of the first.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t(L-R) Uma Thurman and Director Victoria Mahoney on the set of The Old Guard 2. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEli Joshua Ad\u00e9\/Netflix<\/p>\n \n\tThere\u2019s a really impressive sequence where Andy (Theron) walks through time to confront her past. How did you achieve that?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tIt was really fun, and just so you know, that was two takes. We rehearsed it on the day; there was no rehearsal prior. The goal was to achieve a sequence that allowed the audience to experience what it could potentially feel like for an individual who\u2019s been alive for thousands of years to move through a city or a town [that they\u2019ve frequented an untold amount of times]. When I go to any city where I\u2019ve traveled to many times, I have a memory every time I go back. When I turn a corner, a thought or a person or a thing comes up. So I felt that Andy would have memories of her dear ones in that place.<\/p>\n \n\tThe sequence was scripted to be heavier with battles and war, and while the structure of that was fun, it was a bit repetitive to what the audience already saw in the first film. I was aiming to reinforce the relationships and the lightness of her life, and this was a great place to have a reflection of her friends in this lighter, joyful space. I love Andy\u2019s face when she\u2019s walking and the way she receives light; the memories are palpable. We did that all in-camera. It\u2019s all practical. The only thing we did was color correction, of course, but before the bit at the end, the whole thing is in-camera. [DP] Barry Aykroyd and I rehearsed it with some of the PAs on the backlot at Cinecitt\u00e0 Studios [in Rome] with just our little pocket cameras.<\/p>\n \n\tEveryone got to participate in that sequence, and so I really enjoy that you brought it up because it\u2019s proof of what happens when all hands are on deck. Every single person who worked on the film caressed and massaged this sequence, including through post. So she really walks through those practical changes: the wardrobe, the people, the props.<\/p>\n \n\tThen she approaches Qu\u1ef3nh in a place they\u2019ve met before, and this beautiful figure-eight [shot] returns us back to real time. It was one of the places in the movie that we, as filmmakers, got to play in a way that was challenging and exciting. We were like, \u201cWill it work? Will it all come together?\u201d So I\u2019m proud of how everyone came together to make that scene really lovely.<\/p>\n \n\tI last <\/strong>spoke<\/strong><\/a> to you for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker<\/a>, and you likely picked up a ton of filmmaking hacks on that set. Did any of those tips and tricks come in handy here?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tYes, J.J. [Abrams] and Kathleen Kennedy, in their wisdom, essentially handed me a professional, creative, collaborative experience that would allow me to go anywhere and function at a high level without nerves. No matter how big a production I go on to do is, it\u2019s always going to be smaller than The Rise of Skywalker. In the battle sequence on the ship, I was shooting horses and fires; it was insane.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSo the hack is that I really approach each sequence on every job I\u2019ve done subsequently with a great sense of clarity, efficiency, communication, joy, interest and openness. I\u2019m not afraid in a way that people might think I should be. I\u2019m more afraid of not capturing the truth of a sequence, but I\u2019m not afraid that we won\u2019t all come together with form, functionality, communication and preparation to do whatever it is before us. I don\u2019t have that fear.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t Mahoney (right) with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohn Wilson\/Lucasfilm Ltd.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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