Matthew put aside the matter of Zack Snyder and 300 spartans for now, letting Helen Herman keep an eye on it. He still had the filming of mr. & mrs. smith to complete.
After returning to the set, Matthew and Charlize Theron first went to the wilderness of nearby Nevada to shoot some exterior scenes. This part of the filming was short, taking less than five days to complete. The crew then went to Atlanta to shoot some exterior city scenes. Near late August, they returned to Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, where the most important and crucial part of the entire script, the Smith couple's domestic war, began.
The studio had been decorated into a luxurious home environment. The oak dining table was laden with various delicacies, and in the center of the table, there was a candelabra, making the dining Room warm and romantic.
However, the two people in the dining Room were at loggerheads.
After nearly a month of working together, Matthew and Charlize Theron were not only getting better but also developing a more tacit understanding.
As filming began, Matthew stood by the dining table with a bottle of red wine, looking at Charlize Theron who was seated at the table. He picked up the wine glass in front of Charlize Theron, poured her a glass of wine, and handed it over. Charlize Theron took the glass but did not drink, instead cautiously glancing at it before placing it on the table.
Matthew's eyes narrowed slightly, his gaze instantly sharp. His fingers suddenly loosened, and the wine bottle dropped towards the ground.
Charlize Theron seemed to react instinctively, reaching out to grab the wine bottle. Her arm was long enough, her palm large enough, and combined with her previous practice with Matthew, she easily caught the bottle.
Matthew looked at Charlize Theron with interest, and Charlize Theron was also looking at him.
At this moment, Director Doug Liman seemed to see sparks flying between them. One was wild like fire, the other cold and sexy; they were simply the perfect couple pairing.
Charlize Theron suddenly let go, and the wine bottle fell to the floor, the wine gushing out.
"I'll clean it up!"
"I'll get a towel!"
Matthew and Charlize Theron passed each other, each running towards their respective goals.
Two cameramen carrying Steadicams followed Matthew and Charlize Theron respectively. Matthew took off his suit jacket, casually hung it in the hallway, turned into the study, pulled open a drawer, and took out a black silenced pistol from the back of the drawer.
He held the gun with both hands, exited the study, cautiously looked around, and at the same time said, "Jane, where are you?"
"Great!" Director Doug Liman's voice rang out, "That's a take! Fifteen-minute break."
Matthew casually handed the pistol to the temporary assistant who came over, unbuttoning his shirt as he walked towards the dining table in the Room, taking it off and handing it to the approaching costume designer. He was left with only a vest on his upper body. He came to the dining table, pulled out a chair to sit down, and the costume designer had already returned with another shirt.
Matthew spread his arms, allowing the costume designer to help him change.
Charlize Theron had also changed her clothes by this time, entering the dining Room from the other side, pulling out a dining chair, and sitting across from Matthew.
After changing clothes,
Matthew also sat down.
"Are you ready to be beaten black and blue by me?" Matthew asked deliberately.
"You'll be beaten by me," Charlize Theron smiled. "Most of the scenes where you hit me are stunt doubles."
As soon as they finished speaking, Director Doug Liman walked over, pulled out another dining chair, and sat down. He first looked at Matthew, then at Charlize Theron, and said, "For these next few scenes, except for the initial gunfight, all other hand-to-hand combat should make as much use of kitchen utensils and other household items as possible."
Matthew and Charlize Theron both nodded.
Doug Liman emphasized, "You must always remember, this is a domestic war and a marital war."
He didn't say much more. This was, after all, a simple and light commercial entertainment film, and neither he as the director nor Matthew and Charlize as the leads needed to over-interpret the script or delve into the characters' inner worlds.
If they really did that, a purely commercial entertainment film would be not far from ruin.
Not just Doug Liman, Matthew thought the same. Ever since playing the scorpion king in the mummy returns, he had never deeply explored the inner world of his characters. On one hand, the character settings were inherently simplified, and on the other hand, the films being shot couldn't slow down the pace to express these things.
During the preparation period, he had discussed this with Doug Liman, who specifically brought up The Matrix trilogy, considering the Wachowski Brothers to be excellent negative examples. The Matrix Part 1 prioritized entertainment value, appropriately incorporating some deeper elements within the entertainment, but the film wasn't about exploring depth; rather, it made depth serve entertainment, thus achieving huge success, especially in terms of reputation. The later videotapes and DVDs sold like crazy.
However, in the subsequent two sequels, the Wachowski Brothers did the opposite, resulting in a decline in reputation. The Matrix Reloaded was somewhat better, as it had the foundation of the first film, and its box office performance was also impressive, but by The Matrix Revolutions, both box office and reputation plummeted.
Doug Liman also said at the time that if the Wachowski Brothers couldn't change their production philosophy and continued to play with such esoteric concepts in commercial blockbusters, like the latter two The Matrix films, they would surely fare worse and worse.
For today's commercial entertainment films, fast pace and a simple, clear plot are indispensable conditions for success.
After giving instructions, Doug Liman left the dining Room, and the Action Director entered, coordinating the action shots with Matthew and Charlize Theron.
What was to be filmed next was a true domestic war.
During the fifteen-minute break, Matthew and Charlize Theron were never idle. Filming then resumed, with the two taking turns, opening fire on scenes from the bedroom to the kitchen, from the kitchen to the hallway, and from the hallway to the living Room, completely wrecking the meticulously arranged sets with the precise assistance of the pyrotechnician.
After the gunfight, the two engaged in a fierce brawl. There were no long takes here, mostly short shots of two to three seconds each. And unlike Matthew, in parts of the scene where Mr. Smith brutally beat Mrs. Smith, Charlize Theron had to use a stunt double.
At the same time, the meticulously prepared photo frames, wall clocks, kitchen utensils, and vases from the prop department all became their combat weapons.
Like a real couple fighting, Matthew and Charlize Theron trashed the carefully arranged house.
Doug Liman had previously told Matthew that the dramatic relationship between mr. & mrs. smith could not rely solely on the actors' performances; their surroundings should also carry some implications, and their suburban house became a ready-made "prop."
This was not just a space for living, eating, and sleeping, but a place that constantly hinted at a marriage dangerously close to destruction, a life filled with too many secrets, lies, and weariness.
The couple's house was designed to be very luxurious, complex in style, and highly spatial, yet it was stiff, lacking warmth and soul, more like a showplace than a home. Even after living in this house for six years, there were still untouched spaces for John Smith and Jane Smith, respectively—those hidden, hard-to-find "secret compartments" symbolizing the true identities of the people living there.
For example, John Smith's seemingly ordinary tool shed had a cellar-sized hidden space containing piles of cash, rocket launchers, grenades, and various pistols; and Jane Smith's advanced oven, essential for a housewife, was actually a secret storage Room for high-tech weapons... Until John Smith and Jane Smith revealed their true identities, this house, symbolizing their discordant relationship, was also razed to the ground.
In the words of Director Doug Liman and screenwriter Simon Kinberg, this scene, seemingly a death game between two highly trained ace killers, actually forces them to confront many issues faced by married couples: intense affection turning into weariness and deception over time, living under the same roof but without spiritual communication.
John Smith and Jane Smith both possessed extraordinary abilities beyond what ordinary people could dream of, but what they were fighting for was not to kill each other, but how to live a lifetime with another person.
After three days of filming this action sequence, it reached its concluding stage.
In the ruined living Room in front of the camera, Matthew and Charlize Theron faced each other with guns, their muzzles aimed at each other's vital points.
At first, their eyes were sharp and their expressions fierce, like a quarreling couple who wished to immediately shoot each other in the head.
Matthew looked at Charlize Theron; her face was stained with blood, and her facial muscles were constantly moving.
After this collaboration, he realized that the acting skills of this oscar best actress winner were roughly on par with his own, and he fully understood that in this day and age, those who won Oscar acting awards might not necessarily rely solely on acting.
After a few seconds of confrontation, Matthew's expression softened, and he sighed softly, being the first to lower his gun, saying, "I can't do it."
Charlize Theron suddenly gripped her phone, closed her eyes, seemingly wanting to shoot, and yelled in a raised voice, "Come on! Keep going! Come on!"
"If you want to..." Matthew threw his gun away. "Shoot."
Charlize Theron's finger was on the trigger, but she couldn't bring herself to do it multiple times, finally blurting out, "I... I can't do it!"
Matthew stepped forward, pushed aside Charlize Theron's pistol, grabbed her long, strong arm, and pressed her against the flat wall behind.
However, filming for this scene stopped here, because the subsequent scenes were of a larger scale, and Charlize Theron's contract contained a clause requiring the set to be cleared for filming.