During Cineplex Magazine's set visit in Toronto, the stars of
Total Recall were asked some very interesting questions about their characters, the experience of the film and how it is different from the 1990 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although most quotes are from Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel serves a good description of her character.
Q: The characters you play were in the original movie, but have they changed much here? How would you describe them?
Farrell:"I play Doug Quaid, who, very much like in the original, is a member of the proletiart, fairly low-level blue collar worker in a really good factory scheme. This is a man, Quaid, that doesn't feel like he is living the life that he should be and it just doesn't add up...And he begins to be told, and shown, that he's actually not who he thought he was, and that he's been a pawn in a much bigger game than he could have ever visualized. But he's just a normal regular Joe at the start and then he finds out that he's anything but; that there was a greater purpose to his life all along"
Biel: "In the backstory that we have all talked about, [Melina] has grown up in this family who has always been against this particular government and system that feels quite unfair and corrupt. She's very much this kind of underground soldier and this very strong, empowered, skilled, very able person. My character obviously understands a lot more than [Quaid does], which is terribly confusing for him."
Q: Do you see this movie being about his search for an identity, his search for truth?
Farrell: "Completely. This is, for me, the story of a man who's going from being unconscious to being conscious. A man who is going from being lost in the quagmire of his own irrelevant existence, or what he feels is irrelevant to something of more relevance or something of more substance that can take him through."
Q: Was it obvious from the script that this version of Quaid was very different from Arnold's version?
Farrell: "I noticed one thing: a lack of one-liner jokes, and no one does one-liners like Arnie. Do you know what I mean?"
While Cineplex has yet to upload the latest issue of their free magazine to the website, you can check out the past issue which focused on
The Amazing Spider-Man by clicking
here.