The Equalizer 3 isn’t just the end of a trilogy for director Antoine Fuqua; it also marks the end of a personal journey he wasn’t expecting.
“I find violence to be horrible. It is horrible,” the filmmaker confessed. “In the first one, it was kind of fun and light, then in the second one, it was brutal, but it wasn’t as extreme. There’s something about me being where I’m at a point where violence is more horrific to me, and I probably want to make stories without any violence for a few years.”
The third and final film in the series sees Denzel Washington reprise the role of Robert McCall, reuniting him with Fuqua for a fifth time. The retired assassin finds himself in a sleepy Southern Italy fishing village, but before long, he sees the signs of a community living in fear of crime lords. A bloody battle ensues as McCall fights to bring back tranquility to the community that has taken him in as one of their own.
As it was the final stop on the character’s journey, Fuqua wanted to go all out with The Equalizer 3.
“A shift is happening,” the director mused. “Me and Denzel committed to The Equalizer 3 before I did Emancipation. After Emancipation, I felt a certain way about where I’m going to go with my career now, but I wanted to make sure if we were going to do this one, that I wouldn’t leave anything on the table.”
“I felt this one was more personal than the other two,” Fuqua continued. “It was more about McCall’s internal battle, what he was dealing with, and finding a place to settle in. The first film was more about purpose, the second was about making peace with his past, and this one was more about him and where he is now. That allowed me to make it more character-driven.”
Did the director’s own life influence his decision to put movie violence behind him, for the time being, at least?
“That’s an excellent question, and the answer is ‘Probably,'” he explained. “I have kids, I’m getting older, and when that happens, you start asking yourself certain questions.”
As well as reuniting longtime collaborators Fuqua and Washington, The Equalizer 3 also reunites the actor and Dakota Fanning, who last starred together in Man on Fire. Fanning was a ten-year-old girl at the time, but as she’s grown up, the pair have become close friends in real life.
“It made my life easier,” Fuqua confirmed. “There’s a natural rhythm and love they have for each other that is genuine. Also, for the audience, there’s a built-in backstory in a way, even though it’s not connected directly. You’re used to seeing that young girl in Man on Fire and younger than Denzel, so it’s a natural transition to see them together again here.”
“Bringing Dakota on board came out in the process early on. One of my producers, Todd Black, called me and said Dakota was interested, so I was like, ‘I’ve got to meet her right now, this afternoon.’ We met, and I fell in love with Dakota like everyone else.”
As well as being one of Washington’s favorite places, shifting the location of The Equalizer 3 to Italy offered new opportunities for the filmmaker, his team, and the story. However, it also created challenges for the production.
“You got to bring everything you need, and you’ve got to be patient,” Fuqua revealed. “They work at a different pace. You’re in their town, and you’re not going to tell the 80-year-old lady walking up the street that she’s got to move because you’ve got a shot. That’s not going to happen. You’ve got to shoot through all that good stuff. If people’s babies are crying upstairs, you’re not going to go knock on the door and tell him not to.”
“You have to change your thinking and slow down, bring everything in, even the lighting. Italy’s known for cinema, so they have some infrastructure, but for the most part, you’ve got to do everything in those small towns. Our cinematographer, Bob Richardson, had to put up scrims and bring lights, trucks, and everything because there was nothing there. It was a fishing town. He wanted the movie to have a unique look to Italy because you want to avoid falling into the postcard world. Bob is not that guy. I knew I had a darker spin on it, so you know who better than Bob Richardson?”
Richardson, someone Fuqua describes as “magical,” agreed to shoot The Equalizer 3 after working with the director on the historical thriller Emancipation. Filming on location in Italy was a reality check for both of them, something Fuqua didn’t expect but welcomed.
“We come in with our Hollywood energy, and then you find yourself. We had to walk up these steps; there was something like 700 of them, and the guy that would take us up was about 75 or 78 years old,” he said. “Me and Bob were sucking for air, and this guy was cruising up like it was nothing. He would look back at us like, ‘What?’ It reminded us to slow down. You’re going to get where you’ve got to get to; it’s going to happen, and that’s humbling and refreshing. It makes you take a look at everything in your life.”
“Sometimes you think you know where you are going, and then something happens in life, and you have to stop and take stock. You have to make sure that even if you think you’re doing it for the right reasons, especially when it comes to violence in movies, you have to pause to ensure you’re not enjoying that too much.”
Fuqua wrapped production on The Equalizer 3 in January; seven months later, it lands in theaters. The director admits he was still finishing the movie up to the wire.
“I edited quite a bit with Conrad Buff in Italy; we had him out there with us as we filmed. That helped me quite a bit to get it done at a certain pace,” he revealed. “I’m obviously very familiar with the character and the franchise, which helps. However much time you have, it’s still never enough, ever. Honestly, they just took the film out of my hands Friday, and they had to rip it out. I was still tweaking and trying to do some things.”
A perfectionist, would Fuqua ever like to go back and tweak any of his other films?
“Absolutely,” he laughed. “If I could go back and recut all of them, I would. I absolutely would.”
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