ComingSoon spoke with Off the Grid star Josh Duhamel about his latest action movie. Duhamel discussed the film’s MacGyver-like qualities, his co-stars, and his next directorial effort. Directed by Johnny Martin, Off the Grid is out now in theaters and on demand and on digital.
“After a morally-bankrupt company tries to weaponize a brilliant scientist’s revolutionary technology, he goes off the grid to safeguard humanity. When the company sends a strike force to find him, they make their biggest mistake of all – they weaponize the man they are trying to catch. Armed with unrivaled brains and brawn, the wild genius turns Guerilla warfare into a deadly science. Acclaimed actors Josh Duhamel and Academy Award Nominee Greg Kinnear star in this riveting action-packed thriller,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Josh, when you read the script, what aspect of Off the Grid really grabbed you and made you want to be a part of this project?
Josh Duhamel: Well, there were a few things. I got this script several years ago. It took us a couple years to get it off the ground, but we really loved it. I loved the idea of this guy living with just the bare necessities and left the real world and all the amenities that come with it to go hide out in the woods with just his innovation and his will to keep this out of the wrong hands.
So it’s the idea of living off the grid, which I also kind of do out here. It’s much nicer now than it used to be. Also, the gadgets. I just love the gadgets. He doesn’t use guns, he just uses things that he makes. That to me was really fascinating. I hadn’t seen that in a long time. Maybe MacGyver was the last time.
So, his ability to sort of innovate and neutralize the enemy without having to use guns. So it’s that. I thought the stakes were great with this cold fusion technology and how easily it could have been converted into something that was really bad for humanity. His intention was to use it as a form of free energy.
So there was this idea that he’s living in this peaceful life in a weird way. Something he’s sort of grown accustomed to and actually has an affinity for. But also there’s a tremendous loneliness that comes with that, this yearning for human connection. How does that affect you mentally?
There’s a lot of things that I just really liked about it. I just liked how basic it was and how gritty it was with tremendously high stakes.
love that you name dropped MacGyver. Because what really stood out as interesting to me was the action in Off the Grid, because you do get to do some badass stealth kills, but a lot of it is him using his intelligence and using technology that he is creating to gain an edge. What did you like most about that combination? Because it’s kind of the best of both worlds. You get to show off, but you’re also outsmarting people.
Yeah. I mean, this is a guy who is incredibly intelligent who’s responsible for this invention that’s worth trillions. If you really think about what it can provide for the world. And he’ll do anything to keep it outta the wrong hands.
So, he has to be innovative. He has to have ingenuity in what he does. ’cause he doesn’t have the basics to neutralize the enemy. He has to come up with these things that I think are really fun. I thought visually it would be a lot of fun to play. We spent a lot of time coming up with ideas on what those things might be and… [laughs] I can’t tell you how many times John now went back and forth, like, “What about this? What if we used a little propane tank, and we were able to screw like a nozzle on the top of it, like a hose. That could be a fire.”
We would just go through these. “[Or we could] put a tube on the end of it and we shaved down some bamboo sticks, and we use that. That’s his gun.” So it’s like this high powered bow and arrow using a little propane tank and some flame. What happens? I love that collaboration on things in work.
I love that collaborative nature that you’re bringing up. Do you feel like having directed in the past has made you want to collaborate more since you do have a more of a full picture view now?
For the longest time I didn’t feel like I belonged in this business. Like I was just faking it. I had serious imposter syndrome, but it wasn’t until I directed a movie that I felt like, “Okay, now I have a full grasp of what is asked of me as an actor.”
Because when you go through the developing of a script and you go through the casting and all the locations and the wardrobe and working how you’re gonna shoot these scenes with your DP and all the editing that goes into it. Even the marketing at the end of it. You start to get a full sort of 360 vision of what what you need to do – what your job is. Because you’ve done other people’s jobs and how [know] how important everybody’s jobs are around you, and now you know how to use the talents of everybody to make one vision sort of come true and rise up.
So I think that that has helped me tremendously as an actor knowing what that editor and what the director’s gonna need in the edit at the end of it. Giving them as much as many options as you can. So, yeah, it has helped me tremendously to actually be on the other side of the camera and direct.
I wanted to ask you about your co-star María Elisa Camargo in this. Because I thought you both had some interesting career parallels. She was a telenovela star. You obviously broke out in All My Children. You were in Call of Duty, she’s now in Call of Duty. This is her first English movie, I believe. What stood out about just working with her?
That girl has serious motivation. She is unbelievable. She would leave Columbia fly to LA. She had two days of work or something, and she would leave the show, fly straight there, do her job, and fly straight back.
And she really was excited and enthusiastic about being a part of the movie. And that shows. She’s a tremendous talent. And also I have mad respect for anybody who has that much drive to make something work. And she did. ’cause anybody else, this might not have worked.
My last question for you. I was a fan of the two Buddy Games movies. You’re back in the director’s chairs scene with Preschool. What can we expect in terms of tone from that movie? Will it be as raunchy as Buddy Games, or is it different?
No, it’s not gonna be as raunchy as Buddy Games. It is very funny though. We wanted to make something that’s a little bit more for the masses rather than guys who love dude comedies. That’s really what Buddy Games was. I was very, very proud of those movies, but you know, they’re not for everybody and we knew that.
This is about two dads who are fighting and undermining and sabotaging their way into getting their kid into the last spot in this preschool. And they’ll do anything to do it. So this is a movie that I think families will love it. It is still pretty hardcore comedy without being rated R. I think that anything I do in the comedy space will always have that just because I love hard hitting comedy. So yes, it will have elements, but it’s more for the masses than than those Buddy Games movies.
Thanks to Josh Duhamel for taking the time to talk about Off the Grid.
