You never know where your career will lead you. Look at Liam Neeson, once Academy Award-nominated for his starring role in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Years later, he took on the persona of a Hollywood action star with Taken and many of his subsequent films. Then there’s John Cena, who started his professional career years ago as a successful wrestler. Years later, he’s starring in not just action films, but also comedies in Hollywood. What might be the common denominator between the two stars? Meet filmmaker Pierre Morel, who MovieWeb was fortunate enough to interview both last year (for Morel’s film The Ambush) and again just recently.

Morel spoke to us about his new action-comedy Freelance, which certainly has franchise appeal for a likable frontman like John Cena. The movie title sheds light on the conflicted central character Cena plays, Mason Petit, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier who now works a dead-end job as a grumpy lawyer, handling clients he simply cannot stand. Not yet ready for retirement, Mason takes a sort of “freelance” gig that his comrade (Christian Slater) hooks him up with: private security. And why not? It’s a nice chunk of change, but Mason soon learns he is perhaps in for more than he bargained for, as his job takes him to a dangerous location down in South America to protect an ambitious journalist (Allison Brie) from harm’s way as she desperately tried to get the scoop — no matter the cost.

Check out our interview with Morel below, or watch our video interview with him above.

The Perks of Freelance Were ‘Comedy and Location’

Morel’s recent film The Ambush is a tense, dramatic war thriller spoken entirely in Arabic. Freelance, meanwhile, is often laugh-out-loud, with well-known American actors speaking mostly English in a film that often doesn’t take itself too seriously — and that’s a good thing. “I wanted a fun movie, because most of my previous movies were dark, intense thrillers,” Morel told MovieWeb in discussing his radical shift in genres between these last two projects. “I was looking for one that could be actually comedic and still have some kind of underlying message about what the world is all about.”

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Besides the star power of folks like Cena, Allison Brie, and Christian Slater, there were a number of other perks in taking on a feature like Freelance. Says Morel:

It was the comedy, it was the location, although we didn’t know yet where we were gonna shoot, but we knew it was gonna be South America, and I never shot in South America. So yes, it was that, treated from a comedic perspective, dealing with dictators and corporations and all this very serious stuff that unfortunately are not that much fun in real life.

Another benefit of working with an action star like Cena is, well, he’s done action before. And he’s good at it. “The choreography was not that hard because, again, John has the physique already, and he has that sense to remember the choreography very easily,” Morel said in thinking about the challenges during the production process of Freelance. “The most trouble was not that there. It was with the weather or being in the jungle, the environment. But apart from that, I know the deal.”

For those not too familiar with Cena’s filmography, rest assured he’s done comedy before. Blockers is just one example where he plays a conflicted dad to perfection, the kind of guy who tucks his shirt into cargo shorts. “He’s proven that before, that he has the sense of humor and timing, which is spot on,” said Morel regarding Cena’s comedic chops. “In comedy, it’s all about the timing. But what the actors feel, you cannot direct that somehow. But it’s definitely in John.”

Liam Neeson vs. John Cena
Relativity Media

It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since another hit Morel film, Taken, hit the masses. Neeson’s hardboiled turn as a dad in distress is still being discussed by movie buffs today. “Liam was an actor and then became an action star. And John comes from wrestling, he’s an athlete,” said Morel in discussing his work with both actors. “So you have the physicality, but [John] is hilarious, so much comedic potential. And he has the perfect timing, improvising. He’s an entertainer. I mean, I was happily surprised both ways. I was surprised by Liam’s capacity to do action; I was surprised by John’s capacity to be a comedian.”

Related: John Cena’s Best Comedy Movies, Ranked

Looking ahead, Morel also opened up about what he’s working on next:

I’m in post production of the movie I did after this one, which is with Kate Beckinsale. And again, I’m back with my dark thriller genre. And then there are things cooking for next year, but nothing is set in stone.

Since Freelance has plenty of laughs, we had to ask Morel if he’d like to tackle the genre down the line. “I’d love to do some comedy. I think it’s really a different approach, and it’s a different way. And I like it, I had a lot of fun doing it,” he said. “But I’m open to whatever. I mean, I like action, obviously. I’ve never tried sci-fi and would love to do sci-fi or comedy. I would do another war movie with pleasure… It’s all about the script. If you find some connection with the script, either because it’s fun or because it’s an emotional journey that you like, I’m in.”

Count us in, too. From Relativity Media, Freelance is in theaters October 27.