‘Rebel Moon’ Star Staz Nair on His Showcase Flight Scene and the Twist He Dreaded Most

[This story contains spoilers for Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire.]

Every Zack Snyder film has a handful of sequences that even his fiercest critics can’t help but admire, and in the case of Rebel Moon, Staz Nair may have received the most rousing one of all.

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Nair, whose previous big break came in the form of a Dothraki warrior on the later seasons of Game of Thrones, now inhabits the role of Tarak, a former prince who’s lost his way for reasons that will become apparent in Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver and the extended R-rated director’s cuts of both films. The audience first meets an enslaved Tarak at Hickman’s (Ray Porter) ranch on Neu-Wodi, as Kora (Sofia Boutella) and Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) hope to recruit him for their newfound rebellion against Admiral Noble’s (Ed Skrein) hostile takeover of their Veldt farming village.

To earn his freedom and erase his debt to Hickman, the latter asks Tarak to break in a wild Bennu, but little does Hickman know that Tarak already has a long history with the mythical bird-like creature on his home planet. What results is the breathtaking “Flight of the Bennu” sequence that not only earns Tarak his freedom but also a chance at redemption alongside Kora and her rebels.

“When I did the audition with Zack, I said, ‘Zack, I feel like Tarak is talking to himself as much as he’s talking to the bird,’” Nair tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So I think the bird represents a life long gone. It’s another tether to his homeworld, and when he gets the opportunity to free the bird, he gets an opportunity to free himself, literally and metaphorically. So the symbiosis between himself and the bird is not just because they’re from the same planet; it’s because they’re in the same position.”

From Gerard Butler in 300 to Henry Cavill in Man of Steel, physical fitness has been a major component of Snyder’s filmography, and so the Rebel Moon cast were required to follow suit. Fortunately, their grueling training sessions created a genuine bond, so much so that a major story point became a source of dread among the group. (This is your second spoiler warning.)

Despite the efforts of Charlie Hunnam’s Kai to help Kora and Gunnar assemble a team of rebels on behalf of Veldt, the self-proclaimed “opportunist” was secretly serving them up to Noble’s Motherworld forces a la Lando (Billy Dee Williams) and DJ (Benicio del Toro) in the Star Wars franchise. However, Kai’s betrayal would ultimately lead to his death, as Gunnar finally acted courageously when it mattered most. This inevitable loss of Kai and Hunnam by extension weighed on the cast to such a degree that they would joke about Kai having a twin brother in hopes of keeping Hunnam around.

“The team made jokes about the fact that in the extended cut, there may or may not be a line where [Kai] goes, ‘Well, if you think I’m handsome, you should see my twin brother,’” Nair says. “So we forged this wonderful bond, collectively. I even had some of the actors come to my wedding. Charlie and I really got along very well … And so [Kai’s betrayal] really did suck. I know everyone says, ‘Oh, the cast is amazing! I love them! They’re the best! We really bonded,’ but I know it reflects in our behind-the-scenes … and in the relationships that exist on screen.”

In Rebel Moon’s first teaser trailer, there are shots of Tarak at a royal funeral, and screaming on a battlefield in full costume, and Nair confirms that these still-unseen moments will be in Part Two, as opposed to Part One’s extended cut.

“Part One is one side of the coin, and I’m certain you’re going to see those little snippets in Part Two,” Nair says. “As frustrating as it is and as easy as it is to look at it myopically, this was Netflix’s way of giving us two Snyder Cuts by splitting it all in half. Part One is [one-quarter] of the whole. So all of those things will be explained and understood within the second part, especially the extended versions of both. That’s hopefully going to give people a real insight into the rise and the fall of Tarak and where he started and where he’s ended up.”

Below, during a spoiler conversation with THR, Nair also discusses how he was nearly homeless when the Game of Thrones character of Qhono came his way. Then he explains the perfectly valid reason for why he was licking a rock on Rebel Moon’s Neu-Wodi ranch set

Is Nair pronounced a la Ne’er, or is it Nye-ear? 

Nye-ear, but to be fair, I called myself “Ne’er” for years. It was an element of wanting to anglicize my surname, and then I realized over the years that it was a hair removal cream. (Laughs.) I should also love and accept and understand my original culture, being Russian-Indian, and pronounce it the way you’d say it in Indian, which is Nye-ear.

Well, as much as I enjoyed Rebel Moon, I’m champing at the bit for the director’s cuts.

Likewise. It’s going to be an even deeper dive into not just the characters and the worlds themselves, but also the mind of Zack. This is something that he’s been creating for over three decades, so it’s very personal.

Normally, actors start off with a small role in a procedural TV drama or horror movie, but your first TV series was Game of Thrones and your first Hollywood movie is a Zack Snyder sci-fi epic. It doesn’t get much bigger than that.

Yeah, there’s some truth to that. I did a role on [the FX series] Tyrant that got scrapped, but I’d been working towards this for seven years. I started off working as a child actor back in the day. I was actually in a West End production of An Inspector Calls, so I was naturally inclined towards the creative arts. I play the piano, I compose, and so this relationship with creativity has been in my life professionally and personally for many years. But my first big break, I lucked out. I was actually living on my friend’s floor when I booked Game of Thrones. So that was a bizarre turn of events, and it was very surreal to go from sleeping on the floor to a job and a project as magnanimous as Game of Thrones.

How lengthy was your Rebel Moon casting process? 

It was actually nowhere near as lengthy as I had anticipated. Covid gave a different medium to the audition process, which meant that I didn’t even get to meet Zack in person. We did a wonderful Zoom call, and what I love about Zack is that he has such a clear idea of what he wants. The lore of this world spans hundreds of years in his mind. So he was so keen to talk, first and foremost, and to understand me a little bit, which was nice. We spent the first ten minutes talking about life and the fact that I used to foster dogs, pitbulls, and how I thought there was a beautiful nod to this in the relationship with the Bennu. So we just saw eye to eye with this character, and the producers said that as well. This was very humbling and my imposter syndrome still doesn’t know what to do with it, but they were like, “We saw your tape and we had no pushback. We were like, ‘This is the guy.’” So I was just very lucky for whatever reason. The producers and Zack envisioned Tarak with the same kind of essence that I managed to provide in the audition.

How quickly were you informed that your character would only receive a tiny fraction of the movie’s wardrobe budget?

(Laughs.) I was made aware pretty quickly. Regardless of your role in a Zack Snyder movie, the aesthetic and the ethos that goes into creating a physical presence is very present in his work. And it goes beyond just the physical and objectifiable attributes. It’s an opportunity to physically embody the attributes that a character such as Tarak would have, and it ends up informing your emotional and psychological work, because of the level of discipline, sacrifice, commitment and consistency that we needed to pull off the training regimen for seven or eight months, I stayed at five to six-percent body fat, which, beyond being impressive, is just tough and rigorous. And that absolutely informed the level of desperation and grit and tenacity that these characters have to have, so it was wonderful.

Part Two informs a fair bit of this, so without going into spoilers, the character didn’t start off without clothes. The remnants that he wears are talismanic. They are the last tethers to his enslaved world that he had to flee. In this movie, Tarak, hypothetically, could snap that chain and leave at any point, but he doesn’t because of his moral compass and his code of conduct. He also doesn’t leave because Hickman [Ray Porter] has his shawl, which is one of the last items that connects him back to his homeworld. So even though I’m glistening and obnoxiously ripped and all these crazy things that I’ve never really experienced before, my wife said that it was way too uncomfortable to sleep on. (Laughs.) So it’s not practical, shall we say. But besides that, there is a larger story and an informed reason as to why I’m half naked.

As you said, physical fitness is a significant part of Zack’s aesthetic, and you were following in the footsteps of his casts in 300 and all his superhero films. Did all of you feel the pressure of that high standard when you were training together? 

I don’t know if we felt that pressure, but I think we felt the honor. It was more like, “Okay, well I need to keep the standard.” When I have kids in the next five to ten years, I want to be able to show them that working hard and applying yourself and being persistent with something you want to achieve sometimes, not always, results in something to be proud of. So there was a shared feeling of unity for the cause and for the legacy that we were becoming a part of.

Was there a moment early on in production where you recognized firsthand why Zack has the reputation that he has?

I think I realized it beforehand. I’ve always been an absolute fan of Zack’s ability to combine beauty and brutality in such a poetic way. Visually, his films are just absolutely stunning. Back when I was homeless or couch-surfing or living on the floor, the concept of 300 was something that really related to me: the few against the many and achieving the impossible. I stayed with two friends in their house, and we called ourselves the Spartans for five to seven years. I’ve also been a big fan of Greek and Roman mythology. I’ve actually read most of The Iliad. I can’t lie and say I’ve read all of it. (Laughs.) It’s a tome. But starting with 300 and Watchmen and everything else, I came into this with the idea and the feeling that I was fortunate to be a part of it.

As you touched on already, we meet Tarak at a time when he’s enslaved by Ray Porter’s character, Hickman. He owes a substantial debt to him. Do you have a sense of what that debt was? Or will one of the upcoming releases show us how he ended up in this position? 

What will be explained is how he got there. I can’t share my backstory, but we’ll get the context for how he started on his planet and why he had to escape. The debt itself is somewhat irrelevant. To me, this scene represents a man who is choosing to be there, whether it’s self-flagellating or whether it’s, “I deserve this,” for the guilt of things you’ll find out in Part Two. (Laughs.) Or it’s, “I put myself in this situation. I’m a product of my own experiences and my own actions, and I have to take responsibility for this. Otherwise, I’m not the man I claim to be.”

The way I imagine it is that Tarak, over the last 10 to 12 years, has spent most of the time either trying to escape the fact that he had to leave his world or chastising himself for it. With a lot of these characters, redemption is obviously the core theme, and there’s this great need to suffer if we can’t fix the problem. And then Tarak meets this gang of individuals who are bold enough to take on the impossible. Like the Spartans, it’s the few against the many.

Tarak also has this symbiotic connection with the Bennu, and the bird itself is from his home planet. When I did the audition with Zack, I said, “Zack, I feel like Tarak is talking to himself as much as he’s talking to the bird.” So I think the bird represents a life long gone. It’s another tether to his homeworld, and when he gets the opportunity to free the bird, he gets an opportunity to free himself, literally and metaphorically. So the symbiosis between himself and the bird is not just because they’re from the same planet; it’s because they’re in the same position.

So the debt is only relevant to understand the kind of person that he is, and for the last ten years, he has chosen to stay in this state of suffering and non-redemption. He does not believe he is even worth the opportunity for redemption, but the combination of the bird and these rebels coming together gives him that strength. So we will find out more throughout the world building that happens.

What was the process behind filming Tarak’s flight of the Bennu?

So the physical process behind the flight of the Bennu was actually a lot more practical than people might assume, which is why the CGI mixed with the physical aspect of it makes it so believable, visually. We did stunt training for weeks beforehand, and Zack built a kind of mechanical bull. It went upwards to about 24 feet in under one or two seconds, and I was harnessed to this wide saddle and body cavity. The stunt team was phenomenal and very diligent in making sure that I was always safe. At the end of the shots, they’d add the head just for the CGI guys, but there were times where it felt somewhat like a rollercoaster ride. It was fantastic for me as an actor because it gave me some of the physical elements. It gave me the wind and the motion that could really allow me to find my way of riding this thing versus imagining what it would be like. So it was tons of fun.

So I heard that you found a fossil or egg of some sort near the Hickman’s ranch set, and that you did a very particular test to figure out what it was. What’s the story there?

I actually got a paleontologist to check on this. So, like many of us, I’m a nerd for many things, and one of my favorite passions is archeology or paleontology. I’ve just always had a weird love for history and for fossils, specifically. And so I was taught by a friend of mine — and researchers at the Smithsonian also agree — to lick a stone or some kind of stone to tell if it is fossilized organic matter. Now, me being the over-passionate and overzealous individual that I am, I instantly saw the shape and assumed it was dinosaur egg, but it definitely wasn’t a dinosaur egg, sadly. I had a paleontologist from Portugal check it out, and he was like, “Basically, it is some kind of organic matter.” So it was a fossil, not a dinosaur egg.

But as they were setting up a shot, I ran onto set obnoxiously loudly. My ADHD was running riot, and I was very excited and very grateful to be in the position I was in, let alone then find a fossil on a set like this. So I ran onto set, screaming, “I got a fossil!” and I was licking it. So people now think I am absolutely insane, but it was a wonderful moment and a testament to my love for archeology.

A team of rebels is assembled, but Kai’s (Charlie Hunnam) double-cross on Gondival disassembles the team in short order, resulting in the presumed deaths of Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher) and Kai himself. Considering that all of you guys bonded in the gym and on set, did Kai’s inevitable betrayal hang over all of you? Did you dread its arrival? 

For sure. This is again a testament to Zack’s ethos and how he works. By putting us in training together, there was an inevitable level of camaraderie that was naturally forged through “suffering of solidarity,” as I like to say. There was this shared experience and shared struggle, and boy, was it a necessary struggle. It looked fantastic and inevitably brought us very close. The team made jokes about the fact that in the extended cut, there may or may not be a line where [Kai] goes, “Well, if you think I’m handsome, you should see my twin brother.” So we forged this wonderful bond, collectively. I even had some of the actors come to my wedding. Charlie and I really got along very well, and it started with those [training] conditions. And so [Kai’s betrayal] really did suck. I know everyone says, “Oh, the cast is amazing! I love them! They’re the best! We really bonded,” but I know it reflects in our behind-the-scenes. I know it reflects in the relationships that exist on screen as well, and Zack just knows how to collect beautiful, wickedly weird and wonderful people.

You and Michiel Huisman were both in that notable Game of Thrones episode called “Book of the Stranger” where Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) burns down that temple with all the Dothraki khals inside. And as has been pointed out many times already, Michiel took over the role of Daario from your Rebel Moon co-star Ed Skrein. So were there any jokes about this on set?

We kind of let that go by the wayside. It was [nine] years ago, but there were a couple of jokes here and there. Was it a coincidence? Was it intentional? Was Zack just a real big fan of Daario Naharis? But there wasn’t anything extensive there.

Lastly, we also discover that Tarak is a prince. He’s royalty. In the very first teaser trailer, we see him at a royal funeral and screaming on a battlefield in fancier attire, so will Part One’s extended cut have these elements?

Part One is one side of the coin, and I’m certain you’re going to see those little snippets in Part Two. There’s a reason why it’s not called Rebel Moon One and Rebel Moon Two. As frustrating as it is and as easy as it is to look at it myopically, this was Netflix’s way of giving us two Snyder Cuts by splitting it all in half. Part One is [one-quarter] of the whole. So all of those things will be explained and understood within the second part, especially the extended versions of both. Those moments are very informative to my character, and that’s hopefully going to give people a real insight into the rise and the fall of Tarak and where he started and where he’s ended up. And throughout the franchise, we’ll get more and more of an insight that will keep filling in the gaps.

***
Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire is now streaming on Netflix.

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