Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, follows the story of an elite Navy SEAL who uncovers an international conspiracy while seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife. The film takes us through the explosive story of action hero John Clark. (For those not familiar, he’s one of the most popular characters in author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe.) When a squad of Russian soldiers kills his family in retaliation for his role in a top-secret op, Sr. Chief John Clark (Michael B. Jordan) pursues the assassins at all costs. During a press Q&A with the cast of Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, Michael B. Jordan and Jodie Turner-Smith discussed their dynamic and what it took to achieve an authentic on-screen relationship.
Jodie Turner-Smith discusses their on-screen dynamic in Without Remorse
Throughout the film, Sr. Chief John Kelly (Clark) (Michael B. Jordan) is seen with fellow SEAL Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith). Greer is with Kelly from beginning to end and by his side both as a fellow soldier and as a friend. That friendship and loyalty are particularly important throughout the movie. There is no way that John Kelly would have been able to get by without her help. Greer’s compassion and empathy for John Kelly are clear when she releases a variety of classified information. She even joins him on missions in order to help Kelly.
When Amazon announced the Without Remorse cast, rumors hinted that Karen Greer might be a possible love interest for John Kelly. But as it turns out, the love interest is Pam Kelly, John Kelly’s slain wife. Lauren London plays Pam Kelly in the film. When asked about how they were able to pull off an authentic and platonic relationship the cast had a lot to say.
Filming Without Remorse
Jodie Turner-Smith mentioned how much care and respect goes into filming these scenes between two characters. The characters clearly love each other in a friendly way. For Smith, honoring that platonic friendship and that relationship is so important:
“I think that is so important, you know, every time you speak to somebody, your relationship is alive in that conversation. And whether you’re actually talking to them about something that is concerning your relationship or not, you know it’s the trust that you have, the respect that you have, the love that you have, it’s always alive when you speak to someone that you have a relationship with. And it always so important to me and to Michael that we try to infuse that in our scenes.”
Turner-Smith also discusses how her character deals with trying to be a good friend even if she doesn’t necessarily understand what he is going through. These relationships are not seen onscreen often enough. Where it is strictly a platonic type of love. Often in these types of dynamics, it’s a situation of unrequited love and so it’s refreshing to see a relationship like Greer and Kelly’s. “I think it’s really wonderful and really brave to have a relationship where it’s just talking about and really displaying platonic love, you know what I mean. Which I think is the purest form of love that there is. And these two are deeply bond by that. “
Michael B. Jordan makes their on-screen relationship clear
Micheal B. Jordan responded to Turner-Smith’s comments. It was important to him as a producer to work through finding that balance between the camaraderie and that brother-sister relationship. He wanted to make sure that the audience truly understood the nature of that that relationship. Key was defining those dynamics in relationships but to also be very respectful to John’s relationship with Pam Kelly (played by Lauren London).
“And you know we didn’t want anybody to assume or try to forward think that the relationship will go down a road that it wasn’t supposed to. We wanted to make sure we honor, you know, John’s motivation throughout this movie. And that was something that we kept a close eye on as we developed those scenes.”
Jordan then goes on say that” I think we found a pretty good balance between the two.”
This film is the first movie to come out of Jordan’s production company, Outlier Society and is directed by Stefano Sollima. Produced By Akiva Goldsman, Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec, and Michael B. Jordan and Executive Produced By Denis Stewart, Alana Mayo, Greg Lessans, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger, the film will be available on Prime video on April 30th.
