Hero Liev is a mover and shaker

By Lauren Krotosky - Thursday 29th 2010f July 2010


Liev Schreiber's film career has so far seen him act in some remarkable roles.

Who can forget his most recent one starring alongside Daniel Craig and Jamie Bell in Defiance, in which he portrayed the character Zus Bielski? As one third of the Jewish brothers who escape from Nazi-occupied Poland to the forests of Belarus to join the resistance, the trio endeavoured to build a village in order to protect themselves and others in danger.

Now, he will share the silver screen with Angelina Jolie in new release Salt, which hits our cinemas next month.

The film, a contemporary action thriller, sees Angelina star as CIA officer Evelyn Salt whose loyalty is tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to avoid being captured. Her efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues. Liev, who plays Ted Winter, Salt's boss at the CIA, found that it was mainly the fascinating questions at the centre of the story that propelled him to join the cast.

"After the fall of the Iron Curtain, what happened to all these spy agencies that were in place?" he says. "The agencies themselves might have been disbanded, but the people in them, the operatives themselves, didn't cease to exist. What if your colleague and close friend was one day identified as just such a person? These operatives were ingrained with modes of thinking that are now outdated in our contemporary political climate. I think that's the question that [the film's director] Phillip [Noyce] is interested in, and I was, too."

For Liev, watching Noyce at work was like attending a master-class. "Phillip is someone that as a filmmaker and as an actor I've always admired. The opportunity to watch him up close is worth the price of admission for me."

When he was first sent the script for Salt, he read through it very quickly. "It was a page-turner," he recalls. "I zipped right through it. It was a really fun read." He was also intrigued by the concept of the hunt for a sleeper spy, who has been living in deep cover with a new identity. "I have heard so many stories about undercover cops who have gone into deep cover for years at a time and then kind of lost themselves in their roles," he says. "They had become really confused about their allegiance and needed serious deprogramming once they were pulled out. This is the question that [Ted] Winter must grapple with as he's torn between wanting to help Salt and wanting to catch her. Can the person he knows so well really be someone else entirely?"

As well as being all-consuming emotionally, Liev found that his scenes were also physically taxing. "There is a tremendous amount of running in this film, more than I care to mention," he laughs. "Running in dress shoes and a suit - Harrison Ford always made that look so easy, but it is not easy. I spent the first two weeks of this film with shin splints, icing my legs every day."

As an actor who is predominantly known for serious dramatic roles in such films as The Manchurian Candidate and Defiance, Liev has also recently branched out into action with X-Men Origins: Wolverine as well as starring in the Scream horror film trilogy some years ago. "Liev is very politically aware and very thoughtful, so he is great to work with," says his co-star Angelina. "He takes the role seriously, and still has fun with it. He is one of the actors that doesn't sit back. He puts a lot of work in, and we knew when he came in that he was going to make his character better and stronger."

As well as starring in an undisputedly well-chosen bunch of films so far, in 2005 Liev also made his directorial debut with Everything is Illuminated, adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's bestselling novel of the same name. Prior to publication of the novel, Liev read an excerpt in The New Yorker, secured the rights himself, wrote the screenplay and subsequently brought the project to Warner. The film, which starred Elijah Wood, went on to be recognised by the 2006 National Film Board as one of the top ten films of the year.

Salt is released in cinemas nationwide on 20 August