Close premiere: On the red carpet with Noomi Rapace, Vicky Jewson and Sophie Nélisse

Action-packed Close is landing on Netflix to spice up the gloomy end of January. The movie is fuelled by adrenaline: a thriller about women, trust and bravery, mostly set in the exotic scenery of Morocco. Not new to fight sequences, Noomi Rapace stars in the film as the sharp-witted Sam, expert bodyguard and master of weapons. She is on duty protecting young heiress Zoe (Sophie Nélisse) when a brutal attack occurs. In a sequence of life-threatening episodes, the two women are forced to forgo the standard distance between client and bodyguard, facing major challenges for both of them.

Writer and director Vicky Jewson worked closely with Jacquie Davis, who is the inspiration for the storyline. One of the leading female bodyguards in the world, Davis helped to bring a badass character to life and to quickly teach Rapace how to breathe and think like a walking war-machine. The aim was to revise the stereotyped idea of male-dominated security services and deliver a female protagonist who is strong and violent, but in the words of Rapace, her portrayal “doesn’t need to be sexy, it just needs to be real”.

We were at the premiere of Close at the May Fair Hotel to talk with the cast and meet the real-life bodyguard Jacquie Davis.

Rapace talked about female directors and Netflix as a democratic platform for the film industry, and she explained how the training for the movie influenced her lifestyle.

Jewson told us what motivated her to write and produce the feature, what it was like working with Rapace and the experience of shooting in Morocco.

Nélisse chatted about how the movie champions female characters and how Noomi inspired her during filming.

Eoin Macken spoke about the complexity of his character and the accessibility of Netflix as a global platform.

Cristiana Ferrauti
Video: Marta Starczynowska 

Close is released on Netflix on 8^th January 2019.

Watch the trailer for Close here: