Armie Hammer & Nazanin Boniadi on “Hotel Mumbai”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, here we have a film, it is the fourth film about the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Tragically, 164 people were killed. I guess first and foremost, what made you want to do it? What attracted you to the film? Armie, first.

ARMIE HAMMER, ACTOR, “HOTEL MUMBAI”: The thing that attracted me to this film was the incredible script. This felt like a very intimate first-person point of view into one of the more sorts of atrocious terror attacks that happened in Indi and also the humanity there was in the script, even the humanity from the hotel guests, to the hotel staff, to even the gunmen and perpetrators. You see the toll that these events really took on everybody.

AMANPOUR: Nazanin?

HAMMER: I thought it was very beautifully told.

NAZANIN BONIADI, ACTRESS, “HOTEL MUMBAI”: I think the hotel serves as a microcosm of the greater world. I think you see people from all walks of life, various socioeconomic backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, races coming together in one place and all faced with the same horror and they have to sort of set aside their differences in order to overcome and survive. And that message of unity really resonated with me.

AMANPOUR: Well, you talk about the different socioeconomic backgrounds and, of course, you two play a couple of different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. You’re going to the hotel. Nazanin, your character’s mother is somehow connected as a VIP to the hotel. And you are, I believe, having dinner as this terror attack is unfolding, your son or your child is in the room. And this is the clip we’re going to play about the moment that unfolds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: I love you so much.Watch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need the police right now. Right now. We’ve called you five times. Please send someone. Sir, please, please.

HAMMER: My kid is upstairs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, please.

HAMMER: Do you have a family?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And I hope you stay alive and see them. (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: I mean, it’s quite chilling, it’s very chilling. You know, especially in light of this terrible, terrible attack that took place in New Zealand. And in that last bit of that clip, you see a body in the hall — in the hallway. And just explain what’s going on there, Armie. Because you’re going to try to save your son who’s in the room with his nanny, right. What unfolds in that scene between you and your wife there?

HAMMER: Yes. It’s just so gut wrenching, especially as a parent. I’m there trying to have a nice dinner with my wife to celebrate being in India, in this beautiful place, and then the attacks happen and I have to make the decision of do I stay with my wife or do I try to go get my son to protect him, knowing that the gunmen are going from room to room and basically exterminating people. It’s a terrible predicament to be in.