On Set: Savages

OLIVER STONE TAKES US BEHIND THE SCENES OF HIS FEROCIOUS NEW THRILLER.

By Fan Zhong
Photograph by Lauren Greenfield

“Drug queen Elena (Salma Hayek) in her signature blue top. We were shooing in late August on a high mesa northeast of LA, and there was so cover. It was hot and challenging.” Photographs by Lauren Greenfield July 2012 Read more: http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2012/07/oliver-stone-savages-on-set-ss#ixzz2ICEafmBA

“This is me with Blake Lively, who plays Ophelia (or “O”), at Ben and Chon’s house. It’s meant to be in Laguna Beach, but we shot in Malibu. She plays the boys’ lover—one third of the threesome.” Photographs by Lauren Greenfield July 2012 Read more: http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2012/07/oliver-stone-savages-on-set-ss#ixzz2ICFtRjHG

“John Travolta, in his official uniform. His character is a wiggly, hard-to-figure-out DEA agent who embodies all the problems with fighting the drug war.” Photographs by Lauren Greenfield July 2012 Read more: http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2012/07/oliver-stone-savages-on-set-ss#ixzz2ICG45TrH

“Taylor Kitch plays Chon, whose scars are the result of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Navy SEAL. He’s come back to California with damange not just to his face but also to his soul.” Photographs by Lauren Greenfield July 2012 Read more: http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2012/07/oliver-stone-savages-on-set-ss#ixzz2ICGGcl9s

“Sandra Echeverria, a lovely young actress, getting some makeup retouched—sheplays Elena’s spoiled daughter. I hear she’s a bit of a star in Mexico.” Photographs by Lauren Greenfield July 2012 Read more: http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2012/07/oliver-stone-savages-on-set-ss#ixzz2ICGUYbRl

“Chon (Taylor Kitch) and Ben (Aaron Johnson), ready for a showdown. Chon is given to action, but Ben wants to negotiate—in a world where it’s way difficult to do so.” Photographs by Lauren Greenfield July 2012 Read more: http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2012/07/oliver-stone-savages-on-set-ss#ixzz2ICGpyQph

“Benicio Del Toro plays an enforecer for Elena’s drug cartel. He’s a bad man, but Benicio is too sensitive an actor not to portray some humanity in him.” Photographs by Lauren Greenfield July 2012 Read more: http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2012/07/oliver-stone-savages-on-set-ss#ixzz2ICH0FTSa

For major Hollywood studios, Fourth of July weekend typically sees the ­un­­leashing of pirates, robots, vampires, superheroes, and extraterrestrials in multiplex ­seat-fillers—not exactly the cinematic sweet spot for our most consistently controversial auteur. “It’s all new to me,” says Oliver Stone, whose latest film, Savages, is out July 6. (The only other time one of Stone’s 19 movies opened during the summer was when Natural Born Killers premiered in late August of 1994—“during the dog days,” the director says with a laugh. “The studio didn’t have much faith in that one.”) The oft-­misunderstood Stone has been called many things—a ­paranoid propagandist (JFK), an advocate of corporate greed (Wall Street), a misanthropic menace to society (Natural Born Killers)—but never a director of easygoing popcorn fare.

Read more: http://www.wmagazine.com/celebrities/2012/07/oliver-stone-savages-on-set#ixzz2ICECNnl3