Director/Producer Baltasar Kormákur and Charlize Theron on the set of APEX. Cr. Kane Skennar/Netflix © 2026
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Why did you decide to set and shoot the film in Australia?
Baltasar Kormákur: When I was first sent the script, it wasn’t necessarily supposed to be Australia. It was set in America, but we needed to shoot in a warm climate at a specific time of year, so the Southern Hemisphere came into play. Then, for economic reasons, Australia became one of the options. As I started looking into it, I felt it was actually a great idea to locate the film here and really use Australian nature, which is unique, and build the film around that more. That choice took us down a very particular path.
What was that path, and how does it relate to your love of practical filmmaking?
Kormákur: When I read the script, it felt very visceral to me — almost existential. Through action, through horror, through hardship, you reveal the characters, and that’s always been important to me. I’m from a country [Iceland] where the weather changes every five minutes; you’re up against nature your whole life. It becomes a big part of who we are, and I wanted to use the landscape in that way. I like that when you buy a ticket to a movie, it can take you on a journey. You can travel through film. I want the audience to feel they’ve been in the place, that they’ve felt it, and almost smelled it. That’s hard to achieve. You can build amazing things in a studio, but for me, it starts from the ground up, from real experience in nature. We find the places first and then build into them. Some of what we’re doing would be too hard, or impossible, to fake. By using nature and real locations as much as we can, you bring the audience into a world and an experience that’s all too rare in cinema today.
How did the challenging locations inform the production?
Kormákur: I think they shape everything. The obstacle is what you’re looking for; the rub between your idea and the obstacle is often where art is created. When you don’t have obstacles, filmmaking becomes too contrived, too easy, and nothing feels real. For this level of filmmaking, you need technical solutions and some studio work to achieve certain things. But by starting the film out in nature, the hardship the actors and crew go through lives in them. Even when we get to the studio, it’s not “easy”—the floor is like real nature. We’re informed in every way, psychologically and physically, by the experience we’ve already had. And when you go to a location that’s really hard to get to, you see it differently. You take the
most from it. You don’t just say, “Let’s shoot this corner and get out.” You’ve worked so hard —
first to convince everyone it’s the right place, then to solve the logistics of getting people and
equipment there — that you’re going to turn every stone. Literally.
With such demanding conditions, how did you motivate everyone to go on this journey with you?
Kormákur: We really worked as a team. I was the instigator, the igniter. I was the one who said, “Let’s go there and do it.” But then the team came with me, and it became a collective effort. I might be the one who takes the first stroke when we swim to a location, but I’m not the one carrying all the equipment. There’s a lot of hard work behind this. The actors have to perform in these conditions. They’re wet for 12 hours, they’re cold, they’re uncomfortable. I can take credit for pushing the idea, but many people have to work incredibly hard so we can achieve it. From the beginning, we were very clear with everyone: This is what it’s going to be. Of course, there were moments where people thought, “What’s wrong with this Icelandic director? Why is he bringing us here?” But in the end, I think people valued it. Most of us get into filmmaking because we want to experience something, to see something — not to spend our lives in a green-screen studio, even though the business tends to drag you there. On this project, I felt a lot of people saying, “Thanks for bringing me here. This is amazing.”
Many Australian crew members had never been to some of these locations. They’d say, “I didn’t know this existed.” And for the actors as well, it gave them a huge amount to work with. What were some of the trickiest locations you shot in?
Kormákur: There were caves in the Grand Canyon [in Australia’s Blue Mountains National Park] that were really hard to get to. Even just to scout them, we had to swim; there’s no other way in. I remember the first time I went there, I just kept swimming, then walking barefoot over very rough terrain, until I found something and thought, “This is exactly what we need.” And, of course, it was the furthest you could possibly go. That’s how it always is. Then came convincing everyone that it was worth it. Eventually, I was there with the whole crew, producers included, swimming to the location. It was like, “Look at that — people are actually ready to do things. You just have to convince them.”
How did the landscape itself surprise you or reshape scenes once you got there?
Kormákur: When you allow nature to start shaping things, it brings you ideas and grounded solutions. You can’t be in a real environment like this and then rely on fake gestures. That changed and shaped a lot of what we did. If you have a real environment and a fake scene, it just doesn’t work. You have to find the truth. The landscape puts pressure on you: We can’t just do the same contrived solution you see in every other Hollywood thriller. We have to find a different way.
What was it like working with Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, and Eric Bana?
Kormákur: I’m lucky to have them. These are top-class actors. Charlize is a legend, and even when you work with the best of the best, it still surprises you how good they can be when they really dig in. With Charlize, there were several moments where she found something new in an emotion we’ve seen a thousand times on screen. That amazes me. What she had to go through physically as Sasha in this film is punishing — nobody should have to go through that. We really pushed it to the limit, but her resilience is incredible. Taron’s role is very different but also very challenging. I’d been following his career and knew
he was an incredibly talented young man. Even so, he managed to surprise me with how unexpected his choices were, how he gave his character, Ben, a whole new life. It’s a tricky role, and I feel we explored almost every possibility with it. He was very willing to go on the journey and try different things. And I also want to mention Eric Bana, who plays Tommy and created a great relationship with Charlize in the early scenes. He’s an excellent actor as well.
Charlize is known for throwing herself into stunt-heavy work. How would you describe her dedication to this film?
Kormákur: You couldn’t ask for more. She’s climbing rock faces I wouldn’t go on. The physical endurance she’s shown is incredible, and I think it really shows in the film. Probably the most striking example is that jump off the cliff into the pool. That was very early in the shoot. She said, “I want to do that,” and I thought, “Oh shit, that’s high.” She jumped, and then she wanted to do it again and again: “I’ll do it better.” You could see the producers’ faces around me: “Before anything happens, please stop this.” It was fantastic because it told me, “OK, she’s really into it. We’re going to do some serious stuff together.” But it’s a fine line. With talent at that level, if they want to do something again, there’s usually more to get, and often that ends up being gold in the movie. At the same time, you know they can hurt themselves. So it’s a very delicate balance between protecting them and not shutting down something special.
Charlize Theron: “This movie really fired up my brain. When I read the script, I couldn’t put it down and it stayed with me. There was something about the simplicity of it that I found beautiful — not simple in a negative way, but beautiful in its simplicity and not trying to be contrived. It felt very pure but with great impact. The bite and the kick were so strong in what it was trying to accomplish without bells and whistles, and I loved that. I was excited by the idea of it being pretty much a two‑hander with me and Taron and pushing physical storytelling to its extreme.”
