With the upcoming release of Hanna on to Blu-Ray, GetFrank had the chance to chat to Eric Bana about his time filming the movie.

When Eric Bana arrived in a remote region of Finland, just 25 miles south of the Arctic  Circle, to start filming the explosive thriller Hanna he was “blown away” by the stunningly beautiful winter landscape. If anything, he says, it was almost too perfect. 

“It’s incredible,” he says. “My biggest concern when I got off the plane and saw it for the first  time was that it would look like CGI when it was on the screen. It was so different to how I imagined it because it was more flat than I thought it would be with an amazing perspective and an horizon that went on forever.  

“It looks fantastic on the screen but I just thought ‘God, I hope people don’t think we’re doing this on a lot in LA..’ It was so incredibly perfect and I was blown away by the beauty of it.”  The production was based in the town of Ruka and travelled out into the Kuusamo region near the southern border of Lapland. Bana is an Australian, born and raised in sun kissed Melbourne, and the sub-zero temperatures were a shock to the system. 

“On some of those beautiful clear days that we had there it was minus 30,” he says. “It was very, very cold. Coming from Australia I’m not used to it and it is amazing how much you  have to think about it and prepare for it especially when you are a cold weather virgin like myself.” 

“I’d been out in the snow before but that’s a different level altogether when you are out there  for a long period of time and trying to work. But I was lucky because my character had good legitimate cold weather clothing so that definitely helped.” 

Bana says he was instantly drawn to the project by David Farr’s “fantastic” script and the  opportunity to work with director Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist) and a stellar cast, including 16 year-old Saoirse Ronan and his fellow Australian, Oscar winner Cate Blanchett. Wright, he says, did a great job of explaining his vision for the film at their very first meeting.  Hanna is an action thriller quite unlike any one – not least because its main protagonist is a teenage girl who is the equal of any of the highly trained operatives she battles with.  

“Joe did a pretty good job of describing what he wanted to do with the film when I first read the script and I could tell that he was someone who was very, very clear about what this film was going to be right down to the music,” he says.  

“He did a great job of explaining the tone of the film and I felt like the tone of the film was a character in itself and was going to be just as important as our script and he really did an  amazing job. It just felt fresh to me. It’s rock and roll and very energetic.”