Creed 2 Director Steven Caple Explains How He Came Onboard for the Sequel

ComingSoon.net recently interviewed Creed II filmmaker Steven Caple. Below are some highlights. The sequel is now in theaters.

Caple on becoming director for the film and his relationship with Ryan Coogler before Creed II: “Ryan and I went to USC Film School together, the international program, coming together his last year and my first year there. You just look for people for advice, and he happened to be that guy that everyone was kind of talking about. People thought that he was going to break out or something. So I spoke to him and picked his brain like I always do. He became sort of a guidance to us, an example of how to work the system in the industry. It meant a lot for us to later be down the road and have our careers going. He’s in a position coming off of a successful film and producing a sequel, he’s able to have a say-so in the next director, in choosing who to carry on a franchise and he just brought up my name. He’s like, “I think Steven Caple can capture the voice of Adonis Creed and Bianca. I think he speaks for the generation.” Those were all things that Sly was also looking for with in doing the project. It just kind of worked out. I was in the midst of writing another feature film when I got the call and met with Sly and met with Mike, all of the people, and they were very welcoming and opened the doors and allowed me to do my thing.”

Caple on researching the other films for Creed II: “You definitely do that. Yeah, yeah. You definitely have to do that research, you know? I had to re-watch the entire series. There’s a certain formula that goes with directing a “Rocky” franchise movie that was also done in “Creed,” which is fight sequences, the amount of montages you have, and the format of the fights. Sly has it down to a specific science, man. He knows everything from who wins what round, how the rhythm goes when you kick into a montage and when to come out of a montage. When you watch “Creed” you see there’s a lot of resemblance to “Creed” and the last “Rocky” fight, you know? For this film he created a format that mimics two movies, which were “Rocky III” with Clubber Lang, because of the rematch aspect, and then you have “Rocky IV” which was how long he’s in the ring and the revenge aspect. He was there on set to help out a lot and help with the rhythm of stuff because that’s what the franchise is about. It’s a back and forth rhythm and a song and dance. We’re dealing with a fight, we’re dealing with the montages, they’re this story arc that’s in every “Rocky” franchise. Those are the things you pull out of those movies, because they work and people are expecting those, right? Those are the expectations when watching this franchise. What I try to do is pay homage to that and make sure that the characters stuck out in a way that either felt fresh or unique and yet still were the characters that you fell in love with like Adonis and Bianca and Rocky. So that was the balancing act, if you will, of carrying on the franchise and making sure that they did have the heart and the DNA of the franchise. Then you find moments that you’re able to sprinkle in some of your personal touch. With me it was the Drago side and their father/son dynamic. That was personal also in my life, starting off a little bumpy and now they needed to rekindle their relationship, something I’m going through as we speak. And then the relationship with Bianca, that’s another avenue I wanted to really hit, because I felt like there was a natural way to progress in her storyline with her hearing loss and his career what do they do next, that all things that are relatable to people and super relatable to myself that I was able to put a spin on each scene to make it feel like it was authentic and have a certain voice.”

Caple on nods to the previous films in Creed II: “The stare-off between Rocky and Drago in the ring, at the last fight. It’s the very exact same shot setup and looks that they gave in “Rocky IV” when they fought each other. There’s also the break of line, obviously, that they had to come back somehow, some way or another. There’s a touch gloves moment like in “Rocky IV” when when Apollo touches Drago’s glove, he feels the dude’s wrath. Like, you can’t knock his hand down. And so, when he tries to bang on his gloves, it’s like ba-boing, and like, it stops. So I didn’t want to do the cartoony way to express that. The two ways I played with it was a push at the weigh-in, and during that push at the weigh-in, in the next scene, he tries to touch gloves and Creed doesn’t even touch his gloves. You know what I mean? So it was just small bits to pay homage to the “Rocky” franchise. For the “Creed” franchise there are also things I wanted to take from “Creed I” because I want him to have his own identity. In the opening there’s a scene where Bianca slams the door on Adonis’ face when he’s on one knee and he has that conversation through the door. That’s the same layout as when they’re having that conversation in “Creed I” when he tried to explain to her that he’s sorry for messing up her show. You know, she’s on the other side and she actually took out her hearing aid on purpose, not to hear him. There’s also another shot, where we’re looking down at them laying on a floor upside down with the baby just before he decides to take the fight. That’s paying homage to “Creed I” when they’re doing the same thing, the same shot and they have their very first kiss onscreen.”

Caple on consulting Ryan and his wife, who is an ASL interpreter, on Bianca for the film: “Her and Ryan. They both read the script. They sent me over notes, and then we also brought in two consultants later in LA. They were only coming on because we had a lot more sign language going on in the film. We also had the baby, which… I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but obviously the baby has issues. We wanted someone to come in and let us know how to properly handle these issues, what are the tests that are being done. So we had multiple consultants. We really didn’t want to dismiss the community or disrespect anybody, so we wanted to handle that situation with care. I know Tessa was very sensitive about that.”