FINAL KILL is an action-packed thriller about a mercenary (Ed Morrone) hired to protect a couple hiding out in Central America from a ruthless crime family. In his final assignment as a protector, it quickly turns deadly as a group of mafia henchmen descends on the tranquil Costa Rican village. Soon the agent learns that the job is far more than it seems and it will take all of his experience to get them out alive. Morrone leads the cast as the primary mercenary, with Zane and Couture co-starring as his Agency handlers. Danny Trejo plays a rival hitman. The cast also features Dr. Drew Pinsky, Johnny Messner, Will Rothhaar and Lauren Francesca. The film is written and directed by Justin Lee.
MUSE TV & Culturally Obsessed’s Jennifer Ortega recently spoke with Ed Morrone about starring in Final Kill. FINAL KILL is available for rent via Amazon Prime, Google Play, VUDU, and YouTube.
Jennifer Ortega: Hi. So lovely to talk to you. How are you?
Ed Morrone: I’m good, how are you doing?
Jennifer Ortega: Good. Thank you. I really enjoyed the film because your character…it’s so interesting because …it’s a very dangerous job, of course, and you have a perfect track record as a mercenary. But you’re also really funny in the film.
Ed Morrone: Thank you. I’m glad that the humor came through.
Jennifer Ortega: Oh, absolutely. Yes. Can you tell us just a little bit about your character and kind of your process in bringing that character to the screen?
Ed Morrone: McBroom is an aging protection specialist who is trying to get out of that line of work and he gets pulled into one more job. My main focus was trying to connect with the audience in bringing them someone that we can identify with. Not in the violence but, behind all of that. McBroom is a person who I’m sure we can all relate to, who’s tired of what they’re doing professionally. They know the issues that come along with their job and they just are trying to get out and do something else with their lives.
Jennifer Ortega: I love too how the film opens with Dr. Drew in the beginning as your therapist. And I think that at the end of your therapy session he goes, I think your job is a little stressful because of course he doesn’t know what you’re actually doing and he’s great. Personally, I love 1930s kind of detective novels. I love Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane. And this kind of has an element of that. I think the dialogue is really smart and really funny. And of course, the cast is amazing. You have, like you, plus Danny Trejo, Billy Zane. How was working with them?
Ed Morrone: It was amazing. It was a dream come true to go on the set where everybody was just so professional, so prepared, so ready to go. Everyone had a great attitude about being there. And throughout the whole shoot, it was just one of those things where you just start pinching yourself, you know?
Ed Morrone: You know, when you’re talking about working with these people, especially, you know Billy Zane and you mentioned Dr. Drew. Dr. Drew comes on set and he’s a great all-round person to be around. And when you’re in that presence. It just makes you want to be a better performer. You get nervous every now and then. You gotta just push through that. And it was great.
Jennifer Ortega: I love that you said that because if you’re all excited to be there and have this respect for each other. I think it really does bring everybody’s game up and it reads through the screen.
Jennifer Ortega: Justin Lee, the director, was this your first time working with him?
Ed Morrone: I met him, I would say about six months prior to shooting the movie, but it was my first movie with him.
Jennifer Ortega: And you’ve done a lot of action work in your career. There are a lot of stunts in the film and it’s a very physical role. How do you do tend to do a lot of that? Do you do some of your own stunts?
Ed Morrone: I do. I do. I did all my stunts in this particular film. It was just one of those situations where I felt like being a part of that aspect of filmmaking would help the character overall. And whether it was on a subconscious or unconscious level for myself, I found that being involved on that type of level would heighten the performance.
Jennifer Ortega: I love at the end there’s like a bloopers reel, which is hilarious. But they were showing a lot of you doing stuntwork so I wondered if you did you did all the stunts. It’s very impressive. Where was Final Kill shot exactly?
Ed Morrone: It was shot in a few different locations, but mostly Costa Rica.
Jennifer Ortega: How was it shooting there?
Ed Morrone: So, you know, obviously doing a film in Costa Rica is great because you’re in Costa Rica, but it also comes with a lot of stress involved. You know, when you have to do company moves to different places within Costa Rica, you want to make sure that you’re doing everything properly. So, you know, being in a different place other than the States can be a little bit tough. But it could have been a really stressful situation, but it wasn’t. It was a joy to do it.
Jennifer Ortega: It’s such a fun movie and I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for talking with me.
Ed Morrone: It was my pleasure.
