With American Made now playing in theaters around the world, I landed an exclusive interview with director Doug Liman last week. During the wide-ranging conversation, he talked about making the film with Tom Cruise, how they lived together in the same house while filming and even shared doing the chores, what it was like making a film about someone who did such crazy things, what he learned from test screenings, and a lot more. In addition, Liman talked about the status of Edge of Tomorrow 2 and how the studio's not trying to force a sequel, as well as his next movie, Chaos Walking, which stars Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley.

If you haven’t seen the American Made trailers, it’s based on the true story of Barry Seal, a U.S. pilot recruited by the CIA to work in covert operations. While working for our Government, Seal interacted with some of the biggest players in the Cocaine industry. His story is incredible and Cruise and Liman deliver a really fun ride. American Made also stars Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, E. Roger Mitchell, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke, Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez, Caleb Landry Jones, and Jayma Mays.

Collider: How are you doing sir?

DOUG LIMAN: Hello? Hi how are you?

I'm good. I heard you're filming your new movie today.

LIMAN: I am, Chaos Walking, yeah.

So is it weird to be talking about the last one? Can you keep the worlds straight?

LIMAN: I can because I'm so excited about both of them, but they're so different.

Yeah.

LIMAN: Totally original.

Absolutely. I got to talk to you in London with Tom [Cruise]. You guys looked like you were having the time of your life together and every interview I've seen you guys together, you're having a great time. Was this the most fun you've ever had promoting a movie?

LIMAN: It is. I wish I had more time promoting it with Tom. We're such a great working relationship whether it's actually living together as we did making this movie or promoting it. We're competitive, we like pushing each other and he's so inventive and smart and charming. When I do press with him I'm just like, "Oh my God, he gave a way better answer."

He's really the best. He's such a professional.

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Image via Universal

LIMAN: Yeah.

I read in the press notes and I heard you guys talk about how you lived together. I heard you had a chore chart so what happens when Tom Cruise doesn't do his chores? Do you bust him on that or is he always doing what he said he'll do?

LIMAN: He always does. I mean honestly in life, he lives up to ... Whatever he's promised, whatever he said he's gonna do, whether it's in a movie or in life or the chores, there's just no chance of catching him not having done that. Our screenwriter was a different story ...

(laughing)

LIMAN: Tom had a nickname for him that I promised the writer I'll never repeat to the press. We really were the odd couple. Tom and I had two refrigerators because he didn't want my crap anywhere near his health food.

Well, something is working for Tom. The guy is Benjamin Button. He's aging backwards. He looks fantastic.

LIMAN: Yeah, it is one of those things where that's not the magic of the camera.

No, he really ...

LIMAN: You have the same reaction in a room with him. You're just like, "What is happening here?

Yeah, it's crazy. I want to jump into the film and say that one of the challenges of making a film based on someone who really did these things is balancing fact and fiction. But, he did such crazy things. Were you even nervous about embellishing? How do you tow that line?

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LIMAN: In the case of Barry Seal, most of the time, we were leaving things out. Because they were either too outrageous ...Normally, the one thing that people tend to embellish are the personal stories because those are hard to get access to or a lot of times ... Erin Brockovich in real life just doesn't look like Julia Roberts. Not the biggest charmer as Julia Roberts. In the case of Barry Seal, his wife showed us a photo of her visiting him in a Guatemalan prison on his birthday, cutting a birthday cake with a machete. This is a woman who thought she was marrying a TWA airline pilot. Sarah Olsen is just scratching the surface of that character. We are not ... We are finding the honesty in that photo. We are not exaggerating anything.

Even the fact that Barry ... Was he really as lovable as we portrayed him in the movie? Is he just ... Is that because Tom Cruise is playing him? Everybody that knew Barry Seal that we talked to loved him. The DEA agents loved him. This is a guy who is one of the largest drug smugglers in American history. The DEA agents loved him. We met a pilot when we were filming in Columbia who told us that he had met Barry and loved him. We asked how he met him. He said Barry stole an airplane from him. Barry took it out for a test flight and never came back. And this guy loved Barry.

My father ran the Iran Contra investigation for the Senate, so I knew ... My father hadn't looked into Barry Seal, specifically, but, the events on the Washington spies, he was really well versed in way more outrageous that what we had space to put in the movie. The fun of making a movie like this ... It starts and we look into it and it'll be like, "Oh my God. The truth is even crazier."

Yeah, his story is absolutely bonkers. I'm always curious about the editing process. Do you remember how long your first cut of the film was versus the finished film?

LIMAN: Yeah, it was about 3 hours.

Was that an assembly cut? Or was your first cut something that you were really happy with?

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Image via Universal

LIMAN: I wasn't happy with it. One of the things that Tom and I had done was we got rid of some of the things that were in the screenplay that were the more natural engines of the story that you might put in a movie like this, so in the screenplay, Barry's wife was in the dark. And one of the threats hanging over Barry was when is she going to find out. But, we had the photo of his wife in the prison, and we're like the reality is she knew. And the movie is better, a better love story if it's Bonnie and Clyde, if they're both in the know. But then you've lost one of these engines, which is, when is his wife gonna find out.

And then another engine was there was a stronger sort of FBI adversary in the original script, and we're like, you know, we've seen that before. It'd be more interesting to not go into that aspect of the story, but then you lose another engine, another ticking clock. And so, we really wanted to craft a story where what's propelling it is, Barry just keeps adding one more ball that he's juggling, and just the sense that he can't possibly keep this up. That identifying the specific thing that's gonna take him down. That's a really tricky thing in the editing to get right. Until you do, you just don't have that thing you can cut to like here's the FBI getting a little closer. You're like, OK, you've re-energized the editing. It's one of those things where you've got to get the pace right and you don't ... The only way you have it right is to go through a path and then screen the whole movie all the way through and see if it ... if you got it.

That's what I wanted to ask you about. What did you learn from test screenings or friends and family screenings that impacted the finished film?

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Image via Universal

LIMAN: That's a good question. I learned ... You learn what the audience is ... what they're interested in and what they weren't interested in. And we learned that the humor was working and we needed to really never forget that. When my father would come home from his work at the Senate and talk about the things he could talk about because a lot of his work was top secret, he would always tell me these stories and laugh. As deadly serious as his work was, he would laugh at the absurdity of it all. And laugh at, in general, these things, the work of Oliver North and the … Reagan’s secret war. It was really kept secret because, otherwise, it was really kept secret from the American people because it was so foolish. It wasn't kept secret ... The secrecy didn't actually enhance our national security; it just saved people's, the attempt to save people's dignity.

Tom is fantastic in the role. I think that it's a really tough role because you need someone that you can root for even when he's doing some pretty terrible things. Could you talk about balancing that level? Or is it just Tom found it?

LIMAN: Well, Tom and I first started exploring him playing an anti-hero during Edge of Tomorrow and I nervously suggested, "What about if is character was a coward?" Not just in the opening, but consistently through the film. And Tom loved that idea. He's really adventurous when it comes to trying new roles. He really can do it. He's not one of these stars that's famous for being famous. He's famous because he's created great characters. Going all the way back to Risky Business where he played a high schooler starting a brothel. So, he really has the skills to pull off just a huge array of characters as he has throughout his career, and he's willing to try new roles because of that, that he'd never done before.

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Image via Universal

And he made such a great coward in Edge of Tomorrow. Every time we would try to come up with the most despicably cowardly thing for him to do. We just love him, we love the character even more. Literally, Tom would joke about, "Someone's gotta stay home and not fight so there is someone to enjoy if we win the war, to enjoy the victory." You know, without any sense of moral obligation to do his duty fighting.

So I was thinking about American Made and who would be a great partner to make this movie with me. I thought, Tom's one of these people where if you suggest a role that has darker qualities, he will embrace them and figure out the absolute darkest, most despicable aspects to chase, and he makes you love the character for them. At the end of the day, there's a real honesty to Tom's performances. When he plays an opportunist like Barry Seal, you feel like he's doing what God put him on this Earth to do.

You touched on Edge of Tomorrow, and I've brought it up with you a few times, but I love that movie. And I know you guys have talked about making a prequel. What's the status on that? Do you get the vibe that the studio really wants to make it? Where are you in the screenplay process?

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Image via Warner Bros.

LIMAN: Tom and Emily [Blunt] and I are really excited to go do it. We have a script. We are just trying to find a time to schedule it. Between my schedule and Emily's and Tom's, but it's one of these things where it's a sequel whose origins come from the best possible place, which is, it's not a studio saying, "Hey, we think we can make some more money. Let's just stamp out another one." This sequel originated with fans of the original film. Who continually came up to Tom and myself and Emily and said ... Told us how much they loved the movie and would we ever consider a sequel. And enough people said that to me and to Tom and to Emily that we finally sat down and said, "What would a sequel even look like?" We ended up with Chris McQuarrie, coming up with a great story.

Did Chris actually bang out a script or do you have someone else writing it?

LIMAN: Someone else wrote it under Chris' supervision because Chris is directing Mission 6.

As you said, this is just one of those films that I would love to see more of that world and these characters and not some studio telling me, "Hey, you want to see this."

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Image via Warner Bros.

LIMAN: It really comes from the heart. And by the way, I never worked with Tom on one of these giant tent-pole movies, so I don't ... Everything I've ever seen him do or worked with him on comes from the heart in the most pure place. I mean, he is always thinking about his fans. He's always thinking about the audience. He's not one of these movie stars that thinks he's an anointed movie star. He genuinely understands that he's a movie star because people like his movies. And he wants to deliver for those people.

I'm very curious about Chaos Walking. What can you tease people about the project? And you cast Kurt Sutter. I'm a big fan of Kurt from Sons of Anarchy. Why did you want to cast him?

LIMAN: We're ... Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley are incredible together. And yeah ... Kurt It’s hard to say without you having seen the movie. You see the movie and you're like Kurt was perfect, perfect casting for the role of Cillian, and it's a science fiction movie. It's really grounded. It's surrounding Tom and Daisy with actors of the caliber of Kurt Sutter that is elevating Chaos Walking to what will clearly be not only my most original movie, but possibly the most original commercial movie ever out of this studio.

I was going to say that, you got two actors that are very, very popular right now. I'm sure they wouldn't have signed on to something that was not something cool.

LIMAN: Yeah, it is really … I think it's rare when you have a movie that is original as Chaos Walking at the same time as satisfying and entertaining as the movie is.

Sure, hey listen man. Congratulations on American Made.

LIMAN:  Thank you.

And have a fantastic day.

LIMAN: Thanks. Bye bye.

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Image via Universal
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Image via Universal