Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr. on the ‘Hairpin Turns’ and High Anxiety of ‘Den of Thieves 2: Pantera’

Six years ago this month, writer/director Christian Gudegast’s heist film “Den of Thieves” opened and quickly caught audiences’ attention with its kinetic action sequences and infectiously energetic performances by Gerard Butler, “50 Cent,” and O’Shea Jackson Jr., all having a terrific time chewing the scenery in a script filled with clever twists and turns. The movie’s praises were sung by no less esteemed a cineaste than “Afire” director Christian Petzold, who selected “Den of Thieves” as one of the best films of the last 10 years for a Film at Lincoln Center repertory series.

Now, Butler and Jackson are back in “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” and Petzold and other fans of the original will be happy to hear that the sequel is even better than the original: faster, funnier, and jammed with spectacular action set pieces that Gudegast shot on a swift schedule.

For Butler and Jackson, the speed of the production was a challenge but one that found its way into the DNA of the movie to ratchet the kinetic thrills up to a whole new level. “Sometimes you would like a bit more time, but generally the faster I move in a movie, the better,” Butler told IndieWire. “There’s less time to think about it and overwork things, and you’re just in it.”

“There’s definitely a science to having to go off of your instincts,” Jackson added. “That’s when you’ve got to trust your director.” For the film’s central heist sequence, Butler was operating on pure adrenaline. “It was insane,” he said. “It was hot as hell; we’re in tunnels with no air conditioning, climbing up a proper elevator shaft with elevators moving up and down, and I’m thinking I’m literally going to have a heart attack. It was tough and exhausting.”

A car chase set in winding mountain roads was even more challenging. “They were hairpin bends,” Butler said. “Often actors like to make things sound more dangerous than they actually were, but that was dangerous — a 2000-foot drop. There was a moment when we were flying around the bend and spinning around, and I kept thinking, ‘I have a bad feeling about this, we’re going off the edge.'” In the end, however, Butler feels that the anxiety makes its way onto the screen.

“You’re really immersed in the whole world,” Butler said. “It’s guerrilla filmmaking and we get as much movie in there as we can.” He and Jackson agree that Gudegast’s enthusiasm is key when it comes to capturing their energy on screen. “He loves actors, and I’ve noticed that I’ve bonded more with the actors on the ‘Den of Thieves’ movies than on 99 percent of my other movies.” According to Jackson, Gudegast not only encourages camaraderie among his actors, he insists on it.

“He makes us go out to dinner,” Jackson said. “He’s not going to stop until we go to dinner.” Jackson says the result was a feeling reminiscent of the environment on the set of his first movie, “Straight Outta Compton.” “We were young guys trying to make it in film, so we had a brotherhood. I’d really been looking for that again for quite a while, and this was one of those times where you want the others to succeed.” Butler agrees. “We really had a great time together,” he said.

Lionsgate will release “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” in theaters on Friday, January 2.