‘It’s just a wholesome story about drugs, sex, and violence,” says Blake Lively of Savages. To be more specific, director/co-writer Oliver Stone’s action thriller follows two best pals and marijuana growers, Chon (John Carter’s Taylor Kitsch) and Ben (Kick-Ass’ Aaron Johnson), who run afoul of a Mexican cartel leader named Elena (Salma Hayek) seeking to control the guys’ crop of superstrong weed. Ben and Chon wind up declaring war on the cartel after Elena and her henchman (Benicio Del Toro) kidnap Ophelia (Lively), a Laguna Beach hippie who’s in a relationship with both Ben and Chon.
”It’s not wholly an action film,” says Stone of the $48 million movie, which is based on the acclaimed 2010 novel by Don Winslow. ”It’s a full-blown epic story of greed, violence, the border, the drugs, the relationships, the values of people.”
Despite Ophelia’s sordid love life, Lively (Gossip Girl) insists her character is no mere sex object. ”The thing that’s empowering about this is that she’s choosing,” says the actress. ”They’re best friends and they all love each other, and then they also all have sex with each other, too!” And though Lively spends much of the film as a kidnap victim, Stone urged her to train for her action scenes. ”I went to the gun range and my first three shots were right in the center target,” says the actress. ”[The crew] knew not to sass me, because I was packing.”
