Director Kevin Macdonald tells HTG how he captured Gal Gadot’s intense action in Prime Video's The Runner

Credit: Amazon MGM Studios Published Sep 2, 2026, 5:15 PM EDT After graduating from Marist University with a degree in communications and journalism, Dan Girolamo has over 10 years of experience writing about entertainment and sports. Dan's work can be seen in various publications, including Digital Trends, SportsCasting, and Tom's Guide. Throughout his career, Dan has interviewed several high-profile filmmakers and creatives, including Brendan Fraser, Jamie Lee Curtis, Caitriona Balfe, Frank Grillo, Miranda Cosgrove, Jai Courtney, Chris Columbus and James Cameron. Dan joins How-To Geek as a Senior Editor. When he's not writing about entertainment, Dan is either watching a movie or praying for the New York Knicks to win a championship. Sign in to your How-To Geek account Ask any director, and they'll tell you that filming a movie is rather difficult. Now try shooting a movie where the protagonist is constantly on the move. That is one of the several challenges director Kevin Macdonald faced in The Runner, a new Prime Video action movie starring Gal Gadot. Kevin Macdonald on the difficulty of filming Gal Gadot on the run How does one convey emotion while running? In The Runner, Gadot plays Maia, a high-profile attorney based in London. After dropping her son, Noah (Rory Wilmot), off at school, Maia heads into the park for a run. Her exercise is cut short when a mysterious caller (Damian Lewis) informs Maia that Noah has been abducted. The only way Maia can ensure her son's safety is to obey the caller's commands, forcing her to race around the city and complete a set of difficult tasks. How did Gadot pull off this exhausting performance? Macdonald told How-To Geek's Dan Girolamo that Gadot's excellent fitness played a factor in her performance. The Wonder Woman actress had to run extensively during the shoot, which can be physically draining. Credit: Amazon MGM Studios According to Macdonald, capturing Gadot's emotional performance was more challenging than showcasing her physical fitness. "The thing we spent the most time talking about is how do you express emotion when you're running and you're tired? Macdonald explained. "It's very hard. The camera's bouncing around. Your head's bouncing around. There's only so many times you can go into slow motion. That was probably the biggest challenge. As Macdonald pointed out, the answers to his questions were on the page. Kevin Macdonald: How do you get nuanced emotion while somebody is running, and how do you get the dialogue to work while they're running? It's one of those things where it's all very well in the script, but as soon as you get on the ground, you're problem-solving all the time. Kevin Macdonald on utilizing Damian Lewis as the caller Less is more when it comes to the performance Credit: Amazon MGM Studios An exciting thriller is only as good as its villain. Damian Lewis, the British actor best known for Homeland and Billions, steps into the role of the sinister caller who torments Gadot's character. The mystery caller kidnaps Maia's son and plans to use her as a pawn in his scheme. Macdonald shared that he spent a lot of time determining who the caller was "psychologically." The character went through many iterations, including one where Lewis played an American. Eventually, Macdonald settled on having Lewis play a London native, which Macdonald believes made the character more menacing. Kevin Macdonald: We found that making him more local—making him more specifically London, and also kind of draining out a lot of the obvious emotion in his performance and making it quite kind of calm and neutral—was much more frightening and sinister than somebody who's yelling and screaming and being all melodramatic. The Runner is now streaming on Prime Video. The Runner Release Date September 2, 2026 Runtime 84 Minutes Director Kevin Macdonald