'Borderlands' star Florian Munteanu created a 'Krieg dictionary' with Eli Roth for toughest role of his career

With a star studded cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Gina Gershon and Florian Munteanu, the popular Borderlands video game is the latest game-to-movie adaptation to hit the big screen. With filmmaker Eli Roth at the helm of the project, the movie follows Lilith (Blanchett) as she journeys back to her home planet Pandora, teaming up with a group of misfits to find a missing girl who could be the key accessing incredible powers.

As Munteanu stressed, who plays the masked and shitless psycho Krieg, there's no other game like Borderlands. He added that the unique quality of the game, both in look and tone, makes the film a project only Roth could take on.

"He was the most helpful and the most inspiring as well, just because he's bringing all that energy to the table," Munteanu told Yahoo Canada in Toronto. "It's the same energy on the first day, the same energy on the last day."

"If someone can recreate the crazy world of Borderlands, then it's Eli Roth, who was a lunatic in the most positive way that you can think of."

The Krieg dictionary and getting in 'unreal shape'

A core element of Krieg is that he really just speaks in monosyllabic words, when you can understand him, but Munteanu worked with Roth to try to bring purpose to each form communication from the character.

"We tried to find a definition of what he's trying to say," Munteanu explained. "Just so I know when I say all those crazy lines, that I have an explanation for myself of what I'm trying to get across to people, even though they don't understand me."

"So me and Eli, we did our own Krieg dictionary."

In terms of the physical preparation for the role, while Munteanu is already a professional boxer, he wanted to make sure he was in "unreal shape" as Krieg, saying that it way the "toughest" acting role he's had so far in his career.

"The diet has to be strict at all times," Munteanu said. "There were no breaks."

"I basically was at a calorie deficit at all times. So with that being said, if you don't have carbs, if you don't have too much food in your system, there's a lack of energy and you need energy, especially for a character like Krieg. So that was the thin line of trying to get energy somehow and put life into this character, but then look the part. ... Krieg is in that unreal shape. ... And then the challenges with the boots, the mask, the vision was not clear once you were fighting. Those combined probably made it ... the toughest role I've played so far."

'We wanted to make this a really good movie'

With a wide range of talents among the actors in Borderlands, Munteanu highlighted that it was everyone's work ethic that really brought them all together.

"Every single one [of us] on set brought that energy to the table of, 'OK I want to be first on set. I want to give my all. I want to be the last [to leave.]' Just because we wanted to make this a really good movie," Munteanu said. "We were kind of pushing each other to the best of our abilities."

In terms of having fun on set, for Munteanu that largely came from his costar Greenblatt.

"She's just crazy, just a lunatic," Munteanu said. "Sometimes the pressure of shooting a movie can get to you, I'm not going to lie, and it's really nice to have someone like Ariana next to you. ... She was so loose all the time."

"That kind of transitioned onto me as well and that's why I'm always saying I had the most fun with her, because we were really ... playing like little kids on set."