Emile Hirsch, Roger Allam, Scott Porter - Speed Racer
Emile Hirsch, the lead actor in the Warner Bros Pictures' film Speed Racer directed by the Wachowski Brothers, joined his co-stars, including Roger Allam and Scott Porter, at the film's World Premiere to talk up the action movie.
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Transcript: Emile Hirsch, Roger Allam, Scott Porter - Speed Racer
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the World Premiere of Speed Racer.
Emile Hirsch ('Speed Racer')
So how cool is it to star in a big summer movie like this?
Emile Hirsch: "It's really exciting. It's something that my nieces and my nephews and all my friends and family and my grandparents, like everyone's really excited to go see it. I've always worked on films where only one of them would be excited to see it, and usually it's more of a serious kind of film."
Why did you want to be a part of this?
Emile Hirsch: "I mean, I was a really big fan of the show when I was younger. I used to watch it when I was 6 years old. And I always loved The Matrix trilogy; I thought it was just a classic, classic trilogy. So the chance to kind of merge those two elements was really exciting. What the Wachowskis did is so kind of hip and crazy and fun, it kind of makes, you know, having fun and family cool again. It's like a really kind of thing that I don't think most people expect from them. …It's just something that you've never seen before. And it's a lot of fun."
How does the script that you got compare to the final product?
Emile Hirsch: "It doesn't compare. The Wachowskis, what they bring as filmmakers is just this beautiful, beautiful vision that you can never imagine until you see it."
Roger Allam ('Royalton')
You've worked with these filmmaking brothers before. How was it on the set and how do they take charge?
Roger Allam: "They're wonderful. They're funny, they're humorous, they're relaxed, they're encouraging, and that, really. They enjoy themselves, as well. They really, really enjoy making the movie. Their biggest form of encouragement and approbation is, 'That's funny.'"
When you get the script, how does that compare to how it looks visually?
Roger Allam: "I haven't seen the final product."
How do the trailers look to you?
Roger Allam: "Oh, fantastic, really. I mean, it was great fun in the studio. I didn't know the cartoon series Speed Racer at all before. It was great fun in the studio. But they put together a sort of 15 minute rough cut of some stuff to show us how it would all start fitting together, and that was astounding. And then we had a bit of an idea."
Because there wasn't much on the set, right?
Roger Allam: "That varied. Sometimes there wasn't much. Sometimes there'd be a kind of a…the Racers' home for instance, there was a big set and the greenscreen stuff was out the window. Other times in my kind of Royalton's complex, his big building, there was nothing at all"
How does that change how you act?
Roger Allam: "Well, it doesn't. It doesn't change how you act, you just have to use your imagination. They'd show us on a screen what the background, the room that we'd be in. And there'd be some elements of the room there maybe."
Scott Porter ('Rex Racer')
Tell me about working on this set.
Scott Porter: "You know at first it's a little bit intimidating. You're a little bit lost. You don't know what to do. But the great thing is, they have such great actors on the film that even if two of you are on greenscreen, you're still getting so much from the other actors. The toughest part was being on the racetrack because it was just me in a cockpit with a complete greenscreen around me. Luckily the directors are so fantastic at letting you know exactly what's happening around you, and you've already seen the artwork and the concepts that they all had and what the track looks like, that it's easy to imagine yourself in that world."
So before you go out and actually do a scene, you get to look at what the background's going to be like, or how did that work?
Scott Porter: "They kind of have artists that do renderings of what the tracks are going to look like, and I took some of those pieces home. I can finally hang them on the wall after the premiere. It's just, you know, an experience like this it's just amazing. It doesn't matter what you have to do or what you're acting against, it's going to work."
Were you a fan of the series to begin with?
Scott Porter: "I was. I mean, I was a fan of the cartoon. I think when I was younger and I saw the cartoons, there's some adult themes and some political themes and worldwide themes that you don't really understand as a kid. It's definitely a little bit dated as a cartoon, and the Wachowski brothers did an amazing job updating it. It's going to blow people's minds."