sweet J.
Определенно, этот ноябрь (как и вся осень в целом) мне запомнится на долго!
Вчера была премьера "Смертельной гонки", мы же сможем увидеть фильм только 11 сентября!
Jason Statham, star of DEATH RACE(2008). © Mania.com
Jason Statham: Death Racer for the New Millenium
By: Josh Gordon
Date: Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Jason Statham is the action king for the modern age. Sure his movies don’t do the numbers that Stallone’s and Willis’ did in their heyday but they resonate stronger with an edgier, hipper crowd. A smart man’s action hero, he’s done two Transporter films (with a third is on its way), one Crank (look out for two more), a Bank Job and now Paul W.S. Anderson’s Death Race, a remake of Roger Corman’s cult 1970’s classic Death Race 2000. We sat down with him recently at Comic-Con in a parking lot across from Petco Park and the San Diego Convention Center to talk to him about Death Race, Crank, his favorite action heroes and of course, what cars he likes to drive himself.
Question: Can you talk about shooting those racing sequences?
Jason Statham: What do you wanna know?
Q: Were you in actual working cars? Were you being pulled?
JS: Yeah, they had many stunt cars. Any action movie that involves cars; they have multiple copies of the same car so when they get mangled and bashed they just slip in the next one. One of the most difficult things is the fact that (the cars) don’t have a lot of vision. They’re covered in armor; there’s very little vision that you can really draw any confidence from so it’s quite nerve-wracking to know where you are and who’s coming up and who isn’t coming up. The tracks just full of dangerous pylons, steel girders; one mistake and its Ooover! It was more of a concern for the stunt coordinators and Paul (W.S. Anderson, the director) just because of the dangers those kinds of things present.
Q: How fast are you going when you’re driving around the track?
JS: It’s hard to say. The tracks sort of made of bits and pieces. We shot in different locations and made it look like it was one big track but there were different locations to make up the different areas (of the track). We’re not really going as fast as you might imagine but it’s pretty fast.
Q: How well could you see out of the mask?
JS: Not very well, that presented a big problem, yeah, so I didn’t drive in that thing.
Q: How was even just walking in it?
JS: Yeah, they had different ones with different eye pieces, it was all to do with the aesthetics, they didn’t give a shit whether I could see or not really.
MOVIE ENDING SPOILER:
Q: I like that you kind of end the movie living happily ever after with Tyrese and the child. It sort of puts a different spin on the whole thing. (Everyone begins to crack up at the implication)
JS: a bit of a happy trail. That was actually a re-shoot
Q: You shot that two weeks ago?
JS: Yeah, pretty much.
Q: What was the thinking of going back and adding the little tie-up at the end.
JS: I think it makes sense because before we didn’t really know what happened to Natalie’s character (Chase, Stathams’s navigator) and I think it needed some kind of resolution that she wasn’t just back up in prison, that she did get out.
END SPOILER
Q: Have you seen the original film.
JS: No, I haven’t seen it. Paul, sort of asked me not to see it. He didn’t want anything to interfere with his sort of interfere with his idea of the film. He said that’s it’s not really a remake, more of a homage.
Q: What can you tell us about Crank 2? How crazy is that movie going to be?
JS: That’s one of the most enjoyable films I’ve shot in the last decade. It is absolutely madder than you can imagine…It is nuts. It’s like the first one times a hundred; just ridiculous.
Q: Were you kind of surprised that they came back and said let’s make a sequel to the film? You were falling out of a helicopter and we all assumed that you were dead. Is it your twin?
JS: If you look closely, you’ll see in the first one that when he lands, there’s a heartbeat and a blink of an eye. So that’s always been there, so when people thought that he died, well, they weren’t looking close enough.
Q: As an action hero you have your signature franchises now with The Transporter and Crank. Do you see Death Race as something that could be a franchise as well?
JS: I hope so, yeah! I really enjoyed working with Paul and all the cast were great.
Q: Tyrese seems really confident about it too.
JS: It kind of sets itself up for part two being in Mexico somewhere. I’d be very happy to see another one.
Q: Are you a fan of science fiction movies?
JS: Not particularly. I do like the odd one or two.
Q: What are some that you’ve liked?
JS: I liked The Matrix; Blade Runner I thought was great.
Q: You’ve also finished The Transporter 3?
JS: Yeah.
Q: Is that taking it up to another level also?
JS: We hope so. We’re always trying to make it go that way.
Q: Was there something specific you wanted to do with the third one?
JS: Make it better than the first two. I always thought the first one was the best one, for me. The second one, it just, ah, I don’t know. I thought we could do better and we’re always trying to do better. We just need more time and more money and that’s hard to get. If we’re indulged with a bit more money, a bit more of a budget, more time, more preparation, we could do something really, really good and sometimes we don’t get that.Yeah, I think the third one is probably the best out of the three.
Q: After seeing the finished movie, what’s your favorite scene in Death Race?
JS: I like a lot of the car stuff. I mean, it’s basically a car movie; that’s what it is. It’s not The Godfather. Some of the deaths are just gory and hilarious. I like the fact that death can be gruesome and funny. I think it’s important not to take it too seriously. This is entertainment.
SPOILER AHEAD!
Q: Were you present when Joan said her “cocksucker” lines?
Q: No, but it made me laugh when I saw it!
END SPOILER
Q: We’re seeing a lot of stuff this summer where filmmakers are pushing back cgi and Death Race looked like it was a big practical effects movie. Do you see that in more action movies now, filmmakers are using more practical effects?
JS: CGI is so boring; people just switch off to that. I think they know if it’s just pushed a little bit in a direction where it doesn’t look possible. I know Paul wanted to shoot as much as possible through the camera lens and that’s always more interesting and that’s what I’ve always wanted to do in all the action movies that I’ve been a part of. I like to…do the stunts to show that we’re actually doing it. I mean, I personally do, find CGI very boring. Paul’s very conscious of that; he wanted to shoot real people in real cars doing real stunts and use a limited amount of CGI.
Q: How many Mustangs did they go through?
JS: I can’t remember now, it was like a truckload of ‘em.
Q: What are some actors that have inspired you when you were younger because I think you have a certain quality that harkens back to an older style of acting.
JS: My favorite actors are people like Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood; their the ones that I’ve always loved, they’re the real movie stars. I can watch all their movies time and time again. They’re the ones that I really admire.
Q: Can you see yourself doing a Bronson re-do?
JS: Yeah. I really like that movie called Hard Times. That’s a great movie, I’d love to - It’s hard to remake something that’s done so well so it’s probably best just to leave it alone but yeah, that was one of my favorite Bronson movies.
Q: Is it easier to remake something like Death Race because the original was kind of cheesy, like a B-movie, taking it into a more modern sensibility?
JS: Yeah, like you said, Death Race 2000 has almost like a bad quality about it whereas Hard Times is quite the contrary; a classic, a great movie. It would be hard to remake because it was done so well.
Q: What did you like most about making Death Race?
JS: You know, we’re running around working in suped-up, tuned-up cars, I have a big passion for cars and always have…
Q: What cars are some of your favorites? What cars do you like to drive or have you driven?
JS: I like the old Aston Martins, the DB5, I’m a big fan of those, the early Jags, the XK120’s, the E Types, just to mention a few British cars. I also like a lot of muscle cars, the Shelby Cobra.
Q: Do you have a little fleet at your house?
JS: No, but I’m working on it!
Q: What do you drive?
JS: I drive a 2008 GT2 Porsche and I’ve got an Audi that I kick around in as well.
Q: The Iron Man car?
JS: The R8?
Q: Yeah.
JS: I’ve driven that, it’s a great car, fantastic. I’m a big fan of the Audi’s.
Q: What do you think of the new re-dos of the old muscle cars, like the new Camaro, the Challenger?
JS: Like the SRT and all those? They’re pretty good; nice and lively. There’s nothing like a German built car though. They’re just so solid; they just last forever. If I’m spending my money, that’s what I’m going to buy. The Z06 is a fast car. The American muscle cars are very, very powerful, like the Viper, they’re so hard to control, unless you know what you’re doing you’ll get yourself wrapped around a tree.
Q: When did this passion for cars start with you?
JS: I’ve always liked cars, since I was a kid. It’s not like I had posters on the wall or miniatures…I just like cars…
Q: How have Mark and Brian (Neveldine and Taylor, directors of Crank and Crank 2) changed from Crank to Crank 2? They’re pretty wild guys. They’re fun guys to be around.
JS: How have they changed?
Q: Yeah, as directors.
JS: They just drink a lot more tequila! They’re ab-so-lutly bonkers. They’re just very, very confident; they know what they’re doing. It’s an unusual set up. Normally one would take care of the script, the dialogue and the other one would take care of the camera and the lighting but they flip it, they’re so interchangeable with the roles that they play.
Q: Who’s a better rollerblader since they like shooting on rollerblades?
JS: I’ve never seen anyone as good as Mark Neveldine, period. He’s completely amazing on a set of skates, fearless to the point of danger, like suicide. It’s really quite - it’s very worrying! Yeah! I mean, I don’t know how they let him get away with it.
Q: Was there any pressure while doing Crank 2 after the first one kind of broke out in the seemingly surprising sort of way? Were they just free to run and do exactly what they wanted to do?
JS: I don’t think they’re aware of any pressure. They wrote part two in like a week! I think it was a week-end actually. They locked themselves in a room with three bottles of tequila there and just drank and wrote this script. I remember reading it and thinking “Naw, this is just too far out, there’s no way they’re ever going to make this. You can’t do this! You SO can’t do THAT!” It’s so offensive, it really is. It’s beyond offensive. So they asked me if I want to do it and I said “why not?” (Everyone cracks up).
Q: Is Crank your “24”? Just do a new one everyone year, “Another day in the life of Chev”.
JS: We had so much fun when we finished part two we said “should we do another one? Let’s do Crank 3 in 3-D!”
Q: That’s right! They are doing another one in 3-D!
JS: Yeah! I’m sure the next episode won’t be too far away. We were three quarters of the way through it (Crank 2) and we know we were really making something far out and original and we said “why make this the last one? Let’s do another one! What about Crank 3 in 3-D!”