EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: ‘SPEED RACER’

Sup! Jay here with VulkonLIVE! We’ve had some great opportunities, and this one is especially fun for me because we get the chance to talk to two of the stars from the newest offering of the Wachowski brothers, Emile Hersch and Christina Ricci, thanks for joining us here on VulkonLIVE! Your time is short but I’m grateful to the folks at Warner Brothers for this opportunity. Let’s jump right into it:

[Jay] My first question is for you Emile, I’m a huge anime fan and when I heard about this movie my first concern (as a fan) was how is this guy going to play this (frankly) two dimensional role?

[Emile Hersch] The back story is fairly well described in the script. That was kind of there but it was more about getting down what kind of vibe that Speed have, what kind of guy is he. It was finding out he is a very sweet natured, cooler than, cool bad ass kind of guy who is very by the book in a lot of ways.

[Jay] Now Christina, you play Speed’s gal pal, can you tell us about the character herself?

[Christina Ricci] She is somebody that you would definitely have as a friend, what she does in the movie is be a good friend to ‘Speed’ and she’s pretty fierce and she’s very able and she gets to do a lot of things that normally only boys get to do.

[Jay] What was it like for you to work with the Wachowski’s?

[CR] They know exactly what they’re going to be doing. They have this world worked out completely. So when people are like that it tends to inspire a lot confidence and a lot of trust. So it’s not like you can say, ‘I don’t think this will go with what’s happening in the background,’ ’cause you don’t know what’s happening in the background. So you’re kind of really in a place where you’re just like, I’m gonna do what they tell me and if I don’t do what they tell me I probably will not fit with the rest of the film.

[Jay] Emile, as with the Matrix, you obviously worked some serious fight pros, what was it like working with them?

[EH] Those they want me to punch them in the stomach they don’t have pads or anything. Maybe I was giving myself too much credit in how much force I had in a blow but eventually they start doing things like we’d be sparring and they’d slap me a little bit like ‘C’mon hit me.’ I would kind of be like ‘no’ and then they’d hit me again and I’d be like ‘grr’ and then they’d hit me again and I’d be like ‘Deehh’ and I’d actually punch them and they’d be like ‘Good!

[Jay] Dude that’s awesome! Okay so from fighting to driving, what was it like to get behind the wheel of the Mach 5?

[EH] I didn’t get behind the wheel of a car the entire time. It was all green screen,

[Jay] Wow really?

[EH] Yeah, it was crazy.

[Jay] Okay so what was that like?]

[EH] I mean it was like being in warehouses with green walls everywhere and imagining this whole fantasy world around you. It was a challenge. It was a mental challenge.

[Jay] I bet, so what are the chances of a sequel?

[EH] Who knows I wouldn’t want to speak out of turn except I’m signed for two more and we’re probably going to make them. I don’t know we probably would though. I think the film was really great I love the movie and I think that there is just a lot more story and the world is so rich and interesting there is a lot more to explore in it.

[Jay] Well that’s all the time we’ve got, I thank you guys, and again a special thanks to the publicity department over at Warner Bros. for making this interview possible.

Stay tuned because our next podcast will feature the stars from the new Disney film: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Till then, I’m Jay Johnson and this has been VulkonLIVE!

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