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PAUL WALKER on 'RUNNING SCARED'
Contributed by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor
for Radio Free Entertainment
February 1, 2006
In the surprisingly unique crime thriller Running Scared, mob guy Joey Gazelle (Paul Walker) is assigned the task of handling a cache of guns used in a police slaying. But when his son's friend (Cameron Bright) steals one of the hot pieces and uses it in another crime, Joey must find the kid and the weapon before they are traced back to him. This sets the stage for a night of bizarre events in which Joey and his wife (Vera Farmiga) must tangle with the mafia, the Russian mob, crooked cops, a pair of pedophiles, a psychotic pimp, and a well-meaning prostitute.
Written and directed by Wayne Kramer (The Cooler), Running Scared references a variety of classic fairy tales to create a surreal urban story of the world's dangers. In this interview, Paul Walker talks about working on the project.
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The Interview
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MEDIA: Pretty cool flick...
PAUL: This is the kind of movie I want to see in a theater. I mean, when I'm in it, I screw it up for myself a little bit, but yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. I busted my ass on this. I did sh*t I didn't know that I could do.
Like what?
Well, one thing I learned is...I thought actors were freaks. Especially with this method stuff and bringing it home with you. A good friend of mine...Giovanni Ribisi's a fricken whackjob. When he's working on a movie, I don't even want to talk to his ass, because he's taking it home with him every day. Even on a movie like Gone in 60 Seconds, he became this quirky weirdo. He went out and put together a car and the whole bit. [laughs] I'm like, "This guy is nuts!" You know what I ended up finding I was doing? I was going home with this character every day. A girlfriend of mine was going to spend two weeks with me. She left four days into it. She's like, "No way. I can't spend any more time with you...I see you on set, you come home, you can't relax, you're all twitchy and jacked up on adrenaline." I'm like, "Well, sh*t, I've been running around smacking dudes upside the head!" She's all, "Yeah, listen to the way you're talking." [laughs] That was it. She split.
You brought home your character's Jersey accent, too?
Yeah. You gotta do it. I think the people that play it that way...I think there's certain times where you have to, and they're no longer freaks to me. That's another thing I learned: that's how they do their job. I don't think there's any other way to do it.
In one scene, mobsters are firing hockey pucks at your face. Was that done with practical or computer generated special effects?
They had a foam puck that they fired at me a couple times...[but] the foam puck was so soft and it was so light that the flight wasn't true to a real puck, so ultimately, they ended up CGIing it. But when it first comes off the face of the stick, it's the foam puck. [snaps fingers] And the continuation is the CGI.
The final result is pretty brutal...
The prosthetics they made were really good, and I just had to sell seeing it--I had to imagine something flying in the air. I didn't have anything to track, so that took a few cracks. Then once we got it, the prosthetic pieces worked really good, where blood would come bursting out. It's crazy when you see that stuff put together. I can't even tell it's CGI. It looks real. People are like, "Man, did you really take those pucks in the face?" [laughs] I'm like, "Come on, use your head."
What did you think of the scene where your character is battling that insanely over-the-top pimp?
I liked it. Originally, I think they were talking Michael Rapaport, who I thought was perfect. And then he ended up [not working out]. I don't know exactly what happened. And so this other guy showed up. I'm like, "This guy doesn't look like a pimp!" And then Wayne dressed him up, and he made him like a cartoon character. And that's all I kept saying. I'm like, "What are you, a f*cking cartoon? What is this guy, a cartoon, Wayne?" He's like, "That's the perfect line. I want this guy to be larger than life. I want him to be this quirky character." He's the Mad Hatter. You know, you hear about these fairy tale references...
Speaking of which, was it always Wayne's plan to spin this story as an urban fairy tale? There are allusions to Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel, and a few others...
I think it was more of an afterthought on his part. I think as things were going and the characters were coming in, they were so larger than life, something all of a sudden just hit him. He's like, "Wait, this guy's like the Big Bad Wolf." And all of a sudden, characters became bigger and he started throwing in these different elements as time went on. And even in the diner, when Vera and I have that conversation...If you look on the wall, the Cheshire Cat is on a poster. He's sort of throwing it in everywhere. I didn't even hear about it till maybe three, four weeks into production. And then he built up the pimp character--made it even bigger. [Wayne is] insane. I call him the mad scientist. He is out of his mind.
How would you describe his style as a director?
This guy knows what he wants. Everything's more than thought out. He's got it upwards, backwards, sideways...He drove me nuts at first. But with that comes peace of mind, with his storyboarding and everything, because you knew at the end of the day there were never going to be any reshoots. This guy covers the hell out of it. He knows how it's all going to cut together. There's never any guesswork. He's manic. If he doesn't get the shot that he wants and he doesn't have the time to do it, he's coming for blood. Nobody messes with that guy. And don't even think about messing with his shot. If there's five minutes left and we're in the middle of a sequence, he doesn't care, man. He's not going to lock it down and go for the static shot. He's going to go for what he envisioned, and that's it. That guy will kill you before he cuts the day short. [laughs] And that's who I want to work with. I want to work with guys that are passionate, that are hungry, and that aren't afraid to go into the trenches and go to battle with whoever's in his face.
Filming Running Scared after Into the Blue, did you really have to switch gears to go from "Jessica Alba in a bikini" to "no Jessica Alba in a bikini"?
It was nice working with her for four months, five months. Yeah, definitely a change of gears. But I have the biggest crush on Vera. Vera's awesome. That girl's got it together...That girl's unreal. You want to talk about keeper? That's Vera for sure.
Vera has an interesting scene in which she confronts a couple of pedophiles...
Yeah. I told Wayne when I read it, "You know who's got the best scene in this movie, don't you? Vera, by far, with the pedophile." That's the most memorable scene. She's awesome. She's my favorite.
What's the deal with Cameron Bright? Is he as creepy as his characters in this movie and Birth?
No, he's actually a nice kid. He likes to eat his boogers and gross you out and pick his scabs. He's just a regular kid. But he's tapped into something. That's what he's good at. And I'm sure he'll develop other things in time. But yeah, it's his eyes. He's really smart. The kid's super sharp. And Alex Neuberger, the one that plays my kid, just landed a real big movie. He's going to do pretty well, I think. I spoke to him yesterday on the phone. His voice has dropped like five octaves. I'm like, "Man, what's going on?" He's like, [with attitude] "I'm fourteen now!" I'm like, [sarcastically] "Oh yeah, that's right. You're big." [laughs]
Between Running Scared, Into the Blue, and Disney's Eight Below, are you trying to mix it up in terms of the types of movies you're doing?
Yeah. It was funny because my mom saw this trailer Wayne did...They're playing all the bad language and everything in this trailer he cut together. So I'm showing it to my mom, and she could tell I'm excited. She doesn't want to say what she's really thinking is, "Oh my God," like she knew it was going to be bad. And she says to me, "You know, it'd be great if you could do something that the kids could go see for a change." No joke: two weeks to the day, the Disney offer came. Just came. And I landed it. And I'm one of those people [who thinks] certain things happen at certain times for the right reasons.
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