Theres a scene in the upcoming film Speed Racer where actress Susan Sarandon sits down with her on-screen son Emile Hirsch and tells him, with tears in her eyes, how proud she is to be his mother. Amid the films riotous neon graphics and throttling, live-action anime sequences, their exchange is a touching and quiet respite. The viewer is reminded of just how damn talented these actors really are, especially considering most of the film was shot against a green screen. As much as the film is about the highly stylized world of racing, it is also about this emotional core, this intense family loyalty.
The one thing you fear as a parent is that your kids wont have a passion for something, because then what do you do? Sarandon told SuicideGirls during a recent roundtable interview. So anything that they feel passionate about, its your job to create memories and support whatever their passion is.
John Goodman, who plays opposite Sarandon as Speeds father, likened the acting on this artist-generated set to when he did Off, Off Broadway plays with little or no props. You concentrate more on the person youre working with, Goodman explained. The results are far more grounded in reality, and feeling, than your average action film. It's where technical brilliance meets being able to tell a good story. If you dont have the people, Goodman continued, youve got very rapidly moving wallpaper.
Read on for more with Sarandon and Goodman, two of the film industry's most respected and versatile actors...
Question: As a New Yorker, I imagine youre not much of a car person. What was the attraction in doing [Speed Racer]?
Susan Sarandon: [Directors] The Wachowskis; Im a huge fan of The Matrix. All the kids, especially my youngest son, thought it was brilliant. When they called me, after a few phone calls I just said, I dont even know what youre talking about... They were telling me about all these things that they were doing technically. I just learned to text, like a month ago, so Im way behind the learning curve. I cant even wear a watch; it stops on my body. Im so not good with inanimate objects; theyve never been my thing. But what they said was also very seductive. I thought, If youre going to do a big film, these are the guys to do it with. If youre going to do something thats cutting edge rather than just some old green screen movie, do it with the Wachowskis. And Berlin is not a bad place to spend the summer. They said, though, its really important, the family in the movie, and wanted to find a way to have that emotional core survive the surrounding things that are going to be happening. Thats why they chose us, honey [looks at John].
Q: What was it like working on the green screen? Did you have prior experience with it?
John Goodman: It harkened back to a time for me without money, Off, Off Broadway. When I first got into college I did a play in a church basement by Thornton Wilder, and the stage directions said there are no chairs or tables, you just use whatever you can... People start paying attention to the actors and after a while you dont care. So thats what it was like for me, going back Off, Off Broadway. You concentrate more on the person youre working with.
SS: If youre going to be in a little cart for a week in a green screen situation, you want a good group with you. We laughed a lot. The chimp helped. It was so unpredictable and funny and cute so that kept us on our toes. It was a good group. Everybody was real professional and really funny and it was also just so cool to be on a set with so many fine actors from different countries Rain, Im madly in love with Rain.
JG: Rains insane. He is so talented and he works so hard. Hes the hardest working man in show business now that brother James is gone.
Q: When youre on the green screen, do you get a chance to see whats around you?
SS: They did show us, I mean, not when were on the thing. The first day when we showed up they had a tour of pictures of things, what they were trying to do. These guys are so incredible. You want to be like them because theyve created a world theyre in complete control of. They just do anything they want. There will be fish there, some penguins are gonna walk through that shot.
JG: A hamster, a gerbil on a wheel.
SS: Yeah. "And were gonna dress the gal like the gerbil and theyre gonna be on the wheel together. Youre like, Ok thats cool.
JG: Its like theyre drawing a comic strip.
SS: As an actor youre constantly being asked to customize what you do to someone elses vision and to try to deal with the fact that you cant move out of this line or youll be off camera these guys are like, whatever they want, and theyve arranged their lives in such a way that they shoot where they want and their familys always there. They hire their friends over and over. They dont do press. They have the perfect setup. You just have to say, God, youre so cool!
Q: Susan, youve said that the women youve portrayed are ordinary women who find themselves in extraordinary situations. How would this character, Mom Racer, compare to some of your more outspoken characters?
SS: I think that she has to keep the family together. Pops has his perimeters that he doesnt go beyond, hes very passionate
JG: Very constipated.
SS: And tends to blow up and Moms gotta find a way to go through the waters. I think its a pretty important scene where shes talking about the crossover between art and commerce, which every artist feels. And, certainly, my dirty secret is I dont really care about cars or know about cars. I drive a Prius. They all look alike to me. Theyre low or theyre high or theyre red or theyre yellow. I dont understand anything. But in this context, if your kid is interested in racing thats your family business and thats what you do, I think what she says to him is so important. That was a scene that really had to work to set up there are a few emotional spots that have to make the ending pay off. Its really about the takeover by corporations of the human aspects of sports. When we were filming, they were having all these scandals that summer in racing, it was so weird The stealing of designs and then that racer McLaren. They were pretty on it, the Wachowskis.
Q: Was this a more stylized form of acting?
JG: No. Theres realistic and then theres truth. You always play the truth. And then the style of the piece comes in. If youre doing a French farce on stage, its going to be totally different than doing an Arthur Miller drama. But you have to play the truth or the farce isnt funny or youre going to have people sleeping or walking out.
SS: They were really insistent upon, if anything, smaller and smaller and smaller. They knew whatever they were listening to in their minds ear...
JG: To have that grand volcano behind us, all the colors of the rainbow, the constant moving and action, the seizure-inducing races. Youve got to have that grounded in reality.
Q: They shot a lot in close-up.
JG: Yeah. And I think the beginning of the film is brilliantthey did all the exposition during a race. Ive never seen anything like it. I thought that was really moving with Scott [Porter], Racer X when hes younger, with Speed when hes younger. That relationship, the way they showed how close they werelittle tiny bits and pieces but that was great. Young Speed was wonderful.
SS: And the little Trixie was great. They were very careful about the human aspect of it. Thats where the film could have gone off... in losing the people.
JG: If you dont have the people, youve got very rapidly moving wallpaper.
Q: Susan, you have said before that children reinvent your world for you. Even though that probably applies to your personal life, its also a really strong statement that comes out in this film.
SS: The one thing you fear as a parent is that your kids wont have a passion for something, because then what do you do? So anything that they feel passionate about, its your job to create memories and support whatever their passion is whether its stamp collecting
JG: Dog fighting [Laughter]
Q: John, did you like in the script when you saw hed get to kick ninja butt?
JG: Youre presuming that I read it! I was actually worried because my knees and my shoulder are pretty heavily riddled with arthritis. When youre working on a stunt fight, Ive got to tone down a little bit and Ive got to admit to myself that I cant do this because somebody else could get hurt. My stunt guy was flipping up and he had a guy pulling a rope so he could achieve this height but the guy didnt pull the rope right and this guy ended up smack in the middle of his head. Thats a broken neck. But he just popped up.
Q: The Wachowskis dont do press so theyre a mystery to us. What were they like on set? What did they tell you besides the technical part?
SS: They were also telling me the whole business about the political message of the movie and the corporations taking over sports.
Q: But what is their style like, working with them?
JG: Theres no mystery. Their strong point is theyre very well read, theyre very well grounded in popular culture, they are technically brilliant but they know how to tell a story. They just come up and talk to you. If Larrys finished with something, hell go, Andy, have anything to add? and hell go, Nope.
SS: Theyre very specific.
JG: Very specific. They know exactly what they want. Thats what they have in common with the Coen brothers. The Coen brothers write these brilliant screenplays and then they know precisely what they want. They know how they want you to do it. The first film I did with the Coens was Raising Arizona and I came back to New York with a bunch of other actors, and this was when the Coen brothers were just starting to be known and everyone was, What were they like? And I was describing how tight everything was. A couple of the actors go, Man I couldnt work like that, but I said, You dont understand, its oddly liberating to be within that restriction. You could do anything you want.
SS: If you surrender your ego to the greater good. If youre somebody thats going to be in some kind of power struggle, its not gonna work. But if youre listening to what their vision is, that its your job to jump on board, then that works really well.
Q: Have you seen the movie?
JG: I saw the movie a couple months ago and I didnt know it wasnt finished. It was spectacular. And then Emile saw it a couple nights ago and came back and told me about it. He said, Dude, its so much better. I said, How could it be better? Its great now.
Q: You have several things in the works coming out this year and next, can you talk about upcoming projects?
SS: Im going to film two films in May and June. And I have a film thats opening today in Canada called Emotional Arithmetic with Max Von Sydow.
Q: And The Lovely Bones
SS: And someone just reminded me that I have The Lovely Bones. And then I did a film with my daughter, Eva, thats called The Middle of Nowhere with Anton Yelchin. I play the evil, evil mother. Thats actually kind of fun. Im doing something called Peacock with Cillian Murphy and Ellen Page and Bill Pullman, and then something else called The Greatest, opposite Pierce Brosnan.
JG: He plays Muhammad Ali.
SS: Its a bit of a stretch for him but I think he can do it.
JG: Last year at this time I was doing a film with Tommy Lee Jones called The Electric Mist. Ive got a cartoon about Paul Bunyon, Ive got a Pixar cartoon coming up that takes place in New Orleans, where I live. Confessions of a Shopaholic with Isla Fisher and Gigantic with the beautiful Zooey Deschanel and the beautiful Paul Dano.
Q: What was it like working with Emile? Best part about it?
JG: His vibe. Hes very hungry. He wants to be a good actor. You can see it in him. He wants to be the best possible actor he can be and he goes to a lot of lengths and hes very serious and also one of the funniest kids Ive ever met. He can imitate anybody.
Q: Can he imitate you?
JG: Not to my
SS: [Laughs] Oh yeah, he can.
Speed Racer opens in theaters this Friday May 9. For more information go to the official site here.
The one thing you fear as a parent is that your kids wont have a passion for something, because then what do you do? Sarandon told SuicideGirls during a recent roundtable interview. So anything that they feel passionate about, its your job to create memories and support whatever their passion is.
John Goodman, who plays opposite Sarandon as Speeds father, likened the acting on this artist-generated set to when he did Off, Off Broadway plays with little or no props. You concentrate more on the person youre working with, Goodman explained. The results are far more grounded in reality, and feeling, than your average action film. It's where technical brilliance meets being able to tell a good story. If you dont have the people, Goodman continued, youve got very rapidly moving wallpaper.
Read on for more with Sarandon and Goodman, two of the film industry's most respected and versatile actors...
Question: As a New Yorker, I imagine youre not much of a car person. What was the attraction in doing [Speed Racer]?
Susan Sarandon: [Directors] The Wachowskis; Im a huge fan of The Matrix. All the kids, especially my youngest son, thought it was brilliant. When they called me, after a few phone calls I just said, I dont even know what youre talking about... They were telling me about all these things that they were doing technically. I just learned to text, like a month ago, so Im way behind the learning curve. I cant even wear a watch; it stops on my body. Im so not good with inanimate objects; theyve never been my thing. But what they said was also very seductive. I thought, If youre going to do a big film, these are the guys to do it with. If youre going to do something thats cutting edge rather than just some old green screen movie, do it with the Wachowskis. And Berlin is not a bad place to spend the summer. They said, though, its really important, the family in the movie, and wanted to find a way to have that emotional core survive the surrounding things that are going to be happening. Thats why they chose us, honey [looks at John].
Q: What was it like working on the green screen? Did you have prior experience with it?
John Goodman: It harkened back to a time for me without money, Off, Off Broadway. When I first got into college I did a play in a church basement by Thornton Wilder, and the stage directions said there are no chairs or tables, you just use whatever you can... People start paying attention to the actors and after a while you dont care. So thats what it was like for me, going back Off, Off Broadway. You concentrate more on the person youre working with.
SS: If youre going to be in a little cart for a week in a green screen situation, you want a good group with you. We laughed a lot. The chimp helped. It was so unpredictable and funny and cute so that kept us on our toes. It was a good group. Everybody was real professional and really funny and it was also just so cool to be on a set with so many fine actors from different countries Rain, Im madly in love with Rain.
JG: Rains insane. He is so talented and he works so hard. Hes the hardest working man in show business now that brother James is gone.
Q: When youre on the green screen, do you get a chance to see whats around you?
SS: They did show us, I mean, not when were on the thing. The first day when we showed up they had a tour of pictures of things, what they were trying to do. These guys are so incredible. You want to be like them because theyve created a world theyre in complete control of. They just do anything they want. There will be fish there, some penguins are gonna walk through that shot.
JG: A hamster, a gerbil on a wheel.
SS: Yeah. "And were gonna dress the gal like the gerbil and theyre gonna be on the wheel together. Youre like, Ok thats cool.
JG: Its like theyre drawing a comic strip.
SS: As an actor youre constantly being asked to customize what you do to someone elses vision and to try to deal with the fact that you cant move out of this line or youll be off camera these guys are like, whatever they want, and theyve arranged their lives in such a way that they shoot where they want and their familys always there. They hire their friends over and over. They dont do press. They have the perfect setup. You just have to say, God, youre so cool!
Q: Susan, youve said that the women youve portrayed are ordinary women who find themselves in extraordinary situations. How would this character, Mom Racer, compare to some of your more outspoken characters?
SS: I think that she has to keep the family together. Pops has his perimeters that he doesnt go beyond, hes very passionate
JG: Very constipated.
SS: And tends to blow up and Moms gotta find a way to go through the waters. I think its a pretty important scene where shes talking about the crossover between art and commerce, which every artist feels. And, certainly, my dirty secret is I dont really care about cars or know about cars. I drive a Prius. They all look alike to me. Theyre low or theyre high or theyre red or theyre yellow. I dont understand anything. But in this context, if your kid is interested in racing thats your family business and thats what you do, I think what she says to him is so important. That was a scene that really had to work to set up there are a few emotional spots that have to make the ending pay off. Its really about the takeover by corporations of the human aspects of sports. When we were filming, they were having all these scandals that summer in racing, it was so weird The stealing of designs and then that racer McLaren. They were pretty on it, the Wachowskis.
Q: Was this a more stylized form of acting?
JG: No. Theres realistic and then theres truth. You always play the truth. And then the style of the piece comes in. If youre doing a French farce on stage, its going to be totally different than doing an Arthur Miller drama. But you have to play the truth or the farce isnt funny or youre going to have people sleeping or walking out.
SS: They were really insistent upon, if anything, smaller and smaller and smaller. They knew whatever they were listening to in their minds ear...
JG: To have that grand volcano behind us, all the colors of the rainbow, the constant moving and action, the seizure-inducing races. Youve got to have that grounded in reality.
Q: They shot a lot in close-up.
JG: Yeah. And I think the beginning of the film is brilliantthey did all the exposition during a race. Ive never seen anything like it. I thought that was really moving with Scott [Porter], Racer X when hes younger, with Speed when hes younger. That relationship, the way they showed how close they werelittle tiny bits and pieces but that was great. Young Speed was wonderful.
SS: And the little Trixie was great. They were very careful about the human aspect of it. Thats where the film could have gone off... in losing the people.
JG: If you dont have the people, youve got very rapidly moving wallpaper.
Q: Susan, you have said before that children reinvent your world for you. Even though that probably applies to your personal life, its also a really strong statement that comes out in this film.
SS: The one thing you fear as a parent is that your kids wont have a passion for something, because then what do you do? So anything that they feel passionate about, its your job to create memories and support whatever their passion is whether its stamp collecting
JG: Dog fighting [Laughter]
Q: John, did you like in the script when you saw hed get to kick ninja butt?
JG: Youre presuming that I read it! I was actually worried because my knees and my shoulder are pretty heavily riddled with arthritis. When youre working on a stunt fight, Ive got to tone down a little bit and Ive got to admit to myself that I cant do this because somebody else could get hurt. My stunt guy was flipping up and he had a guy pulling a rope so he could achieve this height but the guy didnt pull the rope right and this guy ended up smack in the middle of his head. Thats a broken neck. But he just popped up.
Q: The Wachowskis dont do press so theyre a mystery to us. What were they like on set? What did they tell you besides the technical part?
SS: They were also telling me the whole business about the political message of the movie and the corporations taking over sports.
Q: But what is their style like, working with them?
JG: Theres no mystery. Their strong point is theyre very well read, theyre very well grounded in popular culture, they are technically brilliant but they know how to tell a story. They just come up and talk to you. If Larrys finished with something, hell go, Andy, have anything to add? and hell go, Nope.
SS: Theyre very specific.
JG: Very specific. They know exactly what they want. Thats what they have in common with the Coen brothers. The Coen brothers write these brilliant screenplays and then they know precisely what they want. They know how they want you to do it. The first film I did with the Coens was Raising Arizona and I came back to New York with a bunch of other actors, and this was when the Coen brothers were just starting to be known and everyone was, What were they like? And I was describing how tight everything was. A couple of the actors go, Man I couldnt work like that, but I said, You dont understand, its oddly liberating to be within that restriction. You could do anything you want.
SS: If you surrender your ego to the greater good. If youre somebody thats going to be in some kind of power struggle, its not gonna work. But if youre listening to what their vision is, that its your job to jump on board, then that works really well.
Q: Have you seen the movie?
JG: I saw the movie a couple months ago and I didnt know it wasnt finished. It was spectacular. And then Emile saw it a couple nights ago and came back and told me about it. He said, Dude, its so much better. I said, How could it be better? Its great now.
Q: You have several things in the works coming out this year and next, can you talk about upcoming projects?
SS: Im going to film two films in May and June. And I have a film thats opening today in Canada called Emotional Arithmetic with Max Von Sydow.
Q: And The Lovely Bones
SS: And someone just reminded me that I have The Lovely Bones. And then I did a film with my daughter, Eva, thats called The Middle of Nowhere with Anton Yelchin. I play the evil, evil mother. Thats actually kind of fun. Im doing something called Peacock with Cillian Murphy and Ellen Page and Bill Pullman, and then something else called The Greatest, opposite Pierce Brosnan.
JG: He plays Muhammad Ali.
SS: Its a bit of a stretch for him but I think he can do it.
JG: Last year at this time I was doing a film with Tommy Lee Jones called The Electric Mist. Ive got a cartoon about Paul Bunyon, Ive got a Pixar cartoon coming up that takes place in New Orleans, where I live. Confessions of a Shopaholic with Isla Fisher and Gigantic with the beautiful Zooey Deschanel and the beautiful Paul Dano.
Q: What was it like working with Emile? Best part about it?
JG: His vibe. Hes very hungry. He wants to be a good actor. You can see it in him. He wants to be the best possible actor he can be and he goes to a lot of lengths and hes very serious and also one of the funniest kids Ive ever met. He can imitate anybody.
Q: Can he imitate you?
JG: Not to my
SS: [Laughs] Oh yeah, he can.
Speed Racer opens in theaters this Friday May 9. For more information go to the official site here.
VIEW 10 of 10 COMMENTS
I'll wait for the video and convert it to black and white, then watch it without side effects of nausea. Thanks for the idea, SG.
Rock on, John Goodman. Good to see he's keeping on with a career film.