Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson and Tony Scott on 'Unstoppable'
Chris Pine and Denzel Washington in 'Unstoppable.'
© 20th Century FoxUnstoppable Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson and Director Tony Scott Press Conference
Was all the lingo in the script or did the actors do additional research?
Tony Scott: "I like to give validation with the lingo. We put that in the script - sometimes we embellish it and sometimes we trim it back."
Rosario Dawson: "I think that falls into the research category. I spent a lot of time talking to Marin Alexander, who we had chosen to be the background person, for Connie’s background. We drilled her. She was constantly talking to Tony. We’d go over the transcripts. A lot of time we’d ask her, 'What does this mean?' so I knew what I was talking about. Also the energy behind it. 'Is this important, is this not important?' Because all of it, as technical as it sounds, sounds really huge – but she’d be like, 'That’s actually pretty simple. Don’t emphasize that.'"
How was playing average guys?
Denzel Washington: "He wasn't that average of a guy. I don’t know what that means, so I don’t worry about that. There’s nothing average about someone who can control a 100 thousand ton machine, make it stop or risk his life to do it. I’m not the average guy. What they did was not average. I don’t look at it that way. Like you put him in a slot before you start."
What was the most interesting thing you learned from real railroad workers?
Chris Pine: "It was interesting and frightening when we went to the rail yard in LA. They said the most dangerous thing isn’t out on the track, it’s in the yard because the trains can be so quiet and seemingly innocuous, but of course they’re thousand ton beasts. I remember this one guy telling the story that this guy got surprised on the track, and the train was only going 3 or 4 miles per hour and pinned the guy. And they had to call the family out because the guy was still alive as he was pinned, they said their goodbyes, and the train separates from the guy, he passed away. I mean, that’s how dangerous these things are."
"Everyone we talked to had an experience, whether it was a conductor or engineer, with life and death stuff. People trying to cross the tracks, there’s no emergency stop button. A lot of people have experienced traumatic events."
Denzel Washington: "It was great to get to drive the train. Everything on them hurts. You know? You step, you hit your knee - it was dangerous all the time. I was always more nervous because Chris and I were looking forward, and you have all these guys on the platform going 50 mph. We could see what was coming – they couldn’t. It was just trippy. I couldn’t imagine making this movie on green screens."
Chris Pine: "It’s a credit to Tony, really. Everything was practical. Not only were we on trains, on the tracks moving -- we had 2 trains, one train that looked like the train, that one was chopped up so that cab could be circled by this 360 camera so we could run scenes over and over again and feel like we were driving the train and not be hindered and run the scene. It was such a freedom and a liberty to be able to do that."
And you had to run on the trains?
Chris Pine: I didn’t have a stunt man. I had seven."
Denzel Washington: "I remember reading it way back and thinking, 'Why does the other guy get to jump on the train? I want to be that guy.' And we kept working on the material and then I started thinking, 'I shouldn’t be the guy that’s jumping – Chris should be! I see why he’s the guy!' We had very experienced stuntmen, the guys that did Casino Royale."
Tony Scott: "[Chris has] got a fear of heights. So we had him up at 25 ft on a 50 mph train, it wasn’t an easy task to get him up there. Chris was down there between the two trains. It’s actually sugar puffs, the potato flakes. What we want is a snow storm, and I thought we can’t have a snow storm this time of year. We re-created a rain storm with sugar puffs and potatoes."
What was the most difficult scene to film?
Tony Scott: "The scene when I’m dealing with performances, when I’m actually looking at the guys and hoping I’m covering them the right way. This is about two guys resolving their difference through the course of this journey, which is great. You’ve got the beast; you’ve got the guys coming to terms with who they are and their differences. It’s great in terms of the drama of these two different worlds."
Denzel, you’ve worked with Tony five times.
Denzel Washington: "I learn and know that I cannot do what he does – what he does is make films. I’ve directed a couple of films, but it’s got nothing to do with what he’s doing. I’ve learned so much from him. There’s obviously a shorthand. He knows how I like to work, I know what he likes to do. He knows I like research, so he’s gonna have a ton of stuff long before we start. Things like that."
Tony Scott: "There’s never been complacency. Both of us are always reaching for something different. We never repeat ourselves. Every movie I do, every day I go to work I say how I look at this world and these characters in a different way. Denzel does the same. He reaches back inside of himself and finds a different aspect of his personality. Every character is very different."
How was working with Denzel?
Rosario Dawson: "In the one scene that we had together? Brilliant. It’s interesting because on the last movie we’d done together, we only had one scene together - and it’s the same thing on this one. Maybe we can figure out in the next movie where we have a couple more scenes together. It’s an amazing, odd, interesting thing to watch. I feel, when you see this movie, something that’s so impressive about it is having a great fun ride in an action film, but you actually care about everybody. The time is taken to really establish the different types of personalities there, and give them time – even if it seems mundane or inane some of the conversations – it’s deeply connecting you to caring about these characters as the story goes along, which is unusual for an action film of this kind. It’s amazing and remarkable that I feel there’s a chemistry between Frank and Connie that’s there that was only brought together because of Tony being able to gauge our performances in the weeks and months separated between them while we’re in different cities. It’s magical to me that in that one moment at the end you can see chemistry and camaraderie of spirit. They are people of the same stock. They get each other’s deep connection to doing life. You can see a hereafter after that."
How much time did you spend with the people you were playing?
Chris Pine: "Terry and Jess came here and we went to the Pig and Whistle and had a couple beers, talked. It was great to get a sense of their dynamic in real life. They were married together for a while in the sense that they were conductor and engineer together. They were the couple. What’s really interesting is that hierarchy in the train is very real. Those guys that are old hands and have been around for a long time demand a certain level of respect. Just because the newbie’s gone to school and learned to do his job doesn’t mean he knows all the ins and outs of the job in practicality. They told the story of the newbie coming in and pressing his luck, trying to show the old guys how it was done. He was in for a world of hurt."
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Unstoppable hits theaters on November 12, 2010 and is rated PG-13 for sequences of action and peril, and some language.
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