WAMG At The NEED FOR SPEED Press Day : AARON PAUL And IMOGEN POOTS

By Melissa Howland | March 12, 2014

DreamWorks Pictures’ NEED FOR SPEED marks an exciting return to the great car culture films of the 1960s and ’70s, when the authenticity of the world brought a new level of intensity to the action on-screen. Recently, WAMG sat down with stars Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots for a small roundtable discussion of the film with a few other members of the press. While there, we discussed Imogen’s lack of a drivers license, the crazy stunt work, and yes… ‘Breaking Bad’. Check it out below. 

Tapping into what makes the American myth of the open road so appealing, NEED FOR SPEED chronicles a near-impossible cross-country journey for our heroes — one that begins as a mission for revenge, but proves to be one of redemption. Based on the most successful racing video game franchise ever with over 140 million copies sold, “Need for Speed” captures the freedom and excitement of the game in a real-world setting, while bringing to life the passion for the road that has made our love of cars so timeless.

How much training did you have ‘cause I know you did quite a bit of your own driving.

AARON PAUL:  Mm-hmm.

And it does require …

AARON PAUL:  … lots of training. Yeah, yeah. They didn’t wanna and it’s the same with me. They didn’t wanna throw me into a car and say good luck, you know… I was just out at Willow Springs just to track up, just about a hour outside of Los Angeles and I was on that track as often as I could be. I mean, from sunrise to sunset. Just whenever I had some free time. They’re ready for another day of practice but yeah, it was great. I mean, the first few days was really just kinda learning how to get out of problematic situations like if something went wrong, and then the fun started… fun began. I mean, just kinda tripped around corners doing reverse 180’s, learning how to do 360’s and just, you know, the fun stuff.  Yeah.

How mechanically inclined are you?  Can you fix your car?  Can you change a tire?  

AARON PAUL:  I can change a tire but other than that no, I would have no idea how to change my own oil but I’m sure I could figure it out. Yeah, I can change a tire.

So what’s the best part about driving a car fast?

IMOGEN POOTS: You know, I didn’t get to do much of the actual race car driving in the film. Aaron did a lot more than I did – probably because I don’t have a driver’s license, so there was reservations from all fronts of the hazard of me behind the wheel, but it’s a pretty – it’s a pretty crazy sensation to be going that fast, you know. It’s pretty wild. It’s fun.

Now has this inspired you to get a driver’s license?

IMOGEN POOTS: I tried. I tried. Last week I went – I’ve lived in California for two years and haven’t ever got my license. I don’t know how that’s happened. Just going to try and be a real human being from now on, but I went to take my test and I didn’t make it out of the parking lot, so – I couldn’t find the honker on the – yeah, I mean that’s when you know you just shouldn’t be behind the wheel for right now. It’s such a strange question too. I was ready to kind of do some crazy – well, not crazy, some really normal driving and then he was like, “Where’s the horn?” and I was like, “I don’t know.” So not a great start.

It’s not in the center?

IMOGEN POOTS: Well, the airbag is also there, so I was like shoot, I’ve got the Need for Speed press thing next week and if I press the airbag and I got decapitated and, you know, it could be game over, you know.

Was there anything you added to your character?

IMOGEN POOTS: I really wanted her to have something unique. You know, you look at a movie like TRUE ROMANCE and you remember Patricia Arquette’s leopard print pants, you know, you just do and it’s – I think that’s a really special – really, really special thing and it can define an era, you know, something like that. I don’t know if my pants are going to have the same effect, but you know, there are obviously limitations perhaps because of the type of movie it is and maybe you have to conform more, so there was that, but we had an amazing costume designer, who was a great collaborator and she was like, “What do you want?”, and I was like, “I want like shoulder pads and a hot pink kind of ‘80s skirt suit,” and she was like, “Not going to happen.” So you sort of have to play by the rules a little bit with that kind of thing.

You had always done, you’d always done movies while ‘Breaking Bad’ was going on but as you approach the end of that series was this really a chance to transition into leading big movies?

AARON PAUL:  Yeah, but I think it was the time for me to jump into the studio system. I mean I always just gravitated towards the small passion projects, and I still do those. I mean, right after I shot NEED FOR SPEED I did a little film called HELLION that was at Sundance this last year and we did it, I think, for $400,000 and, you know, everyone was doing it because of the pure love and passion of it. I just love independent film making ‘cause you walk on set and there’s about 30 people on the crew just, you know, making something that they all believe in and you know everyone’s first and last name, and you kinda know their stories and, with the studio system I’m just learning that the crews are just so giant and it’s really impossible to meet everyone. I mean, I just wrapped a film right before the holidays, EXODUS, and there’s about 600 to 700 crew members. I mean, it’s impossible to meet everybody and then you don’t remember if you had met the person and you feel bad and anyways, yeah, I thought it was time to kinda jump into the studio system and that way I could kinda still do the passion projects.

You and Aaron were doing another movie….

IMOGEN POOTS: A LONG WAY DOWN.

And then you were up for this, but it wasn’t quite certain yet or anything. Did you kind of tell him to put in a good word for you, or how did this come about?

IMOGEN POOTS: No. Well, yeah, we had been doing that film and then he was like, “Would you be interested in maybe doing this Need for Speed film?” I was like, “Is it about drugs? Is it like a gritty drama? What’s the deal?” He was like, “No, it’s about race cars.” I was like, “Okay.” To be honest, you know, the subject matter was something that in my head I wasn’t going wild about, but working with Aaron again was something that I felt would be crazy to say no to. You know, we became very, very close friends, but also, you know, he’s such a talented actor and I was like if I’m ever going to do a film like this in my life, I’d be thrilled to have Aaron next to me, you know, in this together.

How does the scale of this compare to the scale of a Ridley Scott biblical epic?

AARON PAUL:  I mean, this film was probably the biggest, NEED FOR SPEED, before EXODUS was the biggest thing I had ever been a part of.  I mean, you go to set and there’s, you know, 13 super cars, 12 cop cars, 2 helicopters, I mean, it’s—it’s just—it’s just crazy. And it’s massive and it was so much fun but then you go to a Ridley Scott biblical epic and, you know, you’re surrounded by 200 camels and elephants and, there may be a couple cheetahs and you’re like what is happening? And everyone looks like they’re walking straight outta the bible. It was epic, yeah.

So, how fun is it to be the rose amongst the thorns not only here, but that awkward moment and there you are…

IMOGEN POOTS: With all those – all those guys…

Is this a pattern with…?

IMOGEN POOTS: Oh, gosh. I don’t think so. You know, I’ve been spoiled for actually lovely men in the company which I’ve been working, but you know on this job I just have to keep my head down to be honest and there’s a lot of testosterone, there’s a lot of like guys like clapping and kind of punching each other’s shoulders and stuff and I was just like okay, do your thing. But the director was really, really lovely and kind of understood that I was probably the only girl pretty much apart from Dominic Cooper. He’s a bit of a girl.

How much of this, the stunts did you do in this, and was there a time when you wanted to do a stunt where Scott said absolutely not?

AARON PAUL:  I, in all honesty I wanna—I wanna give the stunt men and women credit. They did all of the really the heavy lifting. I mean, like the grasshopper jump that was definitely not me and I did not want to do that. When they drove off the cliff and were caught by the helicopter that was not me. But that was someone and that’s, you know, that’s just terrifying. And all of the major crashes were all the stunt men and women, but the majority the driving and the races… that was me and a lot of the just the driving through the freeway sequences where we’re going about 125 miles an hour… that was me. But when we needed to get the speed to about 180, 190 they got the stunt men and women in there.

Most of the American movies have asked you to do an accent. Was it nice to get to use your real voice?

IMOGEN POOTS: It was fun. It’s funny in a way, because I remember them saying, “Oh, we’d really like her to be British, because you know it’s so exotic.” And I was like, “Really? Well, tell that to someone in west London, because we don’t think that.” To me, kind of an exotic accent is something probably American, you know. It was cool. It was fun. It was a nice change for sure, but I really love doing accents too. I think the more and more you do them and you understand them, I think they can really benefit the choices you make for the character. You know? You don’t want Julia to be this stereotypical English girl, you know. That was something I was – I didn’t want that to happen.

 Is there any way to ask you just a couple of ‘Breaking Bad’ questions?

AARON PAUL:  Sure.

I read that Jim said that you didn’t think Jesse would last very long…

AARON PAUL:  Yeah.

…and would get picked up by the police.  I wonder do you think you could have gotten away? What do you think? I know you finished shooting it while you were making this. Did people ask “Well, what happens?  What happens on that?”

AARON PAUL:  I disagree with Vince there. I mean, just because I just—I just want him to be okay. I don’t know if he deserves to kinda get away but I think he had his time in that hole and he was just tortured enough.  And so I think he paid the price but I would like to think that he got away.  He’s hiding out in Alaska somewhere, you know, carving some wood [LAUGHTER].  And then, sorry what was the other question?

The other, you’re a cast members, were they asking you what happens?

AARON PAUL:  Oh, yeah I mean—I mean, everyone, you know, everyone wanted to know but really they didn’t wanna know.

[LAUGHTER].

AARON PAUL:  So, everyone would say come on, please tell me. I’m like, oh my god, alright you have to promise don’t say anything. Like okay, and then I would start to just talk and they’re like no, don’t tell me. But yeah.

Did you have any idea what they show would become?

AARON PAUL:  That’s really, that’s kind of impossible to answer.  Everything we’re just, you know, I’m sure a lot of you talk to a lot of the cast—the cast of ‘Breaking Bad’ and we’re just such a—such a family. I think, looking back when we all watched the pilot for the first time we all saw it for the first time together at the Sony lot. We’re in a screening room and just seeing all the pieces. We knew we were part of something special but just because the script is so brilliant but, just seeing their vision of what they wanted to accomplish. We were just all kind of just floored.  We just couldn’t—couldn’t believe that we were part of something like this. But we still didn’t even know if it was picked up or not. Our whole thing was alright, well, I hope the next episode is half as good as this one. You know, that was like the—the main challenge to kinda just keep the quality up there and I—I think they definitely did that.

On the night of the finale were you eager to be on Twitter and see everyone’s reaction?

AARON PAUL:  Um, I actually really, well I wasn’t on Twitter.  I had been planning on doing an event for the night of the finale for a couple years and I wanted to do an event.  I wanted to get the opportunity of just the public to kinda get together with everyone that made the show so I rented out the Hollywood Forever cemetery and we played the pilot episode and then we played the final episode, and I got Jimmy Kimmel to moderate the little Q&A afterwards and, you know, it was great. When we put the tickets… it was all—all of it was going to charity for my wife’s non profit campaign, and we sold out in 36 seconds. We raised just under 2 million dollars and yeah, it was fantastic. So that—that right there just showed, you know – and I was so happy with the way it ended and I, I mean, you could hear a pin drop in that cemetery during the final episode. Vince was a little nervous to play it with that many – I mean, there’s thousands and thousands of people there, but everyone was so respectful and they’re just, you know, they were so invested. They didn’t want – I think if anyone screamed out I think their neighbors would have like knocked ‘em out. Like “What are you doing, you psycho!  Shut up!” But, yeah.

One of the things I noticed last year, I was actually in Germany and my co-workers there… there was a shift and we ended up we talked about you. I think from being Jesse to Aaron Paul. I’m sort of curious how aware you are of just, sort of, that idea of being separate from character and this transition now going into see your films, what that means to you, and how afraid that makes you feel, or how happy that makes you feel?

AARON PAUL:  Yeah, you know, it makes me very happy. Thank you. Yeah, ‘cause it, I mean it’s people let’s be honest. People still, I mean – I was just did CNN the other day and live the woman called me Jesse and I just started laughing. You know, I’m like “Don’t worry”, she felt very embarrassed but I’m like “Don’t worry, it happens to me all the time.”  But the majority of the people know me as Aaron Paul which is great, but they also know me as playing one character and so they kinda see, they just think that’s who I am and I couldn’t be farther from him.  I mean, he’s definitely a big part of me but I’m quite the opposite of Jesse Pinkman… but yeah, it’s nice to kinda branch off and do something completely different and I think, I hope when people see this movie,if they see it, they they see a different person. They don’t see Aaron and they don’t see Jesse. They just see someone else and I hope that’s the case.

There are some shots in the scene where you’re refueling where it looks like it’s really you, how close – how fast did that get? How close did you get and was it a situation where they’re towing the cars and you’re strapped in and they remove it later?

IMOGEN POOTS: That was totally authentic. So we – the day previous we did some practice, so you start at kind of 10 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour and sort of lean out the window sort of trying to get your butt out and shift it all around and you’re strapped in with rope around your ankle with a great stuntman just inside the car like holding onto your leg. Yes, all of that was real and you sort of just get out the window and we got it up to kind of 65 or 70 miles an hour and the camera crew – the camera boys were following and they had Rami, one of our – Rami Malek on the other vehicle. Right? He was sort of handing down the nozzle, so you have to like grab hold of the nozzle. So all of that – I actually really enjoyed it once we got going, you know. You just don’t want to mess up, because then you’ve got to go straight back to the start again.

And the cars you were driving, they weren’t being towed?

IMOGEN POOTS: No. Not for that moment, but there are certainly moments in the film where we were on like a loader, so that meant the camera boys were kind of along one side of the car and you’d all like travel together and it was kind of a hilarious situation.

What did you learn about yourself in the experience of making this film? Because this is a totally new kind of thing for you.

IMOGEN POOTS: Yeah. It really was. You know, I think you learn things that you’re not crazy about just as much as you learn more about the things that you love, so I look at it as an experience and I’m like okay, you know, I got to spend time with Aaron – he’s one of my favorite people and one of my favorite actors – and we got to do this crazy film together. I got to see so much of America. Moab was extraordinary. I was blown away. I felt so insignificant as this tiny human just like I was on Mars. I mean that’s a great opportunity to see America in that way and spend time with good people, but I didn’t come away any more in love with cars, you know, which I think is okay and I understand why people love the things they do. Some people would just go crazy for that stuff and it is – sure, when you break down what a car – what goes into it, you know, the mechanics of it, it’s pretty intricate and interesting, but I’d still be happy just watching the criteria on movies rather than like learning more about Mustangs or what have you.

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