Noting that it’s pretty much the stunt crew’s movie, we asked Courtney what it was like working with his team on this high-speed action film:
Courtney Solomon: It’s true. We say there’s three main stars, and that’s Ethan, Selena, and the car, because it’s in every shot with them.
The crews were great. We brought over three guys from the US who were fantastic, and then there was this fantastic Bulgarian stunt crew of about 35 guys who had a lot of gravitas and really wanted to one-up anything I would ask for, which is a great thing.
Everything in the movie, all the stunts, are completely real. There wasn’t one CG shot in the entire movie for any of that action you see, which is an old-school way of doing it. It’s the same way we shot Selena and Ethan with the green screen. I’d say about 5% of their stuff was green screen and 95% was actually on the road moving. We did the same thing with the stunts.
That hardest thing is, you hold your breath every single time these guys do this stuff, because you’re asking for more, and something could go wrong – God forbid. Somebody could die or get seriously injured. Thankfully, nothing like that happened on the movie, but after we were done I took a big sigh of relief when I could finally go edit.
Because of the action, we asked how many cars were actually harmed in the making of Getaway:
Courtney Solomon: I like to say it this way. We “killed” 130 cars in the making of this movie. We had a little junkyard by the end of this movie, piled up in this place in Bulgaria, where we would tow the cars after each thing. 58 cars actually get crashed on-screen.
Because Ethan and Selena were trapped in a car most of the movie, we asked how they passed the time in between takes:
Ethan Hawke: I guess a lot of time was spent memorizing our lines, trying to find a decent place to eat…
Selena Gomez: …and we’d always go to McDonalds, or I would at least. It was our thing.
[Ethan] was also very nice. When I would get tired, and I was stressed, he would definitely cheer me up. We had a couple moments where I was dragging.Ethan Hawke: It’s hard. The trouble with these kinds of movies is that there’s something about the repetition and consistency of the environment that actually can wear down your creativity. If you’re shooting a scene in this room, and then the next day you’re shooting in Central Park, each day is different. But being up all night in Bulgaria driving the same car? It’s difficult to try and maintain your excitement and enthusiasm to navigate all that.
But we had fun. Considering when you watch the movie, it’s really very simple and fun.
With rumors going around that Selena is only focusing on acting right now, we asked if she’d be taking a break from music for a while:
Selena Gomez: Well I’m actually out on tour, so I’m in the middle of music at the moment.
I’m a woman, so I change my mind all the time. One day I want to do acting and just that, then one day I just want to do music and just that, so it kind of changes. But, this is my last record for a while. I’m going to tour it, but then just get into acting for a really long time – or hopefully that’s the plan.
We then asked if she was scared at all making this movie:
Selena Gomez: I was scared when Ethan drove the first day of rehearsal…
Ethan Hawke: They took us out to an airport and let us drive as fast as we wanted.
Selena Gomez: I didn’t think he’d actually do it, but I’m in the car and he’s driving and doing freakin’ doughnuts, and I’m just thinking “Oh my goodness, we just started filming and I’m already going to die.” It was fun.
But he knew how to drive. He told me [he’d never done something like this] before, but he did, so he was just making me even more scared when I was driving with him.
As a director, we asked Courtney what drew him to Getaway:
Courtney Solomon: It’s interesting because I’m a techno-geek, which everyone knows and I’ll admit it, so when I saw all the camera angles we could possibly use I got excited about that. It was my first reaction when I saw this, “How can we do it,” then the reality hit me after I figured it out, which was “I have to do it.”
I would say to any filmmaker out there that you’ve got to keep trying. Honestly, Ethan said it well before. As we get older, we learn. My very first film wasn’t that big of a success, and instead of falling off I picked myself up and thought “What can I learn from this and how can I apply that to my future films.” I would say to any filmmaker to keep on learning no matter what you do, and incorporate it into your new work. I think that’s the best way to approach it.
With his reaction in mind, we asked Courtney what he learned from this film:
Courtney Solomon: First of all, you’ve got to have a great cast. Ethan, Selena, and Jon Voight were all fantastic, and I say that with my hand on my heard. They’ve been through everything. While Selena was on tour I called her and asked her to record a line for me on her iPhone and send it to me, and I did it to Ethan God knows how many times. I even asked him to record a line for a trailer. They’ve been there for me, and that’s really the first place you start.
This was so simple. This movie was intended to be so simple but fun. This is bringing us back to going to the movies and having a good time without thinking to much, and showing a real spectacle. That’s what we attempted to do, and that’s hopefully what the audience will feel.
We’d like to thank Ethan, Selena, and Courtney for participating in this press conference. Be sure to check out Getaway when it’s released on August 30th!
