WGTC: [Turning to Shane Brady, Nick Blanco and Chase Newton] So you guys are the skateboarders, but I see “Gas Money Kid” didn’t make the trip out with you…
Shane Brady: Yup, hashtag “Fuck Gas Money Kid!”
Chase Newton: FUCK “GAS MONEY KID!”
Justin Benson: Seriously, fuck “Gas Money Kid.”
WGTC: So you guys don’t like “Gas Money Kid” I take it?
Nick Blanco: There was supposed to be another guy, “Gas Money Kid,” but he just stopped showing up after a few days.
Shane Brady: I swear to God, he just bailed.
Aaron Moorhead: He legitimately just left the set. He’d just be like, “I want to go to a party.”
Chase Newton: He said he had to go to a Quinceanera!
Aaron Moorhead: He was going to be one of the skater friends, living through the whole story.
Justin Benson: This is the magic of “Point-Of-View” cinema and we got really lucky. He was the dude who got the “titty cam.” The shot we were able to capture was allowed to happen because luckily we’d already had a few establishing shots via that upwards camera angle. His rolling out, no joke, just happened to make the film better.
Aaron Moorhead: We didn’t know that at 6AM when we realized he wasn’t coming back, of course.
Justin Benson: There’s a famous quote by David Fincher and it’s something like, “You’re not a director when you’re just directing. You’re a director when the sun is going down and you need five shots but can only get two.” He’s actually correct. Now it’s, “You’re only a director when one of your leads bounces out on Day 2 and you’ve shot through your whole budget already.” You walk onto a set of like 200 people – this was a huge production – and you’re pulling favors everywhere, so you walk out there and you’re like, “Alright, awesome! So you haven’t slept, great!” You’re trying to figure out how the hell everything is going to work.
Aaron Moorhead: We took a long walk around the block to get away from everyone, just Justin and I, and we decided we were going to walk back over with the biggest smiles on our faces and just go, “Alright guys, change of plans! New ideas!” Oh, we were so scared.
WGTC: [To Nick and Chase] So you guys aren’t actors, you’re only skateboarders. How much choreography was required during the fight sequences and was it hard keeping up with all the moves?
Chase Newton: We were basically winging it, and whatever worked, [Justin and Aaron] loved it!
Shane Brady: We had Vincent, who did all the fight choreography for the movie, but here’s the thing – Vince is very much about safety. He had all his fight guys coming in and playing the cult members, and when it comes down to the skater guys he’s just like, “Nah, they’re good.” All they do is put themselves in peril and jump off of things, just push the envelope every day.
Aaron Moorhead: We were like, “Do we need a set medic?” He goes, “Maybe for the stunt guys, but if the skaters get cut up and bloody, they’re just going to walk it off.” [Laughs]
Shane Brady: It was a mix of “How do we let you guys do what you do, which is skate really well, safely.”
Nick Blanco: I didn’t expect that shit at all. We got a script, and I was like, “This is nuts!”
Shane Brady: They just showed up. [Laughs]
Nick Blanco: I thought it was just going to be reading lines, then we started doing this choreography that would take like fifteen tries, and that was damn hard.
Chase Newton: Felt like Angelina Jolie right there…[Laughing]
