Exclusive Q&A With Aaron Paul and Need for Speed Director Scott Waugh

GS: What did Kid Cudi bring to the project?

SW: Kid Cudi, man. Again, I’m the most ignorant director in Los Angeles and he came into my office and I didn’t know who the fuck Kid Cudi was. He comes in and he reads and he was fantastic. I was just really mesmerized by this guy. I was like, “this kid’s unique and original. I haven’t seen somebody like him for this role.” You can tell that he was kind of new to acting, but I was like, “this guy really has an X Factor.”

He walks out and my assistant walks in and looks at me and says, “you have no idea who that is, do you?” I said, “I don’t have a fucking clue.” And [my assistant] plays Cudi’s songs. And I said, “that’s who that guy is?! That’s awesome!” And I was stoked. But he only got the part because he did a great job in the audition. I didn’t cast him because he’s the famous great rapper that he is. I think he appreciates that too, because I truly had no idea who he was.

Q: During the filming, how fast did you actually get a car up to?

AP: When we had the freeways locked down, I would look down and we were going 125 MPH. And I’m chasing after a camera car, as well, that has a big Russian arm hanging off the back with a camera at the end of it and that car is flying. I’m just as going as fast as that car. I’m just following that car.

SW: Our stunt guys are all professional pro-racers. They’re the ones that we put in the cars that needed to go 200 [miles per hour]. We would put in guys with seat time who could handle those scenes.

Q: Was there any other car you wish you could put in the movie? What would you have liked?

SW: Ferrari turned me down. They’re the only brand that turned me down. But, to their defense, and I’m cool with it… I wanted Dino to drive the Ferrari. And they were like, “that guy’s the douche bag in the movie. He’s not driving it.” [Laughter] So Ferrari wasn’t in the movie.

GS: What about Michael Keaton?

SW: That was wild! Man, I’m a fan of Keaton. I’ve been a fan for so long. He’s the best Batman, he’s Beetlejuice. When I wanted to use him in the movie, the studio said, “no, he’ll never do it. He’s not going to do this film.” I said, “let’s try. Let’s at least call and see if he’ll do it.” His agent kind of gave me some grief but I said, “could I please just talk to him and let him decide on this movie?”

So I finally got on the phone with him and I explained what we were doing. And he was really professional, really cool. We sat down at dinner and I told him about this kind of homage movie. I said “I think this character’s extremely eccentric and I don’t think there’s anybody in our world that can do it the way you can do it.” I was so thrilled when he got to read the script and called me and said, “I’m in.”

When he was doing those scenes, I seriously got lost. I’m behind the monitor and I just started watching. I was like, “oh my God. This is so fucking funny. This is so good! He’s so good! Oh, right, I’m supposed to be directing him right now.” He had just turned on everything we had hoped to see Keaton do again. I’m so happy he could be in the movie. He doesn’t do what he’s so great at a lot of the time. He’s so talented and he can be completely over-the-top eccentric but he does it in such a profound way. He’s the only guy in Hollywood who can do it with authenticity.

Q: Some of the scenes in the last race kind of look like some of the games in the last few years that came out. What inspired you to make those scenes? Is it the game or was there something else that gave you the idea to film in that location?

SW: Because the game doesn’t really have any stories, I really wanted to make sure that we paid respect to the game itself, in terms of its format and the cars that are in it. That race, the DeLeon race, which I think is now becoming part of the new game… I just love the landscape in the last two games. We tried to go to another place, like Big Sur, California, that had the redwoods and the cliffs. There’s only one other place in the entire coastline from Mexico to Canada that I could do this in, and that was Montecito. It was a bummer because I wanted to do it so badly and Montecito was our last possible place. And Aaron was on [Breaking Bad] and we got lucky because April 15 was the cut-off date that we wouldn’t be able to shoot in Montecito anymore because they get tourism and they would shut me down. Breaking Bad, because they wanted to do such a great job on the finale, they kept going longer and longer. It was eating into April 4, April 5.

AP: [Waugh] kept calling me… Where are you?! I was working on the final day of the show, it was just Bryan [Cranston] and I cast-wise that were there shooting. And they had a plane waiting for me that flew me out to Northern California and Montecito. I started the next morning at 6am, the day after I wrapped the show.

GS: That’s an interesting head space to jump from the end of something so important in your life to start something else.

AP: [Pause] Yeah. [Audience laughs]

Q: What do you guys have in the works? What’s next?

AP: [To Waugh] Yeah, what’s next for us, buddy?

SW: I am definitely going to work with Steven again. I’m obviously so humbled that he wants to work with me again. There’s another movie, it’s a heist movie that we’re going to do next and I’m trying – I could use your help – to get this man [motions to Paul] to work with me. [Audience cheers, starts clapping] You know I love you buddy.

AP: We’ll definitely be working together again and I think again and again. We have such a great rapport on set. We just communicate very well. Some days are hotter than others but we have such a good time.

Q: What was it like to be on Breaking Bad for five seasons and to have to change to a character like [Tobey]?

AP: Jesse Pinkman… I have such a special place in my heart for that guy. I hope we all do. [Crowd cheers].

GS: Where else do girls look and you and say, “Call me bitch!?” With love.

AP: It was definitely hard to say goodbye to [Jesse], but hopefully not forever…

GS: Better Call Saul?

AP: Better Call Saul… I’m not promising anything. I’m just saying it could happen. I was very excited because Jesse was a tortured individual, very lost and very sad, struggling to stay alive. It was nice to go from that to a guy that was very confident, very put-together, very driven and obsessed with racing cars. It was great. It was an easy transition and it was a fun one.

That concludes the Q&A but be sure to check out Need for Speed when it zooms into theatres this Friday!