by Gill Pringle and Rhiana Davies-Cotter
Edgar Wright’s new bank-robbing drama Baby Driver takes place in a musical world of crime and cars. After Baby (Ansel Elgort) is caught stealing Doc’s (Kevin Spacey) car, he is forced into a bank robbing scheme, but when he sets his eyes on Debora (Lily James), Baby tries to escape the dangerous world of crime in the name of love.
We caught up with the film’s star-crossed lovers, Ansel Elgort and Lily James, to talk music, movies, drifting, Jamie Foxx’s swagger and more.
How much of the driving did you actually get to do?
Ansel Elgort: I did all the driving they let me do, which was like two stunts. But I actually learned how to do it. I did like 10 sessions with Jeremy [Fry], who was the stunt driver. He was also the coordinator of the driving stuff, so he’s the genius behind it. He did the stunt driving for Drive and John Wick. He was a great teacher. I now drive a stick shift Mustang, which is ridiculous to drive in New York, but I love stick shift. I love to drift. I’m really into driving now.
Lily James: What’s drifting?
Ansel: Drifting is what Baby does. Did you think I was a chauffeur?
And that was only 10 lessons to get that good?
Ansel: Well, ten long lessons. They were like five hours each. I got to Atlanta really early, because I had to learn the driving, the sign language stuff, figure out the accent…
And then there’s the dancing.
Ansel: Yeah, and all the dancing. There was a really long dance scene. I’ve seen this film twice now, and I would watch it again. I really love the movie, and I don’t feel like I’m watching myself when I see it, which is awesome.
Can you tell us a bit about your character Lily? Are you a good girl that’s gone bad?
Lily: Well, she’s a good girl, but she has to get a bit bad in order to survive. She’s a waitress. Yep, she works in a diner. That’s where her and Baby meet. And they’re dreamers, people that long to escape and hit the road.
Did you miss all the action?
Lily: Yeah, I do. We liked doing the explosions, didn’t we?
Ansel: We did. Lily’s character definitely gets involved towards the end. By the way, it’s hilarious that she’s a waitress, because she’s like the most Hollywood waitress you’ve ever seen. I would never walk into a diner in the middle of America and see a waitress that looks like that. No way.
Music is a major feature of this film. Were there any songs you would play to get in character?
Ansel: All the songs were figured out so we actually had playback on set, especially when Edgar [Wright, director] wanted everyone to walk in rhythm. The whole movie’s kind of like a music video. It all moves to the music. The cuts, the way it’s shot. If you think watching the trailer looked crazy and exciting, the whole movie looks like that.
Lily: Because you’re essentially in Baby’s head – you’re seeing the world through his soundtrack.
Ansel: You hear it through his ears.
Lily: Yeah, and the world is kind of in time to his beat. We had little earpieces in and we’d have the song playing while we were doing our scenes, which created such an amazing vibe. We all felt like we were in the same world, because we were listening to the same music and feeling the same beat.
Any favourite songs that were on the soundtrack?
Lily: I love the Carla Thomas B.A.B.Y track. Which is kind of my character’s song – when you meet her, she’s singing that song.
Ansel: Easy is my favourite song on the soundtrack. This song wasn’t originally in the film. When I auditioned, Edgar asked me if there were any songs that I knew particularly well. And I’m thinking like, “I listen to house music all day, there’s no words in it, it’s just beats. Like, what am I going to do?” And then I thought, “Oh, Easy by The Commodores!” So, he put the song on and said “Okay, now stand here and pretend that you’re listening to Easy by The Commodores, but there’s a dead body over there, and you can’t help but mouth the words.”
Lily: Wow, that’s so intense.
Ansel: Yeah. He said, “The music’s making you happy, but at the same time, there’s a dead body over there.” So we did that, and he filmed it, and he was so happy, I got the role the next day. And then he said, “I want to put Easy in the movie. We have to put it in after a really intense scene. So, at a really dark place in the movie for Baby, Easy comes on. And it’s just like, it’s his escape, and that’s what music is. Music can take you to a place where everything is okay. In fact, last night when I watched the movie, it made me tear up when the song came on.
You’re a musician Ansel, so it must be two passions in one film.
Ansel: Oh, it was incredible. I mean, I think that’s why I got the role. My first meeting with Edgar – Edgar is a movie guy, but he’s also a music guy. He knows so much about movies, and I don’t. I’ve actually just started getting into cinema… Since finishing this movie I text with Edgar all the time and say, “Hey, man, I’m about to watch this movie,” and he’s like, “Oh, great, finally.” Before I did this movie, I hadn’t seen any of [Kevin] Spacey’s movies. I mean, it’s just bad. I just woke up. He would always give me crap about it. So, I watched American Beauty and The Usual Suspects and House of Cards, because I hadn’t seen them before this movie. I watched them while I was filming. I’d be like, “Hey, man. I saw American Beauty last night.” He’s like, “I thought you told me you already saw it.” I was like, “I was lying.”
Lily: I lied too. Edgar sent an incredible email to me with all these movie references, and it was the best list of films.
What kind of films?
Lily: Oh, God. There’s so much on there. It was a lot of car movies, like Sugarland Express, Point Break, that’s not a car movie, it’s a surf movie, but still. I watched Bonnie and Clyde, which was good for our kind of vibe. Oh, God. True Romance, Wild at Heart, Badlands, a lot of stuff for me was about kindred spirits that meet and by meeting each other kind of become more open and excited by life.
What’s so special about these kinds of con movies? There was a line of Kevin Spacey’s, “Everybody loves bank robbers.” And it’s true. Is it something special for an actor as well?
Ansel: Yeah. I mean, they’re just fun movies. And that’s what I was going to say about Edgar, too – he’s not a movie snob, he just loves movies. And this is not a snobby movie at all. It’s like one of the most commercial movies I’ve seen in a long time, but in the most exciting, fun way. That’s why I said I’d watch it again, because it’s so easy and fun to watch.
Lily: The characters are great. They’re so vibrant and unique.
Ansel: You’re scared of Jamie Foxx’s character, but at the same time he’s cracking you up. I was laughing the whole night. He’s so good in it. Kevin’s character is also so serious and scary, and then he says a line that just punches you, and you just start laughing.
Lily: They all kind of feel like classic, iconic characters. And Courtney [Hoffman], the costume designer, has done a really great job at making each character look really distinct, and I can imagine people dressing up in these costumes for Halloween, because they’re just that cool and stylised and specific.
What is Baby’s motivation for his actions in the film? Is he trying to pay off a debt?
Ansel: He just loves driving. I think it’s something he’s good at and it’s something that gives him purpose. That’s why he got into trouble to begin with. The story is that when he was seven he lost both his parents to a car crash, and then he developed his tinnitus, so he has to listen to music all the time and drown that out. I think after the car crash, he became infatuated with cars and driving, maybe as a way to overcompensate the fact that they died in a car crash. And he started to love driving. He’s really good at it. He just liked to steal cars because he could. He was a kid, and then he gets screwed by taking this important guy’s car, and then he’s sucked into driving for him. In the beginning of the movie they pull off the perfect heist. Baby is amazing. He drives incredibly, and then there’s a three and a half minute Steadicam shot. It’s one shot of him walking out of the building, going down the street, getting coffees, bringing the coffees all the way back to where the crime headquarters are and then walking out of the building.
I’ve been there before in my life too. It’s the feeling I had when I got my first movie. I was walking down Madison Avenue, and I had music in my headphones, and I was walking down the street. I was so happy. Nothing mattered to me and I was just in my own rhythm. That’s Baby in that moment because he’s happy. I mean, he’s the man. He pulled off the heist, and he feels like a million bucks. And then after that, he starts to realise that while he loves driving, whatever, that was the perfect heist, no one got hurt, everything was perfect, then once people start getting hurt and there’s violence and there’s bloodshed, he does not like that. He’s a kid. He really is, in his mind he’s a kid, and he doesn’t like the bloodshed, so then he wants to get out, but he can’t because he owes this debt.
What is Debora’s backstory?
Lily: You get the sense that she doesn’t have much going on in her life, and that she’s not tied down by anything. She’s in in this dead-end diner job, and she’s got this desire to escape. Which is why her and Baby become so hooked on each other, and why she’s so willing to run off with him.
So, there’s pretty big names in this movie, who were you most starstruck by? And who gave you the best advice?
Lily: The whole cast is great. It’s been such a privilege to be a part of this film. Jamie Foxx was just awesome – I only had a couple of days with him, but he’s a boss. I was really starstruck by him at first. He’s just like – he’s the man. And the first day of rehearsal that I was working with him, he walked in, in a full Nike tech sweatsuit and a backpack, and he had so much swag. I was kind of shy, I didn’t know what to expect, and he was just immediately the warmest guy.
Ansel: Actors can be kind of weird sometimes, a little standoffish, a little too professional, but he was just straight up. Immediately he was like, “Yo, like we’re gonna be homies, and that’s it.” He invited me to his house to play basketball. We exchanged numbers after that first rehearsal, and a few days later I was at his house playing basketball with him. One of my favourite parts of making this movie was just making friends with everybody, and obviously Lily too.
Did you guys have any crazy parties during the shoot?
Ansel: We had a night at Jamie’s house. It wasn’t like a crazy party or anything, but it was a blast. Jamie has a full NBA sized basketball court and a music studio with, like, Louis Vuitton patterned wallpaper. It’s the funniest place ever. I was playing Jamie music and then Rich Homie Quan, the rapper, came over with all of his friends, and we were just in the studio listening to music. It was a lot of fun.
And Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers has a part in the movie?
Ansel: Yeah. He’s Eddie No Nose, formerly Eddie the Nose. He’s a very funny character. Like Lily said, they’re all just like iconic and specific. I mean, Flea could just be like any other criminal, but it’s like no, he’s “Eddie No Nose, formerly Eddie the Nose.” The lines in this movie are great.
Is this your attempt to move away from playing romantic figures?
Ansel: I think this is still romantic.
Lily: Oh, it’s very romantic.
Ansel: Yeah, it’s not full action. Baby’s a romantic guy, and at the end of the day, what gives the movie stakes is our relationship.
Baby Driver is in cinemas from July 13, 2017.
