Jamie Foxx, Eiza Gonzalez and Jon Hamm are the “bad guys”, in Edgar Wright’s fabulous fun, original, action/heist/musical film, “Baby Driver.”
Jon Hamm knew he was onto a winner from the beginning. “I felt like we were making something, from when I first read the script, what I liked about it was that it was original. You know, it’s not a sequel, it’s not a prequel, it’s not a reboot, it’s its own thing. And just to have that as a starting point was really nice. And then you add in the cast, you add in Edgar’s secret sauce that he adds into the stew and I was like, ‘OK, at the very end of the day, we’re going to make something unique.’ You’re ahead of the game there.”
Eiza Gonzalez plays Jon’s girlfriend, “Darling”. She was a massive Mad Men fan, so how did she feel when she was asked to come back for the final audition and she had to read with Mad Men’s “Don Draper”?
“I loved this movie and I really wanted it and I really didn’t want to screw it. Nerves are tricky and they work in mysterious ways when you’re in a room, and obviously Jon, being a fan, that was a thing. But it was a lot of pressure. I just wanted to show that I was capable of doing what I could while earning a place and feeling like I could make Jon feel comfortable.”
We all assume that days of auditions are over for Jamie and Jon. How do they feel about the whole audition process?
Jamie is quite philosophical about it. “You know what, it depends. It’s like you love getting the part and you love, if you have to, work for a part. Like “Django”, I had to go and audition and meet and things like that. Nothing’s promised in this business. It does feel good to be called upon for what you do so that’s something that you work towards in your career – that you can say OK, I’ve worked enough, I’ve shown enough … so that’s what we all work towards but whatever it takes to get things going. I don’t think we’re ever arrogant in that point.”
Jon feels the same way. “I certainly don’t miss auditioning but the same point, I have no problem with, as Jamie said, coming in and working for it, I’ll show you what I can do, let’s go.”
I couldn’t let the guys go without finding out whether or not, like in the film, they have a killer song and if they believe in Hex songs.
Jon doesn’t have either, “I don’t know, it’s too hard for me to narrow it down to one anything, it’s too weird.”
As for Eiza, her go to killer song is anything by The Killers.
Jamie on the other hand is a true believer in Hex songs. “When I’m playing pool and hear ‘Hotel California’, I always scratch or hit the 8 ball in. In college every time that song came on, I’d wait until it was over while I was playing pool. I was in the student centre and they would say, ‘hey what are you doing?’ and I would say, ‘I’m going to let this go.’ And when it was over I would get back in it. But every time, I would hit the eight ball in. We were playing for lunch and for food back then.”
“Baby Driver” is in Irish cinemas on June 28.
