ComingSoon Senior Editor Brandon Schreur spoke to Lou Diamond Phillips and James C. Clayton about the new action movie Get Fast. Clayton discussed directing the film, which is a sequel to 2022’s Bullet Proof, and casting Phillips as The Cowboy, while Phillips touched on acting alongside Clayton and getting to play a charismatic villain.
“When his partner in crime is kidnapped after pulling off a massive money heist, a notorious professional thief tracks the abductors into the territory of a merciless drug lord, pursued by dirty cops, low-level cronies, and the crime syndicate’s deadliest hitman, a gun-loving and coldly charming sociopath known as The Cowboy,” the synopsis for Get Fast reads. “But with millions of dollars and multiple lives at stake, how long will loyalty amongst thieves actually last when the bullets start flying?”
Get Fast releases digitally on November 15, 2024.
Brandon Schreur: James, I’m wondering if you can just tell me a little bit about where the idea for Get Fast came from. I know it was a sequel to Bullet Proof from a year or two ago, which you were involved with in directing, co-writing, and everything. At what point during the process of making Bullet Proof did you have this idea for a sequel?
James C. Clayton: It happened in the editing room of Bullet Proof. Bullet Proof was my directorial debut and, you know, when you’re doing something for the first time, you have some apprehension about whether or not it’s going to work out, be any good, and if you’ll even have the acumen to continue to do it. When we started putting the edit together, I realized, ‘Oh, okay, I think I actually have something.’ More than that, I actually think I might be a director, I might be able to direct.
It was the beginning of 2022, January 2022, I started working on the script already knowing that the first one was going to be well received, that I was happy with the film, and that we were going to subsequently shoot Get Fast in 2023.
Sure. That sounds like a process, but one thing I loved about the movie is how it starts. You can immediately jump right in, whether you’ve seen the first one or not — it’s just immediately ‘Boom boom boom’ and we’re going. I thought that was really cool and I was immediately locked in.
Clayton: Oh, that’s great, and that was one hundred percent intentional. As much as there’s a continuing story or characters, it needed to stand alone as much in it of itself as well, for people who probably haven’t seen the first one. And we wanted to pull the audience in right away, in a very immediate way, and then just not let them go.
Sure. I think you pull it off great. Lou, talk to me a little bit about how you got involved with this project. Were you a fan of Bullet Proof, or had you seen it before? What kind of stood out to you and made you want to be a part of this.
Phillips: Um, I lost a bet. So, yeah, I kind of had to show up [laughs].
No, I had not seen Bullet Proof, I had not seen Bullet Proof. The script for Get Fast came to me with the offer and a lovely letter, as I recall, James.
Clayton: That’s right.
Phillips: A fantastic letter which touched me a lot, bro. Because we’d worked together before. The script, like you said, it’s proof positive that he didn’t make this up as he went. The script promised a lot. Action, pace, humor, and fun, all of it. And James delivered, he really, really delivered. I loved the script, to begin with, because it was as fast as a read as it is fun to watch. Then the character was just, I don’t know, man. It just tickled me. It just seemed to be such a fun and creative way to go. At this point in my career, I’m always looking for something I haven’t done before, but also something that I’m going to have fun with. This certainly checked all those boxes.
No, definitely. That was something I was going to ask you, too, James. Lou is playing such a unique character in this. You watch him and there’s nobody else who can do it quite like that. Were you thinking of Lou when you were writing this part or when you were working on the screenplay?
Clayton: Yeah, I absolutely was. I think it touches on some of the questions we answered a little bit earlier in the day; The Cowboy is charismatic and he’s a killer, but to make a character like that work, you need somebody who is not only a tremendous talent, who is legendary — and I don’t use those words lightly with Lou — but you also need someone who is decent. Lou said we’d worked previously; I was basically a director’s assistant many, many moons ago when I was in my early 20s on a film that Lou was starring in. Lou was so kind to me. His nickname for me was Shadow because I was always kind of around and doing those things.
It always stuck with me because, when I was a kid, I grew up watching Lou Diamond Phillips. I know everyone did, but I have vivid memories of watching Lou Diamon Phillips movies over and over and over again. So when I got to meet him — and, you know, you’ve got to be careful about meeting your heroes — and he was such an incredible person, to me it was a no-brainer for him to play The Cowboy. Because he is not only a super talent, he’s as decent and as good of a person to match that talent as well. And I’m not saying that to butter him up, that’s the truth.
Sure. And Lou, I loved your character in here. You’re so entertaining to watch because you’re a killer and you’re terrifying when you want to be, but you’re also a friendly guy and it seems like you could just give someone a hug and everything would be okay.
Phillips: Right?!
Was that fun, to be able to play someone like that?
Phillips: Yes. It’s interesting, it starts in the writing. Too many people, they play bad guys who are snarlers. Especially in action films, that tends to get really one-note or really boring. To not only come at something sideways but to have it actually in the script — when he apologizes to someone before he has to kill them. This is a guy who is looking at it from, ‘Well, I gotta do this, it’s what I do, and I decided to take this job.’ All of that, it just added this lovely kind of wryness to it. You have to commit to that so that it doesn’t come off as a cartoon. Even dressing that way; you really have to bring a commitment. I used to say this in comedy all the time, you’ve got to commit to the bit. If you believe it, then the audience will believe it. So with a character like this, who is so much bigger than life and so quirky, you have to make him a real human being for him to be, number one, entertaining, but also a threat. There’s that nice balance between the two.
Sure. And I’m sure that’s probably a hard balance to find straight down the middle of not going too far into either camp but, man, I was having fun, I was having a ton of fun watching you. I think you did it. I want to ask both of you about the action scenes in this movie because they look great. I was kind of blown away and surprised by how cool and exciting they are, and by how wrapped up I got in everything. It looks like you have a huge budget, even though I know you probably didn’t, and it just looks so real. I’m curious what your experience filming these scenes was like. Were there any stunts you were doing yourselves?
Phillips: Fortunately, for me, it wasn’t as physically demanding as some roles I’ve had. I’ve done some films over the years that banged me up pretty good. This one didn’t require a whole lot of that, it kind of played into my wheelhouse with some of that stuff. Because I don’t bounce the way I used to, I’ll tell you that right now. What I will say is that, first of all, James is a young guy and not everyone who is as physical as James is as good of an actor. I mean, he brought both, which was really, really impressive.
Beyond that, he had a support staff that is world-class. I got to say, the guys from Peacemaker, they came up with some equipment to shoot this film that I’d never seen before. One of them was a segway that had a Steadicam and a crane arm. I was like, ‘Where the hell did you get that?’ And the guy was like, ‘We made it.’ So we’re dealing with an amazing amount of innovation and ingenuity. They brought this all to bear for James’ film. And it shows. It absolutely shows. The amount of preparation, the amount of know-how and ingenuity, pays off because he did this, as you said, with a finite budget and not a massive schedule. This isn’t a Marvel movie where you’ve got two months to shoot two minutes. They had to blow and go every single day and that was incredibly impressive.
Clayton: I have to echo what Lou said. I mean, they were tremendous to be able to do those scenes, but there’s no way we could’ve pulled them off without having the blessing of such a tremendous stunt team. And the technicians, who are at a world-class level to be able to do it. Thank you for mentioning Peacemaker, Lou — Peacemaker was one of the co-production companies on this film, Peacemaker Filmworks. It’s owned by Ryan Ennis and Chris Wiseman. There are so many people who I could mention who are part of this group; Michelle Yardley, as well, and Brad [Mcgregor]. These people are world-class. They’ve worked on all these tremendous, big-budget films like Ghostbusters, RoboCop, and Sonic the Hedgehog. They believed, they were on Bullet Proof and they believed in Get Fast. They came to support this vision and that’s why the film looks as good as it does. It was a tremendous collaborative effort.
Definitely. Like I said, I just think it looks great and I was so into it. I’m almost out of time with you guys here but Lou, I wanted to ask you quick, I’m sure this is not the first time you’ve heard this or are going to hear this today, but you’re playing a modern-day cowboy in this movie. Obviously, you were in the Young Guns movies. Which, huge fan, I grew up watching those with my dad so, hats off, I love them. I was just kind of curious if you noticed any similarities between your characters, given that you’re cowboys in both. Were there any similarities in working on Young Guns and Get Fast or was this a totally different experience for you?
Phillips: You know, every movie is a totally different experience. This character has very little to do with Young Guns. I was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame and, in my acceptance speech, I said, ‘Yeah, well, you know, I usually play the Indian.’ It’s always fun to change that up and play the cowboy, which I’ve done before.
It’s like with all the police lieutenants I’ve played, I’m always looking for something that’s a little different and for me, so to speak, hang my hat on and give the audience something new. My wife, she always says, ‘Everyone thinks you always wear cowboy boots and flannel shirts,’ but I’m actually a writer, as well. This book, my book, The Tinderbox: Underground Movement comes out on November 19th. It’s a sequel to the first book, The Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira, which was a best-seller and very well-received. Those are coming out and are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Thanks to Lou Diamon Phillips and James C. Clayton for taking the time to talk about Get Fast.
