Edgar Wright talks about his new film Baby Driver.
Edgar Wright's new film Baby Driver is all about an enigmatic getaway driver. This allowed the cult-fave director to apply his trademark visual flair and slick, stylish cinematography to the flick's truly impressive car chases. Which, pleasingly, are all real cars, really driving, really fast.
So, to cut to the chase, is he a speed guy?
"Yeah, but I wouldn't call myself a gearhead," he says. "I'm not always interested in the cars themselves. It's never been about owning cars or vintage cars. But I do like driving and I really love driving with music playing."
Fast cars, loud music?
"Well, I'm not going to say on camera that I break the speed limit," he answers somewhat sheepishly.
"I had this vision of action and music together in a way that I hadn't really seen," he says. "I wanted to do a movie where music was driving every single scene, where the character was listening to a song in every single scene.
"I'm very passionate about music. I use music as a motivator and it's something that inspires me. I thought it'd be interesting to do that but with a character who's in an extremely high-stakes job. He uses music as an escape but because he is a getaway driver he literally uses music to escape."
Having lived with the idea for more than two decades, how did he keep his enthusiasm for the project?
"It was always this long-held ambition," Wright says. "I was building up to having the confidence to do it," he replies. "[It was] a passion project I'd keep returning to. But the enthusiasm never dimmed. If anything, if other films were in a similar vein, it would inspire me to double down on what I was doing and go further into it."
Ansel Elgort in Baby Driver
He says the biggest evolution from his original concept 22 years ago, then to his first draft six years ago and now, to the finished feature, is in the character of Baby. Originally, not much more than an mysterious enigma, Baby now has a full backstory, clear motivations and, most importantly, a sound reason for rockin' his iPod 24/7.
"I think this is important," Wright says. "If you're making a studio action film you don't want to be completely ambiguously avant-garde. I tried to find that balance between a movie that could be enjoyed by a mainstream audience but still have the idiosyncrasies and stylish touches of my previous work.
"People say that thing about movies, 'one for them, one for me'. It's the idea of making a personal project and then a commercial project," he explains. "For me, Baby Driver is basically the two together, one for them AND one for me."
I believe that's what known as a win-win.
"I hope so!"
His filmography has now seen him successfully take on zombies, cops, aliens, comic-book superheroes, and now robbers. What are you going to do next? What's left?
