Hey, this is David Goyer, writer/director of Blade Trinity,
and I'm with...
- Jessica Biel. - And Ryan Reynolds.
And what are you guys in the movie?
- Just say, "Yes." - Yeah, we're just a couple of punks.
I play Natasha Lyonne.
Actually, she's blind.
So, what's your take on this Marvel logo?
- I like it. - It looks awesome.
It's right in the comic book genre. I love that.
Okay, so the movie starts with this blood and a voice-over from Ryan,
i.e., Hannibal King.
And I remember when we were recording it,
you asked me if I wanted you to do the Alec Baldwin voice.
- Yes, I did the Alec Baldwin voice. - Can you do that for us right now?
Welcome to Blade Trinity.
Okay, and you did do the Alec Baldwin voice.
That's very good,
because I was just working with Alec, and that's exactly what he sounds like.
- Really? - It's amazing. It's unbelievable.
I just imagine those guys asking, like, things at home like, "Pass the ketchup."
It just sounds so funny to me.
Well, from Blade Trinity, I'm sure you can graduate
to Volvo commercials or something like that.
Yeah. "The all-new Volvo. Drive one home today for only 14,995."
This'll be interesting because you guys don't appear
for the first 17 minutes of the film...
Which actually takes us out of Oscar contention.
Yeah? Oh, too bad.
But I absolutely still want your take on what you're seeing here.
You wanna talk about how you guys became involved in the film?
Yeah, you wanna go ahead, Jess?
- J. Biel? - Sure.
You passed, you turned us down the first time.
- I did. - Why?
Why?
Honestly, I think it was "Oh, it's a number three."
And I was a little concerned about number three.
- As most people are. - Which I think is fair.
But after reading it and, um, really, after meeting with you three...
after meeting with Lynn, Peter, and David...
you guys were just fun and cool, and I was like,
"You know what? This is gonna be fun."
- And was it fun? - It was awesome. I loved it.
I have to say, that was the most fun I've ever done... had... on a movie.
I said that I'd do number four, but they said that they weren't gonna do that,
so I just jumped in and did three.
But when you came in and auditioned, I remember you saying,
"Why in the hell do you guys want me?"
Yeah, I remember I sat down, I said,
"What the hell use do you have for me in a movie like this?
And the question is still open.
Okay, so the training... I remember we talked about the training beforehand.
How much did you guys train?
What was your routine when you were working out and dieting and whatnot?
Oh, it was hard core. We were in the gym at least...
you know, it really started to go to like two, two and a half hours. Remember that?
Two, two and a half hours every day,
except one day when we had a day off,
and then fight training for an hour.
And then, for me, I had an hour of archery.
Right.
And we did that for months.
Months and months.
Yeah, about six months, start to finish, really.
No, more than that, actually. It was about seven months total.
'Cause by the time the movie was done,
we'd been going at it for almost seven months. A long process.
And the only thing you ate in the whole film was soil and green, right?
- Which is made out of people. - Yeah, exactly.
I ate enough chicken to, like, supply a Haitian commitment ceremony.
I swear to God, I almost...
I depleted the U.S. stocks of chicken in this movie.
I remember seeing you guys constantly nibble on chicken breasts
and some kind of power energy bars...
- Trioplex. - Oh, my God. Yeah.
- I can't even look at them right now. - I know.
I had to just put them away.
Basically, they'll build muscle and cause explosive diarrhea.
- That's very true. - It's awesome.
I'm not speaking for Jessie, 'cause that's not ladylike.
And we all know that females don't have diarrhea, right?
- Of course not! - Women actually, don't, actually, uh, poo.
They don't poo, they don't fart. They don't have an anus.
Pooh, oh, no.
They're like just smoothed-over, you know, Barbie dolls.
Tonight, Dr. Edgar Vance, forensic psychiatrist.
What was it like working with Triple H?
I know we'll get to that later on, but, Ryan, did you, uh...
You know, when he wasn't landing on top of me, I loved him. He's a sweetheart.
He's like a lot of those wrestlers.
They're absolute puppy dogs when you meet them.
You think they're gonna be these hardened guys,
you actually think they're gonna be difficult to work with, but they're not.
In fact, Triple H is really... I found him to be really funny
and a really good actor, as well. It would surprise me every day.
You are a psychiatrist and a biochemist, isn't that true?
Yes, Bentley, I am both. And it's for a reason.
I have always believed that true health can only be achieved
if we reconcile the body and the mind.
And, of course, in order to do that,
we have to get rid of a lot of old notions.
Okay, and how does that fit in with vampires?
In the case of vampires, we're dealing with creatures
that, uh, are the repositories of some of our most taboo thoughts.
- Okay. - Predatory rage.
- Yeah. - Sexual sadism.
- Sexual? - Sexual sadism.
These are very scary subjects for people to own up to, and they're right inside.
So what you're saying is we pass the buck onto someone else.
- You bet we do. - And vampires?
Well, for instance, there's a hereditary blood disease.
I talk about it in my book. It's called porphyria.
And the symptoms of this disease
are remarkably similar to classic vampire traits.
The people who suffer from this disease are anemic,
they become intolerant to sunlight, they can't handle garlic.
Garlic. Chief Vreede. Okay.
What's your take on all these rumors we've been hearing about vampires?
Vampires, vampires...what?
The only vampires I'm worried about...
One of the things that I was excited about with this film
is doing a certain amount of improvisation,
which I know you have a strong background in, Ryan.
And I think you were pleasantly surprised that I was open to that.
As a writer/director, I was hugely surprised that you were open to that.
You were just so collaborative in everything,
right from the fight sequences to the dialog.
And you also were right there with me.
I mean, we would basically spitball together
and I think that's how the majority
of at least the funnier bits of the movie came about.
... that we've been pursuing.
Blade is a trouble.
Yeah. I mean, sometimes, I know we would work on it together ahead of time,
but sometimes just on the set we would try different stuff.
And I know that we recorded multiple takes of jokes
with, you know, various iterations and we had... we had, you know...
- Like six versions of some of them. - Six versions of different things. Exactly.
And sometimes we would go and film a version of a scene one way
and then, a couple days later, think of something else,
and then go back and film it again in a different way.
Exactly.
Did you guys ever get hurt when you were filming the movie?
Not really. I don't think I really got hurt.
I think there was one... when we were shooting all the big, long scene
with all the guys... the SWAT guys... that really long one,
the 13 guys that I kick their ass.
- Right. - I think... after we did the first day...
I think my back almost gave out on me, but I had...
one of the guys was a chiropractor and he took me to the trailer
and gave me a little pop-crack-pop, and I was all ready to go for the next day.
I think that's the only thing that I remember of even remotely being injured.
How much of the movie, when we were filming, did you see?
I remember at a couple of points during the movie,
during the filming process, I showed some scenes to you guys.
Were you nervous? Were you surprised?
I'd never done a movie like this, so I was... I was completely blown away.
I mean, it just... it just amped me more.
Yeah, it was definitely... I don't know.
I felt like it gave the crew and everybody
more incentive to just push through the last couple months
when you had that big day where you had that big screen... remember that?
That was great. I thought that really, I don't know, just...
it just made everybody have a second wind
for, you know, our final month of shooting.
- I love that chain weapon. - I wish...
We were intending to use that chain weapon in the climax scene...
- My God, that thing's awesome. - I know. I love it too.
Do they make it in earrings?
They make it in earrings and other pieces of ornamentation.
I mean, dude, that's an awesome weapon. I wish we got to use that more.
You know, it's funny, but your UV arc, Abigail,
that we're gonna see, uh, a couple scenes from now...
I... there was another scene where you use it later on in the film,
and for the first cut of the film,
when we showed it to a preview audience, I had cut that out
and we were talking to the members of the preview audience afterwards
and they said, "God, we loved that UV weapon,
we wish there were another scene."
And I said, "Well, actually, I happen to have one in my hip pocket." So...
- Did they love it? - Oh, my God. They totally loved it.
It's a cool weapon.
- It is a cool weapon. - The weapons in this movie are cool.
Did you ever get to use your big gun?
- Like the Big Bertha? - Only in the deleted scene.
- Only in the last scene that was cut with... - The last scene with the werewolf.
Yeah.
The beginning of the movie... I mean, I gained 20 pounds shooting the movie,
so at the beginning, I couldn't lift it; I couldn't swing it.
And at the end, I could handle it like a toothpick, man.
Well, maybe in another film we'll get to use that.
Yeah, some time. I love the ladies... the mud-flap girls. It was a nice touch.
- There was a name for the gun. - "The Therapist."
"The Therapist?" I thought it was the Bone Jack.
No, the actual name of the gun is a Bone Jack, yeah.
It's like an 18th century retro-fitted gun.
Right. But "The Therapist," you felt, was the nickname for it.
"The Therapist," or Grace.
Doesn't Hannibal King have a gun, or is it Frank Drake in the comic books?
- I don't know. - One of those characters.
Anyway, your character originally was going to be a guy, Abigail.
You were gonna be Frank Drake.
And then I changed Frank to Frankie Drake
and made it be a female because Frank Drake was also another character...
- No way. - I didn't know that.
And then I said, "Fuck it. What am I doing?
She should be Whistler's daughter. That will have a stronger connection.
- That's funny. I had no idea. - I didn't know that. Neither did I.
People love the comic book character Frank Drake, too.
- A descendant of Dracula. - I know. I know.
- You know your comic books. - I do. I read the website.
I remember you showing up on set with Tomb of Dracula comic books.
Yeah, I had some. I loved it. They're... they're, you know.
To get to embody an actual character of a comic book is pretty rare,
so I was diggin' it.
Look! He's got a gun!
Were there any scenes in the movie that you were unhappy with?
Whether it's something that we did or, you know, your performance?
Every scene in this movie exceeded my wildest expectations
with the exception of the one line,
"You made a goddamn vampire Pomeranian?"
You didn't like that one?
No, I... I love it now, but at the time I didn't wanna do it.
And now I love it.
But do you wish you had done alternate takes of it?
I wanted to do alternate takes of it.
I called David one night, like in the middle of the night
and I was fully Monday-morning quarterbacking.
I said, "David, I gotta reshoot that one little chunk. I got a better joke."
- What was it? - The better joke was...
'Cause the line goes, "It's in my left ass cheek."
She slaps me. "Okay, it's in my right ass cheek." She slaps me.
And then I say, uh, "Okay, seriously. Seriously.
It's in his ass cheek, but I wouldn't go in there."
- And I point at Callum's character. - Right.
And... and I just thought that was better.
- And then there was some other... - But we filmed that, didn't we?
Yeah, we filmed it. We went back and we filmed it.
- And it still sucked. - And it still sucked.
And we still wasted a lot of money.
It's about four hours of, you know, expensive film footage.
Damn.
What about you, Jess?
Were there any scenes that you were for some reason unhappy with?
I mean, it may occur to you as we sit there, but...
Yeah, right now I don't know. I don't think so.
When I saw it, I was pretty happy with... with it.
I think it's great. I think it's fun.
And it's funny, which I think is so different from the other Blades,
which I, by the way, love.
Love Blade I. One of my favorite action films.
But I love that it's just so... so funny.
And, um, I mean, I'll probably see something that I do that I don't like,
but I'm just critical.
Point it out to the audience. I will.
I've been pointing out, "Jesus, I can't believe I shot that shot."
What was it like working with Parker?
I know Ryan... you had most of your scenes with her.
- I loved working with Parker. - Was she a nut?
She's fuckin' out of her skull.
But I loved that. She's out of her skull in such a great way.
Not in like a dangerous chemical-warfare kind of way.
She's out of her skull, and it's like you're the perfect...
I think the perfect foil for Hannibal King. She's just the perfect counterpart.
It was like getting to dance with the greatest dancer of all time each day.
It was just... I loved working with her.
When we met with her in New York...
we were doing a casting session in New York...
and I heard that Parker Posey wanted to come in, and I just said,
"I love Parker, but that's bizarre. She'll never do this movie."
She came in and she was just completely kooky, and I said...
we actually videotaped it.
And I said, "Why do you want to be in this movie?" And she said,
"Cause I wanna be a white-trash, trailer-park, ghetto vampire chick."
Everyone said okay, in her kind of inimitable Parker way.
Then I just grilled her and I said, "There's no way you would ever do this movie.
There's no way. You're the Indie girl. You're not gonna do a Blade movie."
And she said, "No, no, no. I'm serious. I'm serious."
Then she called me about a week later and said, "I'm really serious.
I really wanna do this. I think it would be fun."
She was so great.
But I remember Parker... you know, with each actor,
you have to figure out, you know, a different kind of language.
You know, a different way of working with them
because every actor's different, every actor has a different process.
And... no joke... the way that I worked out with Parker was...
'cause she doesn't like adjustments.
Meaning she doesn't really like you to go in and say,
"That was really great, but could you be a bit more scared this time?"
Or "Could you be..." Um...
But the way that she would take adjustment... we would joke about it,
and I would feed her the name of a Spice Girl, you know.
Okay, "Scary Spice." "Sporty Spice."
- Oh, that's how..? - That's how it began.
And then I started making up Spice Girls that don't exist.
So I would say... I would scream out, "Okay, Parker. Reticent Spice."
- Reticent! - Or I would say, "Ambiguous Spice."
And she would somehow know what that meant
and then change the performance in return.
But the crew was just looking at us like we were completely insane.
They would say "What the hell are you guys talking about?"
My favorite thing about her was that Wesley was so serious all the time on set,
and Parker just had no boundaries when it came to that.
It used to crack me up. She'd be like, "Oh, Wesley. What's wrong, buttercup?"
And you're just, "Oh, my God!"
- She would say that in front of everyone. - Yeah, I know.
That's funny that you said that you used Spice Girls to help her, you know,
her process or whatever.
I was gonna say that she just brings such, like, a spicy flavor to a vampire.
I would never expect... I don't know.
I just think there has never been a vampire in the history of vampire movies
that is like her.
And she is funny and sexy and crazy and fucked-up and...
I think she's awesome. She brings such a good flavor to this movie.
I was thrilled, uh, when we cast her, and...
You know, I think New Line was a little hesitant at first, but they...
- Really? I would never think that. - Just because it was an unusual choice.
I know, but what a great... I mean, like, the Indie-world people
will wanna go see her in this.
And they might not necessarily wanna go see a Blade movie ever otherwise.
Look, I know. And that's one of the reasons why I cast her.
Do you not find it odd that we have two characters
from A Mighty Wind in this movie?
- Oh, I know. I know. - Yes.
Well, that's where John Michael Higgins came from.
That I can take credit for because we were trying to look for people for Vance.
And I said, "We should go after John Michael Higgins.
He's been in all these Chris Guest films."
And in that instance, I remember my casting director said,
"Oh, he'll never do it." And he had the same reaction.
He called me up and said, "Why in the world do you want me for this movie?"
But he had the best time. And he was so much fun working with.
- ... how far you've fallen. - The world's changed.
Ooh. We're gradually getting to the point
where Jessica Biel's character is introduced in the film.
I'm sorry, but it's the best introduction of all time.
It is a really good introduction. Thanks, David.
Hey, what can I say?
Now, the guy playing the news vendor
is Gabby Beristain, our director of photography
who I completely loved.
He also shot Blade II.
- I love Gabby. - I hate him.
You hate him?
He is a great D.P.
You guys didn't really get to work with Kris Kristofferson, which is unfortunate.
He did smother me in one scene and try to kill me.
- That's right. - And he had trouble doing it.
Cause I look identical to his son.
- Oh, that's right. - He was having a lot of trouble with that.
You're famous. Somebody nailed us. Your face is all over the paper.
I have to say Kris is one of the great gentlemen of cinema.
He is so much fun to work with. Such a nice guy.
Classy guy. Really classy guy.
He would be sitting on the set, and, I don't know,
he would have a brain fart or something, but his way of describing it would say,
"Excuse me. I'm having a senior moment."
Is that what he'd say?
Everybody would just kind of pause and then he would move on.
He just commands such respect, though. He's got time for everybody, as well.
- He was so gracious. - Completely gracious.
You worry too much... old man.
That's why we're still alive, goddamnit.
I've been doin' this since before you were born, Blade.
You're like a son to me.
I'm sorry I got old on ya.
But I see you alone, surrounded by enemies.
It breaks my heart.
I think that one close-up doesn't look anything like him.
It's really bizarre. Is that just 'cause of his cool, weird contacts? Like Wes.
I guess. Well, you know, the other thing is that, um,
most of the fangs for the other vampires are just little...
- No, he wears a full piece, right? - He wears a full piece on his upper...
I don't mean it didn't look like Wes, I mean it's the one close-up in the movie
that every time I see it doesn't look like Blade. He just looks, I don't know. Weird.
- Does nobody else see it that way? - I don't know. It's him.
I don't like him.
Wait. What about that? Shrunken apple-headed bitch.
They fucking saw us over there.
Fuckin' blow me, man! Just pick one already! Jesus Christ!
Oh, oh! Got it! Got it!
Baby on board.
Oh, looks like we got ourselves a combo meal.
Okay, so here's Abigail's introduction.
You're wearing a fake baby, we're dressing you like a bag lady.
It was very cold and it was raining during this whole sequence.
but I remember you were absolutely pumped.
Chicky, chicky, chicky!
This is one of my favorite scenes in the film
because it's a sequence that is sort of pure cinema.
I mean, it's got suspense,
and it's got this really stripped-down location that I really enjoyed.
It's got this amazing steadicam work by Craig Fikse.
Steadicam is a kind of, um... sort of accelerated version of hand-held.
And there's a really nice shot coming up here...
...that he just... I love this...
where we sort of zoom around and flip.
And that's being operated by Craig right now.
That's great.
- I love that newspaper, too. - I know.
This is one of the few times I came to set just to watch.
It was nice because it just unfolded sort of the way we had planned.
There weren't any surprises.
And all these kids that you are acting opposite with
were skate punks who'd never acted before.
Yeah, and a couple of them were, like,
BMX and skateboarding champions or some crazy... Jordan was one of them.
We wanted to cast them as opposed to casting actors, per se.
And every single shot in this sequence is you.
- Yeah. - So great.
- No stunt double. - Yeah. I loved it. I had so much fun.
I hope the baby gets it.
Oh, that baby's gonna get it. You just wait.
Scream if this hurts...
But the great thing is these guys had never done stunts before, and...
They did such a good job.
Every single shot of them is them, too. Just learning the stunts.
I remember when that baby first sprayed that stuff in his face.
It just covered his face the first time. It was so funny.
And it went in his nose. He couldn't breathe.
Oh, no. Really? That's gotta hurt.
And we just were laughing and laughing and laughing.
And we had to do it about six times, and that poor kid.
- The kid would get sprayed? - It was just baby powder.
- It's baby powder. - Oh, no.
And with each successive take he was, you know, more and more scared
because he knew what was coming.
Any time somebody's doing something really awful in a movie
or something really difficult, David just says, "You know you love it."
You know you love it. I used to say that all the time.
- I hate the way I walk right there. - Why?!
- I think I look like such a boy. A brute. - No, you look like a badass.
Oh, I hate... I get really embarrassed when I watch that.
We were showing this to audiences
and people were standing up in their seats cheering.
Now, you also really did punch this poor kid in the face.
This is Jordan, and I punch him in the face so hard.
I know. I loved it.
And then you rewound the thing and we just watched him get slammed in the face
over and over and over again. We just laughed at him.
This is badass.
And the camera was about 40 feet away and we heard the blow.
We heard your fist connecting with his poor face.
Scream if this hurts, chica.
- Ow. - Nice.
- Jesus. - I think that's...
What the fuck is your problem?
- Great introduction for a character. - I've got some built-up anger.
- Pent-up anger. - I'm gonna give that a round of applause.
- Thank you. - Two thumbs up. Three thumbs up.
That gets three thumbs up. That's everything's up.
Every...
And now here's this sad little scene with Whistler
contemplating about how his life has gone horribly awry.
- Oh, Daddy. - And Blade is... is, um...
- Is actually sleeping. - He's actually sleeping.
Now, what's funny about this scene is that, as scripted,
Blade was supposed to be meditating in this scene
and when the day came, Wesley didn't wanna meditate.
He had this idea that he wanted to be hanging upside-down like a bat.
And we filmed it, and... I think it's on the outtakes...
it looked absolutely ridiculous, but... it did.
And even Wesley looked at it...
'Cause you don't look so attractive when you're upside down.
You got veins sticking out of your face, your cheeks are falling into your eyes.
That's right. I was supposed to be upside-down for a while.
I'm so glad we didn't do that.
Having shot Wesley upside-down, we said,
I don't think we're gonna hang you upside-down.
- Yeah, you were supposed... - You get blood-face.
I sleep upside-down. I live like that.
What you worried about?
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
Shoot to kill!
Now, the first time you were handling a gun in the film,
I know you were very nervous, Ryan.
I, uh, I actually, just a little tiny bit about shit myself.
I didn't like it. It's tough. It's scary, you know.
Because, in a movie, what people don't realize
is that most of the time you're handling real guns.
And it'd nerve-racking. And if you haven't... I've never done...
I mean, I've been limited to, basically, a lot of comedy before this,
so I've never done a movie where it would require me to pick up a gun.
So I was terrified.
Even when it is a real gun, and even though you're shooting "blanks,"
there's still a certain charge there, and there have been accidents on movies
where people have died even with blanks.
Also, when they put, like they have these things called quarter-loads,
half-loads, and full-loads, and in a movie like this, they always wanna use full-loads
'cause they wanna see the big muzzle flash at the end of your gun.
So it has a lot of kickback and it's, you know, it's scary.
When I think Hannibal King had something like 44 guns on him at all times, too.
I was whippin' 'em out and sweating.
I remember that it was a little hairy
when we were shooting the break-out sequence in the police station
and there were just people firing guns right and left.
There was one time that we forgot our earplugs.
- Yes, I remember. - And we come out of the corner...
or something... and it was literally like being hit with like... I don't know...
like a tornado, like, just hit you in the chest.
And we just dropped to the floor and didn't shoot anything
'cause we were both covering our ears.
- It was so loud. - It was so loud.
- I know. I remember that. - It was a little scary.
- You guys were not happy that day. - Oh, God, no. God, no.
The amazing thing is we've got all these crazy explosions,
all these crazy stunts and fight sequences...
...and, really, no one got hurt.
- Except our first day of filming... - Oh, right.
A very simple stunt in which a stuntman who's doubling for Drake
has to just crash through some safety glass
ends up completely slicing open his wrist and...
- An artery, too. - Yeah, an artery.
And he's just pumping blood out and he ended up going to the hospital
and not being able to work for two weeks.
And I remember being terrified because I thought,
oh, my God, if we're gonna injure someone
on, literally, the simplest stunt of the entire movie,
what's gonna happen later on?
And you're so worried because it's only a movie.
And you really don't want someone to get hurt... God forbid.
It's always the little things, though, that you get hurt on.
It's not the big stunt where a professional wrestler slams you on the ground.
It's like the little thing where, you know,
stepping backwards in a scene, you fall over.
I was always worried... you know, we couldn't go snowboarding over the winter...
I was so worried I was gonna fall down the steps at Ron's Alcoves.
- Yeah. - Which was the gym.
'Cause we were there all the time,
and I was like, "I'm gonna fall down these stairs and break an ankle
and then kill everybody on set and be fine."
Now, the one time you had to go to the hospital, Ryan,
was during, uh, three or four days of reshoot.
I had to have my nail drilled. How pussy is that?
- You got a blood blister... - Oh, da widdle nail!
Oh, shut it. I'm not gonna take shit from you two over this, all right?
I remember that. I remember that. It was like, "Oh, come on. Of all..."
- I think it was your last day of filming. - It fucking killed.
It just finally grew out, too, now. It took like six months. It was hell.
1, 182. But they were all familiars.
People who work with them.
Oh. And by "them," you mean vampires, right?
A lot of people don't know, but I'm just waiting behind that glass, nervous as hell.
Waiting the entire time for the four days it took to film this scene.
Holy shit. It felt like... this is "Apocalypse Fang." That's what we shot.
The white guy's James Remar,
who's been in a million movies playing bad guys,
who is a friend of mine, and we just happen to work out at the same gym,
and, uh, I was about to go up to Vancouver to shoot
and he said, "Hey, you got any roles in Blade?"
And I said, "Well, we got this one role Cumberland,
but there's only four scenes in it. It's too small for you."
And he said, "I'll do it. I'll do it. I just wanna work with you. It'd just be fun"
And so he showed up and there he was.
I love him in Sex and the City.
- Yeah, he's nice in Sex and the City. - I love him.
This is actually, for Wesley, my favorite scene in the whole movie because...
- 'Cause his sunglasses are off? - His sunglasses are off.
And you can see his face.
Gentlemen, would you mind giving us just a couple of minutes alone?
He's all yours.
He found the contacts uncomfortable.
I know that when we were shooting the scene,
his eyes were tearing up a lot of times from the contacts.
But he's so good in this scene,
and I... I mean, you know, I'm happy with most of the film,
but, truly, one of the things that I absolutely wish would be
that Wesley wasn't wearing his sunglasses for more scenes in the movie.
Yeah.
Whatever reason, they were different contacts than the first Blade.
He uses the contacts more in the first Blade than he does,
you know, in these films, but this is such an intense scene,
and Wesley is so good, I knew the audience would love it.
He's just magnetic.
You know who that is.
Who's in the White House right now?
An asshole.
I think somebody here wants to talk about vampires.
Vampires.
See, for everyone else, it's kinda silly.
I had a set of wax teeth when I was seven years old.
It was fun.
I could be somebody else.
I also remember that, when you film a movie,
because of scheduling, often you film the scenes out of order.
And these scenes, and the scenes that are about to come were filmed
at the end of the first week and maybe the beginning of the second week.
This was the first scene I shot in the whole movie.
I know it's the first scene you shot.
It was our first action scene,
and everyone was always very nervous about how it was gonna play out.
And I have to admit, when we were editing the film,
this action sequence that's coming was my least favorite scene in the movie.
You ever feel sexually aroused?
I thought the first scene that we shot was up on the rooftop.
Did you do this before the rooftop?
- I think so. This was my first... - I think so. Yeah.
- So the rooftop was my first. - Yeah.
And that's in the middle of the film.
But the funny thing is now this sequence is one of my favorite in the movie.
- Really? - It's just interesting how things change.
- It just grows on you. - Yeah. And you make different choices.
... delicious physical intimacy.
One of the things that I like to do
is get two or three really, you know, good takes as scripted,
and then just go completely off book and improvise.
That's the best.
And John Michael Higgins just went crazy in this sequence
and was improvising all sorts of things.
And sometimes it gets a little too crazy as it did with you, Ryan,
and even with you, Jess,
but I just think it's a really liberating way of working.
It's like you get what you think you need...
- You're looking for a piece, you mean... - It's fun. It's spontaneous.
It's a real reaction, something brand-new that you've never said before
that you've never thought to say before.
- It's exciting and fun. - Yeah.
Even if it's just they use only a tiny little piece, it's worth it, you know.
... I'm recommending that he be transferred immediately...
Fuck that! That man is my prisoner. He's wanted in connection...
You also never know, you know, where you're gonna find a gem.
Sometimes you even find a gem in an expression or something like that...
Sure.
...after I've yelled cut and the camera may still be rolling for four or five seconds.
- Sure. - And you break character.
And there are a number of points in the movie
we picked up just a little fleeting shot after one of you guys had broken character.
Yeah.
And sometimes I would surreptitiously start filming a good 30 seconds
before I'd yell "Action."
Oh, no way!
Because all you guys would have different ways
that you would prepare and you would do different, interesting things
that you were sometimes completely unaware of.
- And I may go up to you... - Now it's making me think about what I...
Exactly.
David's just filming away.
But I would... I loved doing that.
And I would go up to my... I had hand signals
that I would shoot to, uh, Al Cohen our first-assistant cameraman.
- We've been deceived! - Yeah, I know. Dude, I feel dirty.
And sometimes it meant, you know, roll 30 seconds ahead of time,
sometimes it meant roll 30 seconds after we wrap.
A familiar.
You know, occasionally, I would do something,
like if I scratched my chin in this way, what that meant to Al Cohen
was to yell that there was a hair in the gate...
meaning literally a hair in the gate of the camera so that scene's screwed up.
- But there wasn't really hair in the gate. - Oh, that's genius.
And we would announce that to the set because maybe the...
if I felt like the actors were getting really tired
and they didn't wanna give another more, he would say, "There's a hair in the gate."
I remember a couple of times, though, where I was like,
"I cannot possibly do this again."
- Exactly. - I remember your chin getting a little itchy.
Yes. Or if I would do this... if I would rub my eye
that signal to Al Cohen meant that the focus was soft
and that we would have to go again, so sometimes the camera crew
would take a bullet for something that didn't exist.
Really?
I had this whole series of surreptitious hand signals that I would do.
That's why you bought them all champagne.
Hey, you know.
- You gotta do what you gotta do. - Yeah. That's great.
That's good to know. Next time I work with you, I'm gonna remember that.
Me, too. I'm gonna keep a log.
I'll just come up with different hand signals.
I'll be using semaphore flags or something like that.
Great shot right here.
- Yeah, that was a fun shot to do. - Love that shot.
I love how movies just, like, "Cold drinks," the vending machine says.
- You can't put some shit up. - Well, you can, but we didn't want to.
What... I love doing shots where characters start out of focus
and come into focus.
- It's just a little proclivity of mine. - It's very cool. Yeah.
- This was Parker's... - I love this scene with her.
It was Parker's first day,
and she improvised a number of these things.
And I remember Wesley saying, "What the fuck is that?"
Yeah, he was not having it.
I just... I just love the way she plays it
'cause, you know, when you read it in the script, it's interesting.
You can think of a million different ways to do the lines, you know.
"Hey, Blade" is her first line, and I would expect every actress to walk in and go,
"Hey, Blade," really like... she just walks in and is like, "Hey, Blade."
Like, "I'm so over you." She's so great. She just plays it so well.
You may think there are six ways to play this scene,
and then Parker will come in and play it a seventh way you never even thought of.
Her choices are just weird, but they work.
- They work so well. - I love them.
Oh, and here comes the introduction of Ryan.
No one's gonna help you now.
- Man, I'm sorry. I hate my first line. - You hate your first line?
- Why? What do you hate about it? - You've always hated your first line.
It's blas�. I figure... I don't know. Remember we talked about this?
We wanted to come up with a better entrance line,
but there was so much going on that day. It was just hard to focus.
- But this is still a great entrance. - It still works. It works great.
It's just the line.
- Evening, ladies. - What else would you have done?
It's kind of how I deliver it, really.
- I think it's fine. - I'm not a fan of myself there.
- You were nervous that day. - I'm terrified here.
Look at this. What's goin' on?
I was on a sitcom like a year before this. What's happening here? Don't do that.
No, but I remember the other thing that happened in this scene was,
originally as scripted Hannibal King and Blade exit... exit the room.
We leave together. He and I in a slow-motion kind of shot.
Exactly. And then Wesley said on the day, "No, I'm gonna go out alone.
- Yeah. - And we said, "What?"
I was just, like, "Wait a minute. This is my first day, and I just got cut out of the movie.
Yeah. And Wesley said, "No, I'm going out alone."
and I said, "That's the only door. How is Hannibal gonna exit the room?"
- And Wesley said, "That's your problem." - Yeah.
So we had to think on our feet, and then I said,
"Okay, fine. Hannibal will jump out the window, and they'll hook up later on."
And it works fine, but everyone...
But what was great about it was it gave me a whole extra sort of action beat,
which I was very grateful for at the end. I really was happy with it.
The other thing that he came up with later on
was he said he wanted to go up into the ceiling.
Oh, right. He wanted to, like, fly away.
But what's interesting about that is I said, "Well, where do you show up again?"
And he said, "I don't know. You figure it out."
And that led to Blade crashing through the window later on
and falling four stories down and saying, "Forgot my sword."
- So, invariably... - It worked out.
- Yeah. - I said that at the beginning, though.
Every time David came up against a road block... and I mean this...
every time you came up against a road block,
you made whatever problem we were having better.
You made the scene better. Somehow, you found a way to turn...
And you didn't... you never lost your cool.
I don't think you ever raised your voice, I don't think you ever freaked out.
- I mean, seriously, you held it together. - You're a good director... for an asshole.
- For an asshole. Yeah, I know. - Blade!
You're dead!
- I love this... - This is the one with the loud-ass guns.
Oh, this made us deaf, you and I.
I just love this sequence 'cause it's complete mayhem.
Yeah.
And all these different things are going on at once, and you haven't heard...
Throwing that gun was so hard.
What? I know. I remember that. It kept dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping.
Oh, my...
But, see, this all changed from the script because, originally,
Blade didn't leave, but it becomes a funny moment.
And then the punch line at the end of this sequence is great.
Yeah, it worked so much better than what was previously scripted. You're right.
I seriously think it took... it took like three months
before I could shoot my gun without closing my eyes.
- Yeah, it's hard. - I was like, "Ahh! Ahh! Ooh!"
- It's really hard. - Then finally I could keep my eyes open.
We were all excited, though, that, uh, you were starting to use the bow.
Oh, I love this. I don't know why. I just love that moment in...
- The wink? - With both of us? That worked.
Okay, here's an effects shot in the movie that I absolutely hate.
This was one of the first ashings we did in the film,
and one of the things we discovered with trial and error
was that the ashings in which the vampires are still moving,
you know, writhing around, were much more interesting
than the ones where they're just sitting still.
Here's another one. Those are the first two ashings we did in the film,
and they're just not as interesting.
When they're writhing around, they're more interesting.
- 'Cause chunks of their flesh fly off. - Exactly. Little pieces of bone.
I love the music you chose right here, by the way.
- Theme from "A Summer Place." - Yeah, it's really beautiful.
I remember this was fun. Gabby, our director of photography...
I think there are about ten cop cars that pull up...
and he was blowing a spaz because he felt that there weren't enough.
And I thought, "How many do you want?"
Oh, my God. I know. And my parents are watching this scene.