You got to go now!
Go, go, go!
Go!
No!
We had a limited schedule when we were in Iceland,
in terms of the actual amount of time we had to shoot there.
Help! Help!
We had to get very, very lucky with the weather.
Because you can't control the ocean.
If the sea is flat, the sea is flat.
There's a fin here, I think!
We got lucky at the end of our shoot,
and we went in and we shot a lot of that stuff for real
in the cold water of Iceland.
Help!
And the way we shot it was doing it as practically as possible.
It's not a porpoise!
Stop befriending it!
That was really important for me, that we didn't do it in a tank,
and that we got high seas and had the real boat there,
a real helicopter and the real water.
Help! Help!
I have learned that, for visual effects,
the best results come from doing as much as you can practically and for real.
So that's what we tried to do as much as we could,
to try to get as many real-life situations.
Except, if there's a volcano in the film.
(ALARM BLARING)
It's hard to actually find a volcano that's erupting
within your schedule.
GOLDWYN: Everything was about, if it was possible to do it practically
and not compromise by using visual effects, it's how I wanna do it.
- STILLER: Yeah. That was good. - MAN: Nice.
Thank you.
Okay. And cut. Everyone freeze.
- Greg, don't move anything. - That was wonderful.
My name is Greg Fitzpatrick, and I'm a stuntman.
Go ahead and get Ben in, put the bike in.
Try not to scare the sheep, please.
We want to keep the sheep in that position.
- How you doing? - Hey, man.
I have done about 17 or 18 movies with Ben.
Yeah, quite a few. Quite a few.
- Ben, let's get you in this thing. - Okay.
I try to complement him by recreating his movements and fulfilling his vision.
Go! And run!
Go! Run!
And he complements me by matching what I do
to make it seamless.
It's a great working relationship.
On Walter Mitty,
in the ocean stuff, I basically say,
"Hey, Ben, it's really cold in there," pat him on the back and go sit in the trailer.
(LAUGHING)
There was one shot we did where I'm in the water,
and we needed to do a POV shot coming at Walter
from the Zodiac boat.
So they took me on a Jet Ski and dropped me in the water,
and then the Jet Ski went away,
and then the boat that had the camera went away
to come back and do the shot.
And I'm a mile out at sea.
And it's six-foot swells, or seven-foot swells,
which, when you're in the water, are really big.
We have safety people around, but they're not that close,
they can't be that close.
Try to remain calm.
The pontoon boat is coming for you.
STILLER: So there's this two minute period where I'm in the North Sea,
a mile out at sea with nobody around.
There's no ADs, or nobody saying, "Hey, you want a cup of coffee?"
No, I was in the ocean by myself with a briefcase
floating there, waiting for the camera to come back.
And I'm like, "I hope they can find me when they come back for this shot."
That was a fun moment
where I was, "This is what filmmaking is all about."
If we let Ben do everything, he would do everything.
(ALL LAUGHING)
Those downhills are really gnarly,
so we brought in some really talented pro skateboarders to do that.
Good.
There were areas where he had stunt doubles do stuff.
But where it was possible to have Ben in the moment, we did it.
It would have been easier and cheaper just to do it in green screen,
but I don't think it would have felt the same.
I think you'll probably be able to see
the exhilaration on our faces from actually doing this.
The lasting impression I'll get from Walter Mitty is an amazing experience.
How often can you hike on glaciers and jump out of stuff?
I rode that bike and ran all over Iceland.
How many people can say that?
I'm very lucky.
When you're doing that stuff,
you're having this experience that you know you'd never have
unless you had the opportunity to do it in a movie,
and there's a sense of danger about it, too, because it's all real.
GOLDWYN: That was always his approach to making the movie,
which is, "I want it to feel real."
Because this is a movie about a guy who discovers reality.
I think it makes a huge, huge difference
when you go a little analog and really get out there and do it.
It's a little chaotic and crazy, but really, really fun.
Really fun.