SIMON CURTIS: Hello, my name is Simon Curtis
and I am the director of The Art of Racing in the Rain,
and we are going to talk through the film.
Right from the start, we see Enzo, here,
played by Butler.
Uh, we had several dogs in this film, but Butler plays Enzo
at the beginning and in the end, the older version of Enzo.
And so, we are introduced to him and to his inner voice
played by Kevin Costner.
We were incredibly lucky to get Kevin to do the voice,
uh, because it's, as you'll see, a major element in the film.
And I wanted an iconic American voice with gravitas
and it was a thrill to work with Kevin, an actor I have admired for so long.
We got lucky with this shot because, you know, you never know
what you're going to get with a dog and his performance,
but Butler seems to act this brilliantly.
I know it sounds stupid, but that's the way it looks,
uh, and the way he looks up when Denny arrives,
uh, I couldn't have asked for more.
And it's not like you give the dog a note, you just hope for the best.
Um, we had brilliant trainers for the dogs, all the dogs in this film,
headed by Theresa and April,
and they were a joy to work with.
As was Milo Ventimiglia, who came on very early to the film
and was a real ally to me and to everybody
from start to finish, and he brings such, sort of, empathy to the character.
I felt very lucky to have him.
ENZO: ...about Mongolia on TV once.
CURTIS: We shot in Vancouver,
and the house, Denny and Eve's house here, is all a build.
Uh, and we spent the first three weeks of the shoot on this set
and it was a brilliant way for the crew
to get to know each other, and a great way for us
to learn how to make a film in which a dog is in every scene.
ENZO: ...so deeply in the pockets of my existence
that when I opened my eyes and looked down...
CURTIS: I just love looking at Butler's face. (chuckles)
DENNY: There's my Enzo.
ENZO: ...I will be ready.
I will remember.
(puppies whining)
CURTIS: And here we are at... going back to the beginning,
this is the moment that Denny first sees Enzo
and picks him out of a litter.
Um, these puppies weren't even born when we started shooting,
so this was at the very end of the shoot,
because you're not allowed to use puppies on a film set
until they're at least eight weeks, I think it is,
but when we saw them, they couldn't have been more gorgeous.
And there's no training puppies at this age,
you just really hope for the best.
But, again, they look so adorable, um...
I knew we would be all right.
How much?
CURTIS: So, it's like a love at first sight moment,
and then they head off and Enzo starts his life
in the company of Denny.
A fun fact, this location was right on the border
of the Canadian and US border,
and that road there is actually the border.
No walls in sight.
So, I knew of the book
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
but I first learned of this project by reading the script
six or seven years ago when it was at another studio,
and I was not chosen to direct it,
uh, but I tracked it over the years.
And when it went to Fox 2000, headed by Elizabeth Gabler,
I had a hope that it might come my way because I have wanted to work with her
for a very long time and, as luck would have it,
um, it did come my way.
So, I was very, very excited and grateful
to get hold of this very special project.
The book has many, many fans all over the world
and I think a lot of that is to do with Enzo's voice
and his philosophy of life.
We shot in Vancouver but it was Vancouver playing Seattle,
and so, that skyline is in fact Seattle.
I felt very lucky to get permission to use George Harrison's songs
in this film because I wanted the sort of familiarity,
the emotional resonance of these beautiful songs,
and felt very lucky that we could secure them.
And here, we're introduce to Ian and Andres
who play Denny's two great friends.
This sense of his bachelor life before everything changes,
and they're dubious that he can handle a dog in his life
because he's a racing driver which means he travels all the time
and he's never at home, and so on.
DENNY: I'll take him on the road with me.
He's my good luck charm.
TONY: Hey, you coming to our show tonight?
We're opening for The Scoffs at The Dive.
Oh no, he can't. He's got a new puppy to look after.
See, he's good luck already.
CURTIS: We had a brilliant crew from Vancouver,
all of whom I was working with for the first time,
but I had brought Ross Emery as the DP who I had worked with several years ago,
and he was a tremendous ally from start to finish.
As well as photographing the film brilliantly,
he's just a fantastic collaborator.
Uh, and then these early scenes with the puppy,
we really just had to shoot on two cameras as much as possible
because you never know what you're going to get out
of the performance of the puppy.
Here, there was like a ring of people surrounding him
because at any point he could run off and never be seen again.
So, we were all very cautious about that.
And Theresa was always fighting for the safety of the dog,
we all took that seriously, but, you know,
these dogs were much loved on this set, fed brilliantly,
and as I say, their performances made the film
and made the shoot a pleasure.
DENNY: It's time to turn in.
Big day tomorrow at the race.
You just be a good boy.
CURTIS: Milo was particularly good with the dogs,
uh, but it's tricky because the dogs have a relationship with the trainers
but it has to seem like their prime relationship
is with Denny, with Milo.
So, we had to navigate through that.
And rehearsing a scene doesn't make a lot of sense
with a dog in it because obviously you can't tell the dog what to do.
So, you had to work out how to shoot every scene with the dog,
we'd break a scene up into lots of sections,
and then once we'd done that, we had to work out
where the trainers could be so they weren't in the shot.
Um, but at first, that seemed like an impossible conundrum
but by the end of the shoot, as a crew and as a team,
we were in our groove.
And, as I say, we were constantly amazed
just how brilliantly the dog performed what was required at the scene.
(sighs) Okay.
CURTIS: And this is a crucial moment
because this is the first time the dog sets eyes on motor racing,
which becomes the major theme of the film,
and it's like he's falling in love with the excitement of it all.
And obviously, the motor racing was a big, big element of our shoot,
trying to work out how to deliver that.
And I was very fortunate in many ways because my producer was Neal Moritz,
who's obviously the producer of the Fast and the Furious franchise
so he knows what he's talking about when it comes to all things cars;
and Patrick Dempsey, the great actor who was an executive producer on the film,
and in fact, he had first introduced me to the script some years ago
and he's passionate, as you know, about racing,
and he introduced us to the world and made sure
we were always authentic at all times.
And then he also introduced me to Jeff Zwart
who was the Second Unit Director, who did a lot of the motor racing footage
and always delivered more than I could have hoped for.
He shot things beautifully, and I do believe
that the racing in this film is as authentic as it could be.
And it was tricky because we had to shoot all these scenes in two halves,
so that, the car racing was shot in Toronto,
uh, but the reverses on our actors and the dog
were in a car park in Vancouver,
um, so I'm always amazed how well these things all blend together.
But Brent Thomas, our designer, and his team in Vancouver
did a great job giving the authentic world of the racing
because the thing about the racing tracks is
the tracks aren't that much,
it's about the infrastructure you bring with you,
and obviously, a pit crew can't be a bunch of extras,
they have to be a real pit crew who know how to change a tire quickly.
Uh, and all the crews that we worked with on the film,
this is the Turner crew, joined in with great enthusiasm.
I think they enjoyed being on a film set as a change from their usual routines.
But there were times where we would shoot this in a car park,
as I say, in Vancouver with no cars where you do think
you're going slightly mad
and I'm very grateful to the actors for giving it such commitment.
And it was a great honor to work with Gary Cole,
one of my favorite actors from the old Steppenwolf days,
who came in to play this part of Don and brought so much.
He's in so few scenes but I loved working with him.
DON: Step over here.
CURTIS: These extras in Vancouver were very game.
We kept showering them with hoses of water and they just...
it was very supportive and I'm very grateful to them.
So, yeah, this is incredibly tricky shooting
all this footage in the rain with skidding and so on,
and full credit and kudos to Jeff Zwart and his team
for putting it off.
It was thrilling to see this all come together
and I'm very, very grateful to him for his work.
I should also say that the score,
Dustin O'Halloran and Volker, really helps this.
It gives the film a huge momentum and they were two of my favorite composers
and they elevated the film greatly.
Here we are, back in our carpark in Vancouver,
and, uh, again, the puppy
didn't seem to be too thrown by being in the rain,
or the fake rain.
- Hey, kid, you got a minute? - Hey.
- I want you to meet Sean Rey. - Hey. Denny Swift.
He sold his tech company...
CURTIS: Yeah, these crews, like the Turner crew,
come with all this infrastructure, these vans, these...
the cars, and suddenly, this awful carpark in Vancouver
became this racing scene.
Ah ha! This is an important moment
because this is the first time we see Parker, who is our main dog
and, in some ways, the unspoken hero of the film.
He is a beautiful animal
and it is amazing how many times he delivered time and time again.
ENZO: ...time and took me with him whenever he could
like a four-legged member of...
CURTIS: And this is an important moment because I think if you look up
on the bleacher at the back there, you'll just see the feet of Garth Stein,
the author of the book, there he is on the back row there.
He came to visit one day
and was always tremendously supportive of the film.
And again, without him, we wouldn't... none of us would have been here.
I love that shot. And here we are, this is Vancouver as Seattle,
and it's amazing how many days we spent running
around various parts of the city with a dog.
Yeah, this is, again,
cutting between Toronto and Vancouver,
two cities miles apart, to give a seamless scene.
That's actually them on a... with a blue screen behind.
ENZO: ...compulsively record their every move with their in-car cameras.
CURTIS: Every time I see the film I'm just reminded
just how important Kevin Costner is to driving the momentum of the film.
And I think all these things that Denny and Enzo learn from racing
as lessons on how to live a life, and really that is the theme of the film,
how can you take what you can learn from the racing world
and apply it to real life?
And I think that's one of the secret sauces of this film,
and of the book, is that it helps people live their lives.
Yeah, maybe.
My drivers look to me as their leader and I think...
Turn this clown off.
Put on the Mariners.
(Curtis stutters)
David O. Russell once said, when he was shooting films,
he always made sure there was a dog in the scene
because he could then cut between anything via the dog,
between shots via the dog. And in some ways,
that made the edit of this film easier than most
because I always had the dog's face to cut to, to help bridge between shots.
And I should give a shout out to Adam Recht, our editor,
who is an old friend of mine who worked in London
while we were in Vancouver.
And because of the time difference,
I would wake up in Vancouver and he would already cut
the previous days scenes,
uh, which was usually very helpful because if we'd missed anything
he could tell us and often we could shoot it that day
to fill the gap.
But, as I say,
having the voiceover and the shots of the dog
always made editing easier than it is sometimes.
Uh, so, that was another of the hidden surprises of this film.
ENZO: But for now, he was my champion alone.
CURTIS: Ah, and here is the introduction of Amanda
who was such a ray of light on this film.
She's a huge dog lover, and a mother,
and so totally understood the part,
and she was a real joy to work with.
And actually, this was hard for her because she has to pretend
not to be a dog person when she's very much an animal lover
and a dog person in real life.
ENZO: ...shampoo and pheromones.
Well, he's more person than dog.
ENZO: Denny was clearly taken with her grooming.
She probably bathed every day, for all I knew.
Does he always stare at people like this?
CURTIS: The dog's point of view is something Ross and I talked about a lot
because obviously there are a lot of theories about what dogs actually see,
that they... that their image is distorted, the coloring and so on,
and we decided not to be too busy about that.
But obviously, a lot of shots in this film are from Enzo's point of view
uh, and just we wanted to... because there are so many scenes in this film,
births, marriages and deaths that we've seen in thousands of films,
but very rarely have we seen them from a dog's point of view.
So, every time we rehearsed a scene and got it on its feet,
we always worked out where Enzo was and what he would be seeing.
So, the point of view, hopefully,
is something that is distinctive about this film
without being over-busy and distracting.
I should also give a shout out to Peter Wilke, our camera operator,
who was a joy to work with despite being an Arsenal fan.
And he contributed so much to the way we shot this film.
And I think camera operators don't get enough credit
for their contribution to movies.
And as with all this crew, I couldn't have been happier
with everyone who was on it.
...you two just met, huh?
- Yeah. - And.
- Dude. - I think he's really nice.
Just wait till you see him race, then you're really gonna fall in love.
Dude!
We tried to make this as economical as it would seem
from a dog's point of view.
This young woman just turns up in their lives
and suddenly has moved in,
and we wanted to get that sense of him being jealous, uh,
but in time coming to love her.
ENZO: ...seem to mind.
I assumed she would soon be in our rearview mirror.
But by spring, it was clear...
CURTIS: Again, this was cutting between the carpark, uh,
uh, and the real race.
ENZO: ...with her opposable thumbs
and plump buttocks.
EVE: In his regular car, yes.
Well, what does he know about teaching English?
Yeah, my point exactly.
ENZO: And her taste in television programs left something to be desired.
CURTIS: I think the dog watching TV and learning from television
is a big theme in this film,
uh, and helps understand his philosophy.
He's seen this documentary about dogs in Mongolia
who come back as humans if they've learnt enough,
and that drives him all through the film.
And I love... we wanted to get as many scenes of Enzo
watching television as possible.
ENZO: ...her effortless laugh, perhaps I did.
But she was a person, unlike me.
Mm-hmm.
CURTIS: We're very lucky with the breed, the Golden Retriever,
because their faces are so expressive,
and every time you cut to it, it seems you seem to understand
what the dog is thinking.
Of course, it is greatly helped by the voiceover as well.
You don't mind if I love him too, do you?
ENZO: As if I had a say on the matter.
CURTIS: And this is a drone shot.
We break the rule, it's not Enzo's point of view obviously.
And there's these houses on the coast in Vancouver
that are just magnificent.
And we also had this house for about a week
and it's sort of hard to comprehend what a beautiful part of the world it is
with that view.
And this is where we introduce the so-called twins,
uh, two actors I've long admired, Martin Donovan and Kathy Baker,
uh, who play the parents-in-law,
uh, which could be quite two-dimensional characters
but they brought such dimension to the part.
And I'd wanted to work with Martin for a long time,
and in fact, had worked with Kathy decades ago in the theater in New York,
uh, so I felt very lucky to have them both.
And this is the point of view, as I say,
we've seen so many wedding scenes but this is a wedding scene
where we see from the dog's point of view, which makes it distinctive, I hope.
And another George Harrison song,
performing Bob Dylan.
EVE: ...I thee wed.
ENZO: And so, we became a family.
CURTIS: And here we introduce the sort of parents-in-law
and their lack of enthusiasm for Denny and his life.
And we try to make it seem that it was quite reasonable in a way
because they... their only child is marrying someone
who has this unreliable career.
He's not exactly a star in it at this point.
And not only that, it's obviously A, very dangerous,
and B, involves an awful lot of traveling.
These guys who race on this level are always on a plane.
Every weekend they're going to Florida or somewhere else,
and it's a very expensive and time-consuming life
that takes them away from their home a great deal.
And so, I wanted to give the parents-in-law
some sort of sense that it wasn't totally unreasonable, their point of view.
And here, we go to our house that is our chief location.
Obviously, this is exterior and then all the interiors
are constructed by Brent on the stage in Vancouver.
DENNY: Hold on.
CURTIS: This is, I think, maybe the first thing we filmed
and, you know, it's like on paper, how on earth is the dog
going to knock the photograph off the thing?
Will that actually happen? Will he be able to do it?
And then, on the day, that's what Parker did.
And yeah, I remember thinking just so grateful
that he was an actor, (chuckles) that's what it felt like.
Not only that, he was an actor who, when we weren't using him,
wasn't going off to shoot a commercial in LA,
he was sitting in his hutch on the corner of the stage
quite happy eating chicken.
So, he was always available to us, so in many ways,
he was the least high-maintenance actor I've ever worked with.
DENNY: It's Watkins Glen, which I usually do really well...
- And that's in New York, right? - Yeah, yeah.
CURTIS: We loved being in Vancouver.
This actually was shot... this scene was shot during the World Cup
and there was a Portuguese restaurant on this block
where every time Portugal scored, there was a massive cheer.
But I think during this take we... there were no goals scored, so...
But Vancouver is a brilliant city to... to shoot in
because there is something for everybody;
great exteriors and lots
of different types of neighborhoods.
So, that was another pleasure.
And this is, obviously, we shot against a green screen
so there's Amanda who is sitting on this...
bleachers but that is all obviously
something she wasn't actually looking at.
And now, time is passing, I think the pregnancy
and, indeed, the child's aging helps us with the time passing in this film
because there is a sense of... I mean, it takes over...
it takes place over 15 or 20 years,
uh, we didn't want to make too much of that.
And this actually, this was the first scene
which we ever shot, and it was, again,
quite tricky because...
the dog had to feel a kick in the belly and, um... again,
we were never quite sure what we were going to get
until we actually did it.
And then we also had to make sure we had the space in every scene
to put in the voiceover.
And Jessica, the continuity person, the script supervisor,
who was, again, a tremendous ally,
would always read in the lines making sure we left enough space
in the shooting of the scene to fit in the voiceover afterwards.
And that was very exciting when we first heard Kevin's voice
and the scene sort of came alive,
and also, brought much needed comedy to the film as well.
ENZO: I just hoped it would look like me.
CURTIS: Now we're at Christmas, and I remember going...
in pre-production, I went to Theresa,
our trainer's house where she was training the dog
in the California desert, and she showed me the dog
opening the Christmas present.
And I remember thinking it was very reassuring at least
being able to do that.
And, uh, here we are, the dog opening the present with his teeth.
- You okay? - Yeah, I'm fine.
I just wanna see what it looks like on.
Hey, can we talk about this whole midwife thing again?
Honey, we've been over this.
Yeah, I know. I'm just saying.
I mean, you know, I was born in a hospital...
CURTIS: I should also credit Mark Bomback
who did the screenplay for the film.
He was a brilliant writer,
both did a brilliant job writing it
but also incredibly helpful as we were shooting.
He was the kind of writer who on the day we could call and say,
"This thing isn't quite working in rehearsal,
can you help us and make a change?"
And within half an hour something will be emailed to us.
So he wasn't on set too much, but he was definitely available
on the phone, and one of the happiest collaborations
I've had with a writer.
And some of these voiceovers were added later on that aren't in the book.
Uh, it just felt, particularly in the first act of the film,
the more we got to know Enzo and what he's thinking, the better.
And this is a key moment because Denny is being given this chance.
And one of the difficulties on the... in the film
was that Denny is always changing the level of racing he's working on.
So, every time we cut to a racing scene, it's a different type of car
in a different level race with a different team.
So, Don Lee, our line producer, and his team
had their work cut out for them always making sure
we had the right cars and teams and tracks to go with.
And, again, Patrick and Jeff really helped navigate that for us.
Oh, you're not worried about timing?
It's a strange film like that because in some ways it's a domestic film,
in some ways it's a dog film, and some ways it's a racing film.
And this is a really hard scene to do because, uh, on the page there's no...
you couldn't really rehearse it because the dog walks back and forth,
uh, and we have all these images as the pregnancy goes through the night,
um, but it was sort of made in the cutting room
where we have these three worlds.
We have Denny at the track,
Eve giving birth, and the dog going back and forth
between these two worlds.
And again, the voiceover really helped bind it altogether.
(Eve groaning)
TV ANNOUNCER: Unbelievable.
Denny Swift has taken the lead in a magnificent...
CURTIS: In some ways, I think one of the things
that appealed to me about this story
and this film was that it was not a film about racing
but a film about being a parent.
And I think all these scenes, where the baby is first born
and you see the girl growing up,
are some of my favorite scenes in the film.
And I love this moment that Amanda, or Eve,
but Amanda brilliantly playing Eve,
introduces the dog to the baby, Zoë.
ENZO: I have never encountered a creature quite so beautiful.
CURTIS: It's hard to remember that while we were doing this,
behind the camera would be Theresa or April yelling instructions to the dog.
So, I full credit my cast who were able to focus on the scene
with all those distractions around them,
because a lot of it was about keeping the eye contact with the dog.
This is a slight cheat actually because Parker was brilliant
but he wasn't a great barker.
So, when we needed the dog to bark, sometimes we brought in Butler,
or indeed another dog, to help with that, but you don't really notice that.
And here is where they become a family.
This is the first time Denny meets his daughter
and I think the scene speaks for itself.
I should've been here.
Honey, she's a day old.
I know, but still.
CURTIS: Again, the score underlines the emotion of the scene.
And what I love about the score is that it's emotional,
when it needs to be emotional, and it has drive, and momentum,
when needs to have that, too.
This perfect little thing.
CURTIS: Love that shot.
EVE: I still don't understand.
DENNY: We lost, no big deal.
We were leading by a lap going into the last stint and...
CURTIS: And I love this as well, the full shot of the family that airs...
prefigures the scene later on when Eve is ill,
when they're all lying on the bed when she's sick.
But this is one of those moments, I think to quote,
I believe, Scott Fitzgerald, where it's one of those moments
full of the promise of happiness that you subsequently realize
is the happiness itself.
It's okay.
CURTIS: This moment... anyone who's been a parent knows
how precious those early days are with the child
and you're sort of re-configuring yourselves from being a couple
to being parents and being a family.
And you're trying to work out, you know, what is Denny's life going to be?
Is it going to be always on the road?
Yes, he's got to go with his passion, he's got to go with his talent,
but it may come at a cost.
Where is she? It's been too long.
ENZO: The twins who rarely visited now...
CURTIS: This was a tricky scene
because there were so many different things going on
and we didn't want to villainize Martin, the father-in-law, too much.
Um, but...
and this is important, the zebra, which I wasn't sure about on the page
but every time we screened the film the zebra tracks really well
through the film and has a couple of pay-offs later on,
uh, that work better than I would have imagined,
if I was absolutely honest.
Watched some of that race of yours, by the way, how's that...
CURTIS: And I just tried to make out... I mean, no one in real life says,
"I'm a villain. I'm evil," and so we tried to give Martin's character
the genuine belief that he was concerned about his granddaughter
being brought up by a father who may be injured
every weekend on a... in a racetrack.
Um, and I think both that Milo and Martin, um,
bring a lot of detail and credibility to that relationship.
TRISH: Bye. Bye, honey. Love you.
CURTIS: From the very first time we rehearsed with Amanda and Milo,
uh, it was... they just genuinely felt like a couple,
uh, and they helped me cast Ryan,
who you'll soon see as Zoë,
and they just felt like a real family.
And that was a gift that you can't always predict
but, in this case, it really worked well for us.
(Zoë babbles)
CURTIS: So, this is the years passing.
As I say, the aging of the child helps tell that story in a subtle way.
Um, and this is, uh, the younger Zoë
who we had for a couple of scenes,
but then we cut to the birthday parties
where the ritual takes us through the years
from Zoë aged three to Zoë aged seven.
And this is where we introduce Ryan, who we were so lucky to cast
as the main Zoë.
She was a wonderful actress, actually,
um, and full credit to her and her father Dean
who was also her acting coach.
She always came on the set fully prepared
and I just like the way they look as a family.
And I love these scenes.
We were able in our schedule to shoot lots of little extra scenes
that helped build these montages of time passing.
ZOË: Everyone has to wait their turn for snack...
CURTIS: Parker was a good sport, even putting on glasses and a tie.
- Daddy! - Hey. (grunts)
Hey.
Hey, I'm sorry I missed your dance recital.
- Mommy told me all about it. - Did you win?
No, sweet pea, not this one.
- Better? - You have no idea.
(grunts)
CURTIS: See, I... the point of view... Enzo's point of view, it's not distorted
but it just tells a story of what the dog would be seeing.
DENNY: It feels like I'm always at the track or getting on a plane.
CURTIS: That family photograph is not Photoshopped.
It's actually a photograph I took on the day we all met for the first time.
We were casting the young actresses with Amanda and Milo
and it was clear that Ryan was the actress for us.
Uh, and then I made a bad mistake.
We decided to take some footage and photographs on the lot
at Fox in Los Angeles, and we went out onto the grass on the lot
and they were playing football, and suddenly,
Parker disappeared because he had seen a squirrel,
and I thought I ruined the film there and then,
but eventually we recaptured Parker happily
but it had taught me, with a dog, you know, it is unpredictable.
And you have to take the safest choice at all times.
I told them I needed to think about it.
You're just tired.
Yeah.
ENZO: I spent a sleepless night contemplating what Denny had said.
Quit racing?
He was a race car driver the way I was a dog.
It was his nature,
his destiny.
TV NARRATOR: According to Mongolian folklore...
CURTIS: This is important because this is the documentary
about dogs in Mongolia that teaches Enzo
that dogs can be reincarnated as humans
if they've learnt enough on their lives.
And that helps give our film an optimistic end,
as we'll see later on.
And then here,
we wanted to emphasize that dogs do have special powers,
and that belief that lots of people have that dogs can smell,
I guess, cancer in people,
and this sense that he can smell something that isn't right
but of course doesn't have the ability to tell and warn about it.
ENZO: Given a facile tongue, I could've warned her.
Don't give me a hard time, too, buddy.
CURTIS: But of course, there is the irony that he yearns to speak,
and of course we hear him speaking
but that's one of the tricks of the script, I guess.
Again, Parker's acting seems to be so credible. (chuckles)
Another reference to the zebra that becomes a sort of motif
through the film.
And certainly, audiences really do seem to enjoy that when we screened it,
it's always a laugh pretty much every time the zebra is mentioned.
(car door opens)
(car door closes)
CURTIS: There were lots of things you hadn't predicted,
like the dog found running on that floor very hard
because it was very slippery, but something, you know,
you have to sort of think from a dog's point of view,
which of course is one of the themes of the film. (laughs)
And I love all this footage. The in-car footage. Um...
How come you go through the turns so much faster...
CURTIS: This is important because a lot of the themes of the film
are in this scene.
Most drivers are afraid of the rain because it's an unpredictable element.
CURTIS: Obviously,
the sense of owning the rain rather than being afraid of it,
uh, which is obviously in the title.
And again, I think, I've spoken to people who are fans of the book,
that's what they like, is that the lessons you learn
about life from racing.
Yeah.
When I'm in a race car, I'm the creator of my own destiny.
CURTIS: Being the creator of your own destiny.
So, these are all golden themes of the film.
And Milo seemed to have a real sense of this.
I think he does all this very, very well.
...and you're gonna tell them that you'll see them
in Laguna Seca.
I mean, you can't give up, not ever, not for us.
Not for anyone.
Promise me.
I promise.
ENZO: At that moment, I finally understood Denny's love for Eve and why,
for so long, I had been afraid to love her myself.
She was my unpredictable element.
She was my rain.
CURTIS: I credit Garth Stein with that, it's a beautiful sentiment.
And here we have rain, we had a lot of rain towers on this film.
And we wanted to cut from the rainy Seattle
to this glorious sunshine on the racetrack.
And then, suddenly, things take a dark turn.
(retching)
- Mommy? - Go pack your bag.
We're gonna go to grandma and grandpa's for a few days
until daddy gets home, okay?
Are you feeling sick?
I just really need to rest.
Please?
(grunting)
CURTIS: I wanted to get the sense of the helplessness of being a dog.
I mean, obviously, the dog is the center of their attention
a lot of the time, but a lot of the time he isn't.
And then, suddenly, the door closes and he's alone in the house.
And this is a sequence we filmed over many days,
lots of different individual shots of Enzo alone.
And I think...
And sometimes it's strange when there's no humans,
just a dog in a scene, when you're directing it,
but I think I'd learned on previous films to get as much coverage as possible
because you never know what's going to work.
So, we had two cameras and a generous schedule,
so we shot lots and lots of footage,
and then the sequence was sort of made by Adam in the cutting room.
I think there were a few sequences at this time
where Enzo was alone that we didn't use.
But we had to get a sense of him being alone for two or three days.
ENZO: What if Denny never returned?
CURTIS: And the TV being on is helpful because he's so tormented
by the food and drink commercials.
ENZO: ...I had no way of knowing how long I'd have to make it last.
I sustained myself with the odd stray Cheerio Zoë had dropped.
CURTIS: There was a lot of putting special things for the dog
to lick on the floor.
So, it wasn't a Cheerio, it was a piece of banana or something,
I can't remember what it was now, but, as I say,
our dog trainer team had all the tricks in the book
and I was the benefit of that.
I think this was the last thing we shot on our last day,
uh, the thunder storm.
And I was lucky because we had to work out what song
was playing upstairs,
and we tried maybe 40 or 50 songs
before we settled on Alice Cooper,
uh, again, a song from my youth that I was very lucky we were able to use.
And then, this is a big sequence where I have to pay credit
to our visual effects team who are always on board with us,
and I think they did a great job animating the zebra
and giving it a dance.
We had to... that was one visual effect with the dog.
We have very few visual effects with the dog
but those teeth we had to put in after
because Parker was such a benign, gentle dog,
he would never bare his teeth.
So, that was something, again, the visual effects team
very cleverly did to give him those fangs.
But it's the first visual effects sequence I've ever had in a film
and I was thrilled when we finally got the final version.
ENZO: I ran out hoping that what I had seen was only in my mind,
a demonic vision driven by lack of glucose.
(thunder crashes)
But somehow I knew that it was true, and...
that something terrible had happened.
CURTIS: Something like that, you know, as I say, the trainer,
who is now invisible, would be there telling the dog to
lie down on the floor and keeping his eyes open.
And so... it seems so seamless but, on the day,
there was an awful lot of whistling and clicking and shouting
from the trainers because that's what they did.
But, once again, to pay tribute to the actors
for being able to play the scene with all that going on.
Come here, bud. Hey.
CURTIS: And I think Milo genuinely loved Parker,
and I think that really plays in this film, that
he loved the dog and I think that really helped us.
Are Eve and Zoë still there?
Can I talk to her?
CURTIS: Yeah. So, for example, there was no water in there.
There was whatever Enzo... Parker's favorite snack was in that bowl.
But, again, you use all the tricks in the book to, um...
to get the dog to do what we need.
The mat was the only place you used, huh?
Come here, bud.
Here you go.
ZOË: Daddy, I missed you.
- DENNY: And I missed you, too. - ZOË: Can I say hi to my animals?
- DENNY: Yeah, go ahead. - EVE: Sure, sweetheart.
CURTIS: See, like that was well-chosen by Adam.
It looked like the dog was gulping in fear
but obviously, that was just something... because we shot that, that shot,
several times, and he just stole it from a moment
where it looked like the dog was gulping rather than an instruction.
Zoë?
CURTIS: And then, this was tricky too because, um...
that... see, that's the dog with its tail tied down
so he doesn't look too happy.
DENNY: I'm gonna go find him.
Get over here.
CURTIS: This was tricky because we didn't want Milo
to damage his relationship with the dog, so in that moment,
the dog isn't even there, it's all point of view
and the dog wasn't there. Um...
The dog wasn't there when we shot that because it was a genuine thing
that we didn't want the dog to start being afraid of Milo.
So, we toned down that as much as possible
and shot as much of it as possible without the dog
so he was not intimidated by
a new and unusual tone in Milo.
(Zoë crying)
CURTIS: I love these houses in Vancouver.
It's a lovely place to live, I think.
And it just plays like a real relationship.
I promise I'll never do that again.
You're a tough old dog.
Come on. Come on.
CURTIS: Again, the tail is tied down to make it look like the dog
was sheepish and embarrassed.
First overall.
Plus a permanent seat in the Apex prototype.
EVE: Oh, my God, Denny!
CURTIS: All these references to the prototype and Apex
were always constantly vetted by Patrick Dempsey
to make sure that we were authentic to the racing world.
And I was quite pleased when we did our test screening
that someone said, "If it was a true story,
why didn't you say that in the credits?"
But of course, it isn't a true story but the fact that someone thought
it even possibly was, made me think that we pulled off
the authenticity of the driving world.
ENZO: I realized this was what Denny had done.
He had manifested a win...
CURTIS: Again, point of view, eye contact between Denny and Enzo.
EVE: Keys.
This is a tribute to the film Wonder
that a lot of the crew had worked on the previous year
where the kid in the racing helmet, um...
and of course, this is a touching moment because it's the last time, it turns out,
that the family are all together in a happy way.
This was a whole day shoot, unusually without Milo,
where we're in the woods, in the hills above Vancouver,
and uh... I love the sequence.
I think the woods look beautiful.
And, again, we were really lucky with how well
Parker acted on this day.
- I'm really just asking. - I know. Um...
We had to have him on the lead here because without that
he would run all over the place.
But it feels credible that there are several beats
where he's on the lead and she takes him off the lead.
(sighs)
CURTIS: And Amanda was so gung-ho on this day
that she was fine about lying in the soil
for hours on end as we got our shots together.
She was very, very easy to work with
and I hope to do it... to work with her again.
But trying always to think, what would the dog's point of view
be of this scene?
So, he'd be looking and he'd just see her walking away from him
and then falling over.
And this is one of those moments where Parker was too benign,
so we brought in another dog,
Orbit, who is that dog
because he is such a brilliant barker and very agitated.
And we're lucky you don't really notice the shift between dogs.
Um, and in the original shot of this, one of the trainers is right there
encouraging him to bark.
And with the magic of visual effects,
now of course, the trainer is nowhere to be seen.
WOMAN: There's a number.
CURTIS: We shot this at a hotel in Vancouver
because I think there's been so much filming in Vancouver
that they're not allowed... none of the hospitals allow...
in Vancouver, allow shooting anymore.
So again, tribute to our design team for turning this airport hotel
into a credible hospital.
Come on.
Sometimes when I watch these scenes all I can think of is the on-set catering
because the food we had was,
even by film crew standards,
incredibly plentiful and tasty.
Um, and sometimes there would be a huddle around the camera
and everyone would think we were discussing lenses or something,
and we were actually discussing
whether we should have sushi or coconut shrimp.
Told them I'm out for the season, maybe longer.
No, I have to be here.
Okay, Enzo...
CURTIS: I wanted to get that sense of frustration that a dog would feel
where he would want to go into the hospital with Denny
but he's not allowed to.
So, you know, in a conventional film,
you'd have the scene inside the hospital room,
but in this film, you can't because...
the dog isn't allowed into the hospital.
So, we try and give the dog and the audience that sense
of only having a partial view of things
because you're excluded from so many things.
ENZO: Somewhere, the zebra was dancing.
CURTIS: We wanted to get some sense of Mongolia.
Uh, and I love this shot that we did
of the dog running wild with ears flapping.
That was a day Parker was very happy to do that run.
Obviously, not in Mongolia, but it sort of works,
that morphing together those two shots.
Denny's car, the vintage BMW, was a source of much discussion,
but I think we ended up somewhere really nice.
It's a car that he credibly would cherish,
uh, in his normal life when he's not at the track.
ENZO: ...brakes go soft from overheating.
The poor driver will crash...
CURTIS: I like these echoes. Where...
That was the same, obviously, location where we see the whole family
running around in the, uh...
with the shopping cart,
but now, without the mother, it's a somber version of it.
And I think Brent used to call them rhymes
where there'd be two different versions within the film of the same scene.
One is a joyous family moment and one a sad moment.
Again, another of those moments that when you first did it,
it was full of the promise of happiness, but you subsequently think,
"Oh my God, that was the happiness itself."
They have a very good relationship, Milo and Ryan,
really credibly father and daughter.
Hey, what's the matter? You like grilled cheese.
CURTIS: Again, these are rhymes.
We're trying the two versions of these scenes,
one where he's out of his depth
and struggling as a father, and then later on,
the alternate version where he's got into his groove
and is excelling as a father.
The sort of Kramer vs. Kramer moments.
Like when they famous... Dustin Hoffman famously
messes up breakfast and then later on
they have a very brilliant choreographed, expert breakfast.
ENZO: ...home from the hospital.
You're gonna be okay.
Everything is gonna be okay.
Maybe you should sit down now.
CURTIS: This was Ryan at her best here.
What a fantastic actress.
ENZO: The people who cared about Denny made special accommodations.
Mike got him some part-time work at the garage
and looked after me whenever Denny asked.
And there were other skills he was forced to master.
- ZOË: You're hurting me. - DENNY: Okay.
ENZO: Zoë spent the hot summer days at a kid's camp over by Greenlake.
Hi, sweetheart.
CURTIS: We wanted to make sure that it was clear that
she loved her grandparents,
uh, which I think is important as that narrative proceeds.
ENZO: On those nights, Denny would stay late at the hospital with Eve.
When we'd come home, he would be very quiet.
CURTIS: So, that'd be a case of one trainer standing behind Denny
and another trainer would be behind the wall there
handing the leash to the dog.
Uh, again, when we see it, there's no sense of that,
but on the set, we were in the hands of the trainers.
Another of the running shots.
And another.
You could only do them so many times
because Theresa was very protective of the dog's paws,
and poor Milo was made to do it many more times
than the dog was able to.
- ENZO: ...pit crew... - Anabelle, Parker...
CURTIS: But here, again, that's one of the rhymes where we now see
he's an expert at braiding her hair,
an expert at preparing her breakfast and knows exactly what her routine is.
Bye.
What do you say, Enz?
You're gonna like this one. You ready?
CURTIS: And Milo was full of good ideas, like tossing that meat to the dog,
which feels like very real
and wasn't scripted.
- Oh. - No fair.
It's the red car's fault.
Well, yes and no.
So, you've gotta be in charge...
CURTIS: I love the sense of the two of them watching TV together
sharing an enthusiasm.
At some point, in every race...
And the dog just always there, not making a big deal of it
but sitting there with them, a part of the family.
...and a slow stuff.
My God.
Your mommy's gonna kill me.
ENZO: That night, Denny got the call.
The doctors were finally allowing Eve to come home,
only she wouldn't be coming home to us.
Why can't mommy stay with us?
CURTIS: I should mention Monique Prudhomme,
who did all the costumes.
She was a costume designer I had admired before I even realized
she lived and worked in Vancouver.
And I think the costumes have a sort of very natural,
simple but effective quality in this film.
And maybe it's time to mention our hair and makeup teams as well
because this was a difficult thing, that the makeup needed for Eve
after she had been in hospital, losing her hair and so on.
And there were a few days where it took an inordinate length of time,
but once they got into the groove, it worked very well
and it's very effective.
Still on that sense of a family.
"And it was snowing on a squirrel,
it was snowing on a beaver, and it was..."
CURTIS: But I mean, no parent would want to endure this.
"Oh, look, just as we thought, and Boggan said, wish!
Charles wrote his wish on a piece of paper..."
DENNY: I don't... I don't understand. What exactly are you asking?
CURTIS: Once again, trying not to villainize the... Eve's parents.
You know, they have genuine concerns because it's one thing
to have a racing driver as a son-in-law when he's part of a team of parents,
but when he's the only parent, that's quite another matter.
So, we kept talking about that, sort of justify their behavior,
uh, in fighting for their granddaughter later in the film.
And I love the two of them.
They're sort of agonizing
and I hope it's believable. I think it is.
DENNY: Come on.
They just wanna help us...
CURTIS: All these moments of the two of them.
Here's another rhyme because this shot echoes the scene
when Zoë was first born where they were all in bed together.
I think Ryan was actually asleep at this point,
it was quite late,
and she adored both Milo and Amanda
and I think she genuinely fell asleep here. (chuckles)
Okay.
Knock wood, in a few weeks I'll get some strength back
and then we can both come home again.
Right?
Right.
I want you to start racing again.
You've been away from it for too long.
We'll see.
I can't be the reason that you quit.
CURTIS: For some reason, the first AD, Jim Brebner, popped into my head
because he was a brilliant First Assistant Director.
And first ADs never get the credit they deserve
for holding a film and a crew together.
It's all about the schedule they choose and the tone they set,
and Jim and his team of ADs were exemplary from start to finish.
And he was even greedier than I was with the craft services.
ENZO: It must be so difficult being a person.
Sometimes, I doubt my ability to interact on such a level,
but I know it's required if I'm to become the human...
CURTIS: Again, that combination of Parker/Enzo's face
and Kevin's voiceover just brings such emotion to the scene.
Um...
And again, the point of view.
ENZO: I stayed awake all that night and many others that followed.
The demon was coming for Eve,
but he would have to get through me first.
CURTIS: I think one of the things about Enzo is he's very perceptive
and right a lot of the time,
but I think a lot of the comedy is he's not always right
and sometimes he has a very flawed version of events.
And I think the audience, or initially the readers,
really enjoy that about him that he's an inexact narrator,
if you know what I mean, that sometimes he's very perceptive
and accurate and sometimes not.
I loved shooting this because it was... you can see her...
see Amanda just sort of taking this all in,
probably imagining the family without her,
um, and yet, we see the heroism almost of Denny
being there for his daughter,
and of course, for his wife.
Very touching.
- TRISH: Remember? - ZOË: Yeah.
ENZO: His endurance knew no limits.
Oh, hey. A tennis racket.
TRISH: Yeah.
And Grandpa got you lessons at our club on Wednesday afternoon.
- So, won't that be fun? - Yeah.
CURTIS: So, we see that Zoë really enjoys her grandparents,
who do dote on her, so that helps our narrative,
that they're all... they all love each other.
ENZO: ...this was their way of pushing out of their minds
what was happening to their own daughter.
A task that was, of course, impossible.
CURTIS: And we were lucky to be able to find
a double for Amanda for this moment.
Um, and again, it's very helpful having the dog to cut through.
Um, this was a very emotional day on set.
And talking of the music,
to get this beautiful, beautiful classic song,
Crosby, Stills and Nash, was a dream come true.
We didn't actually play it on the day we filmed it.
I think we were using an Otis Redding song
but I love the way the song seems to describe the scene.
Are you sure you're up for this?
CURTIS: And I think they play this incredibly well.
I want you home.
CURTIS: And one of my favorite shots in the whole film is the two shot of...
Zoë and Enzo watching her parents
dancing maybe for the last time.
("Helplessly Hoping" by Crosby, Stills and Nash playing)
CURTIS: I love that... her arm around the dog.
(song continues)
CURTIS: What a face.
There's something about Ross' photography in this sequence
that is especially moving.
I love this shot from the night over Denny
arriving at Eve.
Do you see?
Do you?
I'm not afraid of it anymore...
because I know it's not the end.
But you knew that, didn't you?
You know everything.
CURTIS: Beautiful dialogue. Beautifully played by Amanda.
ENZO: Not everything. No.
But I know this.
Eve's last breath freed her soul.
I saw it leave myself.
Released to continuous journey elsewhere.
CURTIS: We decided collectively to keep these scenes as simple as possible
and not have wailing and crying. I don't know. I can't imagine
what it would be like in real life,
but I love that little nod Milo does
and the breath going out of Kathy. I think they play it very well.
And in comes Sia, a beautiful song that we played in the cutting room
the first time we did this and stayed with it all the way through.
And this is the moment any parent would dread,
looking at the sleeping child knowing that when she wakes
she's going to be told some news that is going to change her life forever.
And again, not playing the scene but just playing
the moment before the scene seems to have great power,
at least I think it does.
Again, another gulp from Enzo that was accidental.
And we talked about this scene, you know, should they hug?
And no, it just seemed right that Denny is just putting all his energy
into straightening and brushing her hair,
and they're both trying to hold it together.
I think Ryan's face, she looks like a child
who has lost a mother, it's a wonderful performance.
Again, as I say, we've seen so many funerals in films
but seeing it from the dog's point of view,
he's alone in the house, looking through the window
not allowed to go to the cemetery.
("You Have Been Loved" by Sia plays)
And this is a powerful piece of acting from Parker.
(song continues)
I mean, I thought this sequence would take days to film but...
this was a one take wonder that Parker just delivered it.
He picked up Eve's hat,
climbed onto the sofa, and curled up with it,
and that was take one. And we all looked at each other
and could hardly believe it.
You know, we thought we'd spend half a day and we were done
thanks to the great acting.
That's a baby game. I've to be grown up now.
And now we come to the longest scene in the film, actually, but, uh,
it was quite a big one to film especially as there was a building site next
to the house that made it very hard to get a take without...
the sound people in despair.
But I was, uh, we had a proper rehearsal the day before, uh,
which is unusual in a film but, uh, with actors of this caliber,
Martin, Kathy
and Milo, uh, and a proper rehearsal,
we were able to shoot it quite efficiently.
And I think they do so much work to justify
what some people would think was, uh, an unjustifiable,
uh, point of view,
trying to, uh, fight for custody of, uh, their child.
But in these performances, give it credibility and authenticity,
so I was very, very lucky to have actors of this quality.
Oh, to be honest, Denny, that's...
what's concerning us a little, that you hadn't made any preparations.
- You don't seem to have a plan in place. - Plan? I don't...
Zoë is eating an egg and some toast.
We just started.
Oh, I thought...
I'm sorry. Started what?
Can one of you tell me what exactly is going on here?
Um...
CURTIS: I love that nod of his head.
It's the kind of thing that happens in long term marriages,
- communicating in that way. - ...might be if Zoë continued to live here
with us.
(scoffs)
- What? - MAXWELL: She needs stability right now,
and frankly, we don't think you're in a position to provide that.
CURTIS: It makes me realize how many short scenes there are in this film.
Uh, you know, hundreds of them actually.
Uh, and it's very rare to have this sort of four- or five-page scene, but...
it was good, I think the actors enjoyed really getting their teeth into something.
- ...like you did to Eve. - Maxwell.
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Denny, please, none of us has the heart to argue about this right now.
Maybe if you'd been around more, you would've noticed something was wrong.
Maybe it could have been caught in time.
TRISH: That's not true. He's upset, Denny. He just upset...
You don't think that I asked the doctors that question a thousand times?
We all know there's nothing anybody could have done.
That's not what this is about.
Zoë is coming home with me. End of discussion.
We just want to consider what's best for Zoë.
What's best for Zoë is that she's with her father
and if you want to have any relationship with her,
I suggest you stop pushing this issue right now!
- See, what I tell you? - But you could still be in her life
just as much as you want to.
We have the time and the money to care for her the way Eve would've wanted.
You can continue to pursue your racing full-time.
I... I'm done. I'm done listening to this.
- You're giving us no other choice. - Maxwell...
CURTIS: Kathy does so much great work in the background in this scene.
She's caught between these two guys,
always wanting what's best for her granddaughter.
I just buried my wife and you're suing me for custody of my daughter?
Denny, I'm so sorry. This is not at all what we talked.
ZOË: Finished my egg.
Sweetheart, go inside and pack your things.
- We're gonna go home right now. - Everything's fine, honey.
Your dad has some things to care of.
CURTIS: Actually, this is a scene we don't play from Enzo's point of view
but you are still aware of him being there.
Uh, so, we were sort of breaking our own rules at times.
What happens when you're back to disappearing for days on end,
at those races of yours?
You're on a plane every weekend.
You missed her birth for Christ's sake!
You're not taking her.
Oh, my God.
MAXWELL: Ah, God.
- Are you... - I'm fine.
I said I'm fine.
Denny, please let her stay just for now. The lawyers could come up with compromise.
DENNY: Zoë?
We'll come back later for your dolls, okay?
Okay.
CURTIS: Parker wasn't that keen on walking down stairs.
But we finally managed to make it happen.
Get in the car, sweetheart.
You're making a big mistake.
Enzo, get in.
(tires screech)
Not now Enzo.
(scoffs)
CURTIS: Yet again...
the characters get inspiration from...
seeing motor racing on the television. I think...
this race they're referring to is fictional,
uh, but it makes its point.
Okay, you crazy dog.
CURTIS: They learn a lesson from the world of racing
that they can apply to their lives which are in a dire place right now.
ENZO: ...twenty laps with only two gears.
CURTIS: So, teaching Denny that he can triumph in adversity.
ENZO: ...would consider impossible.
Denny just needed to remember that.
Thanks for taking my call at home.
CURTIS: Here, we introduce a new member
of our cast, McKinley, who is an actor I have admired,
who brought a real, very distinctive energy
- to the part of Denny's lawyer. - ...should I have kept her at home?
No, no. That's good. You're responding to her needs.
They're trying to claim you're an unfit parent because of the intrinsic
- dangers of your occupation. It's... - CURTIS: I wanted to get that sense of,
from Enzo's point of view, he just sees Denny's shaking leg
indicating his nerves and apprehension at this point.
The child is always awarded to the biological parent. No question.
CURTIS: This could be another scene where we brought in Orbit,
our champion barking dog, because, uh,
we needed the agitation and Parker was such a calm dog.
When we needed agitation, he wasn't necessarily our first choice.
So, I think that is Orbit, I could be wrong.
Hey, hey, hey, buddy. It's okay, it's okay.
- Can you tell how long this gonna take? - You have the right to remain silent...
I need to pick my daughter up from school.
- Denny, I can pick her up for you. - You call Mark Finn.
He... He'll know what to do.
You understand the rights as I've read them?
- Yeah, I understand. - This way please.
Call Mark Finn.
Stay.
What are you arresting him for?
ENZO: I only felt such helplessness once before,
the day Eve collapse in the woods.
Coffee tomorrow morning. 8:30 sharp.
We'll go over everything then, all right?
All right.
We've tried picking up Zoë from school but...
Yeah, I know, I know, her grandparents got to her first.
They timed this thing on purpose, man.
Come on.
Thanks, Mike.
Fourth Degree Assault is a gross misdemeanor.
So, it's unlikely you'll see any real jail time.
But we both know that's not what this is about.
There's almost no chance you'll be awarded custody
- if you're convicted. - (scoffs)
Now, because of the criminal charges, the judge had granted
a temporarily restraining order. That means you're looking at
- 90 days before you can see Zoë again. - No.
- No, no. I can't not see... - You're gonna have to.
Eve's parents already filed a motion to terminate your rights.
Mark, this is crazy. He grabbed me.
- Any witnesses? - Trish, I guess but her back was to us.
- I can talk to her. - No. Do not speak to either of them.
I mean it. You jeopardized your entire case.
CURTIS: Enzo helps us here, we can cut to him and he can express
the dilemma that Denny is in not having only...
not only having lost his wife but now his daughter is being taken away
- from him as well. - ENZO: ...this is unbearable.
First, Denny lost Eve and now, he would be deprived of Zoë, too.
CURTIS: So, this was a case of a bit of voiceover
we added to help underline the narrative
when we first saw the cut.
ENZO: Denny struggled as the weeks passed.
CURTIS: And this, uh, is a visual effect in a film with actually
not that many visual effects, this was one
that really helped the sense of the time passing
where we get the sense that Zoë every few days mails a picture
to the dad she's missing so much.
And Pete, our operator,
was very clever at shooting this.
- In fact, we shot it in reverse. - ENZO: ...a dog can change
the tempo of the world but people are at its mercy.
(phone rings)
Hello.
MARK (over phone): What's the deal with the dog?
- Huh? - The dog.
Zoë's been asking her grandparents to see the dog.
Of course she can see Enzo.
Tell her he's been staying at Mike's
and I can have Mike drop Enzo off this weekend.
- Okay. I'll float it. - Okay.
- Thanks, Mark. - Listen, my secretary says
we sent you an invoice.
- Yeah, I paid that. - CURTIS: The problems are racking up
for Denny, here, now he can't even... he hasn't even got the cash
to afford to pay for the lawyer.
- ...support staff. - Yeah, I know.
Mark, I'll find a way to pay you.
Hey.
ENZO: It was hard to comprehend this turn our lives had taken.
Enzo! Come here, Enz.
CURTIS: I love this because it really seems
like Enzo and Zoë love each other.
...before he comes in. Grandma just had the carpets cleaned.
ZOË: Okay.
CURTIS: I really should maybe pay more tribute
to Theresa and April and Debra
and Christy, who were our dog training team
because they made my life so easy.
And when you're a director with a kid on set,
you're sort of expected to solve all the problems,
but when it's an animal, the dog trainers are chiefly in charge,
and time and time again they helped us achieve what we needed
with the dogs.
- So, I was very lucky. - ...for God sake.
You saw what happened.
The lawyer said the whole case hinges on you corroborating my statement.
You need to testify.
CURTIS: Trying to keep our secrets at this point.
So, Kathy, as the mother... as the grandmother,
doesn't say very much so we don't quite know
where she's going to land.
And this was a much discussed sequence because we obviously didn't feed
Enzo a pepper but it was a treat disguised as a pepper.
And there were many discussions about how we played his stomach rumbling,
how much we had of that, and how much we didn't.
And, uh, it's always a very welcome... when we screen it for the audience,
this is always a very welcome, uh, piece of comedy after all the emotion
and tension in the air.
- (farts) - (sniffs)
CURTIS: And also, it's the kind of thing a dog would do.
Come on. Come on. We have to go outside. Come on.
CURTIS: The design department brought in a very pristine
white carpet to help the, um...
final...
- beat of this sequence. - No.
No, no, no, no.
CURTIS: And my first instinct was not to show
the dog mess but Neal, our producer, was insistent we did
and he was absolutely right. That shot gets a huge guffaw
when the film plays to an audience and I was lucky I was given that note.
Now, we're back to the track, and as Enzo says,
it's been a long time since we were at a track in the film.
And it's nice to get that burst of energy of these cars.
And this was the appearance of the Ferrari
that was tricky to get to Vancouver, this state of the art,
brand new Ferrari.
DON: All right, let's checker the session. Clear the track.
- All the students to the grand... - And we introduce another actor,
AI Sapienza, who I had seen in The Sopranos...
- who plays the man from Ferrari. - Good to see you.
This is Luca Pantoni from Ferrari.
- He's visiting us from Italy. - Denny Swift.
- Pleasure. - Is this the new model?
- Yeah, direct from the factory. - It's even better looking in person.
You know, I saw you race once in Daytona.
- Yeah, it was a tough one. - Luca was hoping you...
CURTIS: Jeff shot the test drive brilliantly.
I think he spent a lot of time doing it and he got a lot of angles,
many more than we perhaps needed, but the film benefits from it.
And as I say, it's been a while since we've had
some serious car action in the film so, this is a burst of,
I guess, testosterone, or Ferrari testosterone.
And again, it's a sequence where Gary Cole's,
sort of wisdom carries the day.
With cars it's not that easy because, you know, they're powerful, dangerous,
objects, and when you do a sequence like that,
the tires get burned out very quickly and they're very, very expensive.
So, you know, everything to do with car racing was high in maintenance
but totally worth it in the end.
And one more shout out to Patrick Dempsey and to Jeff Zwart
for always delivering the best they could for the film.
How was it?
CURTIS: It gives that sense that Denny's arms are tied
because, you know, he'd...
he gets his opportunity to go to Italy but he's not allowed to leave the state
while the court case is pending.
I would like to offer you a job.
I work in Maranello, the factory headquarters
and we have a wonderful track there.
You'll be testing the cars.
CURTIS: In some ways, that's the dream job for someone in Denny's position,
- but family comes first. - ...that keep me from leaving the country
- right now. - Don explained to me
all about your troubles but if your situation should change...
my phone is on the card.
It's a pleasure.
Thank you, sir.
Come on.
CURTIS: This is a scene that we put in.
So, Gary would have these lines that are, again,
- central to the theme of the film. - DON: ...when I told him
what you went through with Eve, he said he wanted to hire you...
CURTIS: Garth, the writer, told me some of the lines in the voiceover,
lines in the book, that particularly meant something to an audience,
and this one, this one coming up is one of them...
...there's only dishonor in not racing because you're afraid to lose.
CURTIS: "There's only dishonor in not racing
because you're afraid to lose."
And that's a very good lesson in life, you know,
you've got to take these chances, even though they may not work out,
take your chances. And that is the kind of theme
that means so much to readers of the book.
ENZO: ...at long last day 90 arrived.
- Hey. - Daddy.
- Hey. - CURTIS: They haven't seen each other
for three months.
Hi.
- Enzo. - (Enzo barks)
- I'll be back for her about 6:00. - Okay.
- Take care. - Thanks.
Hey, hey.
- I missed you. - I missed you.
Come on.
- Come on, Enzo. - I made something special for dinner.
- Daddy? - Yeah.
Are you gonna go back to Europe soon?
No, not yet, sweetheart.
Yay.
But Zoë, you need to stay with your grandparents
- for just a little while longer, okay? - No. I wanna come home.
I know you do. I want you to, more than anything, but...
the lawyers still need to make a decision about where's best for you to live.
Okay? It's just part of what happens when someone's mommy dies.
Just tell them. Tell them I wanna live back home with you and Enzo.
DENNY: Okay.
I'll tell them.
- There you go. - Bye, Daddy.
Bye, baby.
You'll get her every other weekend until the trial.
- After that... - It's all or nothing.
CURTIS: Always that sense of the dog listening, watching.
Look, Denny, I...
I know this isn't what you want to hear right now,
but their attorney made it clear to me
the suit, the criminal charges, it can all go away tomorrow
if you drop your custody claim to Zoë.
I have an obligation to make sure you understand.
We have leverage now.
I'm talking, visitation, privileges,
things we're gonna have a much harder time securing
if you're found guilty of assault and Zoë's grandparents
are awarded custody.
Leverage.
I'm not saying we can't win.
We might.
But we can also lose big.
- Can't lose, Mark. - Denny, anyone can lose.
You of all people should know that.
Look, just...
just give it some thought.
ENZO: I knew what Denny was thinking.
If he just had a steering wheel to hold onto, his hands wouldn't shake.
CURTIS: Now this sequence was no trouble.
(laughs) I'm joking. It was tricky because, uh,
blocking off these roads in Vancouver
and with the rain and making sure the dog was comfortable were tricky.
Um, and, again, full credit to my crew who got doused for hours on end,
couple of nights in a row,
and to the dog trainers and, indeed, Parker,
who were able to handle all this water.
Obviously, there was never any danger. We never shot a dog and a moving car
in the same frame,
but even just laying like that in the rain was not easy for Parker,
and I was very glad when the sequence was over.
- ...this is stupid. - Is he okay?
- He's still breathing. Oh... - ENZO: I'm so stupid.
Let's get him to your car.
ENZO: Your cargoes where your eyes go.
How could I forget?
CURTIS: Milo was really kind to Parker and was always concerned for him.
He was a tremendous ally.
ENZO: That's what I was thinking on the way to the hospital.
He struck the concrete barrier at the Tamburello corner
at 190 miles an hour but by all accounts,
he would have survived if not for a small piece of...
CURTIS: Again...
learning a lesson from the history of motor racing
to apply to the present was...
very helpful.
Straight to the back.
CURTIS: We shot this at a real vet's, it was...
the vet was very helpful telling us...
what would happen to a dog in these circumstances. That's oxygen.
ENZO: And I knew that if I had already learned what I was meant to,
I, too would be gone.
CURTIS: That's referring back to Mongolia again.
- Fair amount of internal bleeding... - Enzo still has work to do.
...and also some renal damage
He's very lucky. It could have been far worse.
- I have to be... - CURTIS: And this is the last sequence
for Parker, uh,
because after the accident we...
we jump to Butler, the dog who started and ends the film.
They were such beautiful dogs to have around.
We were always very sad on our last day to say goodbye to them.
But I hope they enjoyed it,
it's hard to know what a dog would be thinking
surrounded by all these people, all these treats and so on,
but it was a real privilege to work with them.
Here's my debit.
It says insufficient funds.
- Is there a problem? - I deposited my paycheck today
so it probably just needs to clear. I do have some cash.
I have... I have $300. I can go to the bank first thing in the morning
- and bring the rest by then. - It's fine.
These things happen. Write a receipt for the $300, leave a note for Susan
- to invoice the balance in the morning. - Actually...
are you okay if I keep just 20 of it?
Thank you.
You're ready to go home? Huh, pal?
CURTIS: So, yeah, that is...
- Parker's last shot in the film. - ENZO: The medication...
CURTIS: And...
when we come out of the dream sequence...
we're in the hands of Butler, who was an equally good actor.
ENZO: ...look I'd seen on Denny's face.
CURTIS: I always liked this sequence because Milo really looks credible
as a racing driver, he looks like he's related to the other guys,
the famous driving racers... the racing drivers.
- ...when she's older. - The visitation schedule will be...
CURTIS: This was another much-discussed sequence
because the dog has to perform a stunt,
uh, and we constructed the set
to make it possible to do, and we cut between...
interior on our stage here and exterior in the garden.
And you never really know, when you do a sequence like that,
how it's all going to cut together, but I was pleased to say
it seemed to work. And the audience loved this, the...
reveal of the zebra on the pen.
I don't know if people still have pens like this, they had a lot in my childhood,
but that was in the book and it seems to work, the sense of the zebra,
or zebra, as you might say.
And, again, we didn't have to do this hundreds of times, and...
the dog jumping through the window, uh...
that works. And then we cut with the exterior here.
...give me those papers.
It's not funny, Tony. Enzo, drop it. No.
CURTIS: I think we may have tried with both dogs,
but Butler was the one who worked best.
Hey, hey, hey. Okay.
You made your point. You made your point.
CURTIS: The dog is emboldening Denny to take the chance
just like he would on the racetrack.
Call their lawyers.
Tell them, we'll see in court.
I'm with Enzo on this one.
- You're sure? - I made Eve a promise.
I'm not quitting.
Man, I gotta get me a dog.
DENNY: Come on.
CURTIS: There was another...
big scene here that we cut, that as Denny and Enzo are walking,
they see Zoë's grandmother in a café with a friend
and he implores her to help his case, help his cause.
But when we saw the film, we realized we didn't need it,
it was all implicit.
So, this sequence worked very well that we were able to cut
from the beginning of the walk to the end of the walk,
uh, seamlessly without playing that scene.
It's funny how...
when you make a film, there are scenes you fight to keep in
on the page that,
when you actually see them, you fight to take out.
You never really know and that's why I always try and shoot
as much as possible.
Uh, always shoot the long versions of scenes because you never know
what you're going to need in the cut and what's going to work.
Um, and, again, this generous schedule we had made that possible.
Hey, man. Thanks for coming by.
I would've brought him by the shop but...
So, we're now reaching the final sequence of the film,
and the dog, Enzo, is clearly aging.
Good luck, Den.
- Thanks, man. - Yeah.
CURTIS: And we had fun shooting this next sequence
that we were able to get the rights
to use actual footage from Law and Order
and place our actors into it.
Uh, so, that's the great Sam Waterston,
and we were able to reconstruct little bits of set
to put our actors into it.
ENZO: ...as well as my own admittedly melodramatic sensibility.
CURTIS: And, again, Brent's design made that possible.
So, there's three of our cast and Denny.
And, in fact, we then put Denny in two different costumes, uh,
to show Enzo's wild imagination, because this is the tricky part
because there's serious narrative going on here
that the dog is excluded from.
And it's a time we actually cheat in the film because...
we wanted the big change of heart in the court room,
and obviously Enzo wasn't allowed in the court room.
So, we break our own rule but hopefully we get away with it.
So, he hears, here, what happened earlier in the court
- rather than witnessing it. - ENZO: ... Trish had testified.
Can you please tell the court about the...
CURTIS: And Kathy plays this very well.
TRISH: ...happened the way my husband said it did.
- So, you personally witnessed Dennis... - CURTIS: A big moment, really,
because she's, uh...
sort of perjuring herself, or on the verge of perjuring herself.
- Yes. - Thank you.
CURTIS: But she does what's right.
You can step down now.
I'm going to suggest that we take a brief recess here
while I review all the testimony materials.
I... I can't.
Excuse me.
I can't.
I... I... I can't do this.
I thought I could but I just...
I didn't see anything.
I'm only saying what you told me to say.
I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore.
I know that Denny loved Eve too much to ever hurt her father.
Objection. The witness is clearly speculating.
It's your witness, Counselor.
MARK: They dropped the charges.
CURTIS: So, right is done...
and Denny has taken a risk that has paid off.
ENZO: He'd done it.
Denny's risk had paid off.
If a driver has the courage to create his own conditions...
then the rain is simply rain.
CURTIS: I love that shot. They look like real partners.
Daddy.
- I missed you. - I missed you.
ENZO: Zoë was ours again.
Denny had won her back and it was a victory for the ages.
Come on.
CURTIS: We had a sort of...
dilemma here because we didn't want...
Zoë to lose her grandparents as well as her mother. So...
you'll see in the following scene. And this is...
uh, the offer coming from Italy.
And we weren't sure whether this was a good idea or not
but we wanted to have this shot,
so we cheated this shot in Vancouver of the Italian villa.
Again, we're slightly breaking our rules
because that's in Enzo's imagination.
- ...still available? - It is.
- Then my daughter and I and... - CURTIS: Again, in the book,
Pantoni has a big backstory involving a custody battle of his own,
and a mentor, and so on but we realized... no disrespect to the actors,
we just didn't need that in the final act of the film.
It was enough for him to offer this golden opportunity to Denny
and his family to go to Italy.
And then we go to a birthday party where...
it's a beautiful celebration, but of course, there's someone missing.
There's, uh, Eve missing but you also get a sense
that they're fully functioning as a family,
even without her, as much as they miss her.
And then this was important because, as I say,
we decided we couldn't...
leave the grandparents out at the end, and there's this sense that Denny...
plays the bigger man for the good of his family and for his daughter.
So, they still have the grandparents, who obviously love her, in her life.
ENZO: I might not have been as forgiving.
CURTIS: We added this voiceover to help this.
ENZO: I'd often heard the expression "to be the better man."
- ZOË: Grandpa. - ENZO: Well, I knew that no...
CURTIS: Understated but I hope effective.
Well played by the actors. And this is another rhyme,
obviously, it's repeating the image we had earlier in the film
where it was two parents helping with the birthday cake,
but nonetheless, there's still happiness.
And now, we return to where we first met Enzo,
- the dog who's fading. - ENZO: ...so long
and so short at the same time.
CURTIS: I love that voice over.
ENZO: I feel as if I've lived for an eternity.
DENNY: Yo, Enz.
CURTIS: Back to the first sequence of the film.
ENZO: ...no time has passed at all.
DENNY: Enzo?
ENZO: I hear the worry in his voice.
DENNY: What happened, pal?
CURTIS: I love the way the dog just looks up. It's really good acting.
ENZO: ...I smell the day on him.
Motor oil and gasoline,
and roast chicken.
Can you get up, bud?
ENZO: I saw a documentary about Mongolia on TV once.
DENNY: Okay.
ENZO: In Mongolia... CURTIS: Dustin and Volker give us
a bit of Mongolia, Mongolian chords in the music, there,
which I think helps.
I hope I've praised the score enough because I think
it adds so much to the film.
ENZO: ...the dog will return as a man.
Not all dogs return as men, they say.
Only those who are ready.
Let's get you up.
ENZO: I am ready.
CURTIS: Grown men had to leave the sound stage
when we filmed this because...
it was such a touching picture of the love between the dog and his master.
But, crucially, we never see the end of Enzo, so I'm grateful for that.
There he is.
ENZO: I will walk among my fellow men,
lick my lips with my small dexterous tongue,
- and shake hands with a firm grasp. - DENNY: There's my Enzo.
CURTIS: And then Denny has an idea.
He turns on the TV because he knows how much Enzo responds to...
the racing channel, footage of racing on the TV.
And then he has another idea...
- You okay now? - CURTIS: How about taking Enzo for a ride?
...always been with me.
Always been my Enzo.
First time I saw you, I knew we're supposed to be together.
I love you, boy.
CURTIS: Here's the idea.
He goes and picks up...
Eve from... pick up Zoë from school. He goes to pick Zoë up from school
and then they're back at the track.
And initially in the script...
they were going to go for a ride on the track in Denny's own car,
and then Jeff said no, it should be a special treat
because Enzo's always been in Denny's car but...
and so, uh...
we got this beautiful vintage Ferrari and...
Okay. Are you ready?
...the combination of shooting this,
I think in a track in, actually, in Seattle, and on our sound stage,
we made this beautiful sequence work.
One more cue, one more shout out to Jeff for the beautiful shots,
but a lot of these were literally with a wind machine on a sound stage.
But I shouldn't spoil, let's just watch it.
And we had the idea that,
Adam would cut in memories all from Enzo's point of view
of his life lived backwards.
So, through these points of view, he gets younger and younger.
ENZO: I'd like to stay out here forever.
Stay with them forever.
We're gonna take this one at speed, you okay?
ENZO: I wish I could glimpse what awaits them in Maranello.
CURTIS: It's a lovely sequence. And this ride was earlier in the story
in the...
in Garth's book, but Mark...
rightly felt this should be the final hurrah,
and I'm very pleased how it came out.
It was a great team effort.
Enzo.
ENZO: But we can't have everything we want.
Besides, the best drivers don't dwell on the future or the past.
The best drivers focus only on the present.
- You've been a good friend. - CURTIS: More racing, lessons from racing.
Very good friend.
CURTIS: Milo and I improvised that line on the day, and then,
to our amazement...
Butler just lay his head on his shoulder. Again, this felt like an acting choice.
I mean, who knows, but certainly we were very grateful for it.
ENZO: ...all I want is one more lap.
Just one more.
I'll bark again so he knows.
CURTIS: You never know what's ahead in a family.
That's really the theme.
- Back to the beginning. - ENZO: Faster, Denny.
CURTIS: And then we have one final surprise.
That, that isn't the end,
we now cut forward in time and we're in Italy.
And we were so lucky to be able to go to Mugello, in Tuscany,
to film...
with these wonderful Formula One cars,
and we're in the future.
And another rhyme,
we're back on a golf cart, like Enzo was the first time
he went to a racetrack way back when.
And here is Lily, playing Zoë, now grown up,
and I think she matches Ryan very well.
And that's, that's Jeff, our second unit director standing there.
And here we are.
And now, we see Denny in his Ferrari uniform,
now a star...
racing driver in his own right,
and he's meeting these fans who seem to be just random fans.
...your biggest fans. Your daughter said you wouldn't mind.
No, of course not.
- My son... - But she knows something.
(speaks Italian)
He races the go-karts.
He's very good.
Bene. Va bene.
Could you please sign that program?
- Certo. - We are going to watch the race
from the infield tomorrow.
(speaking Italian)
CURTIS: It was strange filming this scene.
And there. That's it. That... there's this sense that,
could this possibly be Enzo reincarnated? Could this possibly be true?
And it's a beautiful thought that gives us a sense of optimism
in the future,
and a shared moment between Denny and Zoë,
they certainly think it is,
and we think it is, too.
And this boy is beautiful.
My phone number in Maranello.
When you think your son is ready, give me a call.
I'll make sure he gets proper instruction.
CURTIS: Enzo got his dream to come back as a human.
...that you are the greatest driver ever. Better even than Senna.
He's a race car driver at heart.
- Grazie! Grazie mille! - Grazie!
CURTIS: And so, there's a sense that...
Denny and Zoë live a life in Italy, living the dream.
We were very lucky with the casting.
Come on.
CURTIS: And so, that's the end. So, if anyone is still listening,
I'm very grateful to you for giving us the time.
This was a very great privilege to be able to tell the story
of The Art of Racing in the Rain, and I was very blessed
with my cast and crew,
so I pay tribute to all of them.
And I hope you enjoyed the film.
Thank you very much.
("Have You Ever Seen The Rain" by Creedence Clearwater Revival plays)