Faster Chronicles Chapter #5 FT: Maggie Grace
Matt Patches: So Faster is in the can – are you on another movie or are you on a break right now?
Maggie Grace: I’m a running around LA as we speak.
Matt Patches: Oh, you’re on the move?
Maggie Grace: Yeah, of course, I’m in L.A., where else would I be but driving? I’m being very responsible. I’ve just pulled over, so I’m being very responsible.
Matt Patches: Oh well that’s good, hopefully you weren’t driving too fast?
Maggie Grace: No, unfortunately. I’m now driving about 10 miles per hour in my Prius which is much less glamorous than the Lotus that I learned to drive. That car’s much faster, but this one’s less stressful. Learning to drive stick on a 200,000 dollar car is a high stakes scenario for me.
Matt Patches: What drew you in to the world that George [Tillman Jr.] and the writers have created?
Maggie Grace: Yeah, let me just say that what attracted me to this script was just how there’s theses sort of archetypal characters that we don’t necessarily know much about at first, a lot of them don’t even have full names. You know we have [Johnson's character] Driver – in the script they’re referred as these sort of archetypal characters that we don’t know much about – and we’re not really sure who’s good and who’s bad, what’s going on and I love-
Matt Patches: So you’re character doesn’t have a name?
Maggie Grace: Mine does – I’m Lily.
Matt Patches: You lucked out.
Maggie Grace: Thank you! But yeah, I really loved that and the way they shot – I mean I think you can see that from the trailer, there’s this beautiful 70s palette to it, and I thought it really stood out as far as George’s visual style as well, which was pretty cool.
Matt Patches: I know the movie is very secretive in terms of the characters, but what can you me to set up Lily?
Maggie Grace: Yeah, I’m half of an uber-glamorous…I’d guess I’d have to say high-end contract killer couple. [laughs] There’s a mouthful.
Matt Patches: Who is you’re partner in crime?
Maggie Grace: My partner in crime is played by Oliver Jackson Coen, a young British dude, who is now much more skilled with guns than he was few months ago, as am I. We had a blast, it was a lot of fun to shoot.
Matt Patches: Did you work with Dwayne at all?
Maggie Grace: No, not really, we didn’t intersect very much. I mean fingers crossed if there was ever a sequel, maybe those characters would cross paths more often. I just think he is the sweetest man. No one said a word about this man. I did my homework before I cam on set, and everyone said, “That is the nicest person you will ever work with.” And it turned out to be true.
Maggie Grace, Guns and Cars
Matt Patches: Can you talk a little bit about the training you did in the movie?
Maggie Grace: Yeah, the training process was so much fun, and I don’t know how much of what we trained for will make the final cut. I mean there’s literally so much action I think they ended up losing some. Like, that’s how much we shot. Pretty kick-ass.
Matt Patches: The movie lives up to its name.
Maggie Grace: Oh, it never pauses to take a breath. And I think that gets tighter in the editing process, it’s really unrelenting. So there was a lot of training with some amazing consultants, like the CIA and the LAPD – they were just brilliant.
Matt Patches: A lot of weapons stuff?
Maggie Grace: Yeah, a lot of weapons stuff and driving. For the weapons stuff, we would go shooting at outdoor ranges and spend the day shooting. It was so much fun. I got to try Dwayne’s gun, which was a Ruger, which they call it the bear-stopper. I think my entire forearm went numb for like an hour afterwards. It was a crazy, crazy thing.
Matt Patches: Were the guns you used on set packing that kind of punch?
Maggie Grace: Well we shot mostly blanks out of respect for the crew’s poor eardrums. So we didn’t have that many takes. Which, the downside of that is that when you are shooting that many blanks, there’s more backfire into your eyes, you know? It kind of gets in your eyes a little bit. There’s an upside and a downside. But when you are shooting that much, it helps. And then with the cars it was so much fun.
We spent a day out on the racetrack, out in the Mojave Desert, and we all met up there and it was just so much fun. This is what I love about my job – you never know where you are going to find yourself. You know, I neglected to learn to drive stick. I’ve just never needed it [laughs]. So, I guess I haven’t rented enough cars in Europe to have to learn. They’ve got this racecar driver to teach me how to drive stick on a Lotus on a racetrack in the Mojave Desert. Yeah, it was a good way to learn. It was so beautiful, and I just kept apologizing profusely to the driver because he was terribly overqualified and I was barely getting the nerve up to take it past 50 mph. It feels so much faster on the corners, you know?
Matt Patches: Did they let you actually drive the cars when you’re filming?
Maggie Grace: Yeah, they do! We train a lot. First you learn the quick turns and stuff, to make sure you’re safe and that you know what you’re doing, and then once you’ve reviewed that enough then you can put, like, cones in there to make sure you’re safe and you know what you’re doing, then eventually on the day when the crew with the camera will be there, you had better know what you’re doing.
Because We’re LOST Nuts
Matt Patches: I’m a huge Lost fan, so I’m curious what you thought of the ending and what it was like coming back to lay it all to rest?
Maggie Grace: It was so meaningful to all be back together at the end and see everybody. And between takes we’d have our guitar circle at two in the morning…
Matt Patches: Guitar circle on Lost?! Who plays guitar?
Maggie Grace: Oh yeah, it’s like a Kumbaya love-fest. Everyone – we were a very musical cast.
Matt Patches: You were the Partridge Family of one-hour dramas.
Maggie Grace: Everyone contributes. It was one of my favorite parts of Lost, to be honest. I think the true stars of the Lost band would have to be Terry O’Quinn and Naveen Andrews.
Matt Patches: Is there anything those two can’t do?
Maggie Grace: Nothing, I think. They’re amazing. I mean, I have a video of them playing Purple Rain together.
Matt Patches: Are you going to put it on Youtube?
Maggie Grace: It’s tempting, but I won’t. They might be embarrassed, but it’s beautiful. They’re so amazing. And then we’ve got Somerhalder singing the falsetto notes of Jeff Buckley’s [version of] Hallelujah.
Matt Patches: So you’re telling me that you have plenty of blackmail on any member of the cast.
Maggie Grace: These gentlemen should always be sweet to me [laughs].
