Denzel Washington, Tony Scott and Brian Helgeland Press Conference
Was shooting this film in the subway really dangerous or was it easy?Tony Scott: "It’s a tremendous responsibility for a director and being down there, so we never did dangerous things. The driving above ground is much more dangerous than some of the things in the subway. It’s actually a lot more dangerous because we are shooting at night most of the time. People get tired, and there’s this thing called the third rail, so people that lose concentration [can get killed]. So to me it’s a huge responsibility. So every night I went down in the subway, and I loved shooting this…I think that’s one of the stamps of my movies is that I love shooting with real things in the real world and it gives a level of drama and performance and everything just seems to come up and seems to rise to the occasion. At the same time, it’s worrying because all you need is for somebody to step the wrong way or put their hand in the wrong direction and you’ve got a serious accident."
Had you spent a lot of time in the subway before making this movie?
Denzel Washington: "Well, I grew up in New York so I was like born on the subway. I took the subway almost every day for many years."
Since you grew up in New York, was there anything you found surprising about the city while doing the movie in the subway and in the tunnels?
Denzel Washington: "Well, you know, when you are young you sneak on the trains. You have fun. You go down the steps and you take a few steps down that dark tunnel, but you don’t go too far because you’re not too sure what’s down there – and you know that you’ve got to get back before the train pulls in. Well, our day started at the steps and we would go a quarter-of-a-mile or half-a-mile down, and it’s just a whole other world under there. One set, I think it was an old station that they didn’t use any more, Church Avenue or something, so that was kind of trippy, seeing that. It was kind of trippy being on the other end, because I can remember coming home late at night or whatever at two or three, four in the morning from wherever, and slowing down and seeing those workers. You know how the train would slow down, you see the guys working, they look up and you’re like, 'Man, what are they doing out here?' With this, we were those guys. [Laughing] We were out there at four, five in the morning. I remember, I think it was a woman, that was looking and I was standing, and she was like [makes faces]. I was just down there working on the train, getting the tracks together."
What did you learn about New Yorkers by working down in the subway?
Brian Helgeland: "For me, what I started to realize while we were making it was that the city was really comprised of the people that keep it up and running. When we would go on our research, John Turturro’s character is based on the guy who is the head of New York’s Hostage Negotiation Team. His name is Jack Cambria. He came in one day and I just sat with him and went through all the dialogue of Turturro’s character and he said, 'I wouldn’t say that. I would say this. I wouldn’t say it that way, I would say it this way.' And basically he wrote the dialogue for Turturro’s part. That, to me, was like the city. And we had that over and over again, whether they were train people or the criminal element in the story. That to me always felt like what New York was. It took all those different people, lumped them together, and it kind of becomes one great big person."
This version of Pelham focuses a lot on the way the MTA deals with hostages more than the police. Did you research all of that?
Brian Helgeland: "We did research as far as what the police response would be, but I think we tried to stick to the union response. You know, if you are on the other end of the phone, all you’re thinking about is the guy you’re dealing with and the passengers. Once you get past the, ‘Is this a terrorist situation or not,’ we just tried to be true to how the people would react in a hostage situation."
Tony, since you like to shoot real people in the real world, how do you feel about special effects? You have never really used them, so which side do you stand on with the CGI debate?
Tony Scott: "My mum was 95 when she died, and she would watch movies and she’d say, 'That scene doesn’t quite work,' and she always managed to finger out the scene that didn’t work because it was usually digitally-regenerated. There’s something, I’ll say, in terms of what you get in terms of working in a real life situation – it’s on Manhattan Bridge at the end, there’s helicopters and the guy just turning the dial on the computer can get it. But [in real life] what it does is it just elevates the performance, elevates drama. Or down in the subway we have real trains running behind the boys standing there…"
Denzel Washington: "Yes, he did."
Tony Scott: [Laughing] "At the same time, what it does, we just do rehearsals and then when you run a real train through it, you’ll watch everything change. There’s a whole shift, in the best possible way. So for my whole career I’ve always tried to avoid CGI, whether it’s planes, cars or trains. It’s something in terms of the drama and the performances that gives me a reality and more of an edge."
Have you gotten the chance to talk to John Travolta since filming the movie? Did you get any sense of where he is today?
Denzel Washington: "I talked with John about two-and-a-half-weeks ago and, needless to say, he’s struggling. He’s struggling. More than talking to him, I listened to him for about two or three hours. So, it’s going to take time. What can you say? What can you say, really? Just be there as a friend. This is such a sweet, sweet person and our prayers are with him and his wife."
